ATHABASCA — A crowd of close to 100 locals braved the downpouring of rain and gathered in the Athabasca Agriplex on Monday, May 26 to hear a sovereignty sales pitch from speakers with the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP).
APP Co-founder Dennis Modry and Bonnyville-based CEO Mitch Sylvestre shared their concerns about Alberta’s future and proposed plan for separation with the crowd, starting with an AI-generated music video.
The video used AI-created images of oil rigs, large bearded men, fields on fire, and a line drawn at the Alberta border to represent the project’s vision of a new nation “born in the forge of the free.”
Also featured was AI-created footage of an Indigenous chief, the laughing face of new Prime Minister Mark Carney, and images of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith accompanied with the lyrics, “Alberta stands/ never on its knees.”
Modry, a former heart surgeon whose medical licence was revoked in 2013, started his speech with a nod to past and current PMs Justin Trudeau and Carney by reciting a quote by Mahatma Ghandi.
“If an idiot is in power, then those who put him there are well-represented,” said Modry. “Our current (PM) is far more dangerous than our former (PM), primarily because he’s much smarter, he’s clearly very well-educated, and he’s very duplicitous and he lies much better.”
Modry went on to paint a picture of the “dystopian future” in store for the province under Liberal leadership, pointing to Carney’s ‘climate catastrophizing,’ continued emission reduction policies, and what he described as attacks on personal freedoms like firearms and property rights, censorship and financial control.
“If he achieves these objectives, ladies and gentlemen, you will be totally controlled in everything that you do,” said Modry.
The answer to Alberta’s problems? An APP-branded version of provincial separation and sovereignty, an independent nation free from the financial and social priorities of the East, available for the price of an annual membership.
Modry et. al’s vision for a sovereign Alberta is one where social democracy allows citizens to vote directly on issues like the contents of a new constitution. He envisions a nation with an active oilfield attracting private and foreign investments, and in-house provision of pensions, policing, border control, immigration and housing — all paid for by the tax dollars currently heading East.
But before separation must come a referendum, a goal Modry and the APP have been chasing since 2021. Until recently, citizen-led petitions to initiate a referendum needed 20 per cent of, or around 600,000, registered voters across the province to sign up within 90 days.
Under the provinces amendments to the Election Act, citizen-led petitions only need 10 per cent of eligible voters from the last election, or 177,000 signatures, and will have 120 days to do it.
In his speech, Modry referenced a recent Leger poll indicating 47 per cent of the province is in favour of separating. In a May 20 Leger report on a survey of more than 1,500 Canadian adults, 47 per cent of Albertan respondents voted in support of separation, while 48 per cent voted against. Of the total 1,537 responses captured, 171 weighted responses came from Alberta.
In the same May 20 report, 44 per cent of Alberta respondents said they would vote no to a referendum on Alberta sovereignty, while 41 per cent said they would vote yes.
Another Leger poll of 1,000 Albertans released May 15 indicated only 29 per cent voted in support of Alberta becoming a country independent of Canada, with 67 per cent opposed.
A CBC News survey of 1,200 random Albertans showed similar results. 57 per cent of respondents strongly disagreed with separation, and another 10 per cent somewhat disagreed, numbers that have remained steady for the last five years.
The category that did show growth, however, was the ‘strongly agree’ category, growing five per cent since the last poll in 2021. Also showing an increase was the number of respondents who felt more attachment to their national identity than provincial.
Thirty-four per cent feel more attachment to Canada, up from 20 per cent in late 2022 and provincial attachment grew to 32 per cent, up from 29. The largest change was reflected in the ‘not sure’ category, which shrunk to 33 per cent in 2025, compared to 49 per cent in 2022.
And the survey also included a straight ballot question on how they would vote in a separation referendum: 28 per cent said yes, and 67 said no, mirroring the results of the May 15 Leger poll.
'We need an army'
During Sylvestre’s time on the mic, he stressed the importance of gathering as much support and momentum for the movement as possible, especially in the form of financial contributions.
“We think that in order to get this referendum to the end, we’re going to need a few million dollars,” said Sylvestre. Donation buckets were passed around after the speeches, and merch and memberships were available for purchase.
Support in the form of registrations for the petition was also a priority for Sylvestre.
“We have to be sure that all of you and all your friends, all your family, all the low-hanging fruit actually get registered with us so that we can actually have a sledgehammer to show the government and everybody else.”
“We need an army, and that’s you.”
According to Sylvestre, as many as 5,000 people an hour were signing up in the days after the Liberals were elected, and up to 200,000 new members have joined in the last five weeks, bringing total registration to around 250,000 Albertans.
