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

People attend a Alberta separatism rally outside the Alberta Legislature in May 2025. Photo by Shaughn Butts/Postmedia/File

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?”

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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.

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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.