Smith, Pee Pee and Harper are all IDU.
They are not popular.
The path for a referendum on Alberta separation has been laid out
- Thread starter Phil C. McNasty
- Start date
They are not popular.
A broken clock is right twice a day... you can only dream of being half that correct.
The federal government invested billions into the tar sands, invested billions into a LNG terminal in BC, invested billions into an oil terminal in BC, invested billions into the pipelines to bring nat gas and oil to the terminals in BC, in 2018 when oil prices hit $40 the federal government gave handouts to Alberta.
Alberta is such an ungrateful province.
Alberta is such an ungrateful province.
The answer is tat the majority in Alberta still want to be a Province within Canada. So the answer is No.
While Kenney has had his differences with Smith, it may be worth recalling that he was first elected to the House of Commons as a Reform MP.
‘Playing with fire’: Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney weighs in on separation talk
Emma GraneyEnergy reporter
Calgary
Published May 14, 2025Updated Yesterday
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Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney says the question of the province's separation 'is kryptonite for investor confidence.'CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
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The Alberta government will be “playing with fire” if it continues to fan the flames of a referendum on separation, says former premier Jason Kenney.
Separation talk has grown louder in the wake of the federal Liberal Party’s recent election victory. Tens of thousands of Western Canadians have registered with the Alberta Prosperity Project, which supports a sovereignty referendum. And Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said she would support any citizen-led petition that gets the number of signatures required to trigger a plebiscite on the issue.
“This kind of stuff is kryptonite for investor confidence,” Mr. Kenney told media at the ATCO Ltd. annual meeting Wednesday.
Mr. Kenney, now a board member of the Calgary-based energy and utilities giant, said he was asked this week at an investor conference on Wall Street just how serious Alberta is about a separation referendum.
“People who follow Alberta closely in investment circles are paying attention,” he said, and what they are seeing is “a blinking light of uncertainty, which they hate.”
Ms. Smith has said she does not personally support Alberta separating from Canada. But the day after the federal election, her government introduced a bill that would make it easier for residents to force a provincial referendum.
Mr. Kenney acknowledged that such a vote may not happen at all, but said even the prospect of it should not be trifled with.
“This is playing with fire. And if Albertans doubt that, look at a real historical example of what happened in Quebec’s economy as a result of merely the election of a PQ government,” he said, including the billions of investment dollars that fled the province in the face of instability.
“Quebec has paid the price for the uncertainty created by separation for going on 50 years now. I don’t want Alberta to be in the same situation.”
While Mr. Kenney doesn’t think a vote on sovereignty would spell the end of investment altogether, the discussion alone has dangled an unwelcome question mark over the province.
“The Alberta economy is doing pretty well thanks to large-scale investment. My view is, let’s keep that going, let’s not jeopardize it, let’s not put it at risk,” he said.
And while he believes Albertans would overwhelmingly vote against secession, he is concerned that even 200,000 or 300,000 people voting “yes” would provide political and organizational capital for a relatively small group of people to continue undermining Alberta’s place in the federation, much like Quebec separatists have done.
“There’s no happy ending to that for Alberta’s economy,” he said.
ATCO chief executive Nancy Southern said Wednesday that she doesn’t think talk of separation should receive any oxygen. She added that the discussion alone is already shaking the confidence of foreign companies looking to invest in large-scale ATCO projects.
“Are our Japanese partners or our South Korean partners wanting to invest in a multibillion-dollar plant in the heart of Alberta and say, ‘Well, what are the rules going to be? What’s the currency going to be? Is there security around this? Who’s going to trade with this? How do we get to tidewater? How do we get our product to our country?’ They are very concerned,” she said.
A fourth-generation Albertan, Ms. Southern said she understands and shares the vexation about what she sees as years of anti-energy policies coming out of Ottawa.
“We have had the short end of the stick for quite a while, but this is our opportunity to now work together with a new Prime Minister, a new cabinet, and see if we can’t get ourselves out of the way and actually deliver on this energy superpower that we all want to see,” she said.
“I feel, myself personally, the frustration around that. But to talk about separatism is, in my mind, anathema to what Canada should be standing for.”
