Alberta

18/06/26
Author: 
Charles Rusnell
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith rejected an independent report on electoral boundaries, creating a new body weighted with UCP appointees to decide. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick, the Canadian Press.

Jun. 17, 2026

Smith’s Power Plays Depend on These Hand-Picked Appointees

Think redrawing ridings and pricing separation are jobs for impartial experts? Here are the UCP choices.

How will Alberta’s ridings be reshaped and who will draw the lines? The answers could affect the outcome of future elections for generations. But New Democrats claim Premier Danielle Smith has brazenly tilted the scales in her party’s favour.

17/06/26
Author: 
Emiko Newman
An oil rig in Bahrain. The war in nearby Iran is driving unprecedented profits for Canada’s fossil fuels industry and those revenues should be taxed to support public services, writes the author. Photo via Shutterstock.

While residents of Iran suffer the consequences of a senseless war, the impacts ripple across the globe in the form of price spikes for gas and other commodities. And the Canadian oil and gas industry has been laughing all the way to the bank.

15/06/26
Author: 
Charlie Angus
Trans Mountain Pipeline

Jun. 7, 2026

From the moment Donald Trump started threatening Canada’s economy and sovereignty, Premier Danielle Smith was an outlier.

She refused to be part of the Team Canada approach, preferring instead to head to Mar-a-Lago with Jordan Peterson and Kevin O’Leary.

15/06/26
Author: 
Andrew Nikiforuk
Like a ‘mighty gyre,’ the data centre industry exerts a fierce pull. But resistance is growing. Photo via Shutterstock.

Jun. 15, 2026

Data centres gobble vast capital, land, water and energy while forcing locals to endure ‘heat islands.’ Who voted for this?

“While technological successes are celebrated, the social fabric is progressively eroded, as if by a silent virus.” — Pope Leo XIV

09/06/26
Author: 
Geoff Meggs
Heiltsuk Tribal Council Chief Councillor Marilyn Slett at the signing ceremony for the North Coast Protection Declaration in November, when Coastal First Nations and the BC government said the North Coast tanker ban must remain in place. Photo via BC government.

Jun. 4, 2026

Heiltsuk Marilyn Slett won’t relent on the tanker ban. Which leaves Mark Carney only a problematic southern route.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has probably never heard her name, but K̓áwáziɫ Marilyn Slett, chief councillor of the Heiltsuk Tribal Council on B.C.’s Central Coast, has emerged as one of the strongest voices opposing any change to Canada’s North Coast tanker ban.

If there’s one immovable obstacle to Smith’s dream of a new northern oil pipeline and terminal, it’s Slett.

28/05/26
Author: 
Graeme Gordon
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks during a news conference in Calgary, Alta., Friday, May 22, 2026.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

May 27, 2026

A referendum on an official referendum scheduled for the night of October 19, 2026, could set Alberta on an official legal process of leaving Canada.

Earlier this month, a judge of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta ruled against an official, non-binding referendum going forward this fall, citing a lack of consultation with the province’s Indigenous people and the Crown.

23/05/26
Author: 
Michael Harris
Cartoon by Greg Perry.

May 20, 2026

The court, Carney and political threats offer Alberta’s premier an exit ramp. She refuses to swerve.

Let’s look in on what may be the most important story in Canada.

23/05/26
Author: 
Markham Hislop
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks at a press conference at McDougall Centre in Calgary. Photo by Dean Pilling /Postmedia

May 23, 2026

Can Danielle Smith continue using Alberta separatism as a tool of political management without eventually losing control of the forces she helped unleash? This past week suggests she can’t. Political movements built on grievance rarely remain controllable for long. Since becoming premier in 2022, she has systematically normalized the politics of betrayal, victimhood, and existential crisis. Now she is trying to surf a political tsunami wave of her own making.

Can she survive?

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