CALGARY, AB: The parking lot of the Notre Dame High School in Calgary began to fill one hour prior to the official start of the Wexit rally Saturday evening. By 7:00 p.m., late-comers were forced to find space on the lawn of the school or head home disappointed. Inside, the gymnasium had filled beyond its 1,500-person capacity.

You didn’t need to go inside to understand the movement called Wexit. Supporters arrived in vehicles adorned with anti-Trudeau, pro-oil and gas bumper stickers and a 3-meter display just outside the entrance to the venue read “Wanted for Treason” with a smug-looking picture of Canada’s prime minister. The battle cry of Twisted Sister’s hit song We’re Not Gonna Take It played on a loudspeaker to set the mood and welcome quests.

The nearly 1,700 people who attended the rally in Calgary seem to agree on one thing: Alberta is not being treated fairly by Ottawa and it’s time for serious action to fix the political situation or exit confederation. While there was agreement on the problem, the path forward for Wexit supporters remains less clear.

Wexit lawn signs available at a Calgary rally (source: Western Standard)

I joined former MP Rob Anders in the bleachers of the gymnasium before the speakers began. While Anders is not a sovereigntist, he calls himself a “sympathizer” and thinks the economic case for Alberta independence is “rock solid.” Anders – like many Albertans – is watching Wexit closely but not yet ready to join the movement.

Speaking to those around us, I heard heartbreaking stories of unemployed and underemployed parents worried about making ends meet, and wondering if the prosperity they’ve enjoyed will ever again be available to their children.

UCP activist Craig Chandler (source: Western Standard)

Long-time conservative activist and Jason Kenney ally, Craig Chandler, was the first speaker of the evening and encouraged the audience to support local Alberta businesses and conservative candidates running for municipal office. It was a tepid speech that made no reference to independence. In an interview with the Western Standard prior to the event, Chandler was less cautious.

“I believe we need to have a referendum on separation; not a useless referendum on equalization. We will get a ‘Yes’ vote and then we will have real negotiating power. We get the ‘Yes’ vote and put that vote in our back pocket and then sit down with the rest of Canada,” Chandler said.

There were a number of speeches before Wexit founder Peter Downing took the stage. Callie Temple with Women for an Independent Alberta (AFIA) said people have been “pushed to the brink.” Zuzana Janosova Den Boer, who survived communist rule in Czechoslovakia before immigrating to Canada, warned of growing socialism in her adopted country. Kathy Flett, a Wexit leader, spoke of the need to work with First Nations and said of the movement: “We’re not left. We’re not right. We’re Albertans.”

Downing opened his speech declaring “Justin Trudeau, you are not pushing us around anymore,” and closed by leading attendees in a chant of “the West wants out!”

A lone anti-Wexit protester showed up dressed in black and wearing a ski mask and told the Western Standard that the Wexit movement “has too many Christians” in it.

An anti-Wexit protestor says the movement “has too many Christians” (source: Western Standard)

While Wexit supporters are ready for a fight with Ottawa, many are cautiously optimistic that newly-elected Premier Kenney will keep his promise to implement the Alberta Agenda and fight for a better deal for Alberta within confederation, making independence unnecessary. The Alberta Agenda – also known as the Firewall Letter – was co-authored in 2001 by future Prime Minister Stephen Harper and outlined a strategy for Alberta to protect itself against interference from Ottawa by asserting its constitutional authority over areas like policing, pensions, and tax collection.

Carmen Lasante, the volunteer organizer for the event, said the threat of separatism is “going to be used as leverage, but, if that leverage doesn’t work, we’re gone. Separation if necessary, but not necessarily separation.”