The Messages from Alberta’s Vigils for Charlie Kirk

Eric Filipwski was clear on why he joined about 1,000 others at vigil for Charlie Kirk outside the Alberta legislature Sunday evening.

“We’ve got a young one,” Filipwski said, gesturing to his wife and their baby. “We’re the exact same age and our families are kind of in the same spot.”

Kirk’s killing could have implications for Canada, he said. “There’s so much interchange… and you could argue [the countries] are culturally very similar.”

The Edmonton vigil, along with similar gatherings in Red Deer and Calgary, came four days after Kirk was fatally shot at Utah Valley University during one of the debates he’s well known for.

Despite this happening thousands of miles away, some Albertans feel its hit closer to home.

The legislature vigil saw speeches from organizers, plenty of songs and prayers, as well as preaching.

There were also chants, mainly “we are Charlie Kirk,” which was chanted several times throughout the vigil.

Patrica Every spoke at the vigil because she was “severely impacted by Charlie’s death.” She said they were there to honour Kirk and “thank him for being our voice when we were no longer heard over the violent screaming of our oppressors, in public and in the government.”

“He was the biggest advocate for democracy, freedom of speech, an advocate for reform against extremist violence from the left,” Every said.

Church leaders offered similar messages:

“Let us remember the God of Charlie Kirk. Let us remember he is the way that Charlie was not offended by people coming against him. How do you think he responded? In love, he responded with respect… because he was already filled with the love of Jesus,” said one preacher.

Another preacher saw a parallel between Kirk and Jesus.

“We saw last week that young man laid down his life as well, imitating what Christ had done for all of us.”

Kirk was a 31-year-old conservative influencer who headed Turning Point USA, an $85-million organization aimed at promoting conservative activism in high schools and campuses.

The Tyee talked to Marc Froese, a political science professor at Burman University in Lacombe, Alberta. He’s done research about the global reach of American Christian nationalism, which Kirk championed. The movement calls for the U.S. to become a country based on Christian religious principles.

Yet until recent events Froese said he didn’t “fully comprehend how much Kirk is an essential bridge between evangelicalism and the political right.”

“People who are grieving his loss are not simply grieving the loss of a political activist, that’s one level,” Froese explained. “Level two, he’s a kind of crowd performer, he does these kinds of ‘ask me anything, I’ll debate it’ kind of performances, which we all understand are not really serious debates much as they are kind of beat-downs on 19-year-old kids.”

“But everyone kind of leaves it off there, but I don’t think [we] fully understand how he’s also considered an enormous cultural figure because he links Christianity and the right.”

Froese said he thinks Kirk’s positioning of himself as almost a spiritual leader is what Albertans and Canadians are identifying with.

He said he watched a video of the vigil held in Red Deer and described it as “basically just a two-hour church service.”

Notably, there were at least three elected officials present at the Edmonton vigil: Lacombe-Ponoka MLA Jennifer Johnson, MLA and Minister for Tourism and Sport Andrew Boitchenko and MP Arnold Vierson.

Johnson was kicked out of the United Conservative Party caucus in 2023 after her comments comparing transgender kids to feces in cookies surfaced. She was welcomed back into the UCP caucus in October 2024.

Vierson has spoken in favour of restricting abortions, something Kirk was also vocal about. Vierson also has said he would vote against gay marriage.

Vierson urged the crowd to “pick up the torch” of Kirk’s work.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith didn’t attend the vigil, but praised it on X. “I continue to be moved by the compassion of Albertans as you gather at vigils tonight at the legislature and in Calgary to honour Charlie’s memory.”

At the Edmonton vigil there was a table for people to sign up for the newly founded Turning Point Alberta, named after Kirk’s Turning Point USA.

Froese said the Christian nationalism movement in Canada is five to seven years behind the U.S., but growing. It’s already more prominent in Canada than it is in the United Kingdom and Europe, he said.

Religion in politics isn’t anything new in Canada, Froese said. However the COVID pandemic meant that people sat at home and became more absorbed into U.S. political culture.

“It’s a rising movement, it’s civilizational, it’s rooted in the idea of a divine destiny for a state… rooted, of course, heavily anti-immigrant, heavily racialist, if not racialist supremacist, then at least skeptical of non-Christian immigration.”

And some religious groups are recognizing the rise in Christian nationalism.

“I’ve already given a talk to a Lutheran group, a group of Lutheran ministers and bishops who are concerned about Christian nationalism, watching its rise in the U.S. and hoping to counteract it in Canada,” Froese said.

He said he’s skeptical that Turning Point Alberta will draw a lot of support, but added that he’s seen students that are “very culturally conservative, and very much eager for the kind of connections that will maybe give them a place in the larger conservative constellation.”

“So you might see a fairly significant minority and small plurality of students who would be interested in something like Turning Point Alberta.”