Tag: Mark Carney

Chris Henderson: How to Talk to the Temporary Strategic Alberta Separatist in Your Life

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 7, 2026

ScreenshotA long highway somewhere in southern Alberta, probably near Foremost. (photo credit: Dave Cournoyer)

Five practical messages to explain this isn’t a game worth the risk of playing.

From time to time I open up the Daveberta newsletter to guest writers who have perspectives and thoughts they would like to share that might interest readers of this Substack. My friend Chris Henderson wrote today’s guest article about how to talk about Alberta’s October 19 referendum with the temporary separatist and separation curious people in your life.

Here’s Chris Henderson.

With Alberta’s weird-as-hell 10-question referendum only weeks away, most people seem to have made up their minds about separation.

But one group sits in a paradoxical spot: people who don’t want Alberta to leave Canada, but are considering a strategic Option 2 vote to “send Ottawa a message,” believing it strengthens our hand down the road. Most of us know at least one—in the family, at work, or in the group chat. These are the only moveable voters in this debate, and if you’re voting against separation (which, spoiler alert: I already did, and I voted “No” on the other nine questions), they’re worth having a conversation with.

Tags Alberta Anti-Immigration Referendum, Alberta NDP, Alberta Politics Substack, Alberta Prosperity Project, Alberta Separation Referendum, Alberta Separatism, Alberta Separatists Rally, Canada Election Substack, Chris Henderson, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Dennis Modry, Donald Trump, Jeff Rath, Jeffrey Rath, Mark Carney, Mitch Sylvestre, Naheed Nenshi, United Conservative Party

Republican Party connections to Alberta’s separation referendum

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 5, 2026

Alberta separation supporters at the Alberta Legislature on August 29, 2026 (photo: Dave Cournoyer)

Another bombshell story dropped by Carrie Tait and the Globe & Mail

Globe and Mail Alberta correspondent Carrie Tait has been on a roll, with her name sharing the bylines of some of the biggest breaking stories in Alberta politics in the last few years.

Along with her Globe and Mail colleagues Grant Robertson and Nathan Vanderklippe, Tait dropped a bombshell story this past weekend about Alberta separatists going to Washington D.C. to offer fresh water and oil in exchange for American financial support for an independent Alberta Republic and Republican operatives providing tactical assistance to separatist organizers in Alberta.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Alberta Politics

Mark Carney’s broad approval dwarfs Danielle Smith and Naheed Nenshi

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date September 27, 2026

Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Albertans at a Forever Canadian event in Banff in September 2026 (source: Mark Carney / Facebook)

There’s nothing like a Janet Brown poll to shake up Alberta politics

There’s a lot to unpack in the new Alberta politics poll by Janet Brown Opinion Research commissioned by CBC, but before I dive into what one of the province’s most well-respected pollsters has to say about support for Alberta’s political parties, separatism, and AI data centres it’s worth spending a moment reflecting on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s popularity in Alberta.

Carney’s popularity continues to dwarf Premier Danielle Smith and NDP leader Naheed Nenshi and he might be the most popular Liberal Prime Minister in Alberta since Sir Wilfrid Laurier more than 100 years ago.

According to Brown’s poll, 52 percent of Albertans surveyed said they were very impressed with Carney and only 26 percent said they were not at all impressed. Only 30 percent of Albertans surveyed said they were very impressed with Danielle Smith and 51 percent said they were not at all impressed with her job as Premier.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Alberta Politics

UCP’s Mike Derry the favourite to win the Calgary-Shaw by-election

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date September 12, 2026

Premier Danielle Smith and Calgary-Shaw UCP by-election candidate Mike Derry (screenshot: Mike Derry / Facebook)

Provincial cabinet ministers have poured into Calgary-Shaw to support UCP candidate Mike Derry and Danielle Smith has campaigned with him numerous times since the by-election campaign started last month.

Derry is the favourite to win the by-election but the vote is also a test for Smith, who has led a government mired in controversy and a party deeply divided on whether Alberta should separate from Canada.

Smith’s absence from any visible pro-Canada campaigns ahead of her October 19 separation referendum has raised a lot of eyebrows, especially after Prime Minister Mark Carney’s full-throated support of Thomas Lukaszuk’s Forever Canadian campaign in Banff this week.

