Memo to Alberta's federalists and anti-separatists: stop accepting Danielle Smith's premise that the province has been screwed over by Ottawa. It's time for more facts and fewer feelings. #cdnpoli #abpoli www.nationalobserver.com/2025/05/29/o... - ThreadSky

maxfawcett.bsky.social • 4 days ago

Memo to Alberta's federalists and anti-separatists: stop accepting Danielle Smith's premise that the province has been screwed over by Ottawa.

It's time for more facts and fewer feelings. #cdnpoli #abpoli

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/05/29/opinion/alberta-grievances-not-reasonable-separatism

Comments

donmccabe.bsky.social•3 days ago

Sadly, it’s been a winning political strategy since the demonization of PET and the NEP. AB’s still blame the feds for the economic downturn in the 80’s, when in fact it was low crude prices.

We’ve seen several like downturns since, and that AB fails to prepare for them. Easier to blame the feds.

shannonpeel.bsky.social•4 days ago

A recent poll by Angus Reid shows Albertans perceive bigger issues w/ Quebec

Perception matters and if Albertans are told stories with facts their emotions would change

Media needs better reporting to unite Canada instead of dividing it

tara-lynne.bsky.social•4 days ago

Alberta has been pretending they're hard done by for decades. Poor Alberta! Bigots and ass holes make up the majority of Alberta. There's a reason she represents them.

bunnyhopps.bsky.social•3 days ago

Ironic that the provincial message seems to be gimmie gimmie gimmie when I’ve heard how *everything is better in Alberta* from college classmates and family members for the past 3 decades. Not just their opinions, but also putting down the rest of the of country.

tara-lynne.bsky.social•3 days ago

When you live in Alberta too long, you become an ass hole like the rest of them.

calgarypebbles.bsky.social•2 days ago

Born here and have not become one yet. Fiercely proud Canadian. ❣️🇨🇦👊🏻

dar68.bsky.social•3 days ago

And Danielle is lying to all of you. She knows damn well that it is impossible to separate and will NEVER happen but she winds you up so you are angry and focussed on that and not realize how badly she is handling the province.

yknot05.bsky.social•4 days ago

There's a reason for the old adage "Give them an inch and they'll take a yard."
Quit trying to placate the ever ornery Wannabe Americans.

bigcountryfooty.bsky.social•4 days ago

💯 there is no valid grievance. Alberta does have the highest GDP/Capita in the country. It has no Provincial sales tax. What the heck are they complaining about? We are rich…but we want to be richer?

donmccabe.bsky.social•3 days ago

The oil-igarchs want to be richer, so they can trickle up more wealth out of AB.

troyliss.bsky.social•4 days ago

Based on living my whole life in Alberta, yes that is exactly the argument

troyliss.bsky.social•3 days ago

Speaking of…

gregfingas.bsky.social•2 days ago

That, and the grievance fabricators consider themselves entitled to avoid acknowledging how their enrichment harms others. Hence the climate denial, hostility to Indigenous rights, etc.

alanstange.bsky.social•4 days ago

Exactly that

fcypca.bsky.social•3 days ago

They aren't reasonable and they aren't the grievances of all or even most Albertans: we are being lead by a clown elected by a minority of voters.

houghtmusic.bsky.social•1 day ago

These idiots can’t see father than F Trudeau flags.

loyalcdndclord.bsky.social•4 days ago

Generation rw rhetoric by politicians and #albertamedia makes "feelings" the priority.

vwaring.bsky.social•4 days ago

Exactly

cdnhelp.bsky.social•4 days ago

What’s interesting to me is that Alberta has a climate well suited for solar & wind. It has a large potential for waste heat recovery and dual use electrical generation. Possibilities of geothermal using abandoned wells. So what does Alberta typically do. Blame Ottawa. Why we don’t pursue these? O&G

cdnhelp.bsky.social•3 days ago

Well what people don’t know is that a major oil producer built a cogen unit on its site in 2004. It supplies all the electrical needs for that operation and more. So why no more units? The electrical grid was too small. Who owns the grid? Not the taxpayer for sure. And therein lies the problem

cdnhelp.bsky.social•4 days ago

So what Albertans need to understand is the patch doesn’t create any new jobs. Mostly just maintenance and spending subsidy money. These initiatives actually create new jobs and a long term future for our young people. O & G will just bleed us dry for as long as they can.

piratebelle.bsky.social•3 days ago

It's absolutely criminal that Albertan buildings and parking lots are not covered by solar panels!!!!!

cdnhelp.bsky.social•3 days ago

But the most retarded thing of all. Building an electric car without an alternator. So we can go on and on about the solutions. Is anybody listening???

cdnhelp.bsky.social•3 days ago

Simple solutions ignored. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Solar panels on rooftops for example. Wind farms where unusable farm land. Multi purpose existing gas compressor stations. More waste heat recovery of existing plants. The list is endless. That’s what is wrong in Alberta

shane555.bsky.social•4 days ago

Con’s, helping wealth transfer to CEO’s while blaming Ottawa Lib’s.

