Advocates say Alberta independence sentiment remains strong despite Carney-Smith energy agreement

While Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney signed a sweeping new memorandum of understanding (MOU) on energy in Calgary on Thursday, in the hopes of marking a “new starting point for nation building,” it remains to be seen what that will do to alleviate the independence sentiment in Alberta.When asked whether or not the deal created the possibility of quashing that issue, Smith expressed cautious optimism.“I hope so,” Smith told attendees at the McDougall Centre in Calgary.“I had always felt that the former government of Justin Trudeau created the independence movement, and my first conversations with Prime Minister Mark Carney were that he could end it. He could take the wind out of it, because we saw this once before. We saw that independence sentiment was very high in the early 1980s when there was the National Energy Program, but when Brian Mulroney came in and reversed that policy, it disappeared."“So I would say that good policy can, and genuinely addressing the concerns of Albertans is always a pathway to have a good and solid relationship. And I think the Prime Minister understands that, certainly based on this agreement, it shows he does. And so I'm hopeful.”However, critics are arguing that the MOU falls short of any meaningful, concrete action.Jeffrey Rath of the Alberta Prosperity Project has called the deal the “memorandum of underachieving,” aligning with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s recent description of the deal in the House of Commons as another “meaningless public relations” move by the Liberals.Speaking to John Bolton on his podcast on Thursday, Rath criticized the federal government for leaving the project contingent on approvals from British Columbia and BC First Nations..KRUZENISKI: Alberta Prosperity Project rally draws thousands — The largest in Alberta independence history.“We don’t have a hard promise of a pipeline. It’s subject to the wishes of BC and BC First Nations,” Rath said.“Carney himself basically says the MOU creates necessary conditions but not sufficient conditions.”Rath also questioned the broader political strategy, claiming that Alberta’s commitments to decarbonization and Net Zero initiatives are being imposed without reciprocal federal guarantees.“It almost reminds me of the old Mackenzie King story when they tried to pin him down on conscription, and he said, ‘conscription is necessary, but not necessarily conscription,’” Rath said.“[This] has made Danielle look like a putz. She's no further ahead now than she was six months ago, except now I would argue that she's substantially further behind, because she's burning her political capital like a drunk lighting cigars with $100 bills.”Asked about whether a potential pipeline announcement would ease the independence sentiment, Rath was firm in saying it wouldn’t.“We don’t care about pipelines,” he said.“We care about censorship. We care about losing our freedom of speech. We care about having our guns stolen from us. We care about it every time we turn around. "Mark Carney and the Liberals find some new way to screw us over as Albertans because they don't like us, don't like our culture, and don't like our resentment of government.”

Advocates say Alberta independence sentiment remains strong despite Carney-Smith energy agreement

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