Dismantling Separatist Arguments…
I would also remind all Canadians that we should not dismiss the legitimate grievances of Albertans.
Separatist concerns are illegitimate, their concerns are easy enough to dismantle… and they are ill advised and poorly led.
By Gregg Wall (5-30-2026)
It’s been an interesting couple of weeks here in Alberta. Premier Smith, head of the separatist party, head of the rebellion… professes unflinching devotion to Canada, while bending over backwards to enable a fringe minority demanding Alberta separate from Canada. The leaders of separatist traitors have reportedly, and by their own admission, been to Washington to talk to Trump administration officials about leaving Canada. In January, separatist leader Rath was said to be seeking funding for a mini revolution, a cool $500 billion credit line. And of course, Premier Smith, a former oil and gas lobbyist, spent weeks in Washington during the Trump inauguration.
The separatists have taken over the Alberta UCP government with some members of the elected body openly supporting separation. Separatist grievances and talking points are as egregious as they are specious. Easy enough to accept if one has been fed an endless diet of right-wing and oil & gas industry talking points, but easier still dismantled upon closer scrutiny. Nevertheless, what the separatist lack for in credibility, they more than make up for in energy and passion.
Separatist leader, Dani Smith, who believes the world sets and rises on Alberta, summed it up best, when she recently attempted to ram a new British Columbia pipeline (w/ no private sector financial backing to date, and no backing from the BC provincial government) through a Canadian premiers’ meeting:
“Let's remember these ports are not British Columbia's ports, they're Canada's ports, and in being Canada's ports, that means they’re our ports too," Smith said. "In the spirit of collaboration, that's the attitude that all premiers should take to this."
By that very same Dani logic, it could be said: Let’s remember these Alberta tar sands are not Alberta’s tar sands, they’re Canada’s tar sands, and in being Canada’s tar sands, that means under Canadian control. In the spirit of cooperation and respect for the rule of law, the separatist party, UCP, should resign and turn themselves in for adjudication.
The separation craziness never ends… like all culture war conflicts… serving to keep the public divided and distracted from a laundry list of corruption, gross mismanagement of provincial affairs, gross incompetence, privatization schemes, and scandal after scandal… most recently, data harvesting from the list of Alberta voters, via an application linked to the US Ambassador to Canada.
Here then, separatist grievances:
Oil and Gas… apparently all separatists have huge holdings in the oil and gas industry because they behave as if they are all oil and gas robber barons. Their blind worship for the industry, however, conveniently omits the following facts: Alberta oil and gas is American owned; the American owned O&G industry is gutting its Alberta workforce, even as production explodes; the American owned Alberta O&G industry realizes profits in America and will continue to realize profits in American no matter where Alberta O&G is exported; and the chef’s kiss, the American owned Alberta O&G industry is dumping hundreds of billion in liabilities on Canadians and Albertans with the full complicity and the abject failure of the Alberta and Canadian governments.
If you believe American O&G is your messiah then the separatist messiah is the devil. Given US oil and gas history, one can expect the industry will have no problem walking off if called upon and ordered to pay their obligations.
No more taxes: In the separatist libertarian Xanadu, the wayward leadership and followers believe they’ll never pay any taxes… despite the O&G industry’s reluctance to pay taxes, despite the American O&G industry having even greater leverage over the locals should it separate; despite having no retirement plan, no military, no foreign policy, no scale on pensions, no backroom infrastructure to run a nation-state. Despite Alberta presently being in debt $109 billion, despite the separatists seeking a loan from the Americans for half a trillion (which translates into roughly $690 billion Canadian), despite being in the hole by some estimates for O&G cleanup and tailings $250 billion, that’s right: no taxes. So much for the great separatist libertarian - no tax - fantasy.
And, for sake of time, I’ve omitted the private sector tax for American healthcare, which will absolutely crush Albertans.
Jobs and opportunity will rain down from the heavens… except that won’t happen. The O&G industry, despite explosive growth and profits, has been (and continues to be) automating and gutting its Alberta workforce. And the industry that is seeking to hire, significantly, was run off by Premier Smith, that is the renewables industry.
Trust me… when separatist leaders are confronted with the economic realities of their plan, they invariably fallback on trust us. Let’s put it this way, if landlocked Alberta is getting a bum deal from the sale of O&G to the Americans now… what’s in store for Alberta when the new country is all by its lonesome? What leverage will Alberta have then? Zero. If anything, the ruthless American owners of the Alberta tar sands will drive down prices even lower in the states, so they can reap fatter profits on the refined/finished product. Nothing says “bend over” like the Alberta separatist.
Brexit comes to Canada: While the separatists do not bring up Brexit a great deal, the parallels are not dissimilar, especially when we wipe out all the arguments for separation. What we find, like Brexit, is a great many angry white bigots, racists, haters, misogynists, and xenophobes. In both instances, Brexit and Alberta insurrection, the glue that binds appears to be hate. Here, it’s particularly worth noting that just as the dereg, financialization, globalization, neoliberalism, and the Thatcher economy were and are a disaster in the UK, pre and post Brexit… if the Alberta separatist wish ever comes true, undoubtedly they’ll find themselves in quite similar UK like economic conditions, pre and post separation, if not markedly worse.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper with Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, January, 2008
Abject failure to hold Conservative gov accountable: Moving on from separatist talking points, interestingly enough the separatists have often built their entire identity around hating and owning the Libs. Which means the insurrectionist leadership have done their jobs of dividing the province and Canada, as well as polarizing their base and the counter response. Undoubtedly, Liberals, in power since 2015, bear some responsibility for placing Alberta and Canadian families last and Alberta and Canadian corporations and oligarchy first. But this same separatist tribe turns a blind eye to the failings of fifty years of conservative rule in Alberta. Smith and United Conservatives have trashed the provincial economy, and yet, seemingly, not a derisive word is uttered against the UCP gov, unless said government is deemed insufficiently supportive of the separatist movement.
Right out of the divide and conquer playbook.
As for far-right PM Carney? His actions speak for themselves. Mr. Carney is likely the most conservative politician Canada has ever seen. As I’ve written previously, Carney has gutted rules, regs, embraced deregulation, and is fast tracking corporate projects and supply-side economics at the expense of charter, indigenous, and provincial rights. Carney is not walking, he's sprinting, and achieving a great many things conservatives, likely, could have never achieved in the same amount of time. The Carney gov is going after labour and he’s bent over backwards to build a pipeline that the private sector has shown little interest in funding. Turns out, "elbows up" is aimed at attacking Canadian families, labour, and the environment? In dealing with the Alberta Premier, who is attacking and dismantling the Canadian Health Act, Carney has done absolutely nothing. And in fact has come running to offer memorandums of understanding, and drum up support for the pipeline, seemingly, every time some new revelation of UCP corruption or scandal comes to light.
It’s all reminiscent of Carney’s bait and switch on the environment and his “middle powers” speech at Davos… only for Carney to land on the side of American oil and gas and wanting to make America great again.
PM Carney, based upon his actions to date, appears to be here to ensure corporate domination and hegemony moves forward. Advance corporate rule, tear down public services, push a campaign of austerity on Canadians, and ensure the shift right in Canadian politics continues apace. It doesn’t get any more authoritarian and conservative than a private equity chairman and a Goldman Sachs banker. Carney follows in the direct path of several bankers who came to power in Europe with neoliberal agendas.
Ultimately, separatists love to whine and play victim, especially when they are the victim of the conservative ideology they ironically preach. Whenever greed is given free rein or maximum freedom… massive poverty inevitably follows, as does its corollary endemic corruption. The moral of the story: be careful of what you wish for, boys.
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2026
