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Can a city separate from a province? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 3 days ago by Nils@lemmy.ca to c/askacanadian@lemmy.ca
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I keep seeing news about separatist movement in Alberta. My understanding is that some of their cities do not align with the province.

**Could a city, Edmonton for example, start a separatist movement to stay in Canada? **

On the same note, if the separatists win by a small margin, are they going to force it down to the rest of the population that want to stay Canadian? Or are they going to divide the province land with Canada?

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[-] swordgeek@lemmy.ca 9 points 3 days ago

Short answer, no. But...

Cities only exist at the whim of the province. That's why the UCP can get away with imposing laws like allowing municipal parties, even when the cities and their population don't want them.

Now if the separatists won a majority (NOT gonna happen!), they'd quickly discover what people have been telling them for years: Alberta is (almost?) entirely treaty and crown land, and has no authority to separate without first nations' approval.

[-] Nils@lemmy.ca 1 points 19 hours ago

Thanks for the reply. That makes a lot of sense, this "borrowed" land will backfire their plans.

this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2026
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