Doug Ford says Carney should extend an olive branch to the West. Liberal strategists agree
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney could soon be facing a national unity crisis after Alberta Premier Danielle Smith lowered the bar for a referendum on the province's independence in 2026.
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Liberal insiders with ties to Alberta say this is a threat that Carney shouldn't take lightly. And Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters on Wednesday that he agrees.
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'About two in 10 Albertans say routinely that they want to see the province separate from Canada,' says Dan Arnold, an ex-Alberta Liberal organizer who's now an executive with Pollara Strategic Insights.
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'These people are in the minority, to be clear, but they're too numerous to be written off as a radical fringe.'
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Arnold points to the grim numbers from Pollara's latest Western Identity Report, released in February. The report found that 55 per cent of Albertans feel that their province is being treated unfairly by the federal government.
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Albertans were also the least pessimistic group anywhere in Canada about their province's prospects outside of confederation and the least opposed to joining the United States.
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Arnold said the silver lining for Carney is that most Albertans have a gripe with Ottawa, not with Canada as a whole.
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'Albertans still identify strongly as Canadians,' said Arnold. 'Alberta separatism isn't identity-based in the same way as Quebec separatism.'
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Arnold also said that now is a good time for Carney to 'sell Canada' to disaffected Albertans, with national pride rising in the face of tariffs and annexation threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.
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He noted that next month's G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alta., will give Carney a great opportunity to send a message of national unity to Albertans.
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Carney reportedly gave Trump a hat and golf gear bearing the logo of the Kananaskis Country Golf Course as a gift during his visit to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.
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'I said it's time that your government starts showing some love to Saskatchewan and Alberta (because) the last prime minister showed no love,' Ford told reporters in Toronto.
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