WASHINGTON, D.C. — Between the Edmonton Oilers making their second consecutive Stanley Cup appearance, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s well-publicized links to the region, and Premier Danielle Smith’s regular appearances on Fox News, Alberta has been on America’s mind a lot this year.
This ought to go over well.
Alberta’s Chief Electoral Officer, Gordon McClure, has received a proposed constitutional referendum question: “Do you agree that the Province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada?”
Gordon McClure has gone to court to ask a judge’s opinion on whether a referendum on Alberta separation would violate Canada’s constitution.
Harvey Nahirniak walks toward his paddock of cattle, his tall rubber boots caked with rich, black soil.
Cows, dusted with mud, huff in the afternoon heat. His beloved workhorses stand in the sun like statues while the farm’s fat, white guardian dog, Marvin, pants in the shade.
Nahirniak’s expertise lies in crops and cattle. His family has farmed the same stretch of land in the sleepy hamlet of Round Hill, Alta., for generations.
The CBC wants you to believe Poilievre is in trouble.
Will an Alberta separation referendum spark a massive unity rally, or a mighty pan-Canadian caravan converging on Calgary or Edmonton? After all, that’s what happened in 1995, when Quebecers looked like they were voting to leave Canada and thousands flocked to Montreal’s Place du Canada for a “Great Love-in.”
Albertans aren’t holding their breath. Clearly Central Canada views Quebec’s possible separation as an existential threat, while the West’s concerns are mere “grievances.” Those of us born and raised “back east,” but transplanted West, who’ve lived both sides of the divide, experiencing firsthand the disparate treatment of the two regions, can perhaps help explain it.
In recent weeks, I’ve found myself wrestling with an all-too-familiar irritation: taxes. Not the paying of them — which is a civic duty — but the monstrous, ever-expanding burden of them. We Canadians have long accepted that our governments dip deeply into our pockets because, we told ourselves, the returns were worth it. Roads. Healthcare. Security. Civilization itself.
HUNTSVILLE, Ontario — Many Canadians are furious with President Donald Trump, aghast at his trade war and his calls to annex their country. Then there’s Danielle Smith, premier of Alberta. “We have a longstanding relationship with the Americans that goes back over 100 years, and it’s going to last 100 years or more,” she says in an interview with POLITICO Magazine.
Smith’s approach may be distinct in part because she’s a Conservative who meets regularly with Trump administration officials. Her oil-and-gas-rich Alberta also has a large trading relationship with the United States that is largely tariff-free.
The recent comments from RCMP Staff Sergeant Camille Habel, who decried traditional values as a path to extremism, should be fuel for every Albertan committed to building a provincial police force that truly reflects our values, not Ottawa’s vision of what we should become.
Habel’s statement, framing beliefs rooted in community and local culture as potentially dangerous, highlights a growing disconnect between the RCMP and the values that Albertans hold dear. This underscores the urgent need for a police force that is accountable to our province and its distinct way of life.
OTTAWA — The premiers of Alberta and Ontario both said at a meeting Monday that they are cautiously optimistic that Prime Minister Mark Carney will successfully get a new oil pipeline built in Canada. But Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the planning should not be limited to just one.
Meeting with her Ontario counterpart in Calgary, Smith said Alberta crude oil should have access to a “growing share” of pipelines. “I’m of the view there’s probably room for more than one pipeline, probably several.”
It should be evident to Albertans that the province is on a collision course with the federal Liberal government, driven by a fundamental disagreement: will Alberta and Western Canada be allowed to fully develop its hydrocarbon endowment, or will that economic value be lost in pursuit of the climate policy known as “net zero”?
This collision is inevitable and imminent. Net zero is difficult to reconcile with growing, or even sustaining, existing hydrocarbon production in Canada.
Sometimes you get the impression the Liberals want Alberta gone.
CALGARY — Whether Alberta should withhold social services from some immigrants is among the issues Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is tabling for debate this summer when she travels the province to consult citizens on potential referendum questions.
The tour is part of what Smith has dubbed the “Alberta Next” panel. At a news conference Tuesday, she announced details of its work and named its 15 members.
At the same time, six online surveys were launched on the panel’s website, which are to help inform what questions the government puts to a referendum next year.
SASKATOON, Sask. — Pushing for an oil pipeline to be on the first list of major projects to be fast-tracked by the federal government is about more than mounting “just an ideological argument,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said at the opening of a meeting between premiers and the prime minister on Monday.
Speaking to reporters on her way into the First Ministers’ Meeting in Saskatoon, Smith expressed hope other premiers would rally around her desire to see a pipeline built carrying Alberta bitumen to the coast of British Columbia.
All of Canada is waiting to see which of the Mark Carneys that we saw in the recent election campaign emerges as the new prime minister. The two choices are the long-standing climate-change advocate who was apparently the inspirer-in-chief of the Justin Trudeau government, and who persuaded that regime to bind itself with non-biodegradable hoops to the notion that climate was the greatest problem facing Canada. This, of course, is nonsense. Canada’s greatest problems are economic competitiveness and a declining comparative standard of living with steady net capital outflows, as well as the disintegration of the Confederation and the official self-degradation of the country.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says Prime Minister Mark Carney has the power to squash a separatist movement.
Smith made the remarks Thursday afternoon as she wrapped up a meeting in Yellowknife with Canada’s western premiers, who said in a joint statement they’ve agreed to identify, plan and develop new economic corridors to connect provincial resources to international markets.
During an afternoon press conference, Smith emphasized Carney is the one with the ability to make this happen and keep Canada united.
Is Alberta truly strong and free? That’s a loaded question these days. It has been nearly month since the 2025 federal election, and I think it’s safe to say Alberta continues to experience a fierce wave of political rage.
Talk of independence is at a fever pitch, surpassing what was experienced in the 1980s or the 2000s. The tut-tut condescension of Eastern media, and the finger-wagging of federalist lap dogs like failed premier Jason Kenney, are doing nothing to quell the sentiment. These voices don’t even register in our communities anymore.
The Alberta government is launching a new research centre to study the political and economic dynamics between Canada and the United States, as U.S. President Donald Trump‘s trade war and 51st-state rhetoric have upended the previously close relationship between the two countries.
The New North American Initiative, led by the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, will receive $6.5-million over three years from the province. Post-secondary institutions and universities on both sides of the border will share expertise on navigating the new Canada-U.S. landscape.
