Just a little square-dance patter for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who seems to be doing the Wexit do-se-do-- getting closer to it then backing around it, then sashaying closer again. She can't say yes and she can't say no, and where we're going nobody knows.
So I asked ChatGPT to give me a picture of Danielle Smith at a square dance and I think it did a pretty good job ⬆️
Maybe even a better job than Smith herself is doing.
Tonight I found some posts and commentary on what is happening.
And really, my square-dance analogy seems apt:
"Inviting (the separation referendum) experience to Alberta, and to Canada, especially now, is more than a failure of duty and leadership; it’s a failure of character." #ableg #abpoli #cdnpoli
— Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean (@mitchellab.bsky.social) May 7, 2025 at 1:39 PM
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Danielle Smith explains why, as a strong believer in Canada, she’ll do whatever she can to help Alberta’s separatistsWhat a difference a few months makes:
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith called a news conference yesterday to tell the impertinent journalists who showed up why, as a strong believer in Canadian Confederation, she intends to do whatever she can to ensure her province’s loony separatists get to have a secession referendum as soon as possible.
A link is provided, Dear Readers, but if you value your sanity, I can’t really recommend that you spend even half an hour watching Ms. Smith refuse to answer the reporters’ perfectly sensible questions about that bizarre contradiction on the grounds that we haven’t yet seen the question that a fissiparous claque of secessionists tied to her United Conservative Party are planning to gin up.
...There was one tidbit that could legitimately be described as news – to wit, Ms. Smith’s reason for holding her speech at 3 p.m. on a Monday. It turns out the speech wasn’t for the good people of Alberta at all! It was for the folks in Ontario, Quebec and maybe the Maritimes – plus those other Eastern Bastards in British Columbia who are occupying our Alberta coastline. They need to know just how pissed off we Albertans are at them for voting Liberal when they were supposed to vote Conservative! The utter cheek!
Ms. Smith indicated she was there to tell them about it at an hour when they’d be paying attention.
Look, if you watch this, even if it’s just to find that bit, you’re soon going to start screaming, “All aboard the crazy train!” at your computer screen. Be my guest if you insist. But don’t say I didn’t warn you....
Blanchet has a response too:Can Danielle Smith of this week arrange a chat with Danielle Smith of… A whole six months ago? #abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli
— The Breakdown AB (@thebreakdownab.bsky.social) May 7, 2025 at 7:46 PM
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Scrimshaw Unscripted
Next, an article about First Nations leaders coming together to defend their treaty rights.
Danielle Smith And The Fallacy Of An Independent Alberta
What Advocates For Alberta Miss
...Alberta wants the rest of Canada to bend over backwards to accommodate them - guaranteeing tidewater access, an addition ~$2B+ in federal transfers, repeal of Bill C-69, amongst other things - while threatening (albeit obliquely) that if they don’t get what they want they’ll take their ball and go home. The problem for Alberta? They want the rest of us to treat their irrationality with a rational response, and that’s not guaranteed.
The rational, emotionless side of me thinks this is a negotiation, and even if she doesn’t get everything she wants it’s not a crime to start from a maximalist position to try and get half a loaf....
The problem is, Smith isn’t putting up a batshit policy idea, she’s mainstreaming separatist ideas and defending proponents of independence as something other than traitors, which they are. And she, and the rest of the chucklefucks in her government and who agree with her, are not owed a rational response to their irrationality. ...
It is not really my place to cosplay as an expert in oil and the Alberta economy, but the Alberta budget is on thin ice right now. They budgeted for $68/barrel WTI at a $17 differential, which is a fancy way of saying they budgeted for $51 WCS. Right now that’s $46, and every dollar the 52 week average is below it is worth $750M in revenue to the government a year. One or two days of low trading is not a crisis, but if this continues Alberta’s fucked....
...Alberta had an immense amount of economic leverage when oil was at its peak. Now its complaints sound like whining from the former jock who stopped working out and is mad his abs went away.
Alberta will never get Canada to treat it more rationally than it treats Canada....
She is burning industrial quantities of good will and making it harder, not easier, to see the Canadian government give her what she wants.
If she came to this with a renewed sense of purpose and engagement, like Ford and Houston and Kinew all have, I’d be much more willing to give her enough to let her have a win. I hate Ford, and the fact that we all just let certain aspects of Kinew’s past go drives me fucking batshit, but they’ve both been helpful to the Canadian cause so you know what, they get their pet projects funded. It’s the price of doing business. But I know that I speak for a lot of Canadians when I say Smith won’t get the same benefit that even a Scott Moe will now.
