PM Trudeau speaks with USA President Biden about trading New York State for Alberta and Saskatchewan

Let's see if you've heard this one before: there's a Trudeau in the Prime Minister's Office and he's angered a lot of Albertans and the oilpatch. Alienation and resentment fester, triggering separatist sentiment. You'd be forgiven for thinking it's 1980 and not 2019. In 1980, there were no Liberal MPs from Alberta, Saskatchewan or B.C. in Ottawa, and a separatist actually won a provincial seat in an Alberta byelection (but lost it within months). Since last week's federal election returned Justin Trudeau's Liberals to power, with no seats in Alberta and Saskatchewan, the anger in Alberta seems to have climbed from its already considerable heights. Western separatism is again being bandied about.

It may not even be at the tepid levels of support that it had in the early '80s, but it's not just relegated to the fringes of the fringes of the internet these days. But how substantial, or how real, are those sentiments, and what does that mean for Alberta, the West and Confederation?

The rising separatist movement in parts of Western Canada has been largely associated with angry, right-wing Albertans — but the sentiment is fairly present in Saskatchewan too.

According to a new Ipsos poll, slightly more than one-quarter of Saskatchewan residents, or 27 per cent, agree with the statement that ‘my province would be better off if it separated from Canada,' compared with 33 per cent of Albertans.

Separatist sentiment: Alberta 33% Saskatchewan 27% Quebec 26% Let that sink in for a moment. Alberta and Saskatchewan currently have a stronger desire to separate from the rest of Canada than Quebec does.https://t.co/Q0SaWdGq00

— Bio ☣ (@AnotherBioGrad) November 5, 2019

The separation movement, also known as Wexit, began gaining steam after Justin Trudeau was reelected in Canada's federal election in October.

"Alberta and Saskatchewan residents feel the most negative about the election outcome, pushing support for separation to new highs, above (Alberta) and on par (Saskatchewan) with Quebec," according to Ipsos.

The election results proved just how divided the country has become, after the Conservatives won all 14 ridings in Saskatchewan and all but one in Alberta.

Everyone keeps forgetting that #wexit is not just Alberta but Saskatchewan too.

Saskatchewan should separate over this.

— World of Ruin (@AaronWrotkowski) November 4, 2019

And according to the poll, the results created more disappointment among Saskatchewan residents than anything else.

While half of both Saskatchewan and Alberta residents said the election results made them angry, 69 per cent of Albertans and 67 per cent of Saskatchewan residents said they felt disappointed.

Separation sentiments are far less common in Manitoba and British Columbia, where only 11 per cent and 13 per cent of residents believe they'd be better off after separation, respectively.

#wexit people apparently believe that when Alberta and Saskatchewan separate, it can take parts of British Columbia with it. But if British Columbia is divisible, isn't Alberta and Saskatchewan divisible too? 🤔#cdnpoli

— NorthofSeven 🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈 (@NofSeven) November 4, 2019

Despite growing yet moderate support for western separation, experts say Wexit is highly unlikely to succeed due to legal, historical and land ownership reasons.

But regardless of what experts say, there's no arguing with the fact that support for western separation is slowly but steadily growing in Canada.

There are or have been several movements regarding secession from the U.S. state of New York. Only one of them – the state of Vermont – succeeded. Among the unsuccessful ones, the most prominent included the proposed state of Long Island, consisting of everything on the island outside New York City; a state called Niagara, the western counties of New York state; the northern counties of New York state called Upstate New York; making the city of New York a state; a proposal for a new Peconic County on eastern Long Island; and for the borough of Staten Island to secede from New York City.

Article 4, Section 3 of the Constitution of the United States includes a provision that "no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress." At the time of Vermont's secession in 1777, the Constitution of the United States did not yet exist. By the time Congress recognized Vermont and admitted it to the Union in 1791, the Constitution was in effect and the legislature of New York had consented. All later secession proposals would require similar consent.

More recently, the Divide New York State Caucus, Inc. has drafted a proposal[25] to partition the State into three autonomous regions: The “New Amsterdam” Region (Upstate), the “New York” Region (the City), and a third region of “Montauk” (comprising Long Island, and Rockland and Westchester Counties). These autonomous regions would, according to the plan, work in tandem with a token state government to comply with the U.S. Constitution.

The plan is to amend the State Constitution via a Constitutional Convention or a legislative majority. Unlike standard bills, a constitutional amendment does not need the governor’s approval. An alternate plan is having municipalities to use the NYS constitution home rule clause to encourage the legislature to submit the amendment to the voters.[26] The plan calls for regional senators and assembly representatives from both regions to also serve as the New York State Legislature. Both regions would also have an elected Regional Governor, Regional Lieutenant-Governor, and Regional Secretary of State. The residual state government would still have an elected Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and Comptroller.[27][28][29] [30]