Dave Naylor

Published:December 29, 2021

-Western Standard

 

Albertans are a very unhappy lot at the moment — most want a new premier and prime minister and nearly 40% of them want a new country to live in.

Those are the new poll results from a survey taken December 15-17 by Research Co.

Since August, the proportion of Albertans who feel they would be “better off” as a country increased by 10 points to 38% — a significantly higher rate than even people in Quebec which now sits at 30%.

“Separatist sentiment in Alberta is currently near the levels observed in December 2019 (40%),” said Mario Canseco, president of Research Co.

“Across the province, 16% of residents strongly agree with the idea they would be better off as an independent nation.”

And it’s not just the state of confederation Albertans are unhappy with — 73% say the province would be better if someone other than Premier Jason Kenney was in charge. That’s up five points since a similar Research Co. poll conducted in August.

Another 65% of Albertans say they are fed up with Justin Trudeau and want a new prime minister.

Criticism of the current prime minister is strongest in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba (56%) and British Columbia (53%), followed by Ontario (49%), Quebec (42%) and Atlantic Canada (38%).

Across the country, 51% of Canadians think their province would be better off with a different premier. A total of 36% disagree and 15% are undecided.

Along with Kenney, Ontario Premier Doug Ford also scored poorly with 57% of residents there saying he should find a new job. John Horgan is doing better in BC with only 35% of people wanting him out of office.

“Just under one-in-five Canadians (18%) believe their province would be better off joining the United States and becoming an American state — a proportion that rises to 25% in Alberta and 24% in Quebec,” said pollsters.

The poll was based on an online study conducted among 1,000 adults in Canada. The margin of error is +/- 3.1%, 19 times out of 20.

You can find Research Co. data tables here.

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