I really don't think that Alberta (or Sask.) have the ability to "separate" from Canada, in that they weren't separate self governing colonies that decided to join Confederation. They were both create by acts of Parliament in 1905. The area between Ontario and BC became part of Canada in 1870 when it was sold to Canada by HBC (and NW Co.). At that time the Red River colony was made into the province of Manitoba (much smaller than it is now) and the rest was divided into territorial districts. When the population grew enough, there was talk of provincehood, and there were proposals on how many provinces would be made out of the area between Manitoba and BC. The territorial premier championed the "One Big Province" idea, but there were proposals of 2, 3, and 4 provinces as well. The Laurier government decided to ignore these proposals and divided the area roughly in half and picked two out of the 4 district names; Alberta and Saskatchewan for the new provinces.
Alberta would have to vote to "leave Confederation" for it to be a legitimate question, as they were never a separate self governing colony before then. If the vote were to succeed, the acts of Parliament that created both provinces (which were created at the same time) would have to be repealed and there would have to be discussions and voting on how to divided it with new provincial boundaries. Obviously, Alberta wouldn't be among the names for these new provinces and in the end, there would be no province of Alberta in Canada.
I doubt any of this will happen, but the government of Canada can't let the separatists set the rules for the vote. As stated before, Alberta never joined Canada when it became a province; this area was already a part of Canada and will remain so.
www.lawsociety.ab.ca
