Alberta and the Brand Divide: Is Western Alienation Already Showing Up in Consumer Perceptions?

For decades, political discontent in Alberta has fuelled conversations about Western alienation—some even advocating for secession or alignment with the United States. While most of these discussions remain in the political and cultural domain, there’s growing curiosity about whether this alienation also plays out economically, especially in how Albertans perceive national institutions and corporate brands. Using newly available data from the Great Canadian Brand Index (GCBI), we find early signs that the provincial divide may already be manifesting subtly but meaningfully in consumer brand evaluations.

The GCBI measures how Canadians evaluate over 120 brands across seven values-based traits, including friendliness, honesty, sustainability, and respectfulness. When comparing national scores to Alberta-specific responses, two brands—Loblaws and Ardene—stood out. Loblaws, a brand recently embroiled in negative press over food inflation and CEO compensation, scored notably higher in Alberta than nationally: a GCBI score of 61.3 in Alberta versus 56.9 nationally, with honesty (+3.6), respectfulness (+5.1), and sustainability (+3.7) all rated higher. Similarly, Ardene—often seen as a fast-fashion brand—was rated more favourably in Alberta on all dimensions, particularly sustainability (+5.2).

These differences are not random. Scholars of regional identity have long noted that consumers use brands to express cultural affiliation, including political or regional identity (Cayla & Eckhardt, 2008). Alberta’s historically conservative orientation and emphasis on self-reliance and economic freedom may lead residents to interpret controversial or corporate behaviours differently than consumers in more left-leaning provinces like British Columbia or Quebec. This could explain why Loblaws, viewed more critically in the rest of Canada, is perceived with more trust and integrity in Alberta—a province generally more supportive of market-driven structures and less likely to criticize corporate profits per se (Gidengil et al., 2012).

This divergence also reflects broader theories in political marketing and moral foundations theory, which suggest that conservative individuals prioritize loyalty, authority, and proportionality—values that align more with performance and structure than with egalitarian fairness (Graham et al., 2009). When a brand like Loblaws takes a reputational hit nationally for corporate excess, Albertans may instead frame it as a successful business operating within its rights. Similarly, the higher sustainability score for Ardene might suggest a more product-focused understanding of sustainability in Alberta, decoupled from broader critiques of fast fashion’s social or environmental impacts.

Though the differences observed here are not yet seismic, they are telling. Even among well-known national brands, the GCBI reveals a regional segmentation in brand perception that maps closely onto ideological boundaries. These findings support the idea that Alberta is not just politically distinct—but also economically and culturally differentiated in how it views national institutions and symbols.

Brand managers and policymakers would be wise to take note. While national branding campaigns aim to unify consumer appeal across provinces, the GCBI reminds us that perceptions are always filtered through regional identity, political ideology, and moral outlook. Alberta’s growing divergence in brand perception may be a subtle but important signal of deeper fractures—fractures that are not just political, but perceptual.

For those who believe that brand loyalty is apolitical, the data tells a different story. The gap between Alberta and the rest of Canada might not be wide yet—but it’s measurable. And that alone is a signal worth heeding.

References

Cayla, J., & Eckhardt, G. M. (2008). Asian brands and the shaping of a transnational imagined community. Journal of Consumer Research, 35(2), 216–230. https://doi.org/10.1086/588416

Gidengil, E., Blais, A., Nevitte, N., & Nadeau, R. (2012). Dominance and decline: Making sense of recent Canadian election outcomes. UBC Press.

Graham, J., Haidt, J., & Nosek, B. A. (2009). Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(5), 1029–1046.