Last week in AB: February 17, 2026

Separatists, partisans, liars, and country lovers; just like the weather, we really do have it all in Alberta.

Separate worlds

Two things can be true: these people are seriously unserious and they have been afforded the ability to impact the rest of us in profoundly serious ways. Sadly, that could be referring to far too many players and games and I have to be more specific: I’m talking about the separatists.

I’m certain many provinces have their founding families whose names are both well-known and influential in business and political circles. In Alberta, one of ours is the Southern family and ATCO. As “luck” would have it, our former Premier, Jason Kenney, is also connected to them more openly now as a Corporate Director on the company’s board. As Jason Kenney has become more outspoken against the separatist agenda, the Alberta Prosperity Project’s main spokesperson, Jeffrey Rath, with Take Back Alberta tag-along David Parker (whose claim to fame was enlisting enough support against Jason Kenney to have him resign after barely passing his leadership review in 2022), have turned their attention to Mr. Kenney, and recently decided their next winning gambit is to call for boycotts of companies whose board he sits on. That little chucklefest pits the separatists against ATCO gas and… the U.S.-owned National Post. Though, who among us hasn’t done the latter?

To be fair, some of that might not be all about Jason Kenney— ATCO CEO Nancy Southern has spoken out against separatist sentiment as well (right after Danielle Smith amended provincial legislation to help the separatists get their petition through without having to work so hard).

Amusingly, trying to boycott ATCO isn’t going to work. Apparently separatists don’t know that ATCO owns over 80 per cent of the transmission lines that deliver electricity and natural gas to Alberta homes and businesses. That means even if Albertans switch energy providers, ATCO is still getting paid.

Mr. Rath may have lost some of his bragging rights as the attention he finally received for his public displays of affection to staffers willing to meet with him and other Alberta Prosperity Project members in Washington has earned a public response from higher ups: no senior officials attended meetings, no commitments were made at the meetings, and there will be no more meetings.

They’ve always been bigger than their britches. In 2025, Mr. Rath claimed he and other “delegates” were going to “Washington to talk to the Trump Administration about Alberta petitioning for U.S. statehood.” Back then, they weren’t getting much press outside of those in right wing media circles that thrive on transforming everyday zeros into something noteworthy, and First Nations who were unimpressed with the snake oil Mr. Rath and the APP are peddling. Separatism sentiment itself isn’t new in Alberta, but they’ve never been able to yank the premier’s chain and have her heel for them before.

Within Danielle Smith’s first iteration of changes to the Citizen’s Initiative petition process that reduced the number of signatures required and increased the time they were allowed to collect them, the Conservative Party added an additional clause that was (at the time) meant to reassure Indigenous Peoples that the provincial government would not, in fact, be waving away their rights in Alberta. The clause prohibited referendums on constitutional rights specifically, and another tasked the Elections Commissioner with the responsibility to refer to the court if a question’s constitutionality was in doubt. This was done with the separatist’s question, which returned a decision that the question was not constitutional. The Conservatives then removed the clause from the legislation in December, a bare seven months after they introduced it.

Heel, girl! Good dog.

Flags and stuff

February 15 was Flag Day! More Canadians had them this year after the run on flag makers last year, which of course was in response to Donald Trump’s 51st state comments. Some managed to embrace the day with pride and others just had to rain on their parade.

Yes, Jason, some people have opposed the targeted destruction of an entire population in retaliation for the actions of a few; even the U.S. didn’t obliterate Afghanistan looking for Bin Laden. Not an ounce of nuance.

The one that managed to make a headline, though, was Alberta Education Minister Dmetrios Nicolaides, who posted a photo of himself and others to his government Facebook account holding an Alberta flag on a hike overseas. In response to questions, the Minister’s senior press secretary, Garrett Koehler said in a written statement “(p)oliticizing images from such a deeply personal and purpose-driven journey is abhorrent and profoundly disrespectful.”

