Mid-afternoon Alberta time, premier Danielle Smith gave a live address which had all of the appearances of some kind of hostage video, where she is promising to kill confederation if her demands aren’t met. Those demands are largely outrageous in and of themselves—guaranteed pipeline access, killing all federal environmental protection laws that would affect Alberta, perverting equalisation to give them a “per capita share” (it doesn’t operate on a per capita basis), and taking any kind of export tax off the table that could be used as leverage against Trump if we needed it. It was grievance porn, and largely just riling up her base of lunatics—whom she also defended—as they gear up to force some kind of separatism referendum, even though that wouldn’t actually mean what they think it does.

Would like to hear more from the Alberta Premier about how the industrial carbon price is "crippling" in Alberta.A year ago, it was "working."www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art…

— Aaron Wherry (@aaronwherry.bsky.social) 2025-05-05T21:30:03.882Z

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3lohiwnqoyk2y

The whole issue of the separatism referendum is also predicated on her being too-clever-by-half, saying she doesn’t believe in separation and believes in “sovereignty within a united Canada” (which is mostly horseshit), but she’s still going to game the rules to make it easier for the loons to force a referendum. “Oh, there’s no blood on my hands!” she insists, while she bought the knife and handed it to the loons. Politicians who use referendums as diversions or as a clever way of trying to defuse a situation have often seen that situation blow up in their faces, whether it was the capital flight from Quebec in 1980 and again in 1995, or Brexit. And like Brexit, she is willing to tell a bunch of lies to support it, Naheed Nenshi is denouncing this move and correctly pointing out that she is taking Albertans for fools, but Smith is slippery, and that’s going to be a problem the longer this is allowed to continue.

David Cameron thought he was being clever too.

— Stephanie Carvin (@stephaniecarvin.bsky.social) 2025-05-05T22:23:27.486Z

Without popular support for separation, she has seriously limited options. But Moscrop is exactly right: this is live ammo-stuff now, the way Brexit was, the way Trump as a candidate was. She is reckless, and part of a political movement of delusion and dishonesty. Very dangerous

— Bruce Arthur (@brucearthur.bsky.social) 2025-05-05T22:19:08.305Z

Meanwhile, Alberta’s acting Chief Medical Officer of Health spent yesterday morning passive-voicing the decline in vaccination rates as he called for people to step up and get measles vaccinations. If only Danielle Smith and her hand of swivel-eyed loons didn’t boost vaccine hesitancy in order to “own the Libs.” Honestly…

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia launched 116 drones overnight, targeting mostly Sumy and Donetsk regions. President Zelenskyy visited the Czech Republic to get commitments on more artillery shells, and pilot training.

Good reads:

• Mark Carney arrived in Washington yesterday afternoon for today’s meeting at the White House.
• A trio of South Korean companies are trying to pitch Canada on using them to build new submarines and armoured vehicles as we pivot away from the Americans.
• Orientation sessions have begun for the 117 new MPs in this parliament.
• Returning Conservative MP Damien Kurek can’t resign his seat for 30 days after the official results are published, so that means it’ll be a while for Poilievre to run there.
• The crybaby jackasses of the Longest Ballot Initiative are looking to pack the ballot again for Poilievre’s by-election.
• It’s likely that Jenni Byrne will be taking much of the blame for the Conservatives’ election loss, in part because of how she centralised too much of the campaign.
• Andrew Scheer says that the Conservatives would be willing to cooperate on measures to help deal with the trade war. (We’ll see if that happens).
• Don Davies has been chosen as the NDP’s interim leader.
• Doug Ford wants the federal government to build a tunnel under the 401 as a “nation-building exercise.” The absolute cheek!
• Danielle Smith’s trip to Mar-a-Lago cost over $10,000.
• Martin Patriquin notes that the opposition to a pipeline in Quebec is softening, but so is the business case to export to Europe.
• Lyle Skinner gives a deep dive into the law around MPs resigning after election, and what the various exceptions are.
• Philippe Lagassé gives context to the importance of the King reading the Speech from the Throne and what it says about the strength of our institutions.
• Stephanie Carvin offers four national security priorities for the government to move on when Parliament opens.
• Susan Delacourt looks forward to how Carney plans to deal with Trump, in spite of it being a pretty insurmountable issue.

Odds and ends:

No kidding…

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-05-05T22:13:19.442Z

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