10/16/2026
Alberta doesn't believe Ottawa has treated it fairly in recent years. It has been a common sentiment in other western provinces too. But the Alberta government is being scientific about it and is giving Albertans a direct say in how much more autonomy and respect they will ask Ottawa for, by letting people vote in a referendum next week.
One example of how Alberta isn't treated fairly is that it has three million more people than Manitoba, but it still has the same number of seats in the Senate as we do. It doesn't matter what your politics are, we can all see that isn't very fair.
Have you read about the questions being put forward, or the history behind this provincial autonomy debate? Should Ottawa let them take care of more of their own business?
One of the people who helped shape most of the October 19 referendum questions says he isn’t for independence, but he isn’t for keeping things the way they are either.
Michael Binnion, who sat on the Alberta Next Panel, argues in a recent opinion piece that the referendum questions are meant as steps toward lawful, negotiated change within Canada. He points to Quebec as an example of a province that has taken on more of its own responsibilities, like its own pension plan, police force and immigration agreement.
For Albertans, he says, Canada’s story started with a railway in 1883, 16 years after Confederation. Alberta didn’t even become a province until 1905. In his view, that’s why the province’s identity is built more around a shared future than a long shared past, and he believes giving provinces more control would make the country stronger as a whole.
His full opinion piece was published Oct. 1 in the Western Standard, titled “BINNION: Alberta is a state of mind.”
Do you agree that stronger provinces make a stronger Canada?
