We can all agree that last Friday’s opinion piece by NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi on Alberta separatism published by CTV News had an accurate headline: The threat to our nation is very real. After that mildly promising beginning, though, things went downhill.
I guess someone in the Opposition’s strategic brain trust reckoned Mr. Nenshi needed to be heard expressing deep thoughts about the fact the United Conservative Party has turned into a separatist party, with a few statesmanlike lines tossed in about the potential negative impact on the Alberta oilpatch of U.S. President Donald Trump’s too-easy non-invasive takeover of Venezuela.
Whatever was said, though, surely it’s doubtful a 1,000-word essay incongruously published on a broadcaster’s website will have much impact on the recent successes of the Alberta separatist movement, which has been carefully nurtured by Premier Danielle Smith and now appears to be significantly funded by people associated with the Trump Administration whose goal is surely not merely for Alberta to become a conveniently independent authoritarian petro-republic.
The next step, of course, would be to absorb Alberta into the Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue – although more likely as a quasi-colonial territory like Puerto Rico than as the 51st state, which is arguably the actual goal of most of the movers and shakers in the Alberta separatist conspiracy.
To be blunt, if this is the NDP response to a foreign-funded secession movement that is already bombarding Alberta with a Brexit-style disinformation campaign, it’s not likely to work. It’s too long, too professorial, too nuanced, too nice, and frankly naïve.
Mr. Nenshi’s op-ed also lacks a clear call to action. Such as it is, it wants us to show “Albertans and all Canadians that we can make this great country work better for all of us.” That’s nice, but how about some hints?
Worse, it naively assumes Premier Smith’s strategy is just to “use the threat of separatism (which she herself has strongly encouraged) to extract concessions from the federal government, then paint herself as Captain Canada and the one who saved the nation during a referendum.”
How sure can we be of that? The darker interpretation of our premier’s strategy that’s now become extremely dangerous to ignore is that Ms. Smith intends to be the willing enabler of the Trump Administration’s next big move after Greenland. The Don’s inside man, as it were.
So what did Ms. Smith really say when she raced down to Mar-a-Lago last year at this time?
That remains unknown. As I wrote at the time, though, whatever it was, it was extremely unlikely a “Team Canada” message and “may well have been contrary to the interests of Canadian provinces other than those like Alberta with a lot of oil.”
Now that we’ve had the chance to observe Ms. Smith’s separation machinations for a year – in particular her government’s willingness to twist the rules like a pretzel to ensure a separation referendum is on the ballot soon and no competing exercises in “direct democracy” are tolerated – the possibilities are considerably more sinister.
Can we still be confident that this wasn’t something more than just a fangirl visit.
Meanwhile, south of the Medicine Line, far-right “influencers” close to the Trump Administration are, as Alberta broadcaster Rob Breakenridge described it in a tweet, “saying the quiet part out loud.”
Take a listen to Steve Bannon, Mr. Trump’s first chief of staff, and “geopolitical expert” Brandon Weichert having a chitchat about Alberta.
“The Albertans,” says Mr. Weichert, “are getting out of the Canadian union, they’re gonna become an independent state, an independent country, we’re gonna recognize them, and that’s gonna put them on the pathway to becoming the 51st state.” Well, the second American Samoa, anyway.
It’s because we’ve got a lot of stuff here in Alberta, Mr. Weichert suggests, that Mr. Trump wants us, just like he wants Greenland. Why, we’d be a pathway to the Arctic! (Which he also wants.)
A year ago, this kind of thing sounded like utter nonsense. In light of what we’ve seen in the last two weeks in Washington, and the last year in the Premier’s Office, can we still be so confident?
Alberta’s only pro-Canadian political party with a chance of forming government is going to have to do better than a repeat of “The Big Listen.”
Nicolaides recall petition flops – it was fun while it lasted
The first recall petition against a United Conservative Party MLA and the one arguably with the best chance of success, has flopped.
The attempt to recall Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides, MLA for Calgary-Bow and certainly a deserving candidate for a theoretical recall, fell more than 9,500 signatures short of the 16,006 that would have been required to succeed.
Too bad, so sad. Amateurish organization of the recall campaign certainly contributed. But it was never likely to succeed and nor are the other 25 recall petitions still out there. That said, it was fun while it lasted, and it as a civil society response to the depredations of the UCP it certainly put the government off its game for a few weeks.
As such, it was an excellent example of an asymmetrical response to an increasingly authoritarian government, and like any tactic in a political war, it wouldn’t be asymmetrical any more if it kept being used once it’s utility had ended.
