What we do know is that the United Conservative Party Government led by Premier Danielle Smith yesterday launched a propaganda blitz that will use all Albertans’ tax contributions to persuade voters to vote Yes next fall on a series of ballot questions on constitutional and immigration questions.
The government’s news release framed the announcement merely as the introduction of a slick website containing “relevant information on these important issues.” Clearly, though, it is far more than that, and not just because the site repeatedly urges voters to “Stand for a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada.”
Just what, though, has intentionally been made less clear.
Whatever it is, considerable thought, time and expense has been put into this subversive campaign to undermine the Canadian federation in the minds of Alberta voters and it is likely that the website rolled out yesterday by Ms. Smith and Justice Minister Mickey Amery is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
Notwithstanding this, media coverage of the announcement and news conference mostly failed to challenge Premier Smith’s narrative. The Globe and Mail struck a mildly critical tone behind its paywall – terming the propaganda effort a “lobbying campaign,” which is a little closer to the truth than the CBC’s “information campaign” and Postmedia’s similarly non-committal phrasing.
Of the nine questions to be placed on the Oct. 19 ballot by the government – which are technically non-binding plebiscites and not referenda – the news release claims they “come out of the Alberta Next Panel’s recommendations following extensive consultations with Albertans, subject-matter experts and policy makers from across the province as part of the Alberta Next town hall process.”
While not quite a bald-faced lie, this is heavy spin.
The purpose of last summer’s Alberta Next Panel was clearly to manipulate town hall participants into supporting these recommendations, plus others such as setting up an Alberta Pension Plan and sending the RCMP packing in favour of a political police force run by the UCP.
As noted at the time, the results were less than impressive. Despite packing Alberta Next town halls with UCP supporters and insulting people who didn’t want to talk about Premier Smith’s hobbyhorses, it turned out Albertans were decidedly less enthusiastic about some of the things the government most wanted – especially the Alberta police force and the pension grab.
The UCP strategic brain trust seems to have gone ahead with the nine questions on immigration and constitutional change because in the former case they appealed to the party base and in the latter they have the potential to provoke the national constitutional crisis that is at the heart of the so-called Free Alberta Strategy co-authored by the premier’s chief of staff and former Wildrose Party sidekick, Rob Anderson.
The wordy questions have been drafted to make a Yes vote palatable, especially to low information voters. Ms. Smith admitted as much in her news conference, saying, “we think we’ve done that initial culling of the questions to make sure that we found the ones that are likely to get majority support, but I’m asking them so that I can get a mandate. And if I don’t get a mandate, then we’ll have to address what we do at that time.” (Emphasis added.)
In other words, with the UCP, there’s always more than one way to skin a cat, as Ms. Smith demonstrated earlier this week with her “Alberta Time” announcement, which ignores a not-so-long-ago referendum result she didn’t like.
The immigration questions scapegoat new Canadians for causing problems that are the result of 40 years of neoliberal policy at all levels of government in Canada.
As for the other questions, in which the government purports to be merely asking permission to work for constitutional change with “other willing provinces,” they are unlikely to be acceptable to voters in many parts of Canada. So, at best, this will provide the separation-leaning UCP Caucus an excuse to complain that Canada never listens to us, and so surely therefore the West Wants Out.
Of course, as Deirdre Mitchell MacLean correctly observed in her Women of ABPoli Substack yesterday, “the UCP doesn’t need ‘a mandate’ to work with other provinces to change the constitution.” Nor, according to the talking points at the time, was it the intention of the province’s “citizen initiative” legislation to serve as a platform for government initiatives that ought to be debated in the elected Legislature.
So, at worst, these questions will become part of a shameless effort to shove sovereignty-association, outright separation, or U.S. annexation down the throats of Albertans and other Canadians if the UCP doesn’t get its way from the vote results.
Meanwhile, the openly separatist petition campaign to get an unconstitutional question calling for Alberta’s immediate outright departure from Canada on the same ballot may or may not, depending on which rumour you listen to, have the close to 178,000 signatures it requires by May 2 when it must be turned in to Elections Alberta.
Ms. Smith and the UCP have been doing whatever they can to get that question on the ballot with the other nine.
