Missing the days of yore in Alberta

EDMONTON — Outside the Alberta legislature, a sea of deep blue flags snaps in the stiff October wind, held aloft by a crowd of about 1,100 people that has gathered for one last hype-up hurrah together before Monday’s referendum. Most of the flags bear the province’s crest; many are emblazoned with a variety of slogans, all of them defiant.

“Send A Message to Ottawa.” “Live Free or Die.” “We’re Done — Alberta First.”

On the steps of the grand Beaux-Arts building, which looks not unlike Manitoba’s, separatist influencer Adam Deriges, host of a podcast called The Army of Great Men, is giving a speech. Some people talk a lot about the costs of separation, he says, but not enough about the rewards. Or the values of the people gathered here are not in line with the rest of Canada.

“I don’t know about you, but I miss the good ol’ days,” he declares.

At this, the crowd cheers. Deriges has not specified exactly what “the good ol’ days” means, but for this audience, he doesn’t have to. This speech is designed to motivate those here who already believe that Canada is irrevocably broken, that the life they earned or deserve has been stolen by Ottawa, that the only solution is to leave confederation.

Or at least, to threaten to leave.

It’s a strange Saturday afternoon in Alberta’s capital, just two days to go before the referendum. The night before, thousands of people dressed in maple-leaf garb streamed into Edmonton’s Expo Centre, where Prime Minister Mark Carney came back to his hometown for a rally hosted by former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk’s Forever Canadian campaign.

Now, it’s the separatists’ turn. A little over an hour before their rally was set to begin, a vicious windstorm screamed over the city. Gusts reached nearly 100 kilometres an hour and knocked out power in some neighbourhoods, but it died down just as the 3 p.m. start time approached, so the rally went on as planned.

For the most part, the attendees, some of whom arrived by bus from Calgary, are relaxed, even friendly. Those in the front, just by the legislature steps, sit on lawn chairs; those in the back mingle, chatting about everything from family to hockey and also how Canada would soon be under the control of Communist China.