Jared Wesley, a professor of political science at the University of Alberta, is on the award-winning Conversation Weekly podcast discussing the Alberta independence referendum being held on Oct. 19 and his work in community town halls throughout the province leading up to the vote. The following is a truncated version of that compelling conversation. It’s been edited for length and clarity.

The Conversation: What’s the mood in Alberta right now just a few days before the referendum?

Jared Wesley: There’s a lot of uneasiness in most Alberta communities. This is the largest exercise in direct democracy in Canadian history. Never before in one event have we seen so many questions put to the public for a vote. So I think there’s a lot of confusion.

TC: There are 10 referendum questions in total, five related to immigration. Tell us a bit about them.

JW: They aren’t particularly concisely worded and a lot of folks are struggling to understand them. A lot of my work at community town halls is trying to provide a non-partisan perspective on why the government has introduced these questions and how people can make sense of them. Public opinion polls show quite consistently over the last two years that about 70 to 75 per cent of Albertans want to remain in Canada. And so folks in Alberta are either animated and ready to come out to the polls and vote to remain, or they’re quite confused as to why an issue that’s only supported by about 25 per cent of the population has made its way onto a referendum ballot and captured the world’s attention. So there’s a lot of confusion around the process and why we’re holding this vote in the first place.

TC: Let’s rewind a bit to the 1970s when there were first calls for Alberta’s independence. What was that movement about?

JW: The sense of what we call western alienation has really been part of Alberta’s political DNA since it joined Canadian Confederation, all the way back in 1905. These sentiments were captured by a political cartoon that featured a giant cow, and this cow was positioned across the entire country of Canada. It’s eating in Western Canada. It’s being fed hay by some........

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