Griffiths Speaks With Agence France Presse About Alberta’s Secession Vote

October 14, 2026

Agence France Presse

Ryan Griffiths

Political Science Department

International and Intra-State Conflict

Canada

Government

Agence France Presse

Portrait of a person smiling outdoors with a brick building in the background.

Ryan Griffiths

Alberta voters will decide whether to begin the process of separating from Canada, with the nonbinding referendum testing Prime Minister Mark Carney’s efforts to promote national unity amid tensions with the United States.

The independence movement is largely driven by frustration over federal management of Alberta’s oil industry, while reported contacts between separatist leaders and U.S. political figures have drawn scrutiny.

Secessionist movements regularly have “economic motivations,” but typically those are married to a linguistic or nationalist component, says Ryan Griffiths, professor of political science. “There's no magic line” dictating what defines a nation, he says, but notes Alberta's case for nationhood appears harder to make than that of other groups, like Catalans, Scots and French-speaking Canadians in Quebec.

Read more in the Agence France Presse article, “Oil-rich Alberta tests Canada's unity with secession vote.”