Within hours of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party winning re-election on Monday, a hashtag began trending in Canada that reflects the deep regional divisions that emerged from the poll: #Wexit, as in Western exit, or more specifically, Alberta separatism.

By the next morning a group called Alberta Fights Back had put up billboards in the province stating “I support an independent Alberta”, complete with a maple leaf, a symbol from Canada’s flag, with a line struck through it.

The separatist rhetoric, while on the fringes, reflects a drawn-out period of economic malaise in the region and poses an early test for Mr Trudeau. He has faced intense criticism in fossil fuel-dependent Alberta over his government’s national price on carbon and inability to get a pipeline built to transport crude from the oil sands to world markets.