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Canada Rally, Saturday Feb. 21, 2026 Hundreds of people showed up Saturday in -20 temperatures to rally for Alberta remaining in Canada. <\/p>\nHundreds gathered at Calgary City Hall to stand in opposition to separation by celebrating what it means to be Canadian. Tyler Barrow reports. <\/p>\n
A few hundred hardy souls rallied for Canada Saturday morning at city hall in -20 temperatures as Alberta is Canada celebrations were held in Calgary, Edmonton and Medicine Hat.<\/p>\n
It was a grassroots response to the province\u2019s separatist movement.<\/p>\n
One of the event\u2019s organizers was Indigenous advocate Nicole Johnston.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday we are gathered here in unity to bring people together, to show what unity really looks like, and to stand in solidarity with the (First Nation) treaties,\u201c she said.<\/p>\n
Johnston said Alberta separatist advocates have underestimated what would be involved with an actual attempt at separation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to keep emphasizing to the fact that the treaties play a real vital role here, and it\u2019s the treaties that are at the main forefront of this,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cWith Danielle (Smith) and her idea of bringing forward that separation, she needs to understand, along with others, that this is going to be a very difficult and complex road to go down.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they get their yes votes, if they get their referendum and the majority voted yes, they\u2019re not going to get immediate independence,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a long process that will most likely outlive Danielle Smith\u2019s term.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canada Rally, Saturday Feb. 21, 2026 Hundreds of people showed up Saturday in -20 temperatures to rally for Alberta remaining in Canada. <\/p>\n
Susan Dye described a potential referendum on separatism as \u201cnot acceptable to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI petitioned with Forever Canadian,\u201d Dye said. \u201cI was one canvasser among thousands who collected over 400,000 signatures, and those demand attention. The voices of Albertan Canadians demand attention to stay in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n
James Demers, a community organizer for Queer Citizens United, said, \u201cthe queer community is an integral part of Alberta and Canada. And we will fight tooth and nail to maintain our sovereignty within Canada as a country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those spearheading the Alberta separatist movement say momentum is picking up.<\/p>\n
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Alberta separatist group presents referendum question at Calgary rally Albertans gathered at a banquet hall in northeast Calgary on May 12, 2025, to hear from the Alberta Prosperity Project, an organization dedicated to the province’s sovereignty from Canada. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re getting large volumes of signatures now,\u201d said Mitch Sylvestre of the Alberta Prosperity Project. \u201cWe\u2019re in the trenches now, and we\u2019re going to absolutely get the work done.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Stay Free Alberta petition needs 177,732 signatures by May 2.<\/p>\n
Bad for business: NDP<\/p>\n
Calgary Buffalo MLA Joe Ceci, who was the province\u2019s finance minister between 2015 and 2019, said separatism is simply bad for business.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf separatism were to occur, we would lose the interest (of private) investment in Alberta,\u201d Ceci said. \u201cWe would not be able to attract the best and brightest here, because they would think, you know, what\u2019s the point? I come here because I want to be a Canadian, not because people all over the world don\u2019t see Alberta as a separate country. They see us as part of a great country. <\/p>\n
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Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci talks to reporters, in Ottawa, on Dec. 21, 2015. (Fred Chartrand \/ THE CANADIAN PRESS) <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd to to throw that away, to make that uncertain and destabilize is the wrong thing to do for this province and for its people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s 40 million Canadians,\u201d he added. \u201cThere\u2019s less than five million Albertans. We\u2019re better in all ways as a united country.\u201d<\/p>\n
For 95-year-old rally participant Leonard Olean, the entire separatism question seems absurd.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a bit ridiculous that we\u2019re even having this question. It\u2019s devastating. There\u2019s really no good reason for it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
What does it mean to Olean to be Canadian?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really proud group of people. We come from all over the world. Aside from the people singing behind us, none of us are really from here, and we come together because we share the idea of having a safer life, a higher quality of life, but caring for each other much more than some other places do. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we see that in the pride you\u2019re seeing \u2013 it\u2019s out here today. You\u2019re seeing it in the Olympics, and it\u2019s just a great place to be. I\u2019ll end it with that.”<\/p>\n
However, when asked if he was excited to see the Canadian men play for the gold medal Sunday morning, Olean, who was born in 1930, said he will be up before dawn like the rest of the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got our reservations at the Regal Beagle for 6 a.m.,\u201d he said, \u201cso hope there will be a crew of us there!\u201d<\/p>\n
With files from CTV\u2019s Tyler Barrow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds gathered at Calgary City Hall to stand in opposition to separation by celebrating what it means to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[712,49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-491007","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-calgary","11":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}