CALGARY — Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan ambushed Premier Danielle Smith at the Premier's pancake breakfast on Monday, abruptly questioning her about a Calgary Chamber of Commerce report claiming that Alberta independence is "bad for business." The video posted on X by the AFL shows McGowan approaching Smith, asking her if she has seen "the chamber report," and then calling on her to remove the question about whether to hold a binding independence referendum from the October ballot. Smith, who at the time was helping serve attendees, initially appeared unprepared for the question before regrouping and telling McGowan that she is fighting for Alberta to remain in Canada and that the October referendum question was brought forward by the Forever Canadian citizen initiative. The edited video continues with a brief back-and-forth between the two over whether Thomas Lukaszuk's petition called for a referendum, and is abruptly cut mid-discussion after McGowan claimed he was with Lukaszuk when he submitted the citizen initiative application. .McGowan later released a series of "observation" videos, in which he claims Smith pretended not to know the CCC report existed. "Seems a little strange that the premier of our province doesn't know about the report from the business chamber here in our province's largest city, especially when the analysis was so grim," said McGowan in his first observation video. The CCC report referred to by McGowan is polling from June, in which 48% of respondents said they would leave Alberta if it pursued independence, and an economic impact assessment detailing the financial implications of leaving Canada. .AFL distributed handbills to the attendees, who McGowan claims should have been a heavy pro-UCP crowd, yet his second observation was that the majority of people at the event opposed Alberta independence. "We all know she's putting her thumb on the scales for the separatists, but even in this crowd, I'm pretty sure that if a vote was taken among these people, the majority would vote to stay," McGowan said in his second observation video. McGowan's observation is consistent with Leger polling released in June, where 22% of respondents in Calgary said they will vote for a binding referendum.However, Leger polling conflicts with an assertion that the majority of UCP supporters oppose Alberta independence, with over 48% of pro-UCP respondents saying they will vote for a binding independence referendum, and 44% saying they intend to vote to remain in Canada. .McGowan's final "observation" video outlined his argument that a referendum is not the correct way for Albertans to express their will on Alberta independence."If you know a group of people, especially political types, want something like separation, they should create a party or make it a platform in an existing party and put it to the voters in an election; anything else is running over the actual democratic system in a parliamentary democracy," McGowan said.
