As the separation debate heats up, Danielle Smith sets Albertans against each other

Toronto Star

21-05-2025

The next year in Alberta promises to be a hot one.
Premier Danielle Smith's last minute move to amend legislation that makes it so much easier to collect enough signatures for a referendum has lit the match. And what would that referendum be about? Separation from the rest of Canada.
One separatist group has even told us what the referendum question should be: 'Do you agree that the province shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province of Canada?'
You may think that this is just a ruse to get the Liberal government to cave in on Smith's demands, among others, for 'unfettered' access to pipeline corridors or her longing to abolish an emissions cap on carbon spewing oilsands production. And maybe it is just a harmless negotiating tactic.
But the division and angst it will cause Albertans and the rest of Canadians is a high price to pay for simply getting a better deal.
The uncertainty alone will cause a dramatic drop in investment. Nancy Southern, president of ATCO Ltd., a $24 billion utility and infrastructure company, who has long supported the UCP/Progressive Conservatives, is already warning that it will affect business decisions.
She says the prospect of Alberta independence is raising too many questions for companies to feel confident making big investment decisions. 'I think the separatist discussion is very unhelpful and not constructive to Alberta,' Southern said in an interview following her company's annual shareholder meeting.
And what happens to property values as the talk of Alberta separation grows? Will people start to worry about the decreasing value of their homes? Their small businesses? As Jen Gerson, co-founder of The Line wrote in her Substack: 'Personally, I don't think the federal government should be imposing emissions cap on the provinces. I think we do need east-west pipelines, and I don't think the current equalization formula is particularly fair — but am I willing to risk my home and my citizenship on a wish list of accords compiled by junior oil and gas executives? …. No.'
In response to separation talk an Alberta First Nation — Onion Lake Cree Nation — has revived its legal challenge to the Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act. Chief Henry Lewis told an Edmonton press conference that the law has always been about undercutting federal control and asserting provincial control contrary to the treaty his nation signed with The Crown before Alberta was a province. 'I want to respectfully remind the premier that this land that we stand on today is treaty land and is not yours to take or make sweeping decisions about,' he said.
The Alberta Prosperity Project, which is leading the charge for separation, was aiming for 600,000 signatures on a referendum petition will now only have to collect about 177,000. That shouldn't be too difficult.
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It has taken a hard line approach to the election of Mark Carney and the Liberals: 'The era of Carney Carnage is here. While every province will experience it, there's no secret he's placed an extra big bullseye on Alberta.' This is the essence of the separatism message; we are perennial victims of federal governments so why not go it alone?
It makes no sense when you consider that Alberta is the richest province with the highest Gross Domestic Product per capita. It makes no sense when you consider that thousands of people are moving here to seek a better life. It makes no sense when Canada is facing a real threat from south of the border and needs to pull together.
But that is nothing to Smith, who worries that if she doesn't kowtow to the extreme elements of her party and her caucus she will be booted out of office. Or she will have to face real problems like the slide in the price of oil, which depletes the provincial treasury.
So to avoid it all she is going to set Albertans against each other. That's the mark of a weak leader who would rather set the province on fire than govern.