As a conspicuously educated and literate man, former Alberta premier Jason Kenney is surely familiar with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. And yet, it still didn’t stop him from creating his own political monster in the United Conservative Party, a sewn-together beast that is now wreaking havoc on both his province and country by empowering and amplifying Alberta’s separatist movement.
“This is playing with fire,” Kenney told the media at ATCO’s recent annual general meeting. “And if Albertans doubt that, look at a real historical example of what happened in Quebec’s economy as a result of merely the election of a PQ government.” He wasn’t the only Conservative warning about the economic risks associated with the Alberta government’s de-facto surrender to the province’s separatists. "I think the separatist discussion is very unhelpful and not constructive to Alberta," ATCO CEO (and longtime Conservative) Nancy Southern said.
It’s worth pointing out that the fire Kenney’s warning Albertans about wouldn’t be nearly as easy for Danielle Smith to start had he not brought the fringe elements of Alberta’s Conservative movement into the province’s political mainstream. It hasn’t helped that Conservative politicians, pundits and business leaders have spent the last decade telling Albertans that their economic woes were the direct result of a hostile and malicious federal government. Those arguments may have helped them win elections, attract donations and otherwise keep their supporters properly lathered. Now, they’re the kindling that’s actively fueling the separatist fire.
This fire won’t get extinguished by fact-wielding progressives, much as they — and I — will try. Instead, it will have to be fought primarily by Conservatives like Jason Kenney. As former NDP advisor and podcaster Zain Velji said on a recent episode of The Strategists, “you want to be really careful about who forms the opposition here. In some ways, if this could be a battle of Conservatism, that is actually what leads to potential success.”
That means folks like former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, former CPC interim Leader Rona Ambrose, and high-profile members of parliament like Michelle Rempel-Garner ought to step forward and defend their country. It also means that Pierre Poilievre’s impending by-election in Battle River-Crowfoot, where the CPC candidate won 82 per cent of the vote in April, suddenly takes on even more importance.
That’s because it offers Poilievre an important opportunity to stand up for Canada and help advance the fight against the very same separatist Alberta Conservatives that he has courted in the past. As columnist Chantal Hebert said on a recent episode of Good Talk, “no future prime minister can be grey on the issue of national unity.” That’s especially true for a politician running in a province where the idea of separating from Canada is being actively debated.
In some respects, he may have chosen the worst possible riding in which to do that. A recent poll found that 70 per cent of federal Conservative voters in Alberta support separating from Canada, and that figure is probably even higher in Poilievre’s chosen riding given its rural (and deeply Conservative) nature. Coming out strongly against the idea of Alberta independence would guarantee a backlash from many of the voters who marked a ballot for his party in April.
If Poilievre wants to win the next federal election, he should welcome that backlash. It would help put some distance between him and the fringier elements of his political base, and show Canadians in the rest of the country where his loyalties really lie. It would almost certainly win him support in places like British Columbia, Ontario, and the Maritimes, where the idea of Alberta separating from Canada is seen as irresponsible and reckless nonsense. And it would give him the chance to reinvent himself as the person who protected Canada rather than the one who relished describing it as broken and stupid.
This won’t be easy for Poilievre. He would have to abandon the story he’s told Canadians — and especially Albertans — for years now, one in which the Liberal government is the architect of all their pain and suffering. He would have to show Albertans they’re better off as part of a united Canada than on their own, and in so doing renounce some of the lies they now treat as gospel. Canada isn’t trying to kill their oil and gas industry — far from it, in fact. And Carney isn’t the biggest threat to their prosperity. That would be Donald Trump.
Hardest of all, perhaps, he’d have to at least implicitly acknowledge the damage his particular brand of politics has done to the fabric of our country. It’s easy to get people to blame someone else for their misfortunes, and easier still to make them angry at some politically convenient scapegoat. That’s especially true when you have access to the tools of social media, which Poilievre has wielded more effectively than any politician in Canada.
Getting people to calm down and see reason after they’ve been fed a steady diet of partisan fearmongering and falsehoods is a much more daunting challenge. But if Poilievre actually wants to change the reputation he’s earned over his long career in politics, he’ll have to do more than just embark on yet another image makeover. Using his forthcoming byelection as an opportunity to renounce and rebuke Alberta’s separatist movement, and the politicians enabling it, would be a good start.
