There is no danger that Alberta won鈥檛 return plenty of Conservative MPs to the House of Commons at the end of April. It鈥檚 practically a sacrosanct duty in a federal election to elect as many Conservatives as possible.
So why is Premier Danielle Smith talking as if the Conservatives are going to lose? Why isn鈥檛 she boosting their chances across Canada? Why isn鈥檛 she working as hard for a Conservative victory as she did appeasing U.S. President Donald Trump? Instead, she鈥檚 banking on a Liberal government so she can fight it as Canada faces its greatest crisis in decades.
Now that the tariffs on Canada and the rest of the world have been levied by Trump, 聽for the fact there is no tariff on oil and gas going over the border. No doubt all her lobbying of Trump and his minions, as well as other extreme right-wingers, did the trick for Alberta. Never mind that she looked like a sellout to other Canadians.
But now that she has saved Alberta from those tariffs on oil and gas she is gearing up for her next battle 鈥 with the federal government. She reads the public opinion polls just like everyone else and can see that it is likely to be a Liberal government led by Mark Carney. So why not start attacking it right now? Even if she is sending the message that she expects Pierre Poilievre and his Conservatives to lose.
She has聽already issued a list of demands that includes 鈥渦nfettered鈥 access to pipelines going west, east and north. She has plans to so federal employees will not be able to gather data on Alberta鈥檚 carbon emissions.
She has even said that she鈥檚 thinking of after the election to see if Albertans want to stay part of Canada, seek semi-independence, or leave and become the 51st聽state.
And last week she let it be known that she has to ask him for a meeting so Alberta could updated on the recommendations contained in a report prepared last year for the Quebec government suggesting ways that the province could assert its provincial authority.
“I see an opportunity before us, as the democratically elected leaders of Alberta and Quebec, to chart a path toward a new era in Canadian federalism,” Smith said in a March 21 letter written to Premier Legault.
That all this is happening before the election outcome is known tells us she is preparing for her favourite party 鈥 Poilievre鈥檚 Conservatives 鈥 to lose the election. And yet the Poilievre team has not uttered a word of disagreement or even polite pushback. He should at least offer a response that would discourage such talk when he is campaigning to win over all of Canada. It really doesn鈥檛 help his cause when Smith practically concedes with three weeks to go.
- Vox Pop Labs
And then there is Preston Manning, arc-angel of the Conservative Party of Canada and current elder statesman, who in a recent column in the Globe and Mail said if the Liberals get re-elected watch for secessionist movements in Western Canada to grow.
聽鈥淰oters, particularly in central and Atlantic Canada, need to recognize that a vote for the Carney Liberals is a vote for Western secession 鈥 a vote for the breakup of Canada as we know it,鈥 he wrote. Nice work, Preston, threatening secession if things don鈥檛 go our way.
from Manning鈥檚 remarks saying 鈥渨e need to unite the country.鈥 But that鈥檚 pretty weak tea in the face of both Smith鈥檚 and Manning鈥檚 remarks. And Manning wasn鈥檛 just talking about Alberta but all the Western provinces.
Smith says whoever wins the federal election must come around to her way of thinking about the future of Alberta. But I doubt she would go so hard at it if it were a Conservative government. No, she鈥檚 banking on a Liberal government so she can carry on her crusade as Canada faces its worst crisis in decades.
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