So opponents of the government need to resist the temptation to continue to use a mechanism that has now been made even more difficult to use. That would be pointless nostalgia. It’s time for them to get back to the task of ensuring the UCP’s defeat in a general election.
Get the f#{£ off your butts Canadians…the threat is real.
“the Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue” is funny, but the threat isn’t.
Hello DJC and fellow commenters, I can’t imagine any reason to become part of the U S. Do members of the inaccurately named Alberta Prosperity Project expect to get something out of separation? If so, what would they expect to get?
@Christina:
They believe they’ll get a better quality of life. Less tax, more freedom to run around with guns, get rid of all the social service nets, zero “woke” (whatever the he11 that’s supposed to mean) and they can finally stomp all the Native folk’s rights straight into the ground in pursuit of oil.
They claim they want “freedom”. So, the next question is, “freedom to do and from, what, exactly?” but our media is too stupid to ask that question.
It’s the CIA/Mossad Iran playbook. They’ve been doing it for 40 years and it works.
What they refuse to see is that the Oiligarchs aren’t going to make them wealthy by letting them nationalize the oil or tax fairly–they’ll be in the same position as Puerto Rico and they haven’t the sense to ask the Puerto Ricans how well that’s going for them.
They’ll get robbed and they’re joining up with the muggers.
They are 200% out to get something. They sure aren’t in it for the love of province and the citizens that live here.
The NDP needs to put up someone else and stop dithering around, here. This guy is on the wrong side or too passive for blood sport politics. I’ll somewhat paraphrase Carney here, “either stand up at the table or you’re on the menu”. We’re in the time of tyrants and he sounds like he’s running for the school board talking to a room full of educated wine moms. How much appeal does that have to the suffering working class?
Are the NDP not paying attention to what just happened at Davos? In Iran? Every other of the over 40 countries the USA has couped, segmented, invaded and EATEN? If Nenshi hasn’t noticed, he’s in an information war and Smith is on the opposite side. She’s batting for the American oligarchs and the best he can muster up is complaining about floor-crossers.
Could he even muster up some well-earned outrage over the health care debacle unfolding in real time in Alberta? Does he even have a foggy fart about what will happen when he hits the world stage?
He sounds like the American Demoncrats blithering away as their country has brownshirts attacking in the streets while blaming Europe for not saving them from their own cowardice.
Saying “make this country work better for all of us” is pablum. How about “we will fix Alberta’s social services, bring in new businesses and stand up for our province and country, no matter the cost”.
He’d have done better to get ChatGPT to re-write one of Churchill’s speeches for him.
“We shall fight on the sea, and in the air and on the beaches” (even if we only have Maple Syrup bombs which is all we really have got–more paraphrasing)
I have to wonder who is he making this pitch, to.
Sure ain’t the voters.
B: It doesn’t matter. The UCP are going to sink like a rock thrown into a lake. Wait until the fallout comes from the UCP’s MH Care (Corrupt Care) scandal. That will be the end of the UCP and Danielle Smith. I’m very serious about that.
When you have the likes of “minister” Matt Jones undermining doctors and worse dishonouring the deaths that have occurred in our hospitals, you have to know that these UCP monsters do not give a rat’s ass about people. One has to wonder whether Jones would care if it was his own family dying, I suspect not – this cruelty is normative for the UCP, and Nenshi for all of his politeness will not stand a chance against the tide of fanatical separatists who are frothing at the mouth to destroy Canada. Like their father Trump, they have an insane world view tantamount to the goings on of the Third Reich. There is timid opposition to Trump, the UCP and their supporters, and that timidity will result in the aforementioned getting their way which means that we are headed for perhaps civil war in the USA and or worse World War Three. We are at an existential point in history. If you ever wondered what it would have been like to live under the power of the Third Reich you are living it now. What to do as the UCP destroy the entire public trust and the country to boot? And what to Albertans do? Nothing much and when they do rise up and protest at the legislature they are undermined and crushed by the UCP. Nay, sadly nay, Alberta will vote in the UCP again. Trump will take over Greenland and Canada – and the UCP will support this all the way to their deluded reality and millions of people will be left behind to probably die, forced to move, live in abject poverty, or all of the above and Trump/Smith et al. will laugh and dance upon their masterfully created dystopian chaos which they will call paradise.
Insanity does not begin to describe the state of the world right now and Albertans are in the thick of it. Unfortunately like their ignorant cousins, most Albertans simply do not care to care, are too busy amusing themselves to death, are unaffected, or support the UCP. Disgusting, pathetic, morally wrong, historically twisted, – these are some words to describe the UCP, MAGA monsters. Nenshi is already eaten alive and he is not aware.
