Alberta Separatism is a Full Frontal Assault on Democracy
Premier Danielle Smith may not be leading the charge, but she's aiding and abetting the enemy
Stewart Prest is my canary in Canada’s political coal mine. The UBC political science professor is usually unflappable in the face of modern political chaos. So, when he’s worried, I’m very worried.
Alberta separatists are free to make their case for the province to be a separate country. They aren't traitors. They can't be keel-hauled for sedition under Canadian law. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms gives them the same freedom of expression as it does to Canadian patriots.
But it's not appropriate for Premier Danielle Smith to aid and abet them. Her actions to grease the skid for a separatist referendum go beyond what is, or should be, acceptable in Canadian politics.
I deliberately chose a political scientist outside Alberta for this conversation. In the recent past, I have interviewed Dr Jared Wesley of the University of Alberta and Professor Duane Bratt about the separatist movement. They were great for describing the thrust and parry of Alberta politics, especially Smith's attempts to keep her fractious caucus, which is rife with separatism, under control.
But increasingly, I am being contacted by Canadians outside Alberta looking for an explanation of politics they simply don't understand. That's not surprising. Politics in the epicentre of Canada's oil and gas industry is unlike that of any other province. Historically, far more conservative and much more American. Now, it's clear to me that Smith and her United Conservative Party are following her rural base down the MAGA rabbit hole. This interview reflects concerns from The Rest of Canada about what the hell is going on in Alberta.
Leftist Albertan here fighting to undermine the UCP from within the province.
Alberta's premier/fascist-in-chief Danielle Smith poses a direct and dire threat to all decent, rational, science-believing individuals - not just in Alberta or even Canada for that matter - but throughout the entire western world. She is a danger to Canadian sovereignty and needs to be removed from office and put on trial for her multitudinous illegal and immoral transgressions against the citizens of Alberta and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
She's already slipped the Maple MAGA agenda here into Canadian politics and will not hesitate to fracture democracy itself in order to line her own pockets - all because she believes in *nothing*.
Smith is an opportunistic, empathy-vacant sociopath, a creator of murderous, genocidal anti-humanity/trans/indigenous policy, and a parasitic bourgeoisie pearl-clutching hypocrite.
She *despises* minorities - especially the disabled - clawing back vital supplemental federal funds that *wouldn't even have raised the maximum disability benefit above the provincial poverty line*. Add in her rapid dismantling and privatization of the AHS and it becomes clear which citizens she considers expendable.
Her *literal* genocide-inducing use of the non-withstanding clause to unalive trans children is proof enough. That and she has ZERO respect for the indigenous people of this land whose presence precedes her beloved “Provincial Authority” by hundreds of years. Her separatist and anti-trans agenda is a thinly veiled yet wholly-hearted promotion of white Christian nationalist supremacy and is a colonialist attack on indigenous rights and sovereignty, as well as basic human dignity itself.
If the Queen had balls she'd be a king. If Danielle Smith had balls she'd be a Trump.