‘Playing with fire’: Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney weighs in on separation talk
Emma GraneyEnergy reporter
Calgary
Published May 14, 2025Updated Yesterday
Open this photo in gallery:
Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney says the question of the province's separation 'is kryptonite for investor confidence.'CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
203 Comments
Share
Save for later
Give this article
Listen to this article
The Alberta government will be “playing with fire” if it continues to fan the flames of a referendum on separation, says former premier Jason Kenney.
Separation talk has grown louder in the wake of the federal Liberal Party’s recent election victory. Tens of thousands of Western Canadians have registered with the Alberta Prosperity Project, which supports a sovereignty referendum. And Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said she would support any citizen-led petition that gets the number of signatures required to trigger a plebiscite on the issue.
“This kind of stuff is kryptonite for investor confidence,” Mr. Kenney told media at the ATCO Ltd. annual meeting Wednesday.
Mr. Kenney, now a board member of the Calgary-based energy and utilities giant, said he was asked this week at an investor conference on Wall Street just how serious Alberta is about a separation referendum.
“People who follow Alberta closely in investment circles are paying attention,” he said, and what they are seeing is “a blinking light of uncertainty, which they hate.”
Ms. Smith has said she does not personally support Alberta separating from Canada. But the day after the federal election, her government introduced a bill that would make it easier for residents to force a provincial referendum.
Mr. Kenney acknowledged that such a vote may not happen at all, but said even the prospect of it should not be trifled with.
“This is playing with fire. And if Albertans doubt that, look at a real historical example of what happened in Quebec’s economy as a result of merely the election of a PQ government,” he said, including the billions of investment dollars that fled the province in the face of instability.
“Quebec has paid the price for the uncertainty created by separation for going on 50 years now. I don’t want Alberta to be in the same situation.”
While Mr. Kenney doesn’t think a vote on sovereignty would spell the end of investment altogether, the discussion alone has dangled an unwelcome question mark over the province.
“The Alberta economy is doing pretty well thanks to large-scale investment. My view is, let’s keep that going, let’s not jeopardize it, let’s not put it at risk,” he said.
And while he believes Albertans would overwhelmingly vote against secession, he is concerned that even 200,000 or 300,000 people voting “yes” would provide political and organizational capital for a relatively small group of people to continue undermining Alberta’s place in the federation, much like Quebec separatists have done.
“There’s no happy ending to that for Alberta’s economy,” he said.
ATCO chief executive Nancy Southern said Wednesday that she doesn’t think talk of separation should receive any oxygen. She added that the discussion alone is already shaking the confidence of foreign companies looking to invest in large-scale ATCO projects.
“Are our Japanese partners or our South Korean partners wanting to invest in a multibillion-dollar plant in the heart of Alberta and say, ‘Well, what are the rules going to be? What’s the currency going to be? Is there security around this? Who’s going to trade with this? How do we get to tidewater? How do we get our product to our country?’ They are very concerned,” she said.
A fourth-generation Albertan, Ms. Southern said she understands and shares the vexation about what she sees as years of anti-energy policies coming out of Ottawa.
“We have had the short end of the stick for quite a while, but this is our opportunity to now work together with a new Prime Minister, a new cabinet, and see if we can’t get ourselves out of the way and actually deliver on this energy superpower that we all want to see,” she said.
“I feel, myself personally, the frustration around that. But to talk about separatism is, in my mind, anathema to what Canada should be standing for.”
Opinion | Let’s drop the phoney Alberta versus Canada nonsense. The province has met the enemy — and it is them
May 24, 2025
3 min read
Save
During the so-called decade of federal ‘attacks on oil,’ Alberta oil giants set records for production and profits, writes Jim Stanford. So why is the average Albertan not getting their cut?
Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press file photo
By Jim StanfordContributing Columnist
Jim Stanford, director of the Centre for Future Work in Vancouver, is a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @jimbostanford.
(Trigger warning: The author was born, bred, and educated in Alberta. Reader discretion is advised.)
Because the Liberal party won the most seats in a national election (the fourth time in a row), but most Alberta ridings went Conservative (for the umpteenth time in a row), Canada is now said to be facing a national unity crisis.