The Con sale of Petro-Can didn’t benefit Ab tax payers, or any tax payer - neither do low royalty rates.

Meanwhile Premiers want HC transfers without strings

https://bsky.app/profile/shane555.bsky.social/post/3lqd2s66whk2h

cdnhelp.bsky.social•4 days ago

It goes beyond that. The selling off of our infrastructure. The selling off of the AEC. The subsidization of pipelines and O&G. The total mismanagement of the heritage trust fund. And the list goes on and on. Now we have hedge funds purchasing development rights. There are no “regulators” in Alberta

jymn.bsky.social•4 days ago

Precisely!

kmkohle.bsky.social•4 days ago

Nothing Danielle Smith does is ever reasonable…

piratebelle.bsky.social•3 days ago

Well one could argue that her tactic of diverting people's attention from her repeated ineptitudes and malfeasance is a reasonable gambit
LOL

swcalgaryguy.bsky.social•4 days ago

I’m so tired of this

mawtravels.bsky.social•3 days ago

I hate that frigid cunt

veloveritas.bsky.social•4 days ago

It's the silliest of sabre rattling.

Danielle Smith is like the Don Quixote of Alberta politics, with Ottawa acting as her windmill.

The question: who is her Sancho Panza? We need to add some levity to her lunacy.

triball.bsky.social•3 days ago

Alberta is being screwed by its politicians like anywhere on earth does

booarski.bsky.social•4 days ago

Turns out Alberta is whining today for the very things Pierre Elliot Trudeau wanted for Canada in the 80s, only American oil corporations in the province convinced them, at the time, the NEP was the worst thing since Hitler.

reneestephen.bsky.social•1 day ago

Even at the time Albertans and those companies were saved from the 80s oil shocks by fixed prices being higher than market. Families kept their homes and they still blamed PET for not caring about Alberta.

digifuzzy.bsky.social•2 days ago

It's all about the performative outrage. Using a page from the Quebec Separatists playbook.
https://www.canajunfinances.com/2011/03/31/cest-la-faute-du-federal/

spike29.bsky.social•4 days ago

Alberta screwed itself over.

End of story.

ohimjustabill.bsky.social•11 hours ago

Canadian Pacific moved their headquarters from Montreal to Calgary in the 80’s over concerns of Quebec separatist talks. Were they to do the same again over this that would be a big blow to white collar jobs there.

mom2364.bsky.social•3 days ago

So Danielle Smith and Kevin O’Leary needed to simply read the American constitution to know that the tariff $hit Trump was throwing around was nonsense.

No need to travel to the Orange palace and waste taxpayers $$$.

Seems like @mark-carney.bsky.social knew that and played it cool!

❤️🇨🇦❤️

brawneythe3rd.bsky.social•4 days ago

Google it..
👇

nordicfolk.bsky.social•4 days ago

Sure glad I have subscribed to National Observer. The fog of propaganda is well dissipated in your publication. It's unfortunate, the well "oiled" machine will keep on stoking Alberta's rage.

cbinvan.bsky.social•3 days ago

Ottawa had it coming after they forced that fake Tylenol on Alberta, then they cancelled all of Alberta's clean energy projects! Then they had the nerve to build Alberta a pipeline! Western alienation is real!!!!!!

vee40below0.bsky.social•4 days ago

What if you address all of Alberta's grievances, and then Danielle Smith goes out and makes up a whole bunch more?

collburns.bsky.social•3 days ago

When you educate yourself, you will learn it’s the Provincial responsibility’s and not Federal that is the problem

canadahardcover.bsky.social•3 days ago

I don't know any anti-separatists who accept Smith's premise that Alberta has been screwed over by Ottawa. I know many UCP supporters that believe anything that she says.

maxfawcett.bsky.social•3 days ago

Naheed Nenshi accepted that premise in a recent video. Jason Kenney does it all the time.

canadahardcover.bsky.social•3 days ago

Jason Kenney doesn't surprise me but I am surprised by Nenshi. I must have missed that video.