Naheed Nenshi delivers NDP health care pitch days before Calgary-Shaw by-election

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date September 12, 2026

Calgary-Shaw NDP by-election candidate Kyle Campbell (centre) with NDP leader Naheed Nenshi (left) and Dr. Luanne Metz (right) announcing the party’s “Future of Health Care” policy (screenshot: Alberta NDP / YouTube)

NDP pitches stability and investment over the UCP’s restructuring and privatization

With only days left before the September 14th by-election in Calgary-Shaw, Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi joined candidate Kyle Campbell to deliver his party’s health care pitch to voters with a pledge of stability and investment in a public system that has undergone massive bureaucratic restructuring and increased privatization since 2023.

Nenshi pledged that within three years of forming government after the 2027 election, the NDP would shorten emergency department wait times, cut surgical, diagnostic, and specialist wait times by 30 per cent, make sure every Albertan has access to a family doctor or nurse practitioner, and, a big one, re-form one single Ministry of Health.

Nenshi said the NDP would also launch a judiciary-led public inquiry into CorruptCare, a wide-ranging government corruption scandal that largely faded into the background over the summer.

Weird fever dream? Sleepwalking? What is even happening in Alberta right now?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date July 24, 2026

A screenshot from the Alberta separatist telethon. Mister Alberta is pictured in the Alberta-themed shirt and belaclava (second from the right)

Albertans need to get out and vote on October 19, 2026

Even after writing about Alberta politics for more than 20 years it’s still sometimes hard to fully understand and explain what is happening in our province.

Albertans are now 87 days away from having to vote on Premier Danielle Smith’s 10 referendum questions, including a convoluted question about holding a future binding referendum on Alberta separating from Canada. It feels like we’re having some kind of weird fever dream and we’re definitely sleepwalking into it.

Despite putting the future of Alberta’s place in Canada on the ballot in less than three months, I am shocked at how many people have told me Smith is barely or not even mentioning the separation referendum in many of the public speeches she is making during her summer travels across the province.

TMXL: Alberta is getting a new pipeline but who’s going to pay for it?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date July 4, 2026

Publicly-owned Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission and Trans Mountain Corporation to build pipeline to the Pacific Coast

The path already taken might be the easiest way to get a new oil pipeline built from Alberta through British Columbia to Canada’s Pacific Coast.

That’s what Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith are betting on as they announced a proposal for a new pipeline to follow the route near the Trans Mountain and Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) pipelines to BC’s Lower Mainland. So let’s call it TMXL.

Daveberta Podcast

Alberta’s role in Canada – why we need to tell better stories

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date June 17, 2026

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Federalists need emotional arguments about improving Canada and Alberta

Alberta’s separation referendum is only four months away, so longtime Daveberta Podcast contributor Adam Rozenhart joins Dave Cournoyer for part 2 of our discussion about Canada’s role in Alberta and Alberta’s role in Canada as neighbours and leaders in our country.

Where do Albertans fit in the sprawling success story we call Canada? What can we do to improve Alberta and Canada? How can we tell better stories about why Albertans are important players in making our country a better place? We start the discussion here.

Thanks for listening.

Listen to the full episode by becoming a paid subscriber

Tags Adam Rozenhart, Alberta Politics, Alberta Politics Substack, Alberta Separation Referendum, Alberta Separatism, Canada Election Substack, Danielle Smith, Dave Cournoyer, Daveberta Podcast, Daveberta Substack, Mark Carney, Pierre Poilievre, United Conservative Party

Daveberta Podcast

Podcast: Why Canada needs Alberta and Alberta needs Canada

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date June 13, 2026

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Part 1 in a Daveberta Podcast series about Alberta, Canada, and the stories we do and don’t tell each other

Longtime Daveberta Podcast contributor Adam Rozenhart joins Dave Cournoyer for a discussion about Canada’s role in Alberta and Alberta’s role in Canada as neighbours and leaders in our country.

This is part 1 of a podcast series about where Albertans fit in the sprawling success story we call Canada and how we can tell better stories about why Albertans are important players in making our country a better place.

Part 2 will be released in about a week.

Thanks for listening.

Become a paid subscriber to listen to the full episode.

Tags Adam Rozenhart, Alberta Separation Referendum, Alberta Separatism, Danielle Smith, Dave Cournoyer, Daveberta Podcast, Daveberta Substack, Mark Carney, Mitch Sylvestre, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

Referendum for another referendum blocks Alberta’s unilateral declaration of independence

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 25, 2026

An AI-generated image of Premier Danielle Smith and US President Donald Trump celebrating an “Independent Republic of Alberta” shared by the anonymous pro-separation “Rise of Alberta” Instagram account (source: riseofalberta / Instagram)

Grinding the gears of many separatist organizers is the referendum for another referendum-style question.