Canada isn’t perfect, never will be, there is no country or person that is. What Canada is, is a country with a very rich history, full of good people who are making their way as best they can. We can’t change the past, we only have the present and our future. Churchill stated “If the present sits in judgement of the past, it will lose the future.” and that is what Smith and her kindergartners want us to do. Lose our future, by focusing on both Pierre and Justin Trudeau. That’s in the past, what’s done is done. Canada is our future, Alberta’s future. Together we’re strong, Alberta doesn’t need Trumplestiltskin, or any of his fascist brown eyes. We don’t need Smith, or her kindergartners. We need to stand-up and take Alberta back from these short-sighted, spoiled wanna be Americans. And if Nenshi can’t do this, then we need someone who can.
Trust Naheed Nenshi to bring a thesaurus to a knife fight.
Jaundiced Eye: Doesn’t matter about Naheed Nenshi. The UCP will fall on their own swords, and sooner than people realize. A big issue is the MH Care (Corrupt Care) scandal. That’s not over yet. It is going to get very ugly.
Regarding Nicolaides, it’s unfortunate that, the recall failed. If anyone one should’ve been recalled, I think he deserved it the most. In the January 14/2026 edition of the Western Wheel, letters to the Editor, Nicolaides is quoted, “I don’t answer to you, I answer to the party.” This was said to a constituent in the Bow River riding. What an amazing attitude to have, he doesn’t have answer to the people who elected him. Alberta needs a proper Minister of Education, not a UCP yes man, who is in charge of dummying down the future generations. “Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.” G.K. Chesterton. Knowledge is power and education is the path. Our children need to be educated and taught to think for themselves, so when people like Smith and Nicolaides try to snowball us, they can easily figure out the truth for themselves.
One would think that an effort by a foreign power to break off a region of Canadian territory that holds the second largest oil reserves on earth might prompt some kind of response from the state, but apparently it is up to a provincial-level opposition leader to manage the defence of the country. Elbows up and wear your mask!
Murphy: I agree completely with your concern about the apparent complete lack of action by the federal government on this issue. But I write blog posts about issues as they come up day by day. One could write an almost identical post about the NDP’s approach to health care communications and, come to think of it, I believe I have. So, you’re right. It’s not just Mr. Nenshi. But it is Mr. Nenshi too. And he is the leader of the Opposition. DJC
Yes indeed. ANDP needs to put more snarl in Nenshi’s eloquent comments/op-ed’s. Albertans deserve better.
Trudy G: No need to worry about Naheed Nenshi. The UCP are about to collapse. The lying media won’t be able to prop up the UCP anymore, or lie about the NDP, like they did prior to the last provincial election, which is the only reason why the NDP were defeated. Corruption of the highest order is what the UCP and Danielle Smith are partakers of, and it will finish them right off. MH Care (Corrupt Care) is still an issue, but it has more substance to it. Watch the UCP ship sink..
Yeah, an MOU over an oil pipeline nobody in the country wants to pay for so Dixie Dani can have one more thing to moan about wasn’t on my bingo card, either.
I will say, taking Moe to China was a bit clever though. He’s a happy farming camper right now which cuts out some of Dani’s base.
Like her hero Trump, she’s too stupid to get the hint, though.
The recall campaigns are about more than dumping inept and gutless MLA’s. It’s about building a community of people who want to get rid of the UCP. Seen in that light, the recall campaigns are doing their job. Ditto the Forever Canada campaign, which had a more positive outcome. People are getting involved, making friends, and building a social action network. The UCP should be worried.
Agree!
They need a win next, here. Even if it’s the size of a wine gum. A small win would catalyze this group into thinking they might actually accomplish something. Nothing kills a movement faster than feeling like they’re beating their heads against a brick wall.
Not many are good at strategic patience and fighting for future generations when the present looks dismal.
Maybe just win a few emergency beds, stopping some service or other from closing etc.
At 7:00, Republican mouthpiece Andy Ogles tells the world that Albertans have already decided that we do not want to be part of Canada.
https://youtu.be/e4W5lgfU9-Q?si=2uu3q8UoqgAoB-Uv
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Ogles
Talk about nonsense! Seems he is somewhat truth-challenged, but why did BBC allow him to spread this lie all over the airwaves in Europe without challenging him? US Republicans do not speak for Albertans. Americans DK not speak for Canadians. Does the British national broadcaster not understand that Canada and the US are two distinct countries barreling toward conflict? Shame on you, BBC. Much disrespect for allowing this.
Just because someone in the US is allegedly giving those untucked shirt separatists $500M in seed money to bust up the country does not make this true.
Hello federal government, foreign interference in the Alberta separatist referendum incoming. Are we going UK stand by and watch Brexit 2.0 unfold here?