Comments
The knives are now out for Byrne and hopefully Poilievre is next. The last thing this Canadian and many, many, many others want to see is another makeover of Poilievre to try and fool 'some' Canadians into voting for him. He lost the Cons election for them by losing at 25 or so point lead plus his own safer than safe(?) huge riding in Ontario. If those two things alone don't tell him and his puppet masters Harper/Manning that he is not popular I don't know what will. Glad he went to Alberta where he belongs, Mr. Fanjoy is a breath of fresh air in comparison to Mr. Viper.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/separatists-want-to-hold-poilievre…
Integrity would be necessary to motivate him, does he have any?
Hear, hear. Good advice that will fall on deaf ears as usual, because conservatives are now defined by (and proud of) having the closed minds normally associated with the true believers in any cult.
None of this would be happening if it weren't for social media algorithms "spreading the word" like never before.
You outline Poilievre's conundrum perfectly though, rightly blaming Kenney for this last spate of "extremism," but it's actually just another manifestation of Manning's "Reform Party," started in 1987 as the vehicle (in this case a Trojan horse) to reinstate "God" into politics. With "Project 2025" now firmly there, the religious natives are restless.
Take Back Alberta" now seems to have boldly split/morphed into the REPUBLICAN Party of Alberduh AND the Prosperity Party of Alberduh. There was a good piece on the CBC last night where Susan Ormiston covered both, and the latter had a large table featuring "God," not openly mentioned as usual. The Republican leader, Cameron Davies, classic snark con, PP style, mentioned his affiliation with the Wild Rose Party of "lake of fire" fame (so HE'S not mentioning "God" either) but is currently focused on the term "republic," even though he is probably capitalizing on the whole "winning," bad boy GOP vibe.
Here's their website "manifesto," with the current, chilling connotation of that word being entirely relevant.
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2025/05/21/Alberta-Fantasy-Separatist-Movem…
The first requirement to win a war is to identify the enemy, but their many facets have definitely "dazzled us with their footwork" as it were.....
If only more journalists and media would cut to the chase.
Yeah I don't think journalists are as good as they used to be, Max excepted of course. The ones asking Carney about the Dome over and over and over left a lot to be desired. Talking about a 'fantasy of T's' when there were more pertinent questions to be asked. Talk about a waste of time. PM Carney didn't get rude though because he has patience down to an art.
He does, doesn't he? That may have been harder to learn than fluent French, but the guy's a quick study all around, not to mention actually having some "class," something long gone from the CPC....
Maybe some of the journalists will also adapt/change accordingly?
Every time i fulminate about how awful today s journos are, someone will show me up. E.g., Stephen Maher whom I admire but he is a firm progressive conservative, insists that CBC is too left wing and I want to scream.
Then I think about it and realize he s enough younger than I that he wasnt really raised on the brilliant balance the best papers wrought by offsetting their own admitted bias with the best writer from the opposite side featured regularly and prominently. He doesnt apparently actually know what it sounds like. although he s such a gentleman and defender of fair play that one can get confused.
I was a news junkie, sometimes buying the G&M several times in different daily editions to stay informed. But I read everything in print. Thought of myself as a mongrel of tastes and values.
No longer. According to today s observers I m a hard leftie driving the country to economic ruin. Never mind any inconvenient facts to the contrary. But I gave up on that beloved CBC years ago because it has no concept of fair play or balance anymore, it s just false equivalencies to the hard right. And no wonder nobody knows. All they get fed for decades now is lies from the right. Please please please Prime Minister Carney, correct that very soon. And remove all the subsidies to the US owned media we pay for. We need truth.
Harper loaded CBC with appointments and infected it with Reform Cons before he was sent packing. Trudeau's one huge immediate mistake was not getting rid of all Harper appointments at CBC and in the Public Service. Mulroney did it and it didn't effect him. PM Trudeau should have done it because CBC kowtows to the Con Reformers, sometimes blatantly. Barton's question to Carney that brought a lot of criticism for CBC was so amateurish and reminded me of The Rebel bunch 'trying' to be journalists. Cochrane is ok but is definitely intimidated by the Cons Reformed so it is hard watching him especially when he give the right and hard right so much time to explain their self righteous views. Almost not worth watching but watching Poilievre hopefully get sent packing keeps me watching.
The Reform Party's mantra was "the West wants in." The problem with that is Preston Manning was/is incapable of equitable critical thinking and somehow surmised including just the one word (West) would automatically bring BC and Manitoba into the isolationist Prairie hog farm. Sask is halfways there, but the half that isn't is made up of people who think of themselves internationally as Canadians, not as strictly Westerners.