Danielle Smith made clear her allegiances are with the “loyal Albertans” who want an independent country and not with Canadians. That’s her right. But the fantasy of independence is reliant on Canada being rational where Alberta isn’t. Don’t fucking bet on it. Every Albertan needs to understand that our good will is not automatic and cannot be assumed indefinitely. And if she doesn’t put this back in the bottle fast, it’ll be lost for a generation.
Next, an article about First Nations leaders coming together to defend their treaty rights.
Here is how it ends, but the whole piece is worth reading:
Canadian Returnee
Alberta Separation Meets Its Treaty Reckoning
First Nations leaders confront Alberta's separatist ambitions, defending treaty rights rooted in Canada’s legal foundation and moral history.
....As this situation continues to develop, all Albertans would do well to listen carefully to the messages coming from Indigenous leadership. The path forward requires genuine dialogue, mutual respect, and recognition that treaties are not historical curiosities but living documents that continue to structure our relationships.
True reconciliation demands more than acknowledgment of past wrongs, it requires ongoing commitment to honouring agreements made by our predecessors. In the words often shared in treaty acknowledgments: "We are all treaty people." This simple phrase reminds us that treaties were not made with First Nations alone but represent covenants between peoples to share lands and resources while respecting each other's rights and ways of being.
The chiefs' message is ultimately one of inclusion rather than division: honouring treaties creates a stronger foundation for all who call these lands home. Their stand offers an opportunity to reimagine a relationship based on mutual respect and shared prosperity rather than unilateral action.
I know all of Canada is desperately hoping that the United States regains its sanity and ends its tariff war. The whole world is hoping for that.
Not gonna happen.Tariffs and Poverty Around the WorldFinally, here's some good news - Carney met with the Premiers today and Cole Bennett updates us on what happened:
...Many people, including many small investors, still believe and/or hope either that Donald Trump will soon negotiate many trade deals or that he will claim he has, declare victory, and back off his massive tariff hike. They’re deluding themselves.
Consider what we’ve learned about Trump as the negative fallout from his tariffs has started to become obvious.
First, he’s invincibly ignorant. The collapse of imports from China has businesses terrified and warning both of soaring consumer prices and of looming shortages. ...
...Second, when he’s in a hole, he just keeps digging.
...the trade war will proceed, even intensify. There will be some winners, at least in terms of global influence, including China, which gains from America’s loss of credibility, and the European Union, which unlike Trump’s America can be trusted to honor its agreements. The United States will be a big loser, both politically and economically.
But the biggest losers will be poor countries that have become less poor largely thanks to exports and are about to see their hopes of progress dashed.. Bangladesh 50 years ago was the poster child for warnings about mass famine driven by overpopulation. Instead, the South Asian nation became, not a banana republic, but a pajama republic, one of the world’s leading clothing exporters. It’s still a poor country, with wages and working conditions that are appalling by advanced-country standards. But... Bangladesh is about four times as rich as it was in the 1980s, when its exports began rising....
But now the country faces the possibility of economic catastrophe, made in America.
... making imported clothing more expensive here won’t create U.S. jobs. Apparel production, still largely carried out by people hunched over sewing machines, is just too labor-intensive to be economically feasible in the United States, no matter how high the tariffs.
Trump’s people don’t seem to get that. ...Trump and his team have done something remarkable: They have started a trade war that is bad both for Americans and for countries that sell to us. But Trump is unlikely to change course. The economic punishment will continue until morale improves.
Cole Bennett / Cole.notcole
Pipelines, Premiers, and Prairie Politics: Carney Courts the West in a Rare Show of UnityCheck out the article, where Cole also listsed a number of positive outcomes, particularly from Ford, Kinew, Moe, Holt and Akeeagok.
...A key outcome of the meeting was the agreement to implement a "one project, one review" model aimed at expediting approvals and reducing regulatory duplication for major infrastructure and industrial initiatives. Carney committed to introducing federal legislation by Canada Day to eliminate internal trade barriers across provinces and territories, fostering a more unified Canadian economy.
The premier has laid out his priorities for Saskatchewan when it comes to the new federal government, including the carbon tax, canola tariffs and clean energy regulations. Moe said he thinks Carney is open to having conversations on each of those topics.https://t.co/HKonIu8Jq2
— 650 CKOM (@CKOMNews) May 8, 2025
Ford praises Carney, Alberta following virtual First Ministers Meetinghttps://t.co/riS1LGKuxR
— CTV News Toronto (@CTVToronto) May 7, 2025
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