Forever Canadian founder says the unity campaign is expanding across Alberta and attracting interest elsewhere in the country
Alberta separatism is provoking a growing Canadian unity movement, according to Forever Canadian founder Thomas Lukaszuk, who says his organization has expanded rapidly across Alberta since late June and is now attracting interest from elsewhere in the country.
Lukaszuk has spent the summer travelling through Alberta in the Forever Canadian Unity Bus. He told Energi Media that his goal is to visit every community in the province over the coming months. During a recent nine-day tour of southern Alberta, the campaign stopped in communities around Lethbridge and Medicine Hat to distribute lawn signs and meet supporters.
Forever Canadian has now distributed more than 45,000 lawn signs, Lukaszuk said, with demand arriving faster than the organization can print them. Requests have also come from British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. He said federalist organizers in Quebec have contacted him about adapting the Forever Canadian message and branding for their own province.
The organization reports more than 18,000 registered volunteers and nearly 500,000 petition signatures gathered over 90 days. Those figures have not been independently verified by Energi Media, but they illustrate the scale Lukaszuk says the campaign has reached.
His larger argument is that Alberta separatism is producing the opposite of its intended effect. By threatening the country’s political unity, he said, separatists have forced Canadians to think more seriously about what citizenship means and what democratic institutions hold the country together.
Lukaszuk distinguishes what he calls healthy patriotism from nationalism. The former is rooted in a shared identity, democratic values and a willingness to defend the country’s institutions. He believes the separatist campaign, combined with pressure from the United States, has made that identity more visible and politically active.
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