在阿尔伯塔省分离主义运动中，最具影响力的人物并非政客，甚至算不上某个具体的人，而是一个由社交媒体账号与周边商品系列组成的“组合体”——它堪称该独立运动中的明星代表。
One of the most influential voices on Alberta separatism is not a politician or even a clearly-identified person at all, but a combination social media account and merchandise line that is among the independence movement’s breakout stars.
“RiseOfAlberta”这个账号创建于2025年春季，自称旨在“推动阿尔伯塔省走向独立”。自创立以来，该账号发布了大量关于阿尔伯塔省的趣味短视频及人工智能生成的表情包，迅速吸引了近10万名X平台粉丝。
The RiseOfAlberta account was created in the spring of 2025 and describes itself as “accelerating Alberta’s journey towards independence.”Since then it has amassed almost 100,000 X followers with a firehose of shareable clips and AI-generated memes about Alberta.
“比如，他们会把东部加拿大人描绘成极度官僚、热衷于依赖政府的人；而阿尔伯塔人则被塑造成崇尚自由、厌恶政府干预且热衷于创业的‘狂野西部风格’人群，”加拿大网络生态研究机构“媒体生态系统观察站”的高级分析师克里斯·罗斯说道。该机构近期发布了一份关于分离主义网红影响力的研究报告。
“They’ll depict, for example, eastern Canadians as very bureaucratic, government loving people, whereas Albertans are these Wild West people that hate government and love building,” says Chris Ross, a senior analyst at the Media Ecosystem Observatory, a research initiative that studies Canada’s online world and recently released a report into the dominance of separatist influencers.
“这其实是一种非常理想化、乌托邦式的‘理想阿尔伯塔人’形象。”
“It’s a very idealistic, utopian perspective of what their idea of an Albertan is.”
除了宣扬分离主义主张外，该账号还涉足该运动中的阴谋论内容：发布阿尔伯塔州劳动者反抗所谓“全球同性恋势力”的图片——这一贬义网络用语专指2SLGBTQ+群体；呼应唐纳德·特朗普的观点，将大规模移民视为“西方文明的生存威胁”；甚至把气候变化称作“假新闻与同性恋阴谋”。而在这些言论之间，总会穿插着阿尔伯塔主题毛毯或帽子的广告。
In between separatist talking points, the account dabbles in the conspiratorial side of the movement, posting images of Alberta workers standing up to “globohomo,” derogatory online slang for the 2SLGBTQ+ movement, echoes Donald Trump’s call to see “mass immigration” as an “existential threat to Western civilization" and refers to climate change as “fake and gay.”Many points are punctuated by an ad for an Alberta-branded blanket or hat.
由于对主流机构缺乏信任，阿尔伯塔省的分离主义运动参与者们构建了一个属于自己的网络世界，里面聚集着众多主张独立的网络红人。据相关报告显示，在这个圈子里，“Rise of Alberta”账号的影响力堪称“巨无霸”，其互动量达到了排名第二的账号的四倍。（该账号显然也意识到了这一点。今年1月，一位好奇的美国网友发问后，账号回复道：“我是X平台上最具影响力的阿尔伯塔独立运动相关账号，很乐意聊聊。”）
Distrustful of mainstream institutions, some in Alberta’s separatism movement have constructed their own online world populated by independence-minded influencers. Within that, Rise of Alberta is a behemoth, driving four times the engagement of the second-most popular account, according to the report. (The account is aware of this, based on a response to a curious American back in January: “I’m the biggest Alberta Independence account on X,” it wrote. “Happy to chat.”)
不过，随着该账号影响力不断扩大，其幕后运营者却始终是个谜。该账号既不回复那些好奇的社交媒体用户，也未回应CBC新闻与加拿大广播公司发去的询问其身份的私信。
But as the account has grown its influence, the person behind the curtain has remained a mystery. The account has not responded to curious social media users, nor did it respond to direct messages sent by CBC News and Radio-Canada asking about the account’s identity.
目前尚不清楚那些高价迷彩连帽衫与冷切肉拼盘的销售所得流向何处，不过账号方面称这些收入用于支付制作宣传图所需的“工具”费用。
It’s also not clear where the money from the premium camo hoodies and charcuterie boards is going, though the account has said that the proceeds help cover the costs of the “tools” used to make its graphics.