Yet, if it was “deeply personal” why did he post it to his government page? Because he’s fundraising for a Calgary-based non-profit, and he’s doing so in memory of his sister who was murdered by her former partner in 2024. The latter is obviously “deeply personal and purpose-driven” but he’s using his government account, and his position as Minister, to fundraise for it, apparently— that’s politicization.

The question, however, was why the group chose to bring an Alberta flag. Again, if it’s “deeply personal” and this group of Albertans wanted to show their Alberta pride overseas, no one cares; but why post it on his government account? When Justice Minister Mickey Amery was enjoying free hockey games from his cousin Sam Mraiche, he didn’t post the photos to his government account. Danielle Smith admonished those who asked questions about the Premier’s caucus and staff members being treated to perks from AHS’s biggest sole-sourced contract winner because they could spend their free time or vacation any way they chose. She said it was “personal” time.

A Minister of the Crown chose to publicize his “deeply personal and purpose-driven journey”. For whatever reason, they chose to bring a flag that not overly recognizable outside of our provincial borders, let alone our nation’s, while a group of unelected yahoos who apparently run the Conservative Party collect signatures to vote for independence. If the Minister didn’t take any of those things into consideration, I’d say he’s an idiot; but I expect he took it all into consideration and his heart was aflutter thinking of how it would trigger “the loony left”.

These people don’t take their roles or responsibilities seriously and they enjoy rubbing it in our faces that they were elected anyway. Fair insult, really.

Waternotcoal.ca

The last petition to be approved without requiring a $25,000 deposit (that you only get back if your petition gets the required number of signatures) is finally up and running! To see where you can sign, or volunteer, go to waternotcoal.ca.

Back in December when Justice Minister Mickey Amery introduced Bill 14 to amend a bunch of things they’d gotten wrong, they added a new clause to the Citizen-Led Initiative Act that allowed the government to skirt their responsibility to the public yet again. When they repealed the part about not being able to put constitutional rights to a referendum vote, they added that results of referenda are not binding on the government.

In Conservative Party speak that means “we’ll allow you to have a say only if we agree with what you’re saying.”

It could put them in a bit of a pickle if they decide to throw Alberta’s economy, Treaty rights holders, and Canadians who live here under the bus by holding a referendum on independence while simultaneously telling Albertans who rely on water from the rocky mountains to pound sand if they aren’t willing to accept contamination from coal mining there that may put their lives and livelihoods and risk.

A pickle indeed.

Alberta’s Bill 11 not “European-style healthcare”

Shocked face.

You know how Alberta conservatives are always saying they want what Quebec has but without having to do the things that Quebec does to get them? It’s the same with their healthcare plan. They’re holding up the brightly-wrapped package that says “European-style healthcare” where private and public options co-exist through regulation but inside it’s just U.S.-style two-tiered healthcare with a profit motive for her buddies in the healthcare “business”.

Tommy Boy’s “guarantee”.

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives senior researcher Andrew Longhurst found that when he compared what the premier and her health ministers are saying about the plan they’re actually pushing in Alberta, they are not the same.

“Where private insurance exists in (western European) countries, the insurance market is highly regulated. Insurers tend to be non-profits or effectively public — not private for-profit companies,” said Longhurst with Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), who wrote Fact check: Alberta’s new two-tier system is not “European” health care.

Longhurst said Australia does come closer to Alberta’s new model, but at a cost: wait times for priority procedures remain much longer in Australia. “Alberta is the first Canadian province to introduce two-tier legislation and encourage a private health insurance market for services covered under the Canada Health Act. This is a decisive shift towards U.S. health care based on greed and profit-taking, not “European” health care based largely on principles of social solidarity and universality,” said Longhurst, in a statement.

Red Deer Advocate, February 13, 2026

As the Premier and her Ministers skillfully did with the separatist referendum, they’re simply pulling another bait and switch on those who voted for them.

Final thoughts

And they have a Substack

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