With Trumpian echoes worthy of a starry-eyed visitor to Mar-a-Lago, Ms. Smith also told the news conference: “We’re going to be out actively persuading the public that this is the direction we want to go, but we want an endorsement from them, and so I think people need to understand exactly what it is we’re asking, and they’ll give us direction.”
More mischief is likely to be generated by long waits for the results the plebiscite after voting on Oct. 19, since the UCP insists on using paper ballots and each referendum will require a separate ballot box in every polling place. Can’t wait to see how that pans out.
Meanwhile, as expected, the foreign funded misinformation and disinformation social media campaign is continuing to pick up steam online. Whether this involves co-operation of the UCP and Alberta separatist groups with MAGA Republicans in the United States or state actors in other countries that would like to destabilize Canada is impossible to know just yet.
But the CBC reported yesterday that three individuals in the Netherlands are behind the network of YouTube channels that hired actors to create reams of slopaganda supporting Alberta separatism. This kind of thing is bound to just keep getting worse as Oct. 19 nears.
I would be very careful with voting on this. They will likely be trick questions, and there will be easily fooled people voting on this. In the world of the UCP and Danielle Smith, black is white, and white is black. It’s a very slippery slope, masquerading as democracy, but it will have other consequences we don’t want. If the referendum questions are available to be seen online, beforehand, people with a lot of knowledge about this will have to explain what the true intentions are, and what voting yes or no actually means.
I agree. A double negative would not surprise me nor a question about a sovereign Alberta in Canada. Smith is the Tricky Dicky of this century. She makes Trump and his minions look like amateurs!
At least the Quebec separatists, or sovereignists as they prefer to be called, were more honest about their intentions. Although when it became clear they were unlikely to win they also resorted to unclear questions. This eventually led the frustrated Feds role bring in the Clarity Act, which may be needed yet again.
I also recall there was an old joke about Quebecers wanting a sovereign country in a strong and united Canada. However, it was more about the overall ambivalence and contradictory feelings of the province, not the separatists, and it was meant to be ironic. Someone please tell our current Premier this because she seems to be seriously basing her government’s current policy on the punchline of an old joke.
No doubt duplicitous Dani will continue to sew confusing, shifting referendums and questions designed not to get an accurate assessment of how Albertans feel, but the answers she and her separatist supporters want.
Dave, did you really mean “decidedly less unenthusiastic” or “decidedly less enthusiastic”?
Jim: Correct. Thanks. It’s been fixed. DJC
Out of control Danielle pushes all of her priorities NEVER campaigned-on & repeatedly rejected by Albertans. Her APP, POL_ICE, Sovereignty referenda are her ludicrous Trojan horse despicable method of forcing Albertans to accept ABREXIT. Unfit.
You write: “it turned out Albertans were decidedly less unenthusiastic about some of the things the government most wanted – especially the Alberta police force and the pension grab.”
That looks like a double negative to me. Don’t you mean “decidedly unenthusiastic”?
Anon: Good catch. I did mean “decidedly less enthusiastic.” It’s been fixed. DJC
It seems even formerly respected Calgary economists support the results of the UCP’s scam Alberta Next Panel. Sad.
Smith is not a decent person. In my opinion
All this so called referendum stuff is merely trying to distract from the UCP’s big failures on health care and education, not to mention the unethical deals everywhere. The total disrespectful behavior of the next panel, just illustrates the where this government is going. Smith doesn’t care what the results of this is as she will no doubt ignore the will of the people and charge ahead with what she wants. To sound similar as Magilla Gorilla, or commonly known as Jason Nixon, “I recommend to all Albertans to reject anything the UCP has to offer and vote NO on anything they put forward.”
I know regardless of the paper tricks and other antics, I will be voting NO on everything they put forward.
Y’know bein’ conspiracy minded and all, particularly after listening to American voices egg on the truckers to more and more outrage on zello…
…I’m seriously starting to wonder if Smith is just an oiligarch plant or if she’s actually a CIA asset at this point. Is she that smart or just a useful idiot?
Whaddya all think?
