When Alberta MLAs take their seats in the Legislative Assembly, they swear an oath of allegiance to the Crown. It’s not optional. It’s not ceremonial theater. It’s a legal requirement under the Legislative Assembly Act, a pledge of loyalty to the constitutional order they’re about to serve within.

So what happens when those same MLAs sign a petition advocating for Alberta’s separation from Canada?

They break that oath.

Let’s be clear about what the Crown represents. It’s not just a distant monarch in another country. In Canada’s constitutional framework, the Crown is the Canadian state. Swearing allegiance to the Crown means swearing allegiance to Canada’s sovereignty and constitutional order. You can’t pledge loyalty to that framework while simultaneously working to dismantle it. The two positions are fundamentally incompatible.

Some might argue that advocating for political change through democratic means is itself protected within the system, that exploring sovereignty options is legitimate political discourse. That’s a convenient dodge. There’s a difference between debating constitutional reform and actively campaigning to break up the country. Signing a separation petition isn’t abstract discussion – it’s concrete political action toward ending the very state you’ve sworn allegiance to.

Quebec recognized this contradiction, and did something about it. In December 2022, Quebec passed legislation making the oath to the Crown optional for MNAs. They kept only the oath to “the people of Quebec” as mandatory. This came after PQ and Québec Solidaire MNAs refused to swear allegiance to King Charles III following the 2022 election. Rather than maintain the hypocrisy, Quebec changed the law.

That’s the point. Quebec understood that you can’t have it both ways. If your MLAs are going to advocate for separation, don’t make them swear loyalty to what they’re trying to leave. Alberta has made no such change. Alberta MLAs still take the full oath to the Crown, knowing exactly what it entails.

Which means Alberta MLAs who sign separation petitions are doing so while bound by an oath they’ve violated. They voluntarily swore allegiance, then voluntarily betrayed it. No one forced them to take the oath. No one forced them to seek public office. They chose both, and apparently saw no contradiction.

This isn’t about whether separation itself is right or wrong. It’s about integrity in public office. It’s about whether the oaths our elected officials take actually mean something, or whether they’re just words to be discarded when politically convenient.

Public office requires public trust. That trust rests on the assumption that when someone swears an oath, they intend to keep it. When MLAs sign separation petitions after swearing allegiance to the Crown, they tell Albertans that their word means nothing, that oaths are performative, that constitutional obligations can be ignored whenever political expediency demands it.

If Alberta MLAs want to advocate for separation, they should do what Quebec did: change the oath. Until then, signing that petition isn’t political courage. It’s oath-breaking, plain and simple.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​