I am grateful to be writing this newsletter from Moh’kinstis, and the traditional Treaty 7 territory of the Blackfoot confederacy: Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, as well as the Îyâxe Nakoda and Tsuut’ina Nations. The Treaties were an agreement to share the land and must be honoured. I support land back as an act of reconciliation. Lands inhabited by Indigenous peoples contain 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity. Indigenous Peoples’ traditional knowledge systems are critical to creating a more harmonious future for all. My Scottish/Irish ancestors were immigrants who travelled by ship to the east coast in the late 1700’s or early 1800’s. We arrived uninvited on the traditional unceded territory of the Wəlastəkewiyik (Maliseet) whose along with the Mi’Kmaq / Mi’kmaw and Passamaquoddy / Peskotomuhkati Tribes / Nations had signed Peace and Friendship Treaties with the British Crown in the 1700s. As a child in the 1970’s, my parents moved the family west to work in the oil sands and I spent my teen years in Treaty 8 territory, the traditional lands of the Denesuline and Cree People.
I should have remembered my own prediction from almost a decade earlier that Smith would be back. I wrote about it after her notorious floor-crossing, and her own party’s attempt to “cancel” her for what they considered fatal disloyalty. I was sure she would return to politics, and frankly, that terrified me.
Now, Smith is fully and completely back as Alberta’s premier, and the lessons she learned about “loyalty” are on full display with the separation referendum. She knows her political future is in the hands of a small but vocal group of separatists, and this time, there’s nothing she won’t do to stay in power.
Smith is not the kind of politician to be underestimated, oh no. She’s going again with a fully bonkers response to the dangerous, foreign-supported movement tearing the province apart. She’s even willing to adopt a strategy of “Forever Confusion” to give the separatists more time to grow their support for leaving Canada.
She’s not too embarrassed to record a video explaining the concept to Albertans calmly, with her hands neatly folded like a news anchor reading a teleprompter full of tragic stories of death and destruction all while smiling pleasantly.
If that includes a referendum with a multiple choice question about whether to hold a referendum - as ludicrous as that sounds - well, so be it. She’s not too embarrassed to record a video explaining the concept to Albertans calmly, with her hands neatly folded like a news anchor reading a teleprompter full of tragic stories of death and destruction all while smiling pleasantly.
She tried to reassure us by saying she’ll vote to remain in Canada and will campaign actively for that option. The idea that Smith is suddenly now taking the Canadian side and campaigning for Alberta to “stay” fills me with dread.
Alberta’s current referendum website, paid for with our tax dollars, takes a side on all nine referendum questions already announced in order to persuade us which way to vote. The website is rife with outright lies and disinformation about things like immigration, temporary residents, the appointment of judges, and federal grant programs.
The referendum questions are framed as originating from consultation with Albertans through the Alberta Next panel, but the outcome of that gong show was obviously pre-determined. Not one idea presented by the panel was altered as a result of the consultation, including highly unpopular recommendations for an Alberta Pension Plan and a provincial police force.
Perhaps others are similarly disturbed at the prospect because we now have a proliferation of campaigns springing up all over the place to defend staying in Canada. At last count, there were at least five, probably more if you include the lesser-known grassroots efforts not being run by high profile politicians, political strategists and media personalities.
Some commentators are even suggesting we need another group, a governing council, to bring everyone together. These are the folks who think another layer of hierarchy is the answer to everything. It would no doubt be populated with older, white males with a predisposition for micromanagement.
It’s a mess, a total circus that we are forced to endure because people seem incapable of actually unifying in practice to support even this most existential threat to the country. As political operative Stephen Carter said when asked why he had started his own campaign rather than working with others already underway: (I’m paraphrasing here) “those other campaigns don’t think like Stephen Carter.”
We’re in such an absurd situation because of a decision the premier made to try and remain in power, not because she is committed to remain in Canada. This referendum would be a solution too cringeworthy for most to deliver, but Smith is not like most people. She’s willing to ignore the fact that this will allow the uncertainty, the insecurity, and the pitting of neighbours against one another to continue for much, much longer - some are saying it might take years even, to get to a second referendum.
