Alberta Is Replacing 'Wild Rose Country' With 'Strong and Free' on Every Highway Welcome Sign
For more than 40 years, the first thing you saw crossing into Alberta was a wooden sign telling you where you were.
"Welcome to Wild Rose Country."
By fall 2026, those signs are gone. All 22 of them, at every land border crossing with BC, Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories, and Montana, will be replaced with new ones bearing the province's official motto: "Strong and Free."
The price tag is $3.5 million.
Why Now
The government's official reason is straightforward the existing wooden signs are nearly 40 years old and have taken the full force of Alberta weather for four decades. They've reached the end of their usable lifespan. New signs were coming regardless.
What wasn't inevitable was what goes on them.
Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen announced the change Wednesday, saying the new signs will greet visitors and welcome Albertans home with the province's official motto. "Whether people are travelling from our Rocky Mountains, beautiful forests or our fertile agricultural lands, these signs will greet visitors and welcome Albertans home," he said in a statement.
The province points out that "Strong and Free" isn't a new invention it's a phrase from the Canadian national anthem and has been Alberta's official motto for decades. It's already on the coat of arms.
This Isn't the First Time This Week "Strong and Free" Has Made Headlines
The welcome sign announcement comes on the heels of last year's licence plate rebrand. Alberta's new plates, launching this summer, are also dropping "Wild Rose Country" in favour of "Strong and Free" the same swap, just on a different surface.
The NDP opposition has questioned whether the rebranding is political, noting the phrase has also featured prominently in UCP promotional and campaign material. Smith has pushed back on that framing, calling it the province's official motto and nothing more.
What Albertans Actually Think
The comment sections tell a different story than the government's messaging.
Reaction online has been divided but notably nostalgic. "Wild Rose Country" carries weight for Albertans who grew up with it it's on old licence plates in garages across the province, in photos from family road trips, a piece of visual identity that's been there longer than most people's memories of crossing the border. Swapping it for a political-sounding motto, regardless of its official status, rubs some people the wrong way.
Others don't mind. "Strong and Free" is punchy. It scans. Whether it means anything depends on who you ask.
What's harder to argue is the number. Three and a half million dollars is a real amount of money for 22 signs. The government's counter is that the signs needed replacing anyway the slogan choice is essentially a free decision layered on top of a necessary infrastructure expense. That's a reasonable position. Whether you buy it probably depends on how you feel about the slogan.
The Wild Rose
"Wild Rose Country" got its name from Alberta's official provincial flower the prickly wild rose, a pink five-petaled bloom that grows across the province's fields and roadsides every June. It's been on Alberta's provincial crest since 1980 and on the highway signs for just as long.
It will still be the provincial flower. It'll still be on the crest. It just won't be the first thing you see when you drive into the province anymore.
The new signs go up this fall.
Sources
Government of Alberta news release, May 20, 2026 — alberta.ca
Government of Alberta — Alberta coat of arms and provincial symbols — alberta.ca