如今，CBC新闻发现该账号与分离主义运动中的另一位重要人物——领导“阿尔伯塔过渡委员会”的律师基思·威尔逊存在关联。
Now, CBC News has found that the account has links to another heavyweight figure in the separatist movement, Keith Wilson, a lawyer who leads the Alberta Transition Council.
经CBC新闻与加拿大广播公司分析发现，“Rise of Alberta”官网、其周边商品销售网站，以及威尔逊旗下一家公司的网站和“阿尔伯塔过渡委员会”的网站，均使用同一电子邮箱进行注册。
According to an analysis by CBC News and Radio-Canada, the same email address was used to set up the Rise of Alberta website, the site where merchandise is sold, and the website for one of Wilson’s companies and the site for the Alberta Transition Council.
面对CBC新闻的询问，威尔逊表示自己很高兴该账号大获成功，还称赞其制作出了一些“极其出色、有趣又搞笑的广告”。但他也明确表示自己并非账号幕后运营者：“并非所有人都渴望出名，对吧？”他说道，“我可以肯定地告诉你，不是我。”
When asked by CBC News, Wilson said that he was pleased that the account was so successful, and that it had come up with some “incredible, interesting and funny ads.”But he was clear he was not the one behind the account: “Not everybody’s interested in being famous, right?” he said. “I can tell you, it’s not me.”
在随后的通话与邮件沟通中，威尔逊承认自己认识该账号的运营者，并解释称该账号是由帮他搭建网站的那个人负责运营的——此人是一名网站设计师兼网站管理员，正因如此才使用了同一电子邮箱。
In a followup call and email, Wilson acknowledged that he knows the person behind the account, explaining that it was run by the person who had set up his websites — “a website designer and webmaster” — which was why the same email had been used.
他说，自己与那个人“显然”存在某种关系，但拒绝透露更多细节，也不愿指出此人的身份。
He “clearly” had a relationship with the person, he said, but he declined to provide more detail or to identify the person.
“此人选择匿名参与政治评论，”他写道，“我尊重这一选择。”威尔逊强调，他无权决定“阿尔伯塔崛起”账号发布的内容，对于该账号通过“商店”赚取的钱，他也“毫无关系”。
“The individual has chosen to engage in political commentary anonymously,” he wrote. “I respect that choice.”Wilson stressed he had no say over the content Rise of Alberta posted and had "nothing to do with" the money the store was making.
他说，自己确实在为运营“阿尔伯塔崛起”账号的人提供一些帮助，包括在个人YouTube频道的“商店”标签页中列出该账号销售的商品。
He does provide some assistance to the person running the Rise of Alberta account, he said, including listing its merchandise on the “store” tab of his personal YouTube channel.
“我任由他这么做，”他说，“这不会花我一分钱，对他也有帮助。”他说，不想要的“阿尔伯塔崛起”商品退回来后，也会被寄到他律师事务所的邮寄地址，不过数量并不多。（“那些毯子太棒了，”他说，“我有三条。”）尽管“阿尔伯塔崛起”账号运营者的身份仍不清楚，但该账号经常分享威尔逊的视频片段，并积极评价他参与分离主义运动的活动。
“I let him do that,” he said. “It doesn’t cost me anything and helps him.”Returns of unwanted Rise of Alberta merchandise are also sent to the mailing address for his law firm, he said, though he added there weren’t many. (“Those blankets are amazing,” he said. “I have three.”) While the person posting on the Rise of Alberta account remains unclear, they frequently share video clips of Wilson, and comment positively on his activities in the separatist movement.