The referendum announcement followed significant legal setbacks to the separation question - two distinct court cases saw two different justices each declare the separatist petition question unconstitutional because of the lack of consultation with Indigenous nations. They warned the government not to forget there are legally-binding Treaties that pre-date the existence of the province. The government is responsible for consulting before putting such a question to a referendum.
Despite what Smith claimed (before she was schooled by Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew on the facts), it’s extremely straightforward. Just because she doesn’t seem to like it, the duty to consult is clear, unlike the referendum question, I might add. It’s ironic that Smith, who is known for writing and rewriting confusing laws, policies, and now, referendum questions, claims to be confused about decisions made by the courts. Everyone else gets it, Premier.
Both Smith’s and Prime Minister Mark Carney’s relationships with First Nations are pretty damaged right now. They seem to share a disdain for Indigenous consultation, a love of oil pipelines, a desire to dismantle environmental regulations, and a distinct authoritarian bent.
Indigenous rights cannot just be ignored, despite the fever dreams of a few separatist lawyers with a long and volatile history with First Nations. The ne’er-do-wells behind the separation petition are notorious for having been successfully sued by First Nations, being outspoken residential school deniers, and having spread disinformation about the Treaties throughout the signature-gathering process.
And of course, there is the matter of the largest breach of personal information in Canadian history - a crime being investigated by the RCMP, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, and Elections Alberta.
The mastermind behind the Centurion Project, another separatist named David Parker of Take Back Alberta infamy, a guy who has Tucker Carlson on speed dial, has fled the country. Parker is not honouring with the cease and desist order he’s received. He’s also no longer cooperating with the investigation.
Meanwhile, Canada’s National Observer reported that Albertans’ personal data is showing up in the strangest places - in the hands of Americans, imagine that! Not to mention there’s a connection between Parker’s database and the app that hosts it, with the US Ambassador to Canada, the always charming Pete Hoekstra.
Early reaction to Smith’s video from the separatist camp was cautiously optimistic. On X, lawyer Keith Wilson posted a video explaining that the extra time would give them more leeway to convince people who “just want to send a message to Ottawa,” but aren’t serious about separation.
It seems their campaign (which he admits is not as well organized as the Forever Canadian campaign - yet somehow managed to get 300,000 signatures?) will focus on winning the first referendum by pretending they’re not really serious about separating. He suggested the first referendum will allow them more time to argue that it’s just a simple case of needing to put it to a vote whether you agree with “independence” or not.
Then, Wilson said they would focus on convincing those people who aren’t keen on separation to support them on the real referendum - the second one. He’s pretty confident, as always, but it does make you wonder what other gifts the separatists expect to receive from Smith between now and then.
He’s completely dismissive of Treaties and Indigenous rights, of course.
Mitch Sylvestre, a UCP constituency president and the founder of the Alberta Prosperity Project, had a more negative reaction, appearing on John Bolton’s YouTube show looking absolutely shocked and dismayed with Smith for betraying the cause. He left me with the impression of a man motivated by fear and haunted by his main concerns which he said were “property rights,” “gun rights,” “bodily autonomy,” and “informed consent.”
Sylvestre strikes me as a man who is unwavering in his belief that he’s constantly under seige from outside forces who want to invade his life, his land, and even his personal space. Fight or flight reflexes on full alert, he appears to trust few, keep his back to the wall, and judging by his statements in the video, blind to his own biases.
The property rights concerns of Sylvestre and others have become primarily about fear of losing their land due to Indigenous wins in British Columbia courts. This is based on a mistaken belief that the “land back” movement is about taking people’s private property.
The gun rights arguments are well known, and also involve fear. Those who think the government is determined to take away their guns, continue to spread that threat to garner support. Also, Sylvestre is the owner of a sporting goods store that sells guns.
The bodily autonomy and informed consent fears came to the forefront during the pandemic and are primarily about vaccines, but they also include fluoride in tapwater, and a whole host of other concerns about government interference in people’s lives. The United Nations figures prominently, and there’s a lot of talk about “globalists,” weather manipulation, and 15-minute cities. Rest assured it has little to do with protecting reproductive rights or the personal autonomy of transgender individuals and their families.
