Alberta Premier Danielle Smith isn’t “stoking the fire of Alberta separation” by warning that unless the federal Liberal government changes its approach to Alberta, a separatist movement is bound to grow in the province.
Smith has repeatedly claimed she is not a separatist. Personally she sees many benefits to Alberta remaining in a united Canada. She said so again on Monday in a 19-minute, online address to Albertans.
Premier Danielle Smith says her focus will be on repairing the destruction she says Ottawa has caused to Alberta over the past decade as the idea of separation from Canada gains greater public attention.
During a news conference Tuesday, Smith reiterated that she would hold a referendum on provincial separation in 2026 if citizens gather the required signatures on a petition.
Smith said she didn’t want to presume a referendum will happen, but said she will honour the voting process.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith threw down the gauntlet to newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney in a livestreamed address Monday, calling on him to negotiate a new deal between Ottawa and Alberta guaranteeing more pipelines and changes to equalization.
Danielle Smith "We have no issue with Alberta continuing to subsidize smaller provinces with their needs, but there is no excuse for such large and powerful economies like Ontario, Quebec, B.C."
"…To be clear from the outset, our government will not be putting a vote on… pic.twitter.com/nSjPnnJeGs
— cbcwatcher (@cbcwatcher) May 5, 2025
Albertans will not stand idle while Ottawa continues to block our resources, decimate our economy, and violate our constitutional rights.
After a decade of destructive Liberal-NDP policies that have cost us over half a trillion dollars in lost investment and hundreds of… pic.twitter.com/gdjZbpp5OO
— Danielle Smith (@ABDanielleSmith) May 5, 2025
If more provinces stood up for themselves when the feds started encroaching, we’d be a lot better off as a country. That in mind, it was good to see Alberta announce on Thursday that it would be challenging the federal Clean Electricity Regulations, which became law in December.
The new rules aim to net-zeroify the entire Canadian grid by 2050, banning carbon emissions by new units with at least 25 MW of electrical generation capacity over a preset “technology-neutral annual emissions limit” by 2035; the ban will also cover existing units by 2050 at the latest. It’s expected to cost the country $40 billion from now until 2050 — and it’s justified because magic math in Ottawa pegs the benefits to society in that time will be worth $55 billion.
Nearly a quarter of people in Alberta see themselves as Albertans first, and Canadians second. And one in 10 believe their province would be economically stronger as part of the U.S., while another two in 10 favour a future as an independent country, a poll conducted in the wake of the federal election has found.
One hundred and seventy-seven thousand people.
That’s roughly 3.5 per cent of Alberta’s population. It’s also the amount of signatures that will be needed to force a separation referendum designed to take those five million people and their land out of Canada.
Alberta independence groups had already been gathering online registrants who were keen to add their names to a petition drive when the law required far more Albertans — around 600,000 — to sign up to trigger a constitutional referendum.
The flags and T shirts for sale on Amazon have already been updated — same profanity, same maple leaf, new name: F**k Trudeau is out, and F**k Carney has arrived.
The Liberal victory was not a landslide for political newbie Mark Carney as the country remains deeply — sometimes angrily — polarized. Nowhere is that postelection angst being voiced more than in Alberta, the province which largely defied the red wave, whose premier had pledged an “unprecedented national unity crisis” should Carney not meet her list of demands and where fringe groups are now agitating for separation.
OTTAWA — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she’ll make it easier for citizens to initiate a referendum on the province’s future in Canada, after warning that a Liberal win in Monday’s election could spur a groundswell of support for Alberta separatism.
Smith said on Tuesday that a newly tabled elections bill will give everyday Albertans a bigger say in the province’s affairs.
Smith vs. Carney.
Book your ringside seats. Tickets are going fast.
If you’re sitting in a comfy chair among the self-styled smart set in Toronto you no doubt believe it’s all a lot of noise from sore losers.
Alberta is giving me a headache.
The province stands alone in its incurable sense of grievance with the rest of the federation.
Not even a $34.2-billion expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline (TMX) built by Ottawa to get Alberta oil to non-U.S. markets for the first time has reduced Alberta’s bellyaching.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Prime Minister Mark Carney was being disrespectful last week with comments he made about her role in the trade war with the U.S.
Last weekend in Victoria, Carney joked about Canadian premiers appearing on Fox News, the conservative U.S. media outlet, saying it would be a “bad idea” to put Smith on the network to advocate for cross-border diplomacy.
If Liberal Leader Mark Carney thinks Danielle Smith is just going to go away he has got another thing coming.
If Carney wins the election and remains prime minister and ignores Albertans, he is in for a fight with the Alberta premier.
The smart money says this will shape up to be a battle Carney will not be able to stickhandle around.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney should feel right at home in Alberta: after all, he was raised there. But his trip there this week feels more like a political minefield than a homecoming. That’s largely due to his recent quip that while he’s happy to dispatch Ontario Premier Doug Ford to advocate for Canada in Washington, he wouldn’t send Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
One in four Albertans would vote “yes” in a referendum on leaving Canada, just 3 percentage points behind Quebecers’ support for separation, a new poll suggests.
A quarter of Albertans would support separation from Canada, nearly matching the 28 percent of Quebec residents who would favour their province becoming its own country, according to a survey by the Angus Reid institute published on April 6. The desire for separation in both provinces would rise to 30 percent if the Liberals were to form the next government, according to the poll.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith responded Monday to Liberal Leader Mark Carney using her as a stump speech punchline, saying Carney has issues with assertive women of opposing ideologies.
“I’ve noticed this with progressive men and how much they talk about how much they support women until they meet a strong conservative woman,” Smith said in Edmonton, responding to questions at an unrelated news conference.
