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Donna Kennedy-Glans: The real test for Alberta and Canada is not who shouts loudest, but whether we can all listen

A calm Easter doorstep encounter with an Alberta independence canvasser reveals why respectful listening — not volume or anger — may be the only path through rising separatist tensions.

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My Easter baking rituals this year were interrupted by a knock at the front door.

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On the porch of my Calgary home stood a woman roughly my age, clipboard clutched to her chest like a shield. No makeup, a timid smile. When I opened the door, she met my eyes with quiet determination.

Donna Kennedy-Glans: The real test for Alberta and Canada is not who shouts loudest, but whether we can all listen Back to video

This wasn’t a pair of Mormon missionaries on Easter weekend. She was a different kind of evangelist: a volunteer canvasser for Stay Free Alberta, hoping I would sign a petition calling for a provincial referendum on Alberta’s separation from Canada.

I’m firmly pro-Canada; she was campaigning for independence. Yet we talked — politely, candidly — for nearly 15 minutes. I’ve always believed people should feel free to knock on doors and speak their truth, even when I disagree. But there are boundaries.

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I didn’t set out to quiz her on legal technicalities, but I was curious how the citizen initiative actually worked. She grew visibly nervous explaining how Stay Free Alberta’s volunteer canvassers coordinate with the Alberta Prosperity Project, even though both are led by the same proponent, Mitch Sylvestre. Her discomfort stayed with me. As momentum builds toward a possible October referendum, it’s a reminder that passionate causes can sometimes leave ordinary people exposed or uncertain.

We moved past the pleasantries; when she launched into her reasons why Alberta must leave Canada, I gently interrupted. I know the grievances intimately — I share many of them — but I don’t believe separation is the answer.

She sighed, glanced down at her clipboard, and paused. Then she smiled and said our civil exchange was a welcome change from the yelling and anger she often faces.

That brief doorstep conversation about deeply held beliefs reminded me, strangely, of my time in Yemen two decades ago, where fundamentalists pressed me to swear allegiance to Islam. The only way I could steady my own rising anger was to say calmly: “Can you understand that my values and beliefs mean as much to me as yours do to you?”

I accepted her brochure, thanked her for showing up, and closed the door. Back in the kitchen, I returned to measuring ingredients for my late mother’s carrot cake, trying to recapture the nostalgic comfort of family tradition. But the reverie had cracked. The knock lingered.

That woman on my porch — campaigning for Alberta’s divorce from Canada on a cold, snowy April day — was more than a single voice. She was a living reading on Alberta’s political thermometer, one no pollster or university analyst can fully capture. If separatist canvassers are reaching suburban doorsteps now, with the petition already claiming to have cleared the required 177,732-signature threshold, the temperature is clearly rising. We should brace for strange weather ahead.

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For the rest of Canada, this is not a distant provincial sideshow. Alberta’s energy sector, resources and economic weight remain central to national prosperity. A serious push for separation revives old constitutional fault lines and forces every Canadian to confront what holds this country together — or what could pull it apart.

I posted a quick note and a photo of the brochure on Facebook. The responses flooded in — more than 500 comments, almost entirely polarized. Supporters listed grievances and demonized opponents; critics ridiculed the separatist side. A few voices tried to inject civility, but the thread quickly turned toxic. In person we could see each other as neighbours; online, we became abstractions, shouting past one another.

Later that same day, a friend called with sad news: Horst Schmid, Alberta’s first Minister of Culture (appointed by then premier Peter Lougheed in 1971), had died at age 92. “He was our Pete Seeger,” said Don Hill. Through food festivals like Heritage Days, folk music, and the arts in every form, Horst brought people together — because when people gather, they’re less likely to fight. Horst was horrified by efforts to segregate Albertans along lines of identity.

In a 2018 recorded conversation, Horst told Don and me that it was premier Lougheed’s wife, Jeanne, who had pushed for the creation of a dedicated culture ministry — the first in any Canadian province. (Notably, the first federal minister of Canadian Heritage, which leads national culture and arts initiatives, wasn’t created until 1993).

And it was no token gesture. The new department came with real funding to seed and nurture arts organizations, many of which continue to thrive in Alberta today. It’s often convenient for today’s “progressives” to overlook the fact that Lougheed’s Progressive Conservative government was a genuine champion of arts funding at every level — from modest local history projects to the internationally renowned Banff Centre for the Arts. Horst noted with pride that the rest of Canada took notice.

Peter Lougheed was a staunch federalist, yet Horst explained how the premier earned respect even from those who disagreed with him most sharply — most notably Quebec’s pro-sovereigntist premier, René Lévesque. Despite their opposing visions for Canada, the two men stood together as key members of the “Gang of Eight” against Pierre Trudeau’s unilateral patriation of the Constitution — a chapter that still shapes how Canadians debate unity today.

As summer approaches, Alberta’s political temperature will keep climbing. The provincial NDP has already promised its own door-knocking campaign, framed around staying in Canada. More voices will arrive on porches across the province — some urging separation, others unity.

The real test won’t be who shouts loudest at the door or online. It will be whether we can still look one another in the eye — Albertans and Canadians from coast to coast to coast — and acknowledge that our neighbour’s beliefs matter as deeply as our own. Horst Schmid understood that bringing people together through shared culture was the surest way to choose connection over fracture. In this unsettled season, not just Alberta but all of Canada could use more of that wisdom — not less.

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