The Alberta Court of King’s Bench ruled yesterday that the separatist petition did not engage the duty to consult with First Nations, given that it directly affects their interests, and it is effectively quashed, before the signatures were validated. It’s big news, and this could or should have been the off-ramp from the referendum that Alberta premier Danielle Smith could use to keep the situation from spiralling. But that’s not what’s happening.
This basically kills 301,000-signature petition separatists delivered to Elections AB to force referendum on independence.Premier Smith could still call referendum as gov't act, like separatist groups want her to. But lack of Indigenous consultation would still be problem. bsky.app/profile/mark…
— Jason Markusoff (@markusoff.bsky.social) 2026-05-13T20:09:36.464Z
Smith has instead declared that this decision is “anti-democratic” (which it absolutely is not, and this is populist rot), and that she will appeal it, because she wants this referendum to happen, either under the bullshit justification of a “relief valve” (which never works—it just makes things worse), or to get leverage from the federal government, not that it’s good leverage because it’s just driving away investment from the province because nobody wants to put money into a separatism situation where the uncertainty cranks up to eleven. But this will also mean that the separatists who control Smith are going to demand she just do a government-initiated referendum, which she has absolutely no democratic legitimacy to do, and which also can’t get around the duty to consult. After all, it’s treaty land, and the treaties are with the Crown, not the province of Alberta, which was not even in existence when those treaties were signed. Nevertheless, Smith has proven she is a separatist, in spite of her protestations, and this is
The only logical reason for Danielle Smith to react like this would be if she were a separatist.Therefore, either Danielle Smith is insane, or she is a separatist.
— Emmett Macfarlane 🇨🇦 (@emmettmacfarlane.com) 2026-05-13T21:58:17.584Z
Entirely predictable.This was the endgame: give the appearance of collecting signatures. Whether or not you meet the threshold (legally) matters little if they'll never be counted.Then pressure the premier to call the vote.Will the premier call the big bluff?
Meanwhile, word is out that the pipeline agreement will be signed with Alberta on Friday, and it rests on a significantly reduced industrial carbon price, and if Alberta is getting a special deal, well, that’s going to become the floor for the rest of the country because the whole reason the national price is constitutional, per the Supreme Court of Canada, is to ensure uniformity so that provinces can’t undercut one another on a race to the bottom. And to add to that, Carney’s rationale for cutting the consumer carbon levy was that they could make the industrial price more effective, and now he’s gutting that. And what will he get for this capitulation to Alberta? Nothing. It won’t appease the separatists, because they thrive on invented grievances and conspiracy theories. We’re going to blow up our environmental plans, build a pipeline to the coast on diminishing returns once the situation in Iran is cleared up and the world returns to a supply glut position, and the planet will burn. It’s a wonder that Liberals can look themselves in the mirror.
No lies detected.
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-05-13T15:25:58.917Z
Ukraine Dispatch
Russia hit Kyiv with a massive drone and missile barrage early this morning, killing at least one and injuring at least sixteen others. This followed a daytime drone attack that struck close to the borders of NATO countries, killing six in the process. Ukraine has resumed targeting Russian oil and gas facilities.
Good reads:
- Mark Carney met with the Artemis II astronauts ahead of their appearance at the NAC, where Jeremy Hansen spoke about the importance of failure.
- Carney is set to announce his National Electricity Agenda today.
- Gary Anandasangaree says that tech companies and privacy experts are “misinterpreting” the lawful access bill. (More like the bill is terribly flawed).
- The government is contemplating privatising sea ports as well as airports.
- The government will be looking to industry for options to either upgrade or replace our fleet of aging tanks (where spare parts were hard to come by).
- Nearly 6200 civil servants have applied for the early retirement package.
- Here is a look at the Bank of Canada’s deliberations for holding interest rates steady.
- The changes the government made to the asylum system are going to disproportionately affect queer and trans claimants (because of course they are).
- With two MPs departing and a slim majority, there are questions about whether Carney can afford to alienate someone like Steven Guilbeault.
- The scope of the leaked voter list may be worse than indicated, as there is the potential that thousands of people accessed the database.
- Andrew MacDougall recaps the current attempted regicide happening within the UK Labour Party, as their mainstream parties face collapse.
- Jared Wesley points out how Danielle Smith is platforming and normalising separatist rhetoric, so that it becomes believed.
- My column points out how the NDP’s desire for a quick political win meant that the pharmacare programme was patchwork, haphazard, and easy to kill.
Odds and ends:
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