The only way Reform was able to make any headway was to marry the federal Progressive Conservative Party and work from within to remove the notion that progressiveness or even loose centralism had any sway with Canadians. Their mistake. Reformers were so charged up with embarrassing levels of right wing hubris and self-importance that they thought ideologically middle Canadians would actually support them. Harper took over and stopped all the social conservatist talk and extremist notions and ran from the centre-right, albeit at the far edge. Until they didn't. Enter "barbaric cultural practices" and defeat.
To think that Canada had the federal government of Alberta with internal Reform influence for a decade, and they still couldn't make the rest if Canada conform to the Alberta Reform way.
What should that tell today's Reform rooted Maple MAGA clique?
Chuckling at the "isolationist Prairie hog farm...." but it's true that once given an inch, they've taken the mile to conjure the "revolution" that continues apace, that righteous revolution of manly men somehow reclaiming/righting the world, many supposedly guided by their proxy Guy in the Sky, an alternate authority to match their alternate reality that also enables more avidity while attracting like "minds" and actual believers.
Regardless, it IS the recurring common denominator in most extremist contexts.
Harper treaded water and the believers waited, but are losing patience in Alberta, thin edge of this tedious con wedge.
I do take issue with the faux outrage around "barbaric cultural practices" when it was one of the few things conservatives have been right about. That's one thing about being in a religious tribe, it does allow them to at least criticize other religions, unlike the rest of us, i.e. the secular community, who are obligated to pretend to accept them all equally.
"Pundits" is doing a lot of heavy-lifting there. Try "The whole postmedia newspaper chain", endlessly publishing punditry from "The Fraser Institute", which was pretty much revealed by a previous director recently to just be Charles Koch and friends. It's the Oily Institute.
And Separatism is all about oil, it goes away whenever oil isn't selling well. Which means it'll be gone forever in a handful of years.
I think you're absolutely right Max, but I doubt Pierre has it in him to reverse course and stop spreading lies and negativity. Yes, he could use the separatist threat as a reason to retract the nastiest pieces of his anti-liberal rhetoric. This kind of confession and promise to do better would only work if he was actually capable of behaving better, but sadly I think it would take years of personal development and stepping back from the toxic world of politics for him to do this kind of inner work that he desperately needs.
A better alternative may be for the Conservatives to find a leader who has the make up to be a kinder, less hostile person. Erin O'Toole was a step in the right direction, but the party rejected his more progressive conservatism for the attack dog persona. If they can win with this approach, it certainly won't be in the best interests of Canadians. Look no further than the US to see how supporting strong-man politics gets you into a heap of trouble. Ultimately, the delegates chose the direction of the party. They've been successfully wooed by the US-style formula of blame, hate and creating the false narrative that everything is hopelessly broken. It won't be pretty when these people gain power. Just look at what Smith and her gang are doing in Alberta. It's a tragedy unfolding in a province of beautiful people and equally beautiful landscapes. The angry people don't like that truth because it doesn't serve them well.
Agreed that people can't just change who they are as Poilievre's fake smile at the end of the campaign clearly demonstrated.
With their shallow talent pool, they also have a real conundrum around whose next for leader?
People were obviously tired of the nastiness when so many crossed their own party lines to vote against it.
I like what Nenshi says about how "it's hard to dream small under a sky so big," and the conservatives are SO small.
>> It would almost certainly win him support in places like British Columbia, Ontario, and the Maritimes, where the idea of Alberta separating from Canada is seen as irresponsible and reckless nonsense. <<
You nailed it. It is especially idiotic to those of us who spent decades in Alberta in their youth during the beginnings of loudmouth anti-federal preachings and have now been living outsidee of the province for decades more, observubg the increasing levels of craziness form the outside.
Albertans don't seem to have a clue what separation would actually entail. The province will be greatly diminished as huge numbers of the population and businesses leave, after the feds sue to retail federal assets, like pensions, national parks, airports, highways, military bases, and protect First Nations. The mass exodus will likely turn into a flood if Trump invaded to steal Alberta's fossil fuels in the middle of the chaos.
Well, oil & gas now have a limited shelf life with the worldwide advent of renewables, no matter what UCP hotheads say. It is not the Golden Goose they think it is, especially if they are forced to clean up the toxic pollution they allowed to occur mainky by akso allowing themselves to be captured by foreign oil companies who are not very committed to Canadian federalism as their latest letter to the PM containing their patently unreasonable demands for federal largesse.
All the more reason to fight for Canadian unity, but not by appeasing the separatists who really don't have a case with respect to soveveirgnty. Canada brought Alberta into confederation by building a railway. Canada gave the provinces a lot of power -- too much, in my view. But Canada still occupies the driver's seat.
