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While Prime Minister Mark Carney met with US President Donald Trump, Alberta’s premier was making waves with talk about separatist sentiments in the province.
“I personally still have hope that there is a path forward for a strong and sovereign Alberta within a united Canada,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said in a speech livestreamed as Carney was arriving in Washington on Monday.
Smith said the government won’t put a vote on separation from Canada on the referendum ballot, but if there is a successful citizen-led referendum petition, the question would come up in the 2026 provincial referendum.
“The vast majority of these individuals are not fringe voices to be marginalized or vilified. They are loyal Albertans,” Smith said.
“They're frustrated, and they have every reason to be.”
Many First Nations leaders in Alberta have slammed Smith for enabling a referendum on separatism and “attempting to manufacture a national unity crisis.”
"Alberta did not exist when our ancestors agreed to share the land with the Crown,” read the letter sent by Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation Chief Sheldon Sunshine and Mikisew Cree First Nation Chief Billy-Joe Tuccaro.
“The province has no authority to supersede or interfere with our treaties, even indirectly by passing the buck to a 'citizen' referendum."
Tuccaro and Sunshine went on to invite Canadians who “are not happy living on Treaty lands” to apply for citizenship elsewhere.
When asked by a reporter about how a separatist referendum would violate Treaties 6, 7 and 8, Smith said, “I guess I have to wait and see what kind of question comes forward from citizens before I would be able to make a judgment about whether or not it would impact rights. But what I have said is that you can't vote away treaty rights.”
Russell Williams, an associate professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, said this is part of a recurring theme of Smith “undermining the Team Canada approach” to the detriment of Canada and Alberta.
“It is absolutely the worst possible moment for her to be engaging in these stunts … it feeds narratives that may make it harder for Canada to manage Trump and get a good deal,” Williams said.
Talking about Alberta separatism as a credible stance is a “very risky thing to do politically" for the premier, he said.
“Either that will continue to be a very minority opinion, which is not good for her. Or she'll make it a more serious opinion, which means it's largely a bargaining stunt to try and get policy wins from Ottawa, [and] could end up backfiring in her face,” Williams said.
“The fact that Donald Trump is standing there looking for division in Canada makes it really an unfortunate strategy for her to take.”
A day after the federal election, Smith’s government tabled legislation that would make it easier for citizens to trigger a provincial referendum, lowering the required signatures from 20 per cent of registered voters to 10 per cent and granting an extra month to collect signatures.
During her speech Monday, Smith announced the creation of a “special negotiating team” to represent Alberta in talks with the federal government “in pursuit of a new Alberta accord with Canada.”.
She said this team will request reforms to guarantee port access to tidewater off the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic coast for Alberta energy and resources and demand the federal government abandon a slew of climate and environmental policies, including clean electricity regulations, the Impact Assessment Act, electric vehicle sales mandate, the industrial carbon price and oil and gas emissions cap. None of these demands are new.
“Should those negotiations fail and the economic attacks continue, Alberta didn't start this fight, but rest assured, we will finish it and come out of it stronger and more prosperous than ever,” Smith said.
— With files from John Woodside and the Canadian Press
Natasha Bulowski / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer
Comments
When is Smith going to call a by-election so that Mr. Nenshi can ask her questions that she is scared to answer? Can't someone explain fair play to her. Mr. Carney has just proved what true leadership is and it is making Smith definitely look inept.
It is time to call her out so that the Opposition has a leader in their House.
Talk about the tail wagging the dog! Danielle Smith is a puppet for the oil and gas industry, In her view this industry should be deciding environmental and regulatory policy not the federal government. Instead, the federal government's role should be to build pipelines across Canada to transport Alberta oil and gas, all paid for by taxpayer's money from the other provinces. The federal government would of course bear the cost of any oil spills and associated contamination. Renewable energy, including wind, solar, and hydroelectric, should be prohibited. Electric vehicles would be banned and all vehicles in Canada required to revert to 1950 fuel efficiency standards. With premiers like this who needs enemies?
Danielle Smith was planted as a premier by the oil & gas industry, being a lobbyist for the industrial group previously. Smith is a puppet and does their bidding first, Alberta second and Canada last.
Danielle Smith is crossing a line and she needs to be called on it.
Mark Carney can now rightfully point out that a super-majority of Albertans will never be willing to give up their Canadian citizenship. He can afford to challenge Smith to hold a genuine referendum on genuine separation, and to define the process, from Indigenous treaty rights to the Clarity Act. Deflecting to a clutch of chronic complainers does not a movement make.
Put up or shut up.