James Albers is a Calgary-based management consultant specializing in leadership development.Soon we will hear from Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney regarding a new “deal” for Alberta. This, we are told, is Ottawa’s response to the warning Premier Smith issued: that current federal policies are not merely misguided, but actively steering Alberta’s economy toward the cliff’s edge — and, by extension, toward a crisis of national unity.The Premier identified what she called the “Nine Nasty Policies” — a phrase that may irritate Ottawa, but one that plainly reflects the seriousness of her concern. And so, one is left to wonder: if these policies remain unaddressed, as experience suggests they may, what position will that leave the Premier in?.OLDCORN: Alberta’s ‘Dual Practice Model’ — finally, a healthcare system that works for the people.Her warning was not partisan theatre. It was something far more fundamental — a defense of livelihood, industry, and regional survival. To allow the systematic dismantling of Alberta’s economic foundation is not a “climate strategy.” It is an act of national self-harm.For generations, Canada’s economic strength has depended upon the productive power of its western provinces — above all, Alberta and Saskatchewan. These are not peripheral lands; they are the engine rooms of Confederation. Yet today that engine is increasingly sidelined, misunderstood, and deliberately under-leveraged in service of an ideological vision that would prefer the nation’s most productive resource to remain locked in the ground..Preserving the West’s economic freedom is not optional. It is essential — not simply for Alberta or Saskatchewan, but for Canada itself.In 2021, Alberta’s exports to the United States — direct and indirect — accounted for 29.2% of its total GDP. .CARPAY: How Ottawa ‘nudged’ a nation — Inside Canada’s covert behavioural science campaign.Saskatchewan’s stood at 22.5%. These figures alone tell the story: these provinces are not merely regional economies; they are international trading hubs anchoring Canada on the global stage. Alberta’s economy remains firmly rooted in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction — sectors that continue to provide its largest economic contribution. Between 2014 and 2018, Alberta’s GDP plateaued, dipping slightly from approximately $338 billion to $335 billion, while Saskatchewan edged upward from $80.2 billion to $82.5 billion. Not collapse.Not surge. But stagnation — born not of incapacity, but of constraint..The West’s ability to produce, export, and invest reaches into every corner of this country. Jobs, federal revenues, infrastructure funding, and inter-provincial transfers are underwritten, in no small measure, by Western productivity. When the West accelerates, the entire federation moves forward. When it is braked, the whole nation slows..KIRKHAM: One man's land is another man's great great great grandfather's fishing village — so what?.And yet the barriers continue to pile up. The federal government’s fixation on net-zero targets, layered over provincial and indigenous approval complexities, has produced a regulatory thicket so dense that projects which might take four years elsewhere now take ten or fifteen in the West. It is little wonder that private capital looks elsewhere. Investors require certainty. Ottawa appears determined to offer only obstruction.Ironically, even as many Western nations quietly reassess their net-zero ambitions in light of shifting geopolitical and economic realities, Ottawa clings ever more stubbornly to them. The result is a tragic inversion: the very region best positioned to lead a responsible transition through innovation and technology is instead treated as a liability rather than an asset. And perception, once it takes hold, is a powerful force. When a region feels devalued, investment withdraws. Talent leaves. Hope erodes..So, what is now required of Premier Smith? The answer is clear. Pipelines, export routes, transmission lines, and resource corridors must be fast-tracked, not endlessly studied. The West cannot wait ten years for permission to survive. Rather than shutter industries, we must upgrade them — investing in carbon capture, hydrogen, and advanced manufacturing. Duplication must be removed, timelines clarified, coordination strengthened. The world must once again know that in Western Canada, progress is possible.If that does not occur — if Western Canada continues to be constrained rather than empowered — the consequences will not remain regional; they will become national. Economic drag will worsen. Exports will weaken. The tax base will shrink. .SLOBODIAN: Canada’s secret pipeline to late-term abortions in US.Political alienation will harden. The West will disengage, trust in federal institutions will erode, and voices once content within Confederation will begin to question whether Canada is still theirs at all. A less balanced Canada will become a less resilient Canada — more vulnerable to global shocks, sectoral collapse, and internal fracture. Most damaging of all will be the slow, silent bleed of human capital as skilled men and women leave, taking with them the very future we pretend to plan for.The Western economy is not a sidebar to the Canadian story. It is one of its central chapters. Preserving it will require more than speeches and summits. It will require resolve, courage, and respect — not just for the West, but for Canada itself.If this country still values unity, strength, and national purpose, then it must once again treat Western Canada not as an afterthought, but as a strategic necessity.Western Canada is not asking for special treatment. It is asking for recognition — recognition that its labour, its land, its ingenuity, and its sacrifice have long powered this country and could continue to do so for generations to come. A nation does not survive by turning its back on its strongest limbs. If Ottawa chooses ideological comfort over economic reality, it is not merely Alberta that will pay the price — it is Canada that will diminish itself on the world stage. But if wisdom prevails, if the West is once again seen not as a problem to be managed but as a partner to be trusted, then this moment of tension may yet become a moment of renewal..OLDCORN: Carney’s budget squeaks through thanks to May’s fantasy climate deal.And so, the truly uncomfortable question is not what Ottawa will offer, but what position that offer will force Danielle Smith to occupy. A mediocre deal — rich in language but poor in substance, filled with modest timelines and conditional promises — would not simply disappoint. It would become a political trap. If she accepts it, she risks signaling that half-measures and photo opportunities are sufficient responses to an existential threat. If she rejects it, she will be branded unreasonable, uncooperative — even “divisive.” This is the bind that Western leaders have long faced: accept crumbs and express gratitude, or demand substance and be scolded for disunity.A thin deal does not resolve tension — it deepens it. It tells Albertans their warnings were politely heard and fundamentally ignored. It signals that the economic engine of this country is not a strategic priority, but an inconvenience to be managed with press conferences and carefully crafted phrases..For Premier Smith, then, this is not merely a policy moment. It is a moment of legitimacy. Her authority has been strengthened by her willingness to name the problem clearly, to enumerate what others preferred to leave vague. If the response from Ottawa fails to meet the seriousness of the threat she identified, acceptance becomes complicity. Silence becomes surrender. Resistance — though politically perilous — becomes the only remaining language of sincerity. History has not been kind to Western leaders who settled for symbolism. Nor has it forgotten those who refused to..MORGAN: Rename Fort Calgary to Fort Calgary.A mediocre deal will place her at the edge of a decision few Canadian leaders have ever truly faced: whether to align herself with the comfort of Ottawa, or with the consequences of conviction. And in that moment, she will not simply be negotiating policy. She will be negotiating history — her own, and quite possibly the country’s.James Albers is a Calgary-based management consultant specializing in leadership development.
