It is a partisan issue, because the support for separation is almost entirely right wing, and the loudest opposition comes from the left.
I keep seeing peiple mention culture, and how AB doesn't have it's own, but that is false. If we didn't have competing cultural visions, we wouldn't have the "culture wars" going on driving political polarization.
The culture in AB calling for separation isn't cowboys and frontiersmen, its people on the outside of the prevailing culture in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Vancluver, and Quebec. The culture isn't exclusive to AB, but its critical mass in Canada is centered there, so thats where the seperation talk comes from. If Canada cant figure out how to bridge the cultural gap, it's not just AB that's going to cause problems.