The conservative premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, made a stunning formal statement Monday about the future of her province in which she acknowledged a secession movement in her region was mainstream and announced plans to push tough negotiations with Prime Minister Mark Carney.
âWe are well aware that there is large and growing number of Albertans that have lost hope in Alberta having a free and prosperous future as a part of Canada,â Smith said. âMany of these Albertans are organizing petitions to trigger a citizen initiated referendum, as I mentioned earlier. The vast majority of these individuals are not fringe voices to be marginalized or vilified – they are loyal Albertans.
âThey are quite literally our friends and neighbours who have just had enough of having their livelihoods and prosperity attacked by a hostile federal government. They are frustrated – and they have every reason to be,â she added.
Smith said she does not personally advocate for secession but that her administration would honor a ballot initiative to separate from Canada if citizens meet the threshold because the federal government under liberals âanti-energy, anti-agriculture and anti-resource development policies have scared away global investment to the tune of over a half a trillion dollars.â
âTo be clear from the outset, our government will not be putting a vote on separation from Canada on the referendum ballot; however, if there is a successful citizen-led referendum petition that is able to gather the requisite number of signatures requesting such a question to be put to a referendum, our government will respect the democratic process and include that question on the 2026 provincial referendum ballot as well,â she said.
Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.