Who ? A former actor, groomed by an academic that if they aren’t spook connected certainly fit the profile to a t; who happens to be around for some of the most consequential political moments in Alberta’s recent history, a dedicated “libertarian” who very openly supports right wing US style policies in every single issue.
Honestly if she’s that useful of an idiot they’re getting a HELL of a bargain aren’t they.
Just a couple of short years ago would you have believed what Albertans are facing now, with Danielle Smith as Premier? I remember when I heard rumours she was going to run for the leadership of Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party and thought, “Haha! No way!!” Much like when I heard Donald Trump, whom I had only seen as a goofy guest with a bad combover on late night talk shows, was going to run for the leadership of the Republican Party in the U.S. “Not a snowball’s chance in Hell!”, I thought. I just looked outside and Hell is freezing over. Now she’s Premier of Alberta and he’s President of the U.S. and it would appear there’s going to be a shot-gun wedding between our naive young bride (Alberta)
and the corrupt and wealthy old gangster (US). The nuptials likely were hastily arranged when she beetled on down to Mara-Largo to be the first to congratulate him on his most excellent win of the presidency, and to offer her fair, young charge as a celebratory gift. And then the glorious trip to Washington for his inauguration, maybe to work out a few pre-nups including a dark money dowry as a little kick-starter, topped up with promises that by hook or by crook the tax-payers of Alberta would pay for everything else including the invitations, the gown, and the swanky reception. There is no way I want this unholy marriage to happen, I don’t want to be a guest, nor participant in any way, neither do I want to pay one Canadian looney towards this ghastly, illegitimate travesty.
The question on everyone’s minds:
How long do we all have to sell our houses and get the heck out of the aspiring 51st state before the market collapses?
My husband and I are wondering the same thing. Separation is unlikely, but if Smith can manage to win re-election, we will consider moving – mostly for healthcare reasons.
Abs: I can tell you a sad story on that from personal experience. In 1970 Canada declared the War Measures Act to deal with murderous Quebec separatists. In 1975 I was a young farmer-member of the National Farmers Union in Alberta. I had a young Quebec couple referred to me by the National Office who were looking to relocate their farm to Alberta. They were of Scottish heritage and fifth generation farmers near Montreal. By that time Quebec real estate had crashed to the extent that their 500 acre farm could barley buy a three bed room home in a poor part of Calgary. Their dream of moving their farm was crushed. I learned to hate separatists that day. This is a long way of saying it is much too late to get out of Alberta. Buckle down and defend your home against the UCP traitors.
I see the “Free Alberta Strategy” as a plan for partition from people who have studied history enough to know what happens with partition. History will repeat itself. We live in very dangerous times.
“Big Brother [Sister]” hath spoken, and we all must obey! And yes, along with more media slop from UCP mouths, much more AI slop to come for our reading and musing [dis-]pleasure.
You can’t grift if you don’t have your butts in the Premier’s office – and that’s what yesterday’s announcement was all about. Keeping the separatists (religious right who want an Alberta theocracy and home schoolers who never learned how to play in the sandbox with others) busy with their little referendum and not plotting how to dump Smith and, therefore, Anderson. And it could work. Let’s say Black Hat Guy and his gang don’t get enough signatures on their petition and/or the courts hold up their Citizens Initiative for years. Smith could use the Forever Canada question on the Oct 19 referendum. That still gives the separatists a chance to campaign – rah, rah, rah – and keeps them busy. The problem there is that the FC question doesn’t specify what the next steps would be if Albertans decide they don’t want the province to stay in Canada – independent nation, join the US as a state, join Australia, join China??? So, there would need to be another referendum. Perhaps timed with a provincial election in October 2027? Again, keeps the pot on the boil and the separatists grubby little hands occupied. These fools are being played and they don’t even see it. Meanwhile, the grift goes on. And, unfortunately, the rest of us are paying for this BS.