A referendum to hold a referendum to open constitutional negotiations is a pretty dry rally slogan and it robs more radical separatist elements of the temptation to just unilaterally declare independence if a clear separation question was successful.

Since there is no separation process in the Canadian constitution, we’ll have to guess what Smith believes the next steps would be. Legal minds I have spoken with suggest that the constitution would need to be amended and we all know how long and drawn out that process would be.

Some prominent separatist organizers have openly dangled the threat of American President Donald Trump immediately recognizing Alberta’s independence, forcing the hand of the federal government and other provinces that would want to undertake constitutional negotiations.

Danielle Smith shows her love for Canada by holding a separation referendum

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 23, 2026

Premier Danielle Smith and separatist leader Mitch Sylvestre at a UCP fundraising dinner in Bonnyville in May 2025 (source: Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul UCP / Facebook)

Does it make any sense? No. But not much does in Alberta politics these days.

“Should Alberta remain a province of Canada, or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?”

That’s the referendum question that Premier Danielle Smith has decided to put on the 10th paper ballot that Albertans will be handed when they show up to vote on October 19, 2026.

Smith says the wordy multiple choice question was her only option because the court ruling quashing Elections Alberta’s approval of the separatist Stay Free Alberta citizen initiative petition ruled out a question where yes and no were the only answers.

Smith had an option to not hold the referendum at all but she opened this can of worms and it won’t easily be closed. The populist-turned-separatist-wing of the United Conservative Party that booted former premier Jason Kenney and then boosted Smith into the Premier’s Office is now firmly entrenched in the governing party — and they are not going away.

Read a lot more on the Daveberta Substack

Alberta Politics

Won’t a new pipeline make the Alberta separatists happy?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 17, 2026

Smith used the threat of national unity crisis to leverage the approval of a new pipeline to the Pacific Coast, and it looks like she just might get that. So this is a political win for Smith — especially because the September 1, 2027 target for the start of construction of a new pipeline lines up with the start of the next provincial general election campaign.

Expect “We got Alberta a pipeline!” to be splashed all over UCP re-election ads in 2027.

But don’t expect the promise of an oil pipeline to dampen the enthusiasm of Alberta’s separation activists. That was demonstrated clearly last November when Smith was booed by delegates at the UCP AGM when she touted the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding about pipelines and electrification.

For them, it was never about building a pipeline.

Danielle Smith will take the pipeline but won’t shelve the separatism talk

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 16, 2026

Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney speak at a joint press conference in Calgary on Friday, May 15, 2026.

Will she just call a referendum anyway? Yes, probably.

Expect “We got Alberta a pipeline!” to be splashed all over UCP re-election ads in 2027.

For them, it was never about building a pipeline.

Policy proposal from St. Albert Liberal aims to block private health care and Alberta Pension Plan

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 1, 2026

Lucia Stachurski was the Liberal Party candidate in the St. Albert-Sturgeon River in the 2025 Canadian federal election (source: David J. Climenhaga)

Delegates to the Liberal Party’s national convention in Montreal earlier this month voted unanimously in favour of two policies that take direct aim at key pieces of Premier Smith’s political agenda.

Introduced by past St. Albert-Sturgeon River candidate Lucia Stachurski, the policy proposals call for the Liberal Party to oppose the implementation of Bill 11 and a big item on Smith’s sovereignty agenda: the creation of an Alberta Pension Plan.

“Our universal healthcare system is under coordinated across the country. There is a shift towards for-profit clinics that divert federal transfers away from public care and in many cases bill Canadians out-of-pocket for assured services,” Stachurski said when she took the floor to introduce the motion. “We cannot allow a two tier healthcare system to become the Canadian norm.”

Will Mark Carney push back against Alberta’s health care privatization agenda?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date April 29, 2026

Prime Minister Mark Carney (source: Mark Carney / Facebook)

Alberta separatism, referendums, library book bans, and gerrymandering are catching a lot of the headlines these days but a law passed by Alberta’s United Conservative Party government that allows for more private-for-profit health care is becoming harder for the federal government in Ottawa to ignore.

Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2025 (No. 2), known as Bill 11 when it was passed through the Legislature last December, would allow physicians working in Alberta to practice medicine in both the public system and in private-for-profit businesses, something that isn’t allowed anywhere else in Canada.

Premier Danielle Smith’s push toward privatization of the public health care system, which UCP defends as “European style” health care, is almost certainly more American-inspired. But wherever the inspiration comes from, it will almost certainly mean more out of pocket expenses for Albertans — something Smith has long advocated for — and more public funds subsidizing private companies.