随着“让阿尔伯塔决定”运动于6月启动，该账号发帖称，威尔逊协助领导一场“严肃的运动”令人“备受鼓舞”。威尔逊曾就独立问题与前省长贾森·肯尼公开辩论，他在网络上的活动也非常频繁，但表达方式有所不同。他会在推特上发布自己的评论视频片段，并链接一些新闻网站的文章，而这些网站曾被“阿尔伯塔崛起”斥为“假新闻媒体”。他页面置顶的帖子引用了法国启蒙思想家伏尔泰的话。
With the launch of Let Alberta Decide in June, the account posted that it was “incredibly encouraging” that Wilson was helping lead a “serious campaign.”Wilson, who has publicly debated former premier Jason Kenney on the topic of independence, is also very active online, but strikes a different tone. He tweets clips of his own commentary and links to articles from the news sites dismissed by Rise of Alberta as “fake news.”The post pinned to the top of his page quotes the French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire.
媒体生态观察站最近发布了一份关于分离主义影响者的报告，罗斯是该报告的主要作者。他说，“阿尔伯塔崛起”账号“不断放大基思·威尔逊的帖子，实质上充当了竞选工具，却无需承担通常会伴随这一做法的一切后果”。
Rise of Alberta “constantly amplifies Keith Wilson’s posts, essentially acting as a campaign tool, but without any of the normal consequences,” says Ross, who was the lead author of the Media Ecosystem Observatory’s recent report on separatism influencers.
这尤其值得注意，因为罗斯表示，“阿尔伯塔崛起”账号“遥遥领先”，是推动有关分离主义讨论影响力最大的账号。他说，最新报告发现，就即将举行的公投而言，该账号单独贡献了全部网络互动量的11.8%。
This is particularly notable because Rise of Alberta is “by far” the most influential account driving the conversation about separation, Ross said. The recent report found the account is single-handedly driving 11.8 per cent of all online engagement about the upcoming referendum, he said.
根据阿尔伯塔大学Common Ground研究人员的一项分析，该账号发布的图片中，每五张就有一张是商品广告。
One in five of the images posted by the account is an ad for merchandise, according to an analysis by researchers from Common Ground at the University of Alberta.
报告显示，影响力排名第二的账号是基思的个人X账号，这意味着这两个账号合计获得了与分离主义相关网络内容近15%的转发、点赞和评论。
The second most influential account, according to the report, is Keith’s personal X account, meaning the two accounts get almost 15 per cent of the online shares, likes and comments on separatism-related content.
罗斯说，在通常的选举中，政党领衔人的网络竞选材料都会受到严格审查。但由于没有民选政治人物为分离主义一方站台，这一空白便由 highly active、匿名的社交媒体账号填补。他说：“这一运动在网上从结构上围绕着‘阿尔伯塔崛起’账号运转，但任何民主形式的监督都无法与其对接，”他说，“这很荒诞，却是政党政治之外组织现代政治运动的产物。”去年11月，一名社交媒体用户指出威尔逊和“阿尔伯塔崛起”发布的内容存在相似之处，并质疑两者是否出自同一人。两个账号均予否认。
In a normal election, party leaders would be scrutinized over their online campaign materials, Ross said. But because there are no elected politicians championing the separatist side, that vacuum has been filled by highly active, anonymous social media accounts, he said. “The movement is structurally revolving around the Rise of Alberta account online, but no democratic form of scrutiny can interface with it,” he said. “It is bizarre, but the result of a modern campaign organized outside of party politics.”Last November, a social media user pointed out the similarities between something Wilson and Rise of Alberta posted, and questioned whether they were the same person. Both accounts denied it.
“不是，但我很受宠若惊。”该账号发布这条消息时还配了一个牛仔表情符号。“我也是。”威尔逊回应道。
“It’s not, but I am flattered,” Rise of Alberta posted with a cowboy emoji. “I am too,” Wilson responded.
CBC新闻和加拿大广播公司利用网站分析工具DomainTools，通过两个网站注册时使用的电子邮箱，将“阿尔伯塔崛起”网站与基思·威尔逊关联了起来。“阿尔伯塔崛起”网站的一个存档版本还列出了与威尔逊位于艾伯塔省圣艾伯特的律师事务所相同的邮寄地址。
CBC News and Radio-Canada were able to link the Rise of Alberta website and Keith Wilson via the emails used to set up their respective websites by using DomainTools, a web analytics tool. An archived version of the Rise of Alberta website also listed the same mailing address as Wilson’s law firm in St. Albert, Alta.