Every. Single. Day. Marlaina has learned well from the Mango Mussolini. Flood the zone every day with nonsense and eventually you will wear out the resistance. It is disgraceful and should be illegal that she is allowed to waste millions of taxpayer dollars on propaganda. It’s bad enough that we are being forced to pay for useless referendums that she has already shown she will ignore if they don’t give her the result she wants. Now, we are being forced to pay for propaganda to sway gullible rural Albertans into thinking that immigrants are the source of all our problems. This also fits well with the blatant current of racism that many UCP members seem proud to display. The signs are all there: gerrymandering, propaganda, biased referendums, cronyism…. Marlaina is a clear and present danger to democracy.
“We found that middle-income census tracts declined from 70 percent to 41 percent of Calgary tracts between 1970 and 2010. This decline has largely been accompanied by a rising share of low- and very-low-income tracts, increasing from 11 percent in 1970 to 33 percent in 2010. The share of census tracts that are high or very high income has changed little over time, increasingfrom 19 percent in 1970 to 20 percent in 2010. But we found evidence of increasing concentration of income within these tracts. For instance, in the highest income tract in Calgary, the income ratio almost doubled from 1.9 in 1970 to 3.6 in 2010.” http://neighbourhoodchange.ca/documents/2018/04/socio-spatial-polarization-in-calgary.pdf
“The greatest labor force in terms of industry in Calgary was wholesale and retail trade at 15%, with retail having the third lowest median wage of $24,890/year.
The median wage declined most among Accomodation and Food Services, followed by Arts, Entertainment and Recreation, Agriculture, and Retail Trade.” https://www.livingwagealberta.ca/news/new-report-highlights-income-inequality-in-calgary
Oil’s well in the ‘berta kakistocratic, kleptocratic plutocracy. As the United States empire continues Operation Watch on the Rhine 2.0, which consists of an all-out effort to cut off China’s access to hydrocarbons as the PRC approaches escape velocity from US hegemony, it’s probably best to expect a lot of disruptions here. The bandit empire has managed to eliminate China’s access to Venezuelan crud, and they’re using their Ukrainian and sundry Nazi Balt clowns to eliminate Chinese access to Russian oil, not to mention obliterating the capacity of other countries to compete with US LNG as Europe is returned to a socio-economic development state on par with Merovingian times. It’s not going to be pretty here. But Albertans remain a sophisticated people, able to put things into perspective, so I am certain we will trascend this turbulent period together. “Former Edmonton Oilers owner Peter Pocklington still owes the Alberta government more than $13 million from an unpaid 1988 loan for a failed meat-packing plant. In Arizona, Pocklington and an associate have so far reneged on restitution of more than $5 million US to settle a securities fraud case involving a gold-mining scheme. And three months ago, the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Pocklington with securities fraud in California for allegedly defrauding investors in his medical-device company and misappropriating funds.”
Will you ever comment on the topic at hand? Or is every post an exhibition of wordsmithing and your supposed omniscient knowledge of the “real” history of the world only known to you? Perhaps a blog of your own is in order.
The Alberta referendum website is full of outright lies. For example, in the FAQs the website claims the federal government has allowed 400,000 temporary residents into Alberta during the past 3 years. The actual number is less than a third of this (about 120,000). In 2025, more temporary residents left Alberta than entered.
“More mischief” sums up the entire affair, but more importantly is the desire to remembered as someone involved in history making events, i.e, the great individual as hero.
In any event, the current Premier is simply both carrying on with the long standing tradition of Alberta grievance politics as a particular method of psychological and emotional manipulation ( i.e. a politics of resentment that amplifies perceived injury and then inflames desires for revenge) and carrying the water of her advisors, mentors, and benefactors. Grinding the Alberta grievance axe and promoting the falsehoods that are part of the package has proven to be successful as a political strategy/tactic, over and over again.
The most recent iteration, as everyone already knows, was reformulated and repackaged by academicians:
“Morton’s later writings and interviews argued that Ottawa was structurally hostile to Alberta. Cooper, along with Rob Anderson and Derek From, co-authored the Free Alberta Strategy (2021), which proposes creating an Alberta pension plan, tax agency, police force—and suggested that independence is “always on the table.” Flanagan co-edited Moment of Truth (2020), a book that openly frames separation as a policy option, not a taboo.”
https://southof45.substack.com/p/the-calgary-school-at-30-from-national
The current Premier, as a dedicated fellow traveler and trusted ideologue, has embraced the ideals, the ideas, and the scheme by becoming the de facto supporter, advertiser, and salesperson for the “separatists and grievance entrepreneurs.” that are providing the needed political support that she actively seeks out. Apparently, it is a mutually beneficial relationship.