Premier Danielle Smith facilitates separatism (while claiming she doesn’t support it).
Why is it so hard for young people to get jobs right now?
Alberta business leaders play the national unity card in demanding fast approval of more pipelines: unless the oil industry (assumed to proxy Alberta’s general interests) gets what it wants, national unity is in jeopardy.
Federal Conservatives, while disavowing explicit separatism, reinforce the claim Alberta has been mistreated by the country. Interim leader Andrew Scheer, on X, complains Ottawa has “attacked Canada’s oil and gas industry for 10 years.”
An aspiring Alberta MP-in-waiting, Pierre Poilievre, echoes that view. While saying he personally opposes separation, Poilievre complains “Albertans have a lot of legitimate grievances,” the result he says of a decade of attacks on oil. This rhetoric will excite the voters of Battle River-Crowfoot. Whether it helps Mr. Poilievre contest a future federal election, however, is a different question.
Many Albertans are indeed frustrated and angry — and with reason.
There is no province where real incomes and living standards have deteriorated more in the past decade than Alberta. According to StatsCan, Alberta has experienced the second-biggest increase in incidence of low income of any province since 2015.
Workers have endured a 10 per cent decline in real wages (adjusted for inflation) over the last decade, worse than any other province. Minimum wages haven’t budged in seven years.
Despite falling real wages, living costs remain among the highest in Canada, and Alberta suffered the highest inflation of any province last year. Electricity prices, auto insurance, and tuition fees — all governed by provincial rules — have soared faster than anywhere else in Canada.
But can any of these problems be blamed on the rest of Canada, or the federal government? In particular, does Alberta’s hardship stem from suppression of Alberta’s oil industry, as Mr. Poilievre claims?
This is an obvious attempt at diversion that Albertans should dismiss.
During this decade of relentless federal “attacks,” Alberta’s oil production grew by 52 per cent. Production records are being broken again in 2025, tracking more than 4.4 million barrels a day so far. The expanded TMX pipeline — bought and completed at federal expense — has boosted both output and prices, modestly reducing the long-standing discount on Canadian oil sales in the U.S Midwest.
Oil industry profits have also never been higher, thanks to record volumes, cost-cutting, and the 2022 oil price spike.
Petroleum producers and refiners pocketed after-tax profit of $192 billion over the last four years alone — four times more than in the entire 2010s. Corporate profits gobble up a huge slice of Alberta’s GDP: about 40 per cent of total output over the last five years, twice as much as the rest of Canada.
In short, there’s never been more oil wealth generated in Alberta, despite (or perhaps because of) the Liberals holed up in Ottawa.
Yet average Albertans aren’t getting their share of it.
The boom in oil production and profits certainly isn’t translating into jobs.
Oil extraction and service firms shed more than 30,000 jobs in the province over the last ten years, even as production boomed.
In 2014 the industry hired 128 workers for every million barrels of oil produced. Last year, thanks to self-driving trucks, automated facilities, and downsizing, that number halved to just 61.
So it’s no surprise residents of my home province are cranky.
Their economy produces more GDP per worker than any other. The economic pie they bake is bigger than ever. But the average Albertan’s standard of living is lower than a decade ago.
It wasn’t Ottawa that laid them off, cut their pay, froze the minimum wage, drove up electricity and insurance costs, and put their health care at risk. It was the enemy within.
Alberta’s oligarchs aren’t speaking for the province, they are speaking for themselves.
And the sooner the rest of the population can get past the phoney Alberta versus Canada narrative, the sooner they’ll start toward a genuine solution to their woes: namely, winning a fairer share of the abundant wealth they already produce.
Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details
Related Stories
and it is a bullshit opinionOpinion | Let’s drop the phoney Alberta versus Canada nonsense. The province has met the enemy — and it is them
May 24, 2025
3 min read
Save
(Trigger warning: The author was an economists for the NDP propaganda spewing think tank Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives . Reader discretion is advised.)During the so-called decade of federal ‘attacks on oil,’ Alberta oil giants set records for production and profits, writes Jim Stanford. So why is the average Albertan not getting their cut?
Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press file photo
By Jim StanfordContributing Columnist
Jim Stanford, director of the Centre for Future Work in Vancouver, is a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @jimbostanford.
(Trigger warning: The author was born, bred, and educated in Alberta. Reader discretion is advised.)
Premier Danielle Smith is just following the well accepted & successful Quebec separatist extortion model, with the real world exception- an Alberta separation is economically viable for Alberta
why indeed
pretending the liberal federal government has not “attacked Canada’s oil and gas industry for 10 years.” is just disingenuous
if the Carney led Liberals do not change their disastrous policies, Pierre Poilievre will become PM
View attachment 442304
Stanford fails to recognize the damage the former NDP provincial govt did to Electricity prices, auto insurance, and tuition fees
they are forced to sell the product at a discount to World prices because the liberals intentionally tried to land lock the product
the Moron Trudeau painted himself into a corner, cancelling é regulation 4 privately funded pipelines to death, he was forced to by TMX and grossly overpaid for it
modestly is just not good enough
what is wrong with this economist
A profitable corporate sector is required for healthy economy
A profitable sector due to efforts the industry made despite deliberate attempts by Ottawa to shut them down
View attachment 442303
an economist who intentionally ignores the flight of billions of dollars of investment capital out of the Canadian oil industry to the US due to bad policy
he does not understand jobs are created via the exploration and development cycle in this industry
not so much via scaling up production
ah wealth re-distribution is the real objective for Jim Stanford here
kill the industry and see how much wealth you can redistribute
he does not understand jobs are created via the exploration and development cycle in this industry
not so much via scaling up production
You obviously don't read or listen to the news.Opinion | Let’s drop the phoney Alberta versus Canada nonsense. The province has met the enemy — and it is them
May 24, 2025
3 min read
Save
During the so-called decade of federal ‘attacks on oil,’ Alberta oil giants set records for production and profits, writes Jim Stanford. So why is the average Albertan not getting their cut?
Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press file photo
By Jim StanfordContributing Columnist
Jim Stanford, director of the Centre for Future Work in Vancouver, is a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @jimbostanford.
(Trigger warning: The author was born, bred, and educated in Alberta. Reader discretion is advised.)
Because the Liberal party won the most seats in a national election (the fourth time in a row), but most Alberta ridings went Conservative (for the umpteenth time in a row), Canada is now said to be facing a national unity crisis.
Premier Danielle Smith facilitates separatism (while claiming she doesn’t support it).
Why is it so hard for young people to get jobs right now?
Alberta business leaders play the national unity card in demanding fast approval of more pipelines: unless the oil industry (assumed to proxy Alberta’s general interests) gets what it wants, national unity is in jeopardy.
Federal Conservatives, while disavowing explicit separatism, reinforce the claim Alberta has been mistreated by the country. Interim leader Andrew Scheer, on X, complains Ottawa has “attacked Canada’s oil and gas industry for 10 years.”
An aspiring Alberta MP-in-waiting, Pierre Poilievre, echoes that view. While saying he personally opposes separation, Poilievre complains “Albertans have a lot of legitimate grievances,” the result he says of a decade of attacks on oil. This rhetoric will excite the voters of Battle River-Crowfoot. Whether it helps Mr. Poilievre contest a future federal election, however, is a different question.
View attachment 442304
Many Albertans are indeed frustrated and angry — and with reason.
There is no province where real incomes and living standards have deteriorated more in the past decade than Alberta. According to StatsCan, Alberta has experienced the second-biggest increase in incidence of low income of any province since 2015.
Workers have endured a 10 per cent decline in real wages (adjusted for inflation) over the last decade, worse than any other province. Minimum wages haven’t budged in seven years.
Despite falling real wages, living costs remain among the highest in Canada, and Alberta suffered the highest inflation of any province last year. Electricity prices, auto insurance, and tuition fees — all governed by provincial rules — have soared faster than anywhere else in Canada.
But can any of these problems be blamed on the rest of Canada, or the federal government? In particular, does Alberta’s hardship stem from suppression of Alberta’s oil industry, as Mr. Poilievre claims?
