Many Albertans may question the wisdom or necessity of yet another public consultation on what they want, of the kind that Premier Smith announced earlier today. Personally, I am all for governments asking me what I would like and would happily vote for one that was prepared to oblige. (The one doesn't always flow from the other, unfortunately.) Anyway, after the Ottawa way of doing things, it makes a change.However it is true that Albertans have been plentifully quizzed. And yes, they have been asked before about many of the same things — pensions, policing, taxation, transfer payments, and Ottawa’s increasingly imperial attitude toward the provinces. This, both by Smith on the Alberta Pension Plan and a few years ago by former premier Jason Kenney regarding equalization. In fact, it is perhaps from that latter exercise that cynics draw their cynicism. Albertans made it abundantly clear what they thought of equalization. And nothing... 'flowed' from that, so to speak..So yes, to the cynical, or the simply weary, Premier Danielle Smith’s new province-wide town hall effort might feel like a rerun.Smith's strategy makes sense, nevertheless.She is about to contend with Prime Minister Mark Carney over her nine Alberta sovereignty points. She needs Albertans to be aware and engaged. And, Albertans who wish her well in what she's doing need to be loud about it — and current. She could hardly rely upon what the Fair Deal Panel heard five years ago..In other words this isn’t redundancy. Smith is not simply collecting feedback.It’s rehearsal. It's about more than listening. It's about mobilizing and preparing Alberta for the Carney confrontation, when visible public support will matter. Thus, the aptly named Alberta Next Panel, chaired by Smith herself and stacked with voices from politics, business, academia and medicine, is a vehicle to galvanize support for Alberta's “nine points” — a suite of policies aimed at increasing Alberta’s control over its own affairs..Smith presses Carney on Alberta demands, warns of national unity crisis.We’ve seen versions of this strategy before. Preston Manning understood it. Ralph Klein, too. You consult the people, yes — but you also use the process to build the case for what comes next..The nine points — everything from an Alberta Pension Plan, to replacing the RCMP, to collecting our own income tax — aren’t just a menu of ideas. They’re a warning shot across Ottawa’s bow. And Smith is right to say they come after “10 years of punitive policies” from the federal government. From pipelines killed in cabinet, to carbon taxes foisted on an unwilling public, Alberta has watched Ottawa sacrifice regional prosperity for Laurentian virtue-signalling.The new panel’s mandate, then, is as much educational as it is consultative. It’s a chance to do what the last round of consultations — and yes, the one before that — didn’t fully accomplish: sensitize Albertans to the stakes of this long fight. Bring them into the conversation, and by doing so, bring them onside. Not just in principle, but in purpose.Critics may sneer that consultation is no substitute for leadership.There's always somebody who will talk like that.But in Alberta’s unique case, leadership requires consultation. Alberta has a frontier tradition; people don’t take kindly to being told what to think. They want to be heard — and why not? For whom does government exist?What Smith is doing doesn’t just satisfy this impulse; it uses it to generate momentum.By the end of 2025, we’re told, the panel will present recommendations. That timeline matters. It gives Smith time to shape public opinion heading into what could be a series of federal-provincial showdowns — or even referenda — in 2026. She’s already signalled that referendum questions are on the table.Will it all come to that? Time will tell. But here’s what we do know: Ottawa’s centralizing instincts aren’t going away. The Liberals, NDP, and increasingly even the federal Conservatives show no interest in reversing course on the policies that have kept Alberta on the outside looking in.That leaves Albertans with only one option: fight back, and fight smart.Smith’s critics may call it political theatre. Maybe. But theatre has a purpose: to tell a story, and to move minds. And to be successful, that's what leaders must do.