As explained by John Brennan, Political Scientist, it is Danielle Smith’s plan to manufacture consent for her sovereign Alberta agenda. She is trying to create an Alberta which is a unique political entity within Canada with its own pension plan and police force. The Alberta Next Panel was designed to create support for this unique entity and the October referendum questions further Smith’s agenda. This analysis of the bigger picture was enlightening for me and it puts everything the UCP is doing into an understandable framework, although not supportable.
Nine questions to vote NEIN to. Ridiculous times with odious policies. I hope at least some Ukrainian clergy and humanitarian groups speak up for how this is further victimizing and stigmatizing many who fled Putin‘s violence in the war zone for the safety of Alberta in the past years. The greasy smog of Orbán has truly descended on our province.
Our new Ukrainian neighbours are hard working, family-oriented, communitarian, and focused on building better lives for their children. Smith can go slurp some headcheese for picking on them and all other newcomers!
CBC must be heavily pressured to present ‘balanced’ content. Elise Stolte’s reporting on classroom conditions was fair and well done but I was livid listening to the Minister of Education on Alberta at Noon today once again given the white glove treatment, permitted to gaslight us, spewing weak nonsense with the express goal of harming our kids and our public education system. And Ms. Makami College herself allowed to express her feelings about bias in classrooms on West of Centre. Mind you, she’d know, I suppose. Her progeny apparently suffered the insult of being exposed to the double-C words, when the math problem should have dealt with apples and oranges. How’s the Florida citrus crop doing in the drought?
Where’s she going to turn up next, head of the new Electoral Boundaries Advisory group? Being post-secondary adjacent ish? Or maybe they’ll chose the head of another Academy of Excellence in the news lately- no names, no lawsuit!
You flap on and on about propaganda and rhetoric…lol. Then write this blatantly obvious liberal loving puff piece. Hard to take you seriously when you come across as a spoiled child.
LOL/DJC
@djc Appears you have a troll. I wonder what bridge to nowhere he came from?
Gerald: I always have at least one UCP-sympathizing troll. Every now and then they disappear, and another soon appears in their place. I’m not suggesting they’re the same person. It’s just a law of nature or something. DJC
Richard: It appears that someone slipped through the gates on here. Why do you support the UCP who cause more hardship for Albertans, while being corrupt to the core?
This easterner enjoyed this blatantly obvious liberal loving puff piece so much he contributed $100 to Thomas Lukaszuk’s Forever Canadian campaign.
Dave, I have nothing good to say about any of this and all my suggestions on what to do with Smith and her UPC can’t be printed.
I think I found Danielle Smith’s referendum website.
https://albertareferendumb2026.ca/#whatIsReferendum
Great screenshot –captures that look Danielle Smith gets as her remarkably consistent estrangement from the truth becomes a continuity–her I-modium-operandi that will doubtless get more I-mobius as the her referendum campaign approaches the endorheic swamp of separatism on October 19, 2026.
It’s that cringy ‘gotta-take-one/about-to-eat-some’ look that’s becoming as much of a tell as her pro-forma, “Well, look…!” that reliably forewarns she’s about to get estranger and estranger with the truth.
As the hopelessly biased “referendum” gets deeper into the weeds, thence into the deep, a dark woods, I’m gonna wait see which of the nine questions she decides, post-voting, are binding or not. I’m inclined to suspect that however mootly unconstitutional, illegal, and provocative Smith and Rob née Anderthrall make this process, ultimately it is intentional–up to and including including rigging a victory for the secessionists.
…or is that “only” a perception of a conflict?
Nenshi’s take on the referendum questions.
https://substack.com/@prairiesexposed/note/c-248852673?r=1t12vl&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Those Dutch slopagandists may be in it for the money alone, but I wonder if there is a possible connection to Pete Hoekstra, who was ambassador to the Netherlands and hosted a fundraising event for a far right political party in 2020.