maxfawcett.bsky.social•3 days ago

It’s right at the start here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4e8Xu5xtqU

canadahardcover.bsky.social•3 days ago

Thx.

vincent2008.bsky.social•3 days ago

These are late 20th century era feelings and Smith stokes them none stop.Reality Canada paid for the very expensive $34 billion Trans mountain pipeline over B.C.s and numerous Canadian objections.She's soothing her base just as P.P.did.Karma is coming.

dpoolie.bsky.social•4 days ago

They insist we have to "listen to them" but we do not.

sharemyopinion.bsky.social•2 days ago

Great article Max.

cricketmh.bsky.social•4 days ago

We know.

irmacdonald.bsky.social•3 days ago

Another example of the Feds screwing Alberta...I gest of course
https://www.corporateknights.com/energy/canada-paid-record-subsidies-to-fossil-fuel-companies-in-2024/?hl=en-CA

hearinyqf.bsky.social•4 days ago

Thanks to the Liberals Alberta got a pipeline to tidewater. UCP can sit down and shut up. Ingrates.

calgarypebbles.bsky.social•2 days ago

🎯🎯🎯 #abpoli #AlbertaIngrates

walterverse.bsky.social•3 days ago

what would the Grievance Queen even do?

sraj81.ca•4 days ago

I am really interested in seeing how Pierre is going to handle this problem in Alberta. Will he coddle the separatist voice or take a more united 'Team Canada' approach and get outcast by Smith like Ford did.

rogerman99.bsky.social•4 days ago

He will coddle them and attempt to leverage their threats against the rest of the country. This is who the conservatives are. When they talk division, they talk of themselves.

infotrekcalgary.bsky.social•4 days ago

misshavisham.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌

shadowpages.bsky.social•4 days ago

Alberta separatists were never reasonable, and the grievances dreamed up by the Convoy/Maple MAGA crowd are even less so.

lirettet.bsky.social•4 days ago

Yes this nonsense that Albertans have “legitimate grievances” with the federal government has to stop. They are just mad that they lost! Also separatists, what of CPC wins next election? Will you ask to come back in to Canada? Are you going to threaten to leave and return every four years?

bogs-of-the-wood4.bsky.social•4 days ago

It's wild that they're happy to be completely ignored by the fed cons when in power.

lumin8.bsky.social•3 days ago

Harper did nothing for Alberta.
Rempel as the minister of western diversification had no accomplishments to show. What a joke.

bogs-of-the-wood4.bsky.social•3 days ago

All he had to do was show his face a few times a year and people would go wild.

lumin8.bsky.social•3 days ago

And he spent his summers touring the far north avoiding Canadians.

bogs-of-the-wood4.bsky.social•3 days ago

Oh yes, his obsession with the Franklin thing, after shutting down all sorts of vital Arctic research. Guess he figured he'd better to something '"nice" to get his footnote in history.

sautetherich.bsky.social•3 days ago

100% cons been in power for 60 years or some shit. aside from a 4 year break . The provincial problems are due to provincial government.

foggthat.bsky.social•1 day ago

chewawa.bsky.social•4 days ago

Thank you!

ronpunch.bsky.social•3 days ago

This is Berta, we dont deal in facts. Facts are for the Laurentian elite or something like that.

zactrolley.com•4 days ago

The far right has done an incredible psyop in making their supporters believe the left is driven by feelings, and then they govern with only feelings.

thomasowen7.bsky.social•4 days ago

The “grievances” are fake.
The problem is originating inside unit 307 at the legislature.

shaner38.bsky.social•4 days ago

Thanks for this, Max. Trying to counter 50 years of conservative gsslighting in this province can be exhausting.

pjhvan.bsky.social•4 days ago

Oil production under Trudeau’s so called “restrictive regime” is up
50% … WTAF are they whining about

reneestephen.bsky.social•1 day ago

The fact that the $150k/yr unskilled worker jobs are gone. Because of course they are, oil companies have been investing in automation and mechanization because they hate paying salaries if they don't have to.

Then they point at the feds to avoid blame and remain the golden saviour of Albertans.

igm1200.bsky.social•4 days ago

The CBC aired a piece on Alberta’s per-capita GDP.

Said it was “punching above it’s weight”.

Not really.

Building a pipeline requires lots of labour.

Operating a pipeline doesn’t, but brings in revenue.

Building an upgraded requires lots of labour; operating it doesn’t, but brings in $$$.

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