This is an obvious attempt at diversion that Albertans should dismiss.
During this decade of relentless federal “attacks,” Alberta’s oil production grew by 52 per cent. Production records are being broken again in 2025, tracking more than 4.4 million barrels a day so far. The expanded TMX pipeline — bought and completed at federal expense — has boosted both output and prices, modestly reducing the long-standing discount on Canadian oil sales in the U.S Midwest.
Oil industry profits have also never been higher, thanks to record volumes, cost-cutting, and the 2022 oil price spike.
Petroleum producers and refiners pocketed after-tax profit of $192 billion over the last four years alone — four times more than in the entire 2010s. Corporate profits gobble up a huge slice of Alberta’s GDP: about 40 per cent of total output over the last five years, twice as much as the rest of Canada.
View attachment 442303
In short, there’s never been more oil wealth generated in Alberta, despite (or perhaps because of) the Liberals holed up in Ottawa.
Yet average Albertans aren’t getting their share of it.
The boom in oil production and profits certainly isn’t translating into jobs.
Oil extraction and service firms shed more than 30,000 jobs in the province over the last ten years, even as production boomed.
In 2014 the industry hired 128 workers for every million barrels of oil produced. Last year, thanks to self-driving trucks, automated facilities, and downsizing, that number halved to just 61.
So it’s no surprise residents of my home province are cranky.
Their economy produces more GDP per worker than any other. The economic pie they bake is bigger than ever. But the average Albertan’s standard of living is lower than a decade ago.
It wasn’t Ottawa that laid them off, cut their pay, froze the minimum wage, drove up electricity and insurance costs, and put their health care at risk. It was the enemy within.
Alberta’s oligarchs aren’t speaking for the province, they are speaking for themselves.
And the sooner the rest of the population can get past the phoney Alberta versus Canada narrative, the sooner they’ll start toward a genuine solution to their woes: namely, winning a fairer share of the abundant wealth they already produce.
Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details
Related Stories
Liberal party is very clear they don't want pipelines or fossil fuel.
Wealth distribution brought on the great depression and will lead to the collapse of the US.and it is a bullshit opinion
(Trigger warning: The author was an economists for the NDP propaganda spewing think tank Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives . Reader discretion is advised.)
Premier Danielle Smith is just following the well accepted & successful Quebec separatist extortion model, with the real world exception- an Alberta separation is economically viable for Alberta
why indeed
pretending the liberal federal government has not “attacked Canada’s oil and gas industry for 10 years.” is just disingenuous
if the Carney led Liberals do not change their disastrous policies, Pierre Poilievre will become PM
View attachment 442304
Stanford fails to recognize the damage the former NDP provincial govt did to Electricity prices, auto insurance, and tuition fees
they are forced to sell the product at a discount to World prices because the liberals intentionally tried to land lock the product
the Moron Trudeau painted himself into a corner, cancelling é regulation 4 privately funded pipelines to death, he was forced to by TMX and grossly overpaid for it
modestly is just not good enough
what is wrong with this economist
A profitable corporate sector is required for healthy economy
A profitable sector due to efforts the industry made despite deliberate attempts by Ottawa to shut them down
View attachment 442303
an economist who intentionally ignores the flight of billions of dollars of investment capital out of the Canadian oil industry to the US due to bad policy
he does not understand jobs are created via the exploration and development cycle in this industry
not so much via scaling up production
ah wealth re-distribution is the real objective for Jim Stanford here
kill the industry and see how much wealth you can redistribute
he does not understand jobs are created via the exploration and development cycle in this industry
not so much via scaling up production
25% of the world's cars bought last year were EV's, you are pushing ancient and bad tech.
Your lack of understanding of science has you backing what you once called the greatest crime against humanity if true.
that depends on whom they are addressing / when they are talking
actions speak louder than words
Yeah that's true.
Forgot about Carney telling the west one thing on pipelines and another to Quebec.
How many years have you been declaring there is no climate change and the planet isn't warming here, larue?
How many years have you been wrong on every prediction?
How can you think you are right?
