The relationship between Alberta and the federal government has faced its share of political and economic conflict over the years. Some Albertans would argue more than its fair share.
From the drawing of the province’s boundaries to natural resource control to the creation of the National Energy Program to pipeline cancellations and political representation, generations of Albertans have expressed feelings of alienation.
Last year, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith added to the litany of rebukes of Ottawa from Alberta leaders over the years. (Her predecessor, Jason Kenney, once said the federal government was “killing the golden goose”.)
After launching a panel tour to hear citizens’ frustrations, Smith said, “You know what Ottawa can’t help but be fixated on? … Punishing our energy sector and layering on policies to keep it in the ground.”
She made those remarks nearly two months after the Liberals won a fourth-consecutive election under new leader Mark Carney.
Members of the Alberta Next panel gathered for a public town hall meeting in Red Deer at the Westerner Park grounds on July 25, 2025. (Jason Markusoff/CBC)
Fast forward to this fall, with Albertans poised to go to the polls in a referendum that could ultimately lead to a separation vote, and Smith is expressing a very different view.
“I do think Canada is working better than it ever has,” Smith told CBC News, noting she will be voting for the province to stay put.
The remarks follow months of Smith saying that, in her view, working out the differences between Alberta and Ottawa would be the key to quelling separatist sentiment, a blueprint she said is shared by Carney.
At a campaign stop with Prime Minister Mark Carney, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she and Carney can agree on voting to remain in Canada in the upcoming referendum, but ‘there is still more to come’ and she is going to vote yes to the nine other questions on the ballot. ‘I have bad news for you, prime minister – all of the premiers are interested in talking about immigration reform,’ Smith said.
So what changed in the relationship between the province and Ottawa? Is Alberta really in a better place than a year ago? And if so, for how long?
For her part, Smith said that Alberta has “finally” found a government willing to move swiftly on major projects, such as the Pacific Link pipeline, while not “standing in the way” of Alberta developing its resources.
Carney, the premier said, is a “different type of leader.”
“I think he understands the Constitution. I think he respects the constitutional division of powers,” she said. “There’s areas that are federal jurisdiction, and areas of provincial jurisdiction.”
That’s why, the premier argued, Albertans should vote to remain in Canada, with a newfound belief that federation can function fairly.
But those who say the province needs to go its own way to realize its true potential see Carney’s promises as mere window dressing after years of policy that stymied economic growth and personal freedoms.
Constitutional lawyer Keith Wilson argued in favour of Alberta independence at a debate in Calgary held in late May. (New West Video)
“They’re just saying, ‘Hey, we’re getting along.’ Well, what if they stop getting along?” said Keith Wilson, one of the most prominent leaders in the Alberta separatist movement.
“I am not satisfied to have the future of my children’s success and prosperity hinge upon whether the prime minister and a premier have a good personal relationship.”
No to the nine (‘bad laws’)
In addition to the proposed Pacific Link pipeline and other federal investments, Smith has praised federal movement around what she calls the “nine bad laws” that she demanded be addressed in order to avoid an “unprecedented national unity crisis.”
As detailed by Smith in March 2025, they were, in brief:
- the oil and gas emissions cap;
- returning oversight of the industrial carbon tax to the provinces;
- the net-zero power regulations;
- the EV mandate;
- repealing Bill C-69, otherwise known as the Impact Assessment Act;
- guaranteeing Alberta “full access” to oil and gas corridors;
- lifting the B.C. tanker ban;
- ending the prohibition on single-use plastics; and
- “halting the federal censorship” of energy companies.
A spokesperson in the premiers’ office said it considers seven of the nine “scrapped or reformed.”
“Investment is soaring and major projects are moving forward again. This is proof of progress and a more collaborative relationship,” Ryan Fournier wrote in an email.
At a campaign stop in Red Deer, Alberta with Premier Danielle Smith, Prime Minister Mark Carney said when the federal and provincial governments are ‘open and honest with each other’ about challenges, they can ‘find solutions.’ The two leaders urged Albertans to vote ‘no’ to a referendum on separation.
The federal government revised those policies amid criticism from some that the moves would claw back environmental protections and concern from others surrounding Indigenous consultation.
Wilson isn’t satisfied with progress to date, citing, among other developments, a recent Alberta Court of Appeal ruling that stated the federal government’s Impact Assessment Act is still unconstitutional.
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“I’m sorry, but this is just … political platitudes, absent substantive action. If the prime minister was serious about these things, he would offer to change equalization,” he said.
“He would announce that he’s going to follow the court decision, and repeal Bill C-69 [the Impact Assessment Act]. Surely, people aren’t this gullible. But maybe they are?”
The Alberta Court of Appeal in Calgary is seen in this file photo. Earlier this month, it ruled the federal government’s Impact Assessment Act is still unconstitutional. (Google Maps)
Heather Exner-Pirot, director of energy, natural resources and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa, said that Canada had a “terrible reputation” for investment due to policies implemented under former prime minister Justin Trudeau.
“The corrections to the ‘nine bad laws’ … those are all meaningful, in that they have attracted investment,” she said.
“You can always say that things aren’t perfect, or there’s things we can still do to improve competitiveness, but I don’t think anyone would have anticipated two years ago that we could be where we are here today.”
Earlier this month, the federal and Alberta governments announced that the proposed Pacific Link pipeline, which would carry one million barrels of oil a day from Alberta to the B.C. coast, had become the first project designated in the national interest. That classification means that federal approvals and regulatory reviews will be fast-tracked.
Prominent separatists, meanwhile, have argued that the Pacific Link pipeline is not a point in Carney’s favour.
Chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton speaks with Energy Minister Tim Hodgson about the significance of the Pacific Link Pipeline’s national interest designation and how much of the $35-billion-plus estimated price tag Canadian taxpayers could be on the hook for. Then, Alberta Finance Minister Jason Nixon talks through what the pipeline means for provincial unity, ahead of a referendum on separation. Finally, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip from the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs shares his concerns with the pipeline’s condensed environmental review and Indigenous consultation processes.
“This is a nationalized pipeline. Is that really the only way to get something done in Canada, is to have the government do it?” said Cory Morgan, who heads the third-party advertiser Pathway to Independence, in a recent video. “That’s not a good sign, guys.”
Exner-Pirot said government de-risking is necessary for West Coast pipelines given challenges tied to past projects.
After Kinder Morgan halted construction on the Trans Mountain pipeline, the federal government under Trudeau took over, buying the troubled project for $4.5 billion in 2018. The project cost eventually spiralled to $34 billion.
“The particular circumstances of a west coastal pipeline are terrible,” Exner-Pirot said. “I think, [it is] justified for government to de-risk it, and to show that it can be done.”
Heather Exner-Pirot, director of energy, natural resources and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, says changes to laws and regulations under Prime Minister Mark Carney have made Canada more competitive and attractive for investment. (Paula Duhatschek/CBC)
However, Exner-Pirot said many other energy projects, including other pipelines, are moving forward successfully without government subsidies — like LNG Canada’s Phase 2 expansion in Kitimat, B.C.
“So, the idea that we’re not building anything else except for this one project with government funding or backing is simply not true.”
Fault lines
In the eyes of the Alberta government, the “nine bad laws” may be well on their way to a resolution under Canada’s new prime minister.
But Carney’s comments tied to the “No to the Nine” campaign drew prompt opposition from the provincial government on Thursday.
“No to the Nine” is a prominent federalist advertising campaign that urges Albertans to reject the nine referendum ballot questions not concerned with separation. Five of those questions deal with immigration, while four are aimed at constitutional reforms, like abolishing the Senate.
At a Thursday event, Carney suggested Albertans should vote “No to the Nine.” The premier then posted on X that despite the two finding common ground on many issues, it appeared Carney “had yet to fully understand just how damaging the open-border policies” of his predecessor were.
Ian Brodie, a political scientist at the University of Calgary who was chief of staff to former prime minister Stephen Harper, called Carney’s comments a “miss.”
“The winning federalist campaign here is to acknowledge that Alberta has had a short shrift from Confederation over the last few years, and that changes are needed if the province is going to get a fair deal,” Brodie said on CBC Radio’s Calgary Eyeopener.
Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke alongside Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on Friday at a brewery in Red Deer, Alta. (CBC)
For his part, Carney said Thursday that he didn’t “need a referendum” to co-operate more with the provinces on immigration.
“The province is closer to the needs of the industries here, where the shortages are,” Carney told Global News, adding the federal government had already taken “control” on changes to immigration.
Despite the potential awkwardness, Carney made a campaign stop with Smith at a brewery in Red Deer on Friday, where he made a point of characterizing the relationship between the two as involving “tough collaboration.”
“In our time working together, the premier has consistently put the most difficult issues on the table, with the intention of finding a common way forward,” Carney said.
The conversations to come
“Ottawa may be 2,000 miles away, but destructive federal policy travels on winged feet and strikes like the wrath of God.”
That’s how Monte Solberg, an Alberta MP from 1993 to 2008 for the Reform Party, Canadian Alliance and Conservative Party of Alberta, characterized the relationship between the West and Ottawa in a 2018 column on alienation written for CBC News.
Today, he’s pushing for the federalist side in the referendum, as part of the Vote to Stay campaign. In his view, now is not the time to separate, as Canada is locked in negotiations with the United States.
“That doesn’t mean that, over time, there shouldn’t be a discussion about how we address some of the unfairness in Confederation,” he said.
As to whether the prime minister is the person who will have that conversation?
“Well, I think it’ll be a priority for the premier [of Alberta], and for some other premiers. They’ll have their chance to make their case that this needs to be addressed,” Solberg said.
“I think there is a potential to do so with this prime minister that there wasn’t with, certainly, Justin Trudeau.”
Voters at a downtown Edmonton polling station are pictured on Oct. 13. (Jack Farrell/The Canadian Press)
For Wilson, who believes in an independent Alberta, none of what’s been offered up can be seen as a win.
In his view, there’s been no offer whatsoever to address what he sees as the “structural unfairness” of how Alberta is treated within Confederation.
“None of what [Smith] is doing is addressing those core issues. I don’t know what’s happened to her. I just don’t,” he said.
Some separatists have argued that Albertans should consider Option 2 — to commence the process to hold a future binding referendum on whether Alberta should leave Canada — so as to preserve leverage in negotiations with Ottawa.
Others say they’re opposed to both options on the ballot.
“What Canada needs — is a middle-ground path into the future — a set of constitutional reforms that restore the legal primacy of provincial governments for policies in health, education and social services,” wrote Ted Morton, an Ed Stelmach-era cabinet minister and one of the authors of the well-known “Alberta firewall” letter, which advocated for Alberta to exit the Canada Pension Plan, among other ideas.
Competing referendum signs line a boulevard in Calgary on Oct. 15. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)
Polling has suggested that Carney is the most popular politician in Alberta, ahead of Smith and federal Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre.
Duane Bratt, a political science professor at Calgary’s Mount Royal University who has argued for the federalist side at events during the referendum campaign, said it is inevitable, as political gravity kicks in, that the prime minister won’t be able to hang onto that level of support forever.
“There ’s always frictions between the federal and provincial governments,” Bratt said.
“The question is: are we going to see that same friction that we saw in the Trudeau era?”
