The 7/50 Podcast

In this episode, 2025 CCS Summer Student Areeba Ismail talks to Professor Matt Wildcat (University of Alberta, Faculty of Native Studies) about recent developments around Indigenous sovereignty in Canada, including the Trudeau government's legislation recognizing Indigenous jurisdiction over child and family services, and the challenge posed to treaties and treaty rights by the possibility of a provincial referendum on Alberta secession.
This episode was produced by the Centre's 2025 summer students: Areeba Ismail, Maria Kalapurayil, and Nicole Ibalio. The interview with Professor Wildcat was conducted in the summer of 2025 and therefore doesn't include commentary on Alberta's upcoming referendum or other recent political developments, including the Alberta court rulings on the impact of provincial secession on treaty rights.

In this latest episode of The 7/50 Podcast, 2025 CCS summer student Nicole Ibalio talks to Professor Jared Wesley (University of Alberta, Political Science Department) about how the political landscape in Alberta has evolved from the early 1900s until the present day. Among other things, Professor Wesley provides detailed analysis of the last constitutional referendum in Alberta — the Kenney government's 2021 poll on removing the equalization principle from the Constitution of Canada — and reflects on how the Smith government's Alberta Sovereignty Act fits within the history of Alberta-Ottawa relations (and moves that history in a strategically new direction).
This episode was produced by the Centre's 2025 summer students: Areeba Ismail, Maria Kalapurayil, and Nicole Ibalio. The interview with Professor Wesley was conducted in the summer of 2025 and therefore doesn't include commentary on Alberta's upcoming referendum or other recent political developments.

This is the final panel from the Centre's "Alberta at the Crossroads" workshop, described by moderator and co-organizer Professor Feo Snagovsky as "a bit of a thought exercise." The gist of that exericse is that our three expert panelists — Trevor Tombe, Matt Wildcat, and Bruce Tait — are asked to contemplate the legal, political, and economic consequences that might flow from an eventual vote to secede from Canada. While such a vote would put Alberta and Canada in uncharted territory, the panel is nonetheless able to reflect on the challenges that would lie ahead, the actors who would take the stage, and the key issues that would likely define the inter-governmental negotiations that would be constitutionally required.
Note: This episode doesn't concern the potential consequences that could flow from an affirmative vote on question 10 in the upcoming Alberta referendum (discussed later in this series). Question 10 is about whether Albertans want a referendum on independence, not about independence itself.

This episode features another recording from the Centre's "Alberta at the Crossroads" workshop, a one-day public event held in May 2026 that aimed to provide accessible, expert analysis of what the road to and beyond a referendum on Alberta independence might look like. This time, the recording is of a panel discussion that reflected on how other independence referendums (from Quebec to Brexit) have unfolded, and on what these experiences can and can't teach us about the potential dynamics of an independence referendum campaign in Alberta. The two panelists for the session were Professors Lori Thorlakson (University of Alberta) and André Lecours (University of Ottawa), with moderation provided by Dr Richard Mailey (Centre for Constitutional Studies).

This episode features another recording from the Centre's "Alberta at the Crossroads" workshop, a one-day public event held in May 2026 on the prospect of a referendum on Alberta independence. This time, the recording is of a panel discussion that dealt with some of the big questions currently surrounding the Alberta independence movement, including questions about the movement's aspirations, structure, and fault lines, and questions about how it relates to other political movements, both in Canada and beyond. The three panelists for the session were Professors Feo Snagovsky (University of Alberta), Lisa Young (University of Calgary), and Rob Currie-Wood (Mount Royal University), with moderation provided by Professor Gerard Kennedy (University of Alberta).