Andy Ogles should get along well with Alberta’s premier, who is also an economist, when he walks across the border into Alberta on that lovely new red carpet the premier had installed. He apparently earned a C grade in one community college economics class and that’s all it takes down south. Of course he’ll have to find Alberta on a map beforehand. Before long, he’ll be giving advice on the economy to PM Mark Carney. Our PM wasn’t kidding when he told the crowd at Davos that Canadians are well-educated. If I sign up now, I can be an economist in ‘Murica in a few months. Yee-haw! Put that in your Tennessee Holler (motto: “Always yell the truth”).
https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/tennessee-congressman-andy-ogles-didnt-want-you-to-see-his-college-transcript-we-got-it-anyway
You’ve won me over, David.
I am so disappointed in the NDP response to the separatism threat, I am letting my NDP membership lapse after 40 years.
The Democrats in the US took too long to take their enemy within too seriously.
I am fed up with the NDP’s namby-pamby response to MAGA.
The most exciting Alberta political event in 2025 was the successful pro-Canada petition, an effort the NDP had no role in. How can we shake things up in NDP headquarters?
Andy M: Doesn’t matter. The UCP are about to go down, and you better believe me when I say that. An apt comparison is Grant Devine and the PCs in Saskatchewan. There is corruption which is that intense, and it’s in the UCP.
Also, the first politician to yell, “Imma build much affordable housing!”
WINS
I don’t think Nenshi is entirely wrong in his assumptions on Smith’s motivations. But the fact of the matter is that Smith is such a massive opportunistic sociopath that she truly does not care which path she takes, as long as it leads to power and wealth. So on one hand she could very much still be simply using the threat of separation, if only to secure what she wants from Canada. On the other hand is outright separation, which will make her dream of becoming an American come true and likely retain political power with significant perks from her American handlers. She’d view it as a win-win either way in her very warped, twisted mind. To hell with the rest of us.
Without a doubt, the Alberta NDP’s mission is to be the most polite and high minded opposition in the history of this country. For some reason they never get tired of politely losing.
Jaundiced Eye: The single reason why the NDP were defeated in the last provincial election was the media lied about Rachel Notley and the NDP. That’s it. However, the media will not be able to pull that same stunt the next time, because there is massive amounts of corruption that is going to sink the UCP, and the media will not be able to come to the defense of Danielle Smith and her group of miscreants.
Mr. Nenshi meets all the textbook definitions of ego inflation, self-importance, and controlled opposition [Where the 2 party system has been accurately characterized as one where: “The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to the doctrinaire and academic thinkers.” That is a description concerning the reality of a system as it currently is.]
Further Mr. Nenshi does not seem to understand that nobody cares about how smart he thinks he is. Self preening conceit and an unrealistic sense of importance gets old in short order and in rare instances might only be seen as suitable for juvenile adolescents and those individuals with limited or truncated personal psychological insight.
Considering the reference to the 2 party system noted above, it is both hardly a coincidence and unsurprising that the current Premier also exhibits all of the above noted characteristics.
After all they were both cloned in the same nursery that was designed to nurture and educate aspiring political managers. Meaning that they have both adjusted to and internalized all of the necessary dogma, the beliefs and attitudes, of the surrounding power system in this society, one that is highly designed for rewarding conformity and obedience.
Sho: Nuff: Sorry, but the one who isn’t smart is Danielle Smith. Epic levels of corruption are going to make the UCP obsolete. Her foolish arrogance and pride is making the UCP toast.
For sure, we seem to prefer our politicians without the fine print here in Alberta. No, he wasn’t my first choice on the ballot either. Nor was splitting from the federal NDP. Gil McGowan and Jason Schilling are facing the same criticisms: that they’re all talk, and no action. Male leaders that are the pointy end of largely female cohorts, like public sector unions, bear the brunt of the foreign funded manufactured foreign-funded caveman astroturfism.
You all read CTV for the articles, right???? Let’s be fair; the title WAS the win. How about Avi Lewis endorsing Nenshi on Jespersen? Lol. No bad publicity, remember?
No, in the absence of misspeaking US congressmen or Pathways Alliance slipping the NDP campaign donations, it is up to US to get off our backside. I’m not talking to you, Mr. Climenhaga, your job is to call it, much appreciated. I mean the miseries whining on their keyboards.
Stop whining. Get your butts in gear. Be a Bonnie Critchley. Be a Marg Tokar. Corb Lund’s petition is ready. Marie Renaud is hosting a disability advocacy workshop tonight. Heck, you can order a melt-the-Ice resistance tuque pattern from Ravelry, proceeds to impacted Minnesotans, if tricoteuse is your avatar.
