The Betrayal.

Tonight Danielle Smith looked Albertans straight in the eye and said she wants Canada to stay united. What she definitely failed to mention was everything she’s been busy doing to tear us apart.

She announced a separatism referendum. Apparently it doesn’t matter to her that she’s received a clear message from Albertans that they don’t want one. 456,000 Albertans signed the pro-Canada petition. Even its own organizer said the whole point was to give Smith a way to avoid a referendum. So what did she do? She ignored them completely. Instead she used the separatists’ 301,000 signatures to justify the exact opposite. (Those signatures btw are already under scrutiny after a pro-sovereignty group was illegally handed Alberta’s voter list.) And now she’s cleverly combining both numbers to claim 700,000 Albertans want a vote. They don’t. That’s not what those 456k signatures say and she knows it.

Not one but two courts have ruled this process violates the treaty rights of First Nations. Rights that predate Alberta’s very existence as a province. What did she do with that? She had her government rewrite the law the very same day the first ruling came down. Before it was even public.

Her government loses in court and she changes the rules in response. She said tonight that laws matter less than the will of 300,000 unverified Albertans signatures. She ignores Indigenous treaty rights whenever they’re inconvenient. She turns a public outcry of “please don’t do this” into selfish justification for doing exactly that.

And the referendum isn’t even binding! It’s honestly a stage prop. A yes vote just triggers more process, more uncertainty, more chaos and cost. Investment will flee. First Nations lawyers will rightfully sharpen their pencils. We’ve seen this movie. It’s called Brexit. Just ask the Brits how it’s going for them.

Her timing is either diabolical or reckless I don’t know which. Canada’s at a genuinely important moment. We’re building something real with national pride, pipelines, economic resilience, sovereignty in the face of real external pressure. And now we’re being dragged backwards by one politician who needs to keep her base happy enough to stay in power. That’s a selfish, power hungry move by her that’s on another level.

But perhaps the most revealing moment tonight wasn’t about separation at all. It was her vision of provincial power. She clearly wants to diminish the federal government’s power and leave provinces unfettered, each going their own way. She wants the glory of running a province without rules, while keeping a big brother around for protection when it suits her. That’s not a federation. In her world we’d be a collection of territories that are only as valuables as the resources beneath each of them. Every province for themselves. Good luck if you live somewhere with less to sell or need something more. It hollows out everything that makes our country worth belonging to

This is such a betrayal. Of Albertans. Of Indigenous peoples. Of every Canadian who believes this country’s worth fighting for. She lit this fire and watched it spread. And tonight? Well tongjht she threw fuel on it.

❤️🇨🇦