虽然“Rise of Alberta”网站的注册信息为匿名状态，即网站所有者的身份并未对外公开，但为其提供托管服务的公司提供了一个匿名邮箱，用于联系网站所有者。
While Rise of Alberta’s website wased anonymously, meaning the identity of the owner is not publicly displayed, the company hosting it provides an anonymized email address to contact the website’s owner.
这个邮箱地址早在十年前便被用于威尔逊创办的“Veritas Litigation Support”公司的网站。自去年起，该邮箱又被用于其他16个网站，其中大多数都与阿尔伯塔省独立运动相关。
That same email address was first used a decade ago to the website for Veritas Litigation Support, a company founded by Wilson. Starting last year, it has since been used for 16 other websites, most of which are related to Alberta independence.
此外，该邮箱还被用于威尔逊领导的独立运动组织“阿尔伯塔过渡委员会”的网站，以及由威尔逊担任联席主席的第三方宣传机构“Let Alberta Decide”的网站。
It was also used for the websites for the Alberta Transition Council, an independence group led by Wilson, and Let Alberta Decide, aed third-party advertiser co-chaired by Wilson.
这个邮箱同样还被用于一个名为“Rise of Saskatchewan”的网站，不过该网站目前处于停用状态。
The email has also been used to a site called Rise of Saskatchewan, which is not active.
威尔逊表示，“阿尔伯塔崛起”账号背后的运营者负责搭建他所有的网站，但他不清楚为何这些网站都列出相同的联系方式。“我已经使用运营该账号人士的网站服务很多年了，我不追踪他们做的其他事情，”他说，“我只知道他们为我做的事，而且他们做得非常好。”
Wilson said the person behind Rise of Alberta sets up all of his websites, and he’s not sure why the sites all list the same“I have been using the services of the person who runs that account for my websites for many years, and I don’t track all of the other stuff that they do,” he said. “I just know the stuff they do for me and they’re very good at it.”
“阿尔伯塔崛起”网站上的起源故事称，该账号始于2025年春天，因为运营者“确信阿尔伯塔作为一个独立国家会更好，并想找个地方表达这一观点”。网站称，去年总理马克·卡尼当选后，情况真正起势，帖子很快触达数百万人。几个月后，粉丝开始要求购买周边商品，于是网店应运而生。（CBC新闻曾向“阿尔伯塔崛起”网站和Facebook页面发送信息，询问账号运营者情况，但未收到回复。）
The origin story on the Rise of Alberta website says the account began in the spring of 2025 because the person behind the account “had become convinced that Alberta would be better off as an independent country, and [they] wanted somewhere to say it.”Things really took off after Prime Minister Mark Carney was elected last year, and soon posts were reaching millions of people, the site says. A few months later, followers started asking for merchandise and the store was born. (CBC News sent messages to the Rise of Alberta website and Facebook page, asking about the person running the account, and did not receive a response.)
威尔逊称，“阿尔伯塔崛起”背后的人“技术高超”且“极具创意”。威尔逊还表示，他未见过“阿尔伯塔崛起”将气候变化称为“假的且愚蠢”或提及“全球同性恋阴谋”的帖子，并重申他与该账号发布的内容无关。
Wilson says the person behind Rise of Alberta is “highly skilled” and “very creative.”Wilson also said he hadn’t seen the posts in which Rise of Alberta referred to climate change as “fake and gay” or referenced “globohomo,” and reiterated that he had nothing to do with what that account posted.
威尔逊说，在阿尔伯塔公开支持分离主义是有代价的。他说，这不仅有职业风险，还有人身安全风险。他补充道，自己收到过仇恨邮件和死亡威胁。
There’s a cost to being a public separatist in Alberta, Wilson says. There’s the risk to your career, to say nothing of the physical risk, he says. He gets hate mail and death threats, he adds.
“有人想保持匿名是有合理解释的，我甚至要说，这个人不追求个人名声，不像其他所有社交媒体网红，这几乎令人钦佩。”
“There’s a logical explanation as to why someone would want to remain anonymous, and I’m going to go as far as to suggest it’s almost admirable that the person’s not seeking personal fame, unlike every other social media influencer.”