Premier Danielle Smith could be the most vociferous advocate for provincial rights in Alberta history. She's never hesitated to call Ottawa out on its incursions into provincial turf, she passed the Sovereignty Act despite federal opposition, and she empowered citizens by repairing the hopelessly useless citizens’ initiative legislation Jason Kenney had saddled the province with. She relentlessly called out Trudeau’s government and has done the same with Carney’s. Her plan to force an answer from Carney on a pipeline to the West Coast is brilliant. All that said, talk is cheap.If Smith was expecting to garner respect and concessions from Prime Minister Mark Carney, she must be disappointed. He listens to her bluster with a smile, then ignores all her demands.During the federal election campaign, Premier Smith issued nine demands she expected to be met by Prime Minister Carney should he be returned to office. She said those demands were to be filled within six months in his mandate as Prime Minister. We are now not far from that deadline. Let’s see how things are progressing on the demands. .Demand 1: Guaranteeing Alberta full access to oil and gas corridors to the north, east, and west. Progress: none.Demand 2: Repealing Bill C-69 (aka “no new pipelines act”).Progress: none.Demand 3: Lifting the tanker ban off the BC coast.Progress: none.Demand 4: Eliminating the oil and gas emissions cap, which is a production cap.Progress: none.Demand 5: Scrapping the so-called Clean Electricity Regulations.Progress: none.Demand 6: Ending the prohibition on single-use plastics.Progress: none.Demand 7: Abandoning the net-zero car mandate.Progress: none aside from a deferral of the 2026 mandate.Demand 8: Returning oversight of the industrial carbon tax to the provinces. Progress: none.Demand 9: Halting the federal censorship of energy companies.Progress: the bill to ban advertising by energy companies died when the election was called..In summary, Mark Carney has completely ignored all Premier Smith’s demands. He is as determined to strangle Alberta’s energy industry as his predecessor was. Perhaps even more so. If there was any interest in meeting those demands, we would see bills and motions tabled in the House of Commons to address them. There has been nothing. Instead, Carney is simply ignoring Smith while traveling and failing to negotiate trade deals..EYRE: Beware the ‘nation-building’ boosters: Why governments shouldn’t pick winners and losers.While there are still a few weeks remaining until the hard deadline Smith set, it's time she started talking about action. One section of Smith’s list of demands that was notably absent was the “or else.”Smith presumably has a plan in mind to respond to the federal government's inaction on Alberta’s demands. She surely knew the chance that Carney would take any of her demands seriously was slim. Now is when she should start laying out the consequences for refusing to remove the economic shackles from Alberta. .In ignoring Smith’s demands, Carney is essentially saying to her, “Whatcha gonna do about it?” and it’s a good question.While support for Alberta independence from the federation is reaching record levels, no viable party with an independence mandate has managed to gain ground. The reason for this is that Albertans felt confident that Danielle Smith would do what’s needed and there would be no need to form a new party. Smith has certainly said all the right things until now, but citizens are becoming impatient with the lack of concrete action. If support starts moving toward independence parties, Alberta could see another vote-splitting situation putting the NDP back into power. It’s on the premier to prevent that scenario from playing out..OLDCORN: No, we don’t ‘honour martyrs'.The Alberta Next panel hearings have just wrapped up. They sounded much like the Fair Deal panel hearings that Jason Kenney spearheaded, which went nowhere. Kenney’s inaction on Alberta alienation issues contributed to his party turning upon him and ejecting him. Premier Smith is keenly aware of this, and it’s doubtful she will let the Alberta Next determinations die on the vine as Kenney did. She must act quickly on them, though.Perhaps it’s time to stop talking about forming an Alberta pension plan and just do it. The math is right, and it certainly would shake up Ottawa, where they depend on Albertans overcontributing to the plan..Smith has incrementally been replacing the RCMP services with sheriffs and encouraging municipalities to replace the Ottawa force with local forces. She may as well come right out and say Alberta won’t be signing a new contract with the RCMP when the time comes.One thing Premier Smith could do is to schedule a date for an independence referendum in mid-2026. No, she has never said she supports Alberta’s full independence, but she has said such things should be put to Albertans. What better form of doing so than in a referendum? .OLDCORN: The public square is for everyone — not just the ‘tolerant’ Left.Having seven months of campaigning in an independence referendum discussing Alberta’s role in the federation would surely get Ottawa’s attention. Speaking tactically, it would get some concessions as federalists would try to undercut the campaign for independence.One option Premier Smith doesn’t have is to do nothing. Talking and negotiating have failed.Now the ball is back in Alberta’s court, and it’s time to start acting.