Yeah, I agree about too much power, something Pierre Trudeau understood, as does Carney.
I heard Duane Bratt speak today in Lethbridge, and he pointed out that a vote for "Canada" is also a vote for a "federalist" party, which is the Liberals.
And whatever you think about the monarchy, King Charles giving the speech from the throne next week is a strong reminder of our history, our identity, and our difference from the fractious U.S. melting down so disturbingly right before our eyes.
re: Alberta's origins - let's get the history straight. The jurisdiction of "Alberta" was created, like Manitoba and Saskatchewan, out of the Northwest Territories by act of the Canadian Parliament, backed by the British Parliament (Collectively, the Crown) who annexed these territories from the local indigenous tribes; essentially via coerced Treaties, or in the case of the Metis separatists, at gun point (see Riel, Duck Lake, etc.).
Poilievre and Smith are both the result of the far right infiltration of mainstream conservatism. Neither can change their message or their tone. It's not possible. One or both needs to go, replaced by a more centrist, pro Canada conservative. I doubt that's possible either. That leaves us with a partisan fight, the worst outcome.
Unless some conservatives can grow a spine and fight back I fear the worst.
They've thoroughly destroyed the brand now; the once GOP are reduced to fodder for late night comedy because people joke about what they're most worried about.
What exactly IS the conservative philosophy anyways, and of what use to any modern democratic society?
And the main reason they've disqualified themselves is because they couldn't care less about the truth; no one has embraced or will continue to embrace the blatant emotional manipulation of the hordes of "low-information voters" more unashamedly and gleefully than these nasty, deceitful bastards.
Good riddance.
We used to be taught that education was the key to everything positive. Moral equivalency. When you know better, you do better. Educate the masses and they d choose good.
I dont know what has happened with the last generation or two of educated folks, perhaps home schooling took over to a medieval level? but I am old and am gobsmack shocked at how failed this philosophy has become.
People have allowed this to happen in the USA and within a hair of here and we re still not out of the woods.
I would not be giving pp any helpful advice because what if he took it and used to to get power next time?
Frankly, remembering how massive change was in the 60s, I m putting my faith back in the written word creeping back up to mainstream,( Eyes on you, NO) and heros like Charlie Angus.
We have to reach people personally one by one as well as in groups they feel safe in. We have to be trustworthy and we have to call out wrong doing. It snot like there are Sunday schools reaching folks any more and I do not know if there is a reliable moral authority without it, not that I m a church goes. But have been there.
It wouldnt hurt to have some prime humourists too, although we can look up Carlin. But we need new ones of our own, well,in current generations. Stewart and Colbert, you re good but how many heed you? Probably there are others that I, not in social media, am missing.
Sure hope so.
Throw in a couple of fast climate disasters this summer and a war or two and we re all done for. So fast. We were supposed to have time.
Not sure how old you are, but I'm 72, and get what you're saying. It has felt like our country has been fully hijacked by the convoy for real, a derivative convoy of absolute idiots made worse by actually ASPIRING to be white trash, brash American bad boys. So embarrassingly, obviously "little dog."
So I'm clinging to this fresh Canadian declaration of independence, luxuriating in having pride, purpose, and hope restored because when push came to shove we even crossed petty party lines to vote for the smartest people, the federalists with one mandate letter to revive the central idea that so many of us older people have always had of what "Canada" IS.
Meanwhile, to showcase the bullet we've just dodged, Trump is busy manifesting that convoy/dumbed down alternative writ large, possibly inciting another American Revolution, what the world needs most.
Born in '47 ad raised on her very old farm by my Victorian Grandmother so really from a different era. And yes doesnt it feel good to see the emergence of some pride in and love for Canada? transcends a lot of diversity too which was aspirational but not quite clear what it meant in our youth.
When I was a kid many folks were saying there was no difference between American and Canadian so it s great to see many saying what it means to be us and wiling to fight for it.
Makes me a lot more cheerful about soon leaving the planet than I have been for years.
Poilievre's success is based on his ability to spread simplistic slogans and disinformation (lies) over and over again to a group of people who are looking for someone to blame for their on-going legitimate difficulties (i.e. housing, food affordability, etc.) or personal failings. Once these people have fallen down the disinformation, conspiracy laden rabbit hole it is next to impossible to get them to climb back out. Poilievre will never fight for Canada since he sold out to the extreme right wing populists and he needs their continued support.