The main issues driving separatist sentiment have been the perceived power disparity relative to Ottawa and other provinces, historical grievances with the federal government dating back to the unrealized Province of Buffalo, a sense of distinctiveness with regards to Alberta's unique cultural and political identity, and Canadian fiscal policy, particularly as it pertains to the energy industry.

William Aberhart and Ernest Manning created the Social Credit party with the aim of bringing financial relief to Albertans who were suffering because of the Great Depression.

The party's success was fuelled by a wave of resentment at the federal Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, who had said that he "would not give a five-cent piece" to non-Liberal provincial governments for unemployment relief.

[7] The federal government deemed implementing a form of social credit unconstitutional and invoked its rarely used power of disallowance under S.56 of the British North America Act, 1867, thereby voiding provincial legislation.

Many expressed the opinion that Trudeau would continue his hard federalist stance producing unfavorable results for Western Canada including Alberta and its natural resources.

[14] Across North America, long lines could be seen at gas stations, and people started to realize the need to conserve energy resources.

After Joe Clark's Progressive Conservatives won a minority government in 1979 defeating Pierre Trudeau's Liberal party Albertans were hopeful a change in federal energy policy would occur.

[citation needed] With natural resources falling constitutionally within the domain of provincial jurisdictions, many Albertans viewed the NEP as a detrimental intrusion by the federal government into the province's affairs.

[19] Edmonton economist Scarfe argued that for people in Western Canada, especially Alberta, the NEP was perceived to be at their expense in benefiting the eastern provinces.

[12] According to Mary Elizabeth Vicente, an Edmonton librarian who wrote an article on the National Energy Program in 2005, the popular western slogan during the NEP, appearing on many bumper stickers, was "Let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark.

This sentiment gave rise to the Western Canada Concept (WCC) and West-Fed which held well-attended meetings across Alberta.

[24] In 1982, Gordon Kesler was elected to the Alberta legislature in a by-election in Olds-Didsbury as a candidate of the WCC and attracted national attention.

[25] In addition, West-Fed was founded, led by Edmonton businessman Elmer Knutson, who was credited with inspiring the transformation of Western alienation ideas into a political movement.

Major platform initiatives included opposition to compulsory bilingualism and metrication, abolishing the Senate, and equal representation to the four regions.

[citation needed] A year later Knutson resigned, but in all had significantly inspired many Albertans to join Doug Christie's Western Canada Concept, which was running candidates in elections.

"[26] In response, Premier Peter Lougheed called a snap election in which the party nominated 78 candidates in the province's 79 ridings (electoral districts).

The WCC still managed a strong third-place showing in another by-election, in Spirit River-Fairview, held in 1985, following the death of Grant Notley.

By the time he left office in 1993, Mulroney was perhaps the most hated prime minister due to various allegations of corruption pertaining to the sale of Canadian assets.

Ramsay notably and significantly argued for the Triple-E Senate as an alternative to Alberta separation, until 1986 when he reverted his opinion back to the previous separatist position of the WCC.

Without the existence of the Reform Party to articulate Alberta's concerns, the separatist movement in the early twenty-first century began to organize meaningfully for the first time since the 1980s.

[29]) In the 2004 general election, the Separation Party of Alberta nominated 12 candidates who won 4,680 votes, 0.5% of the provincial total.

Albertan Stephen Harper succeeded against the odds of the Canadian First-past-the-post voting system and in 2006 became Prime Minister of Canada in a minority government in the 2006 federal election.

Due to Harper's Reform roots, Albertans held faith that he would be the trusted figure to protect Alberta's interests.

"[30] Also, some politicians believe, and at least one poll indicated that a much larger portion of the Alberta population may be at least sympathetic to the notion of secession than was indicated by election results.

In January 2004, Premier Ralph Klein told the Canadian edition of Reader's Digest that one in four Albertans were in support of separation.

at 42% in Alberta and 35.6% across the four Western provinces[31] Support for Albertan separatism has increased significantly with the Canadian federal election victory of Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party on October 19, 2015.

[citation needed] While speaking at a town hall in Peterborough, Ontario, on January 13, 2017, Trudeau said, "We can't shut down the oilsands tomorrow.

"[43] After Trudeau's Liberals were re-elected with a minority government on October 21, 2019, in the Canadian federal election, #Wexit (a wordplay on "Brexit", the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union) trended on social media.

[47] On November 6, 2019, a poll conducted by Ipsos show a historic high of interest of secession from Canada in both Alberta and Saskatchewan by 33% and 27%, respectively.

[50] A May 2020 poll by Northwest Research for the Western Standard found that 41% of respondents would support independence in a referendum, 50% would be opposed, and 9% weren't sure.