Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Photo by Chris Schwarz/Government of Alberta/Flickr.

Alberta’s upcoming referendum says less about the strength of separatist sentiment in the province than it does about catastrophically weak leadership in the premier’s office.

Albertans will, of course, be forgiven for asking themselves: “How did we get here? How in the world are we voting on a referendum asking us if we want another referendum later, which in turn will ask us if we want to leave Canada?” The question itself is as ham-fisted as the idea is ridiculous.

In recent weeks, Albertans have been shown, again and again and again, what any seventh-grader already knows: that the costs of separating far exceed any of the benefits separatist groups insist lie just beyond the rainbow, where the fairies live. In fact, by some recent analyses, even putting the question before Albertans is harming the province’s economic outlook. And those warnings are coming from well-known stalwart socialist groups like the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and the Business Council of Alberta.

I don’t want to add to those analyses. They’re clear, they’re unequivocal, and they’re damning to the very notion of separation.

What I want to do is suggest that Alberta has almost always harboured a fringe element that feels more alienation than the rest of us. They might be angry about financial policies, they might be upset with federalism, they might be furious at one prime minister or another, or they might just be mad. The point is, Alberta has long faced disgruntled folks raging about alienation or independence or even separation. The difference in 2026 is that previous premiers have known how to deal with them. Our current premier does not. She pandered to the fringe thinking she was leading the dance. She wasn’t. She was being dragged all around the dance floor and, unfortunately for the rest of us, now we’re being dragged around it too.

A (brief) history of anger in Alberta

Join me, then, for a brief journey into the foggy mists of time to the summer of 1935 and the depths of the Great Depression. Fred Astaire is topping the charts with the Irving Berlin-penned hit “Cheek to Cheek” from the musical Top Hat. US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt has just signed the Social Security Act into law, giving modest economic security to the aged, the........

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