Good morning everyone.

Or should I say: bonjour tout le monde.

For the last year, a growing bond has formed between Alberta and Quebec. It is surely an odd relationship of seemingly mismatched bedfellows that most would not have seen coming, but the two provinces do have one thing in common: Ottawa.

Or to make it clearer, their often acrimonious relationship with Ottawa.

As The Globe’s editorial board described the provinces this week: “they are both governed by populist political parties deeply invested in grievance, cultural difference and animosity toward the federal government.”

This past spring, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith wrote to her counterpart in Quebec, Premier François Legault, proposing an “autonomy alliance” between the provinces. Not long after, his Justice Minister, Simon Jolin-Barrette, met with Smith and expressed interest in the idea.

While the two provinces seem to have a chasm between them in some areas, namely oil and gas development, their commonalities are driving them together in others.

Just last month, Alberta submitted arguments in defence of Quebec in its coming Supreme Court fight over the use of the notwithstanding clause. That’s a ruling which could have significant implications for the Smith government given its own use of the legal manoeuvre this week in back-to-work legislation to forcefully end a contentious three-week teachers’ strike.

And while neither Smith or Legault could be described as separatists, a vein of independence runs through the spines of both provinces, further drawing the two together.

Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon met with leaders of Alberta’s separatist movement earlier this year, describing an alliance between the provinces as “exciting and necessary.”

“Accepting that we might not have the same political orientations, but building a relationship based on respect … We might find that we have several points in common,” Plamondon said in a speech in Calgary.

And while Quebec is 30 years removed from a referendum that came within a whisker of affirming the province’s desire for independence from Canada, Alberta may be on the cusp of asking its own nation-defining question.

This week, the Forever Canadian petition was submitted to Alberta’s chief electoral officer with a whopping 456,000 signatures, well past the 294,000 needed for the province to consider a referendum on the province’s place in Canada.

The question on the ballot, if it gets that far, would ask: “Do you agree that Alberta should remain within Canada?”

While the goal of the campaign, led by Thomas Lukaszuk, a former Progressive Conservative deputy premier is to affirm Alberta’s place in confederation, some, including Smith, have called it a de facto referendum on separation.

The Premier has argued the Forever Canadian petition could have consequences if it went the way of separatists.

“Mr. Lukaszuk’s vote is a yes-no question. He may be trying to characterize it differently, but if you ask people if you want to remain in [Canada], yes or no, there are implications if people answer no,” Smith said last month.

Elections Alberta still must verify the petition before any decisions are made about moving forward on a referendum, but it is clear there is energy behind the campaign.

While separatism remains a longshot, Alberta will continue to look east to Quebec, hoping to squeeze the federal government for concessions on everything from pharmacare to immigration, similar to deals made with La Belle Province. The Smith government may be forging ties with its Francophone friends, but it will not forget the “tangible unfairness in the way the federal government has allotted its attention and favours in the past.”

This is the weekly Alberta newsletter written by Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.