Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new cabinet faces an old problem, the growing Western independence movement in Alberta and Saskatchewan, as well as Premier Danielle Smith pushing Ottawa to loosen control of Western energy development.A nationwide Angus Reid Institute survey released today shows a country at odds over how to answer Smith’s wish list.Support is strongest for guaranteed pipeline access to both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Three times as many Canadians back that idea as oppose it..Enthusiasm fades on other demands such as scrapping the federal ban on oil tankers off British Columbia’s remote northern coastline, but residents of that province are against the move.On Smith’s call to repeal the Impact Assessment Act, also known as the “no new pipelines” bill, the public splits evenly. Half say ditch it, half say keep it.Those divisions speak to a deeper regional rift. .Asked which provinces the Carney government will favour, nearly half of respondents point to Ontario and 41% to Quebec. In contrast, 32% expect Alberta to be overlooked, with 27% saying the same of Saskatchewan..Even so, most Canadians still view the Prairies as essential partners. Two‑thirds say the country would be worse off without Alberta and Saskatchewan. .Only one in ten believe Canada would benefit if the provinces left Confederation.The stakes feel high to many. One‑quarter of respondents call the current Western independence movement a national crisis, while 52% label it a serious problem short of crisis. Roughly 17% dismiss it as a passing phase..Carney’s ministers, several of them new to portfolios that deal with natural resources, environment, and intergovernmental affairs, must now weigh appeasing Prairie voters against maintaining support elsewhere in the country. With fresh faces but familiar files, the cabinet’s first test will be whether it can cool Western independence anger without reigniting opposition in coastal and central Canada.
