While the people of Canada decided to vote “anti-Trump” and elect globalist progressive Mark Carney into the nation’s top office, it must be noted that the Western Provinces went the other way.
For example, the people of Alberta overwhelmingly voted for the Conservative Party. The Conservatives secured 34 out of Alberta’s 37 seats in the House of Commons, representing 92% of the province’s representation in Ottawa.
Therefore, when Canada’s climate cultist leader decided to raise the carbon tax on the fossil-fuel-rich region imperially, he hit a bump in the road with the regional premier.
Alberta is freezing its industrial carbon tax in a bid to help companies struggling with the effects of U.S. tariffs, potentially setting up a challenge to the government of Prime Minister Mark Carney.Canada’s top oil-producing province will keep the tax at $95 per metric ton for an indefinite time, officials said at a press conference Monday. The levy had been scheduled to rise to $110 per metric ton next year and to $170 by 2030, according to federal rules that govern the provincial carbon tax levels.The move by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has the potential to cause a clash with Carney, who has said he wants to keep the industrial carbon tax despite eliminating the consumer levy. Smith, a conservative who has been leading the province since 2022, has fought with the government in Ottawa over matters that affect its massive oil industry, which produces the bulk of the country’s crude.“We are providing certainty, stability, and economic relief to the businesses that contribute so much to all of Canada,” Smith said at the press conference.
Many Canadians hope this is a beginning.
Alberta industries are tired of their coffers being sacrificed on the altar of Canadian socialist schemes. Smith’s freeze is supported by major industry groups, such as the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and the Pathways Alliance, who argue that the current federal carbon pricing framework disadvantages Canadian producers relative to international competitors.
Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers president Lisa Baiton said she supports Alberta’s freeze and called on the federal government to fully reset its carbon regulatory scheme.”Changes are necessary to establish a long-term signal to lock in investments and to reduce emissions, while remaining globally competitive,” Baiton said in a statement.The president of Pathways Alliance, a consortium of Canada’s largest oilsands companies, said Canada’s carbon pricing system puts industry at a disadvantage when it comes to competing with companies in other jurisdictions.”This announcement signals recognition of the pressures on our sector’s competitiveness,” president Kendall Dilling said in an email.
It must also be noted that Alberta’s secession movement, advocating for the province to separate from Canada and become an independent country, has gained renewed momentum since Carney’s election.
The Alberta Prosperity Project (APP), a leading separatist group, has drafted a referendum question: “Do you agree that the province shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province of Canada?” The group plans to formally petition for a referendum once it secures 600,000 signatures (a figure far exceeding the 177,000 required by new provincial legislation).
That’s more than triple the number of signatures the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP) would need under a new United Conservative Party government bill that makes it much easier to force a referendum on the ballot.The group also said it would push Premier Danielle Smith to allow a separation referendum later in 2025, instead of next year as she’s suggested. They said a critical mass of separatist UCP members can persuade the premier to fast-track the referendum — and to join their cause as well.At a news conference, APP lawyer Jeffrey Rath pulled a blue provincial flag off an easel to reveal the independence referendum question: “Do you agree that the province shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province of Canada?”He touted this ballot question as far clearer than the one Quebec put forth in its 1995 secession referendum.”This is as serious as a heart attack,” Rath said. “And this is what Albertans expect.”
In the interest of completeness, I will also note that in the adjacent province, the vast majority of voters in Saskatchewan chose the Conservative Party (13 of the 14 federal ridings). However, Saskatchewan’s relationship with Ottawa isn’t in as much “flux” right now.
However, things must be simmering. Carney plans on meeting with country’s provincial premiers in Saskatchewan soon, in response to the frustrations with Ottawa among its western leaders.
After Ontario Premier Doug Ford first told reporters about the upcoming meeting, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed Carney will travel to Saskatoon June 2 for a face-to-face meeting.Ford, who took part in a conference call with Carney and the other premiers Wednesday, called the field trip meeting an “olive branch” to the West and a step in uniting the country.”I said it is time that your government starts showing some love to Saskatchewan and Alberta because as I said, the last prime minister showed no love,” Ford said.”They have been treated terribly, to be very frank, and I think the new prime minister understands that and he will be out there having a great conversation.”
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