Sylvestre’s speech was accompanied by a slideshow of images, cartoons, graphs and memes comparing U.S. President Donald Trump’s ‘jokes’ about annexation to taxes and policies passed under Trudeau, a quote from the U.S Second Amendment about the need for militias, and a Charlie Brown cartoon with the text, ‘they want our guns because they want to kill us without getting shot.’
He estimated Quebec receives more than “thirteen thousand million dollars every year,” from Alberta, and equated Alberta’s high contributions towards equalization payments as evidence Albertans work harder than Canadians in the rest of the country.
He also claimed carbon is not an environmental pollutant, and all carbon emissions produced by the oil and gas sector are easily removed from the air by only a fraction of trees in the Boreal Forest.
According to 2025 data on the National Oceanica and Atmospheric Administration website, atmospheric carbon levels reached a global average of 422.7 parts per million in 2024, a new record high. Emission increases year over year have surpassed natural removal processes and resulted in a 30 per cent increase in ocean acidity levels.
Modry and Sylvestre told attendees to expect a referendum in spring of 2026. CBC News reported in early May Modry was hoping to see the question posed by the provincial government as early as summer 2025, but the group will have little say in timing after their work is done.
Modry told the audience APP intends to submit their petition the same day Bill 54 receives Royal Assent, which he estimated to be June 2. Bill 54 was given Royal Assent on May 15, 11 days before the Athabasca event.
Regardless of when the petition is submitted, the group will have a 30-day grace period while the Chief Electoral Officer reviews the submission. If approved, the 120-day period for signature collection begins. If deemed successful, the issue would then be in front of a committee of MLA’s, and the government can schedule a vote.
The federal Clarity Act, legislation based on ruling from the Supreme Court in 2000 to create a legal pathway to provincial succession, notes a referendum question must be clearly worded, results must demonstrate an express will to leave Canada, and different views from around the table must be considered, including from other political parties and Indigenous peoples, especially First Nations, in the province posing the question.
Modry assured guests that conversations and consultations with Alberta First Nations were ongoing, that a national Indigenous leader had told the team they would receive support from a large majority of Indigenous Albertans, and that at least one Alberta nation had committed official support to the APP, but declined to name the leader and the nation on the record.
In contrast, many Alberta First Nations and the Chiefs of Treaties 6, 7 and 8 have been vocal about their condemnation of separation, maintaining their treaties exist with the Crown and predate the formation of Alberta as a province.
“These treaties are sacred and binding. They are not subject to provincial whims, political ideologies, or referenda. The authority to share and coexist on this land was extended by our ancestors through treaty — not surrendered," wrote Bigstone Cree Nation Chief Andy Alook in a May 5 cease and desist letter to Smith.
“Any suggestion that Alberta can unilaterally pursue separation or alter its relationship with Canada without the full consent and participation of the First Peoples of this land is not only unlawful — it is colonial in nature.”
In the proposed policies and governance document on the APP website, the first sentence of section VI on Indigenous Peoples of Alberta says: "meaningful Alberta Sovereignty will only be achieved with the support and consent of the Sovereign Indigenous Nations of Alberta."
When asked further about the nature of ongoing consultations with First Nations groups, Modry said:
“They control 1.5 per cent of the lands in Alberta. They do not control the outcome of the referendum. The Clarity Act requires consultation, it doesn’t require subservience.”
A 51st state?
Little mention was made of the U.S during the meeting, aside from Modry assuring attendees America would be the first nation to recognize an independent Alberta. But in an interview with the Athabasca Advocate after the speeches, he said the APP was recently in Washington for talks with senior U.S. administration officials on the topic of Alberta sovereignty.
"We also had four copies of a document that was entitled 'Benefits of Alberta Sovereignty to the U.S and to Albertans,'" said Modry, listing Alberta's oil and gas, energy, agriculture, forest and mining industries as enticing amenities for the U.S.
Modry said talks centred around using the U.S dollar as Alberta's new currency — until an undetermined future date — and the pathway for Alberta to take President Trump up on his recent offers to join America. Despite engaging in detailed discussions, Modry maintained the APP does not purport Alberta joining its neighbour to the south.
"We talked about that only from the point of view that it would be a three-step process for Alberta to become a 51st state," said Modry, noting a second successful referendum would have to pass on the question after Alberta succeeds, and two-thirds of U.S. Congress must vote in support of adding Alberta.
"We're not talking about that at all, that's not in the cards."
