Chris Scott sat in the driver’s seat of his 2001 Monaco Dynasty motorhome last week, bumping along the network of rural highways in southern Alberta.
The vehicle creaked a bit. Some leather-covered furniture was cracking, and some cabinet drawer latches didn’t work anymore.
It’s like Alberta, Scott said: you can ignore problems and let them get worse, or you can pay attention to them and fix them.
“I see there’s a lot of things going on with Alberta that need some care and attention,” said Scott.
The restaurant owner, who gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, has hit the road this summer to talk independence, travelling with a group of people who also support the idea of Alberta becoming its own nation.
CBC News recently spent a day aboard the “Let’s Talk Alberta” bus, speaking with passengers about what motivates them at a time when Albertans are weighing their vote in an Oct. 19 referendum.
Earlier this summer, CBC spent time with volunteers helping the pro-Canada group Forever Canadian, talking to them about their efforts and why they wouldn’t be voting to have a future referendum on whether Alberta should stay in the country.
Federalist and separatist groups have been a common sight this summer, fundraising and shaking hands with voters at events like the Calgary Stampede. Voter mobilization efforts are expected to ramp up considerably with less than two months to go to the referendum.
On the bus
On a recent weekday in August, Scott’s bus hit the road for a 10-stop tour through the southern part of the province.
Scott’s passengers included Jasper Smit, a friend from the Netherlands who runs a social media channel called CommonSense TV.
Leaning on a countertop in the back of the motorhome, Smit studied the packaging of a snack purchased from a highway gas station. He read it aloud: roasted grilled pepperoni cheesesteak.
“Mystery meat!” called out another rider.
The wrapping on the bus’ exterior was less ambiguous.
The vehicle is emblazoned with the “Let’s Talk Alberta” decal, framed by provincial viewscapes: the hoodoos of Drumheller flowing into sweeping mountains and rivers, topped by an expansive prairie sky. It was an Alberta postcard, designed with artificial intelligence and then smoothed out by a designer.
On the back of the vehicle, a Bible verse printed in script: Jeremiah 29:7 — “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
It was Scott who procured the motorhome to criss-cross the province.
With a full standup shower and decent-sized bed in the back, Scott could spend days on the bus if he needed to.
Increasingly, he has been, as he’s travelled to all corners of the province with the clock running down to voting day.
He carries with him his experiences from the pandemic.
He was charged and later acquitted for breaching public health restrictions during COVID-19 related to his Whistle Stop Cafe in east-central Alberta.
Scott was highly critical of politicians that he viewed as allowing laws that “strip our fundamental rights and freedoms away.” His reputation has made him something of a folk hero amongst those who share his views in these small towns.
“I just learned that if there’s something that’s wrong, you need to stand up for yourself,” Scott said of his experience.
When the bus pulls into a town, it’s often greeted with supporters. Some caught word of the trip on social media.
In Rosemary, Alta., with a population of little more than 350, a lone man who came out to get a lawn sign said he heard news of the trip on a Facebook group entitled, “Bassano Bitching or Bragging.”
“The whole thing is really not about separation, in my opinion,” said Bassano resident Tom Schaffer.
“It’s about making the government wake up and go, hey, these guys might want to separate. Maybe we should actually do something and listen to them?”
Tanya Clemens, co-leader of a separate Alberta independence group, Let Alberta Decide, was on the bus too, as was John Bolton, a former Calgary radio host who now provides emcee services at various independence events, and Patti Vold, a mother of nine and a grandmother of 15.
There was also Sandy Duguay, who was born and raised in Montreal, where she lived through two referendums as an English speaker. Duguay also spent 26 years in Victoria, where her husband was a chaplain at a prison on Vancouver Island.
Duguay was never involved in politics before, but was motivated to become political after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which evolved into helping the Alberta independence signature drive. She’s now travelling full-time on the bus.
“I feel very close to these people,” Duguay said, who turns 72 in a few weeks.
As the bus weaved its way along the route, the conversation snaked through the group’s motivating complaints with the federal government. Some, like frustration with the federal equalization program or Ottawa’s approach to firearms, have been kindling for alienation for years.
The cultural divide at play quickly came into focus, too. Certain federal bills, perhaps less familiar to the broader Canadian public, are viewed by this group as threats to religious freedom.
“Bill C-9 especially,” Duguay said, referring to the Combatting Hate Act, which amends the Criminal Code to strengthen penalties for hate crimes. The Liberals received support from the Bloc Québécois after including a clause to remove a religious exemption from the country’s hate speech laws.
The Conservatives have argued that amounts to an “assault” on religious freedoms, while Justice Minister Sean Fraser has said the new law won’t “criminalize faith.”
“Look what’s happened to Europe,” Duguay said, turning to Smit. “You were founded on Judeo-Christian principles. And you guys were the first to get rid of them.”
Wearing a Let’s Talk Alberta shirt and a Whistle Stop hat, Smit, the visitor from the Netherlands, didn’t entirely agree. He said he’s “not religious at all” and that embedding Christian principles into governance would set a precedent that would require adopting other religious laws whenever demographics shifted in the future.
“In all fairness, you should bring that [into] politics,” he said.
Vold, the grandmother of 15, feels Christian values have been fading from public life, which is pushing society towards moral decline.
“For many, many years, the idea was you shouldn’t mix church and state, right? I disagree,” Vold said. “The state should not be in the church, but people of faith should be in the state. They should be helping to guide the country.”
Soon after this conversation, the bus arrived in Strathmore and pulled near Kinsmen Park. Scott and Smit exited. Talk of faith continued, until suddenly, Smit ran back up the bus stairs.
“The police are here.”
A heated confrontation
Outside the bus, a crowd had formed in the parking lot.
Various supporters of the independence movement who had arrived to greet the bus gathered around Scott as he was engaged in an argument. On the other side was a town official, flanked by a peace officer.
“So anyway, we’ll be here for about an hour,” Scott said.
“I’m asking you to leave,” the official responded. The group was free to express its opinions, the man said, but not on the town’s property.
“But I can,” Scott responded. “It’s public property.”
The crowd grew increasingly frustrated. Scott was told that if he did not move the vehicle, the RCMP would be called.
“Well, I mean, it’s not the first time I’ve been arrested,” Scott said.
Minutes passed. Separatist influencers began to livestream from the scene. Eventually, word came that the bus was allowed to stay.
“The town respects individuals’ right to peacefully express their views and participate in democratic processes,” a town spokesperson later said in an email to CBC News. “The group was able to continue gathering and expressing its views.”
The bus moved on to an Airdrie pizza place that’s become a gathering spot for the separatist movement.
Behind schedule and with three stops still to go, the Let’s Talk Alberta crew sat down and scarfed down slices, with a Toronto Blue Jays game playing on the screens above and curious onlookers surrounding the crowd of blue shirts.
One man asked what the group was doing there.
“It’s an Alberta independence bus tour,” he was told.
The man grimaced.
Polling suggests that support for independence is stronger in the rural regions, and Let’s Talk Alberta’s tour last week to smaller locales was largely met by receptive crowds.
But to win in October, the group understands it needs to make gains in the cities, where it hasn’t received as friendly a welcome as it has in rural Alberta. That’s where they’re headed next.
“September, October will be all cities,” Duguay said. “The cities, different cultures, different mindsets … we’ve covered just about every little town. But now, the cities.”
