Danielle Smith — Alberta first and mostly

Winnipeg Free Press

09-05-2025

Opinion
Let's talk a little bit about boundaries.
Oh, and about Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
Smith is big on boundaries when it comes to her province: here's Smith talking about Ontario Premier Doug Ford: 'I don't tell him how he should run his province, and I would hope he doesn't tell me how I should run mine.'
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith
She's complained thoroughly and regularly about the ways she sees Ottawa overstepping its federal authority — along with environmental restrictions on resource industries, she's mentioned a whole gamut of things: 'From taking over the regulation of plastics, to mandating how we operate child care, health care and dental care, to harassing law abiding firearms owners, to dozens of other examples of unconstitutional interference,' as she said in the 'Alberta Next' plan.
Strangely, though, Smith has no boundaries when it comes to making demands of other provinces, or of the country as a whole.
She complains about other provinces' natural resources — like their own coasts and ports — and their right to control them, maintaining Alberta should have guaranteed rights to access to other provinces.
She insists that 'Alberta requires guaranteed corridor and port access to tidewater off the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic coasts for the international export of Alberta oil, gas, critical minerals and other resources in amounts supported by the free market, rather than by the dictates and whims of Ottawa.'
As well, she has argued she should set federal policy: 'The federal government must end all federal interference in the development of provincial resources by repealing the no new pipelines law, C-69, the oil tanker ban, the net zero electricity regulations, the oil and gas emissions cap, the net zero vehicle mandate, and any federal law or regulation that purports to regulate industrial carbon emissions, plastics, or the commercial free speech of energy companies.'
Not only that. When she insists, 'The federal government must refrain from imposing export taxes or restrictions on the export of Alberta resources without the consent of the Government of Alberta,' she's making a de facto demand that Alberta gets to set international trade policy, something that's firmly within the federal purview.
She also wants to put her province's thumb on the scales of federal funding, saying 'the federal government must provide to Alberta the same per capita federal transfers and equalization as is received by the other three largest provinces — Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia.'
Stoking division is the wrong policy.
That's not the only contradiction: on the one hand, Smith says she's not a proponent of separation, yet writes that Alberta is blessed 'with an endowment of natural resources that no other country on earth possesses.' (Oops, she slipped up and called Alberta a country. Hard to believe that was accidental.)
The high-handedness of her approach is both deliberate and divisive
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Contrast that with the message sent out by Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew on Wednesday: 'Today I've written to Prime Minister Carney to share Manitoba's plan to partner on nation-building projects. From Arctic trade corridors to critical minerals, we're ready to grow the economy, strengthen sovereignty, and create opportunity across Canada.'
Sharing a plan, rather than issuing an ultimatum. How novel.
Smith is welcome to fight for her own province — she is expected to. But to complain about others overstepping their boundaries while she demands to be allowed to overstep hers?
The fact is that the provincial governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan depend on the federal government: without the perpetual stalking horse of the feds, both the governments of Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, and Smith, might actually have to deal with provincial issues, rather than simply perpetually blaming everything on Ottawa.
It's a tiresome routine.