Pride in Canada is Stable but Regionalism Appears on the Rise Everywhere Except in Alberta

July 30, 2026

As Canada prepares to mark Canada Day on July 1, 2026, the 159th anniversary of Confederation, questions of national identity and unity are again moving to the foreground. This is especially true in a year when Alberta is expected to hold a referendum in the fall touching on the province’s constitutional position, while Quebec’s coming provincial election is likely to unfold with national unity and sovereignty debates once again in view. Against this backdrop, the survey findings suggest that pride in being Canadian remains strong and broadly shared, with 86% of Canadians agreeing that they are proud to be Canadian. At the same time, the results point to a significant degree of regional and provincial attachment, as half of Canadians say they identify more strongly with their province or region than with Canada. Yet one of the most important findings is that these two sentiments are not necessarily in conflict: strong regional or provincial identification appears to do very little to undercut pride in being Canadian. In other words, many Canadians appear able to hold a strong attachment to Canada while also feeling a powerful connection to their province or region. The regional results add an important nuance, and even an irony, to the current unity debate: despite Alberta being at the centre of a prominent national discussion about provincial autonomy and separation, Albertans were the least likely of all regional groups surveyed to say they identify more strongly with their province or region than with Canada. Overall, the findings suggest that Canadian identity is not being displaced by regionalism so much as increasingly accompanied by it, with national pride and regional belonging coexisting in complex but not necessarily contradictory ways.