As for the educated school board wine moms, B; you are treading dangerously. Who do you think is actually running the show? Why, funnily enough, it’s the A.F.W.U.L.’s and the not-so-awfuls. The single cat ladies. Ready to pick up the pieces, wind the shrouds and carry on once again when it all blows up. What do you call that when Nenshi rallies them- a cat whistle?
The Alberta separatist movement is been sponsored in part by the USA; whats’s new?
Nenshi is yet another example of the NDP’s dissolvement into a party of identity politics and virtue signaling; no spine , no answers much like todays Greens! sad but true.
AT the federal level we have a pragmatic Conservative whilst Poilievre and Smith at the provincial level roam without a target to anything but appease the oil and gas industry.
TB
I hope CSIS is monitoring communications between the separatists, including the premier, and both the US administration and MAGA. If there is sedition, and foreign influence money being used by the separatists, it should be exposed.
Senator Paula Simon recently expressed her contempt for people who write to her demanding that the federal government do something about the separatists. She said the answer instead is for Albertans to get politically involved. But WTF does that mean? 450,000 Albertans did get involved. They signed Lukaszuk’s petition. They have held huge rallies to protest the use of the notwithstanding clause. The UCP doesn’t give a rat’s ass about any of it. Meanwhile, the separatist knuckle-draggers go to Washington to negotiate with American officials. Private citizens negotiating with a foreign power to get that foreign power’s help in breaking up Canada! Simon is wrong. It IS time for the feds to step in. Where is CSIS? Where is the RCMP? Carney’s speech in Davos, with his emphasis on hegemons, could easily be applied to Smith and her seditionists. Carney needs to stop placating Dipshit Dani with pipelines that will never be built. That’s just appeasement– the same kind of compliance disguised as democracy that he went on at length about in Davos. CSIS the RCMP, Carney– someone with federal authority needs to put the kibosh on this separation shite instead of standing by, meekly watching it happen and saying and doing nothing about it. As for Nenshi, nice guys finish last. I’m fed up with the useless ANDP. He won’t even say that if/when elected, he will immediately repeal all this fascist legislation. If anyone needs to take Simon’s advice and get politically involved, it’s Nenshi and his party. I really don’t understand why they stick to their namby-pamby niceness when Albertans who support them are demanding they start breathing fire.
The Nenshi ivisceration? I have survived Grant Notley’s night of unspeakable horror, Rachel’s crash landing, Raj, Ray, and Brian. I live in Sylvestre’s armpit -he polls at 38% now. I live in a modest two-bedroom, consuming $62.49 of electricity, tendering a bill 0f $254.80. I drive a modest auto with basic coverage $2600.00. More, I am a senior on a modest pension. I have a disabled child, not a single UCP member saw fit to speak out, not even the claw back -more UCP hardship on the way, there is no mention of public auto insurance, or reigning in the avaricious (but philanthropic, Southern’s real power). All the stuff Grant and I knocked on doors about. What health care? What does Nenshi offer me?
When Michelle Obama famously declared, “When they go low, we go high,” it wasn’t supposed to be a reason to find ways to fail.
That old adage remains true: when you go to a knife fight, bring a flamethrower.
Rachel Notley’s dismal performance during the leader’s debate from the 2023 Election could be described as Notley doesn’t want to be there, and please don’t hurt me, Premier Smith. Notley could not leave provincial politics fast enough, though some feared she might make a third run at the UCP.
Nenshi is falling for the same nonsense, and it will result in more failure. Now, is the time for extreme anger, and to kick every UCP MLA in the balls (or ovaries) for the treasons they have committed. Call for Queen Danielle’s head, without apology.
I feel separatism is just a mainly just a way station for those who want Alberta to join the US, but who can’t really come out and say that now in part because this would be even less popular than separatism. While the mainstream media also mostly refuses to acknowledge this, I feel most Albertans also understand this. We are living in an Orwellian province where the gap between what is covered by the mainstream media and reality is growing.
It is interesting that the first recall campaign did not take off so it is not a good sign for the rest of them. Perhaps those who thought it would be so easy to get rid of Smith and her gang were a bit wishful. They are not good or very competent at governing, but are better at politics They should not be underestimated. It turns out general elections do have consequences and we may have to wait a while for the next one to deal with Smith and the UCP.
I, for one, can’t wait for the downfall of the UCP. There are very foul shenanigans going on, that not even the staunchest supporters of the UCP, including the columnists in the major newspapers of Edmonton and Calgary will be able to dismiss. It will be impossible for them to do so. This will be very exciting to watch.