#wexit

So, technically yes, but realistically, no.

It's a very fringe group of people with no real plan.

After the 2019 federal election, the movement started picking up steam. They called it Wexit then (a play on Brexit, but with the West).

It's mainly Alberta and Saskatchewan. They're mad because they don't feel like they have adequate representation in the federal government, and they think Ontario and Quebec just get everything and the West is constantly fucked over. They don't want to pay equalization, they're mad that the pipeline hasn't been built, and they're mad that we don't extract and sell more oil (even though the oil sands greatly threaten Lake Athabasca, which is Alberta's main water source and like... they kind of need that. But I digress)

The original Wexit movement was shut down pretty quickly on all social media platforms, so they rebranded as the Maverick party, and actually got a real politician to become the leader. They ran in the 2021 federal election, in Alberta and Saskatchewan (though, they also want to take the territories and/or the northern part of BC with them when they separate, because if they don't, they'll be a landlocked country. Weirdly, they also want to take Manitoba, which surprises me because Manitoba is a "have-not" province. They don't want to pay equalization now, so Manitoba would be screwed if they separated with the West).

They had an interesting election strategy. They didn't have enough people to run in every riding, so they only ran in ridings that had the strongest conservative support, because they knew they didn't stand a chance in any riding that tending toward Liberal or NDP. In the end, they didn't even come close to winning a single seat, and a lot of people still haven't heard about their movement at all.

It's actually kind of funny, I was talking to my client yesterday about how Trudeau is handling this protest, and how he was criticized for not addressing it or meeting with them, but really, that was the right thing to do. In the Wexit heavy areas of Alberta, they ran anti-Trudeau/pro-Wexit billboard campaigns, and then got mad when Trudeau refused to even acknowledge it. Ignoring it was the right thing to do then, too. I don't often agree with Trudeau, but not drawing attention to these things was the smartest move.

What's really bizarre (but not really surprising) is that they don't seem to have even a fundamental understanding of Canada's government, or history. At least half of them seem to think Quebec successfully separated. And most of them don't seem to know what a referendum is. They think they'll get Wexit people in the federal government and then they can just... leave? Somehow?

They also don't seem to understand that they can't take Crown land with them, and they also won't have a pipeline... it belongs to the federal government.

But, as of 2021, only 25% of Albertans support becoming an independent nation, and the numbers drop when you start adding in any other considerations. Like, not all Albertans who support becoming independent also support the Wexit movement, because it's so extreme.

Like, they've been talking about civil war between Alberta and Canada. They even said if Jason Kenney doesn't start supporting Wexit, they will exile him from Alberta when the civil war breaks out. 25% of Alberta is about 1 million people, and even if they ALL supported the Wexit movement, that's still 1 million versus 37 million, and Alberta doesn't have an army... I don't know how they plan to go to war against Canada.

They used to have their platform online, and I regret that I never saved it, because it's gone now. But from what I remember: they were going to be a republic, with a president. They were going to have their own currency, based on their own capital (which they insist they have), and they were going to implement mandatory military service and capital punishment. They were going to ban all forms of clean energy, and kick everyone not born in Alberta out of their "country", but they wanted to be able to freely enter Canada (which Quebec wanted too). They were going to put religion in schools and also make oil part of the elementary school curriculum.

Like, could you imagine? The oil sands employ SO MANY people from Ontario. So they're gonna kick all of them out, so everyone in Alberta (who's not in the military or like, a teacher I guess) is going to have no choice but to work on the oil sands, since oil will be their only export.

A Flag for Wexit