<P> The Métis, under the leadership of Louis Riel staged the Red River Rebellion in Manitoba against Canada in 1870, and the North - West Rebellion in Saskatchewan in 1885 . At the time, this part of the West was relatively independent, francophone, culturally distinct, and facing the stress of dealing with aggressive colonization by Anglophones from Ontario . </P> <P> Numerous political parties in the western provinces, believing there to be no other solution for stemming apparent "Western alienation" by Central Canada, have sought independence . These movements are strongest in Alberta and British Columbia, but lesser ones exist in Saskatchewan and Manitoba . These movements have also assumed that Canada's northern territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) would also be a part of a new Western Canadian union . Parties advocating Western separation include the Western Canada Concept, the Western Independence Party, and the Western Block Party . These parties have not achieved much success, however . </P> <P> In the early 1980s, in Saskatchewan, the Unionest Party advocated the western provinces join the United States . </P> <P> In 1995, Premier of Saskatchewan Roy Romanow secretly formed a committee on consequences if Quebec seceded . The most seriously studied option was strengthening Saskatchewan's relationships with other western provinces because, Romanow said in 2014, Ontario would become closer to the US economically and Atlantic Canada would become "an island". Other possibilities included also seceding from Canada, and joining the US . Romanow said that predecessor Allan Blakeney had similarly studied options for Saskatchewan during the 1980 Quebec referendum . </P>

Can any province of canada separate from the nation