Smith vs. Carney. Read More
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is not going away and Prime Minister Mark Carney will have to deal with her or the Alberta independence threat
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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is not going away and Prime Minister Mark Carney will have to deal with her or the Alberta independence threat
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Smith vs. Carney.
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Book your ringside seats. Tickets are going fast.
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If you’re sitting in a comfy chair among the self-styled smart set in Toronto you no doubt believe it’s all a lot of noise from sore losers.
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Hell, if you are a liberal deep-thinker in Calgary, an exile from the East who wants to be accepted by the self-styled smart set in Toronto and loathes the majority opinion in Alberta and couldn’t find Red Deer on a map and wouldn’t want to anyway, you write off the anger as the opinion of some backward neanderthals.
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But the anger is real no matter how much some folks want to wish it away and yours truly is not the only one writing about it.
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Noon News Roundup
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On this day, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith tells us most Albertans feel betrayed.
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In case you didn’t know, betraying Alberta is kind of a Liberal thing.
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It is only in Alberta where someone in the press would actually ask the premier what she thinks about those in Alberta who voted for Carney and how she “reconciles” it.
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Prime Minister Mark Carney, leader of the Liberals who won two seats in Alberta.
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A squeaker win in one inner-city Calgary seat and another close-call win in an Edmonton inner-city riding.
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The Edmonton mayor ran for the Liberals and lost.
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The sole Liberal member of parliament from Calgary ran for re-election and was defeated.
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Do you want me to list the percentage of the vote received by Conservative candidates in Alberta?
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Read More
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‘Assembly’ will consider West’s options, including ‘independence-oriented proposals’: Manning
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Bell: Carney now must deal with a fed-up Alberta and Danielle Smith
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Just a sample.
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78.8 per cent. 81.8 per cent. 76.3 per cent. 81.2 per cent. 81.3 per cent. 80.1 per cent.
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You want more.
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69.1 per cent. 71.6 per cent. 76.4 per cent. 65.1 per cent. 60.8 per cent.
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Yes, the great Liberal breakthrough the experts were salivating over. The one that didn’t happen and Smith is asked about it.
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The day after the election Canadians say we need unity. No more division. Canadians together.
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Carney says he will govern for all Canadians.
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Terrific. So stop screwing around Alberta as the Liberals under He Who Will Not Be Named did under the feel-good banner of Sunny Ways.
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Smith and her people know the mood out there.
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UCP members of the legislature will have a special closed-door chinwag Friday to discuss where Alberta goes from here.
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There will be much talk of Alberta’s beefs with another term of Liberal government staring everyone in the face.
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A minority Liberal government with the Three Stooges coalition — the Bloc Quebecois, the NDP and a single Green MP willing to play in Carney’s sandbox.
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On Tuesday, the premier says the status quo will not be allowed to continue. She says the Alberta government will not tolerate seeing the province’s industries threatened and resources landlocked.
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Carney could commit to pipelines, something he did not commit to when asked by this scribbler in Calgary.
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He could commit to scrapping anti-oil and gas laws.
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He could promise to punt the so-called clean electricity regulations, toss the cap on oil and gas emissions and stop saying one thing in one part of the country and one thing in another.
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Of course, he could play Prime Minister Smarty Pants and sound like he’s all for bringing Alberta on board without actually doing much of anything.
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Smith ups the ante. The premier says Albertans are looking for a path forward and different options to protect Alberta from hostile acts coming out of Liberal Ottawa.
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The premier states what needs to be said to Canadians elsewhere.
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Albertans have been treated like our interests didn’t matter and we should just shut up and be satisfied with what Ottawa decides, a federal government in Ottawa again firmly rejected by most in the province — again.
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The Liberals and NDP have “demeaned and demonized Albertans, our values and our industries for political gain.”
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Smith will tell you she believes in Alberta sovereignty within a united Canada.
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What’s that trumpet sound?
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It’s the elephant in the room. The national unity crisis. The number of Albertans willing to at least contemplate a way out of Canada.
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Smith says she lives in hope but the premier must know many Albertans are losing hope.
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Hope is on a much shorter leash and Carney better realize it. He says he is for unity so start uniting.
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Meanwhile, Smith said Tuesday the province will make it easier to put a question on a ballot to be voted on by Albertans.
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A question on leaving Canada, for example.
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If this unrest was bubbling up in Quebec, the good people in the rest of Canada would be wringing their hands over the discontent.
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Here, we get hate mail from Ontario.
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It’s your move, Prime Minister Carney.
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You are supposed to be the master negotiator, after all.
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