“Unless the government supports what you’re doing, this is almost impossible to do. So we have to basically consider the fact that we need to make the changes in government, whether that’s at the MLA level or any other level, in order to put the people that support us in power so that we can actually make this happen.”
Mitch Sylvestre, on John Bolton’s show, warning of planned actions…
Smith is focused entirely on placating the separatists and also trying to sell them on her concept of a “sovereign Alberta within a united Canada,” which is about as clear as mud. No one understands it, no one can explain it, not even Smith.
The closest explanation may be found on the referendum website with the wordy, befuddling question #9: “Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to better protect provincial rights from federal interference by giving a province’s laws dealing with provincial or shared areas of constitutional jurisdiction priority over federal laws when the province’s laws and federal laws conflict?
See what I mean? Is this what Smith calls pro-Canada? The website goes on to explain:
“While Canada’s Constitution gives provinces the power to pass laws for areas including natural resources, electricity, public lands, and property and civil rights, there are times when laws and regulations passed by the federal government conflict with, and override, provincial laws and regulations that have also been passed by the province – effectively overriding what elected provincial legislatures are trying to accomplish. This is especially true with respect to the environment, which is an area that can be regulated from different perspectives, one of which may relate to a provincial power and the other to a federal power. The Constitution also specifically states that federal laws have priority over provincial laws in areas of immigration and agriculture.
This question offers a path to improve this by shifting the default authority to the provinces when federal and provincial laws are in conflict. This change would ensure clarity when federal and provincial powers are in conflict and make sure that provincial autonomy is respected.”
She seems to think she can win the separatists over with all of her successes with Carney, who seems distant and disengaged while the separatist threat has most Albertans almost apoplectic. The casual comments the prime minister has made publicly were so tepid and forgettable that it’s doubtful anything he said even registered.
The one hot-mic moment where he casually joked about Smith not taking the obvious “off-ramp” afforded her by the courts, left me wondering whether he even recognized the seriousness of this moment. He has since denied he was referring to Smith…okay.
Speaking of context, Smith’s re-telling of the history of Canada in her video would be hilarious if it wasn’t so disconnected from reality. She claimed that somehow, Justin Trudeau stole power from the provinces to such an extent that the premiers now have to band together and fight to get back what they lost. Apparently, the eight years under Trudeau was a diabolical, Liberal-led conspiracy of rampant centralization.
I’m sure Trudeau was rapt when he heard about this while enjoying drinks with Katy Perry at Coachella. **Hey, give the guy a break, he’s reclaiming years of his young adulthood lost to the Liberal party which stole him away from times like this to train him up for the country’s top job.
It is a narrative Smith has pushed before but as we all learned in junior high Social Studies class, there has always been a struggle between the provinces and Ottawa, but federalism is part of the Canadian identity. With the exception of Québec separatism, most struggles between the provinces and the federal government have been based more on differing political ideology rather than a desire to actually break away from the rest of the country.
Alberta’s neighbours are not on board. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has said he wants no part of separation. BC Premier David Eby, a province where a physical separation looks a lot more plausible based on geography, is also not into leaving Canada.
Smith’s suggestion that she would favour having the provinces exist as loosely affiliated “sovereign” entities (whatever that means) is unbelievably childish. And that’s not the Canada most people envision. If she campaigns on this flawed concept, a version of which is explained on the referendum website, it will only add more chaos to the separatism debate.
Unfortunately, Smith’s rambling question means we’re now facing a summer of confusion. Five months of political pain. No one wanted it to go down this way. Absolutely no one.
First Nations Voices:
Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation: Smith’s two-step referendum is a cynical waste of time and money.
Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation statement (short and to the point): https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AbW2Xfj55/
NEW! Chief Sheldon Sunshine at the Fight Back protest May 29th in Edmonton:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18jMYzffZe/
Blackfoot Confederacy Chiefs Welcome Premier Wab Kinew’s Comments on Duty to Consult
(will update this as I go!)
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