Don Braid: Smith's warnings about Alberta separatism is really about keeping UCP in power

National Post

7 hours ago

Separatism is no threat to Alberta, or the federal government, or Canada itself.
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But it is an enormous threat to Premier Danielle Smith and her United Conservative Party.
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A provincewide vote of, say five per cent, would bleed support from the UCP and bring the NDP back to power.
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That threat drives major elements of UCP policy, from removing books in schools to making nine demands for change from Ottawa.
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The UCP often governs 4.9 million Albertans for the benefit of a faction within the party.
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At an event with federal Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland on Thursday, Smith said Prime Minister Mark Carney should take separatism seriously. It's the fed's fault, after all.
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'If Ottawa wants to work with me to cause that (separatist) sentiment to subside, then we need to materially address the nine bad laws that have created that negative investment climate,' she said.
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'If they make the changes that we're requesting, then I suspect they can take the air out of that movement.'
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Knocking a few points off a tiny separatist party's support is a weak rationale for moving the feds to action.
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There isn't much of a market in Ottawa, or anywhere else, for the plaintive cries from Alberta the Oppressed.
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On Friday, the government closed the books on fiscal 2024-25 with an astonishing surplus of $8.2 billion.
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Originally, the finance department had forecast a surplus of 'only' $355 million (one that every other province would love to have).
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That surplus grew madly because of lush revenue in major categories, especially oil and gas.
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In 2023-24, the Alberta surplus was $4.3 billion; the year before that, it hit $11.6 billion. The only other province to book a surplus in 2024-25 was New Brunswick, with $41 million.