This week in AB: October 1, 2026

Pipelines, potholes, and pickles.

Thankfully, yet another Liberal government understands that some projects are, in fact, a “national priority”

There is only one thing I like more than talking about politics and that’s being right.

I LOOOOOOVE being right.

In fact, I stake my reputation on it every time I hit the “publish” button.

Part of that, of course, is being able to dance around with the receipts of ridiculously partisan takes that aged like a glass of milk in your teenager’s bedroom during a heat wave.

I kid— they probably left it propped up in the photo album rack to ensure you wouldn’t stumble upon it until the fall cleaning blitz. But I digress.

That’s right, the oldie but goody from then-Employment Minister Jason Kenney in 2014 when he said that pipeline projects were “strategically important” but “no particular project is a national priority.”

If anyone is keeping track, that’s two more pipeline projects that were specified as national priorities to the CPC’s zero. Totally coincidentally, that’s how many more pipelines they’ll probably build under the “no more pipelines law” than the CPC managed without one, too.

Prime Minister Mark Carney was in Alberta on Thursday to announce that the TMX twin has been given national priority status.

And from Jason Kenney’s response, you’d think it was his idea.

Interesting times indeed.

Six months ago, the UCP would have won an election; today, they might not even get majority support for their referendum

How unpopular are the United Conservatives in Alberta today? So unpopular that Danielle Smith is doing living-room coffee parties and member’s only events.

So unpopular, that the only UCP MLA trying to get headlines is the guy who adopted the cadence of a seventh-grade drama student who cannot discern pitch. Seriously; it’s like listening to a record on a wobbly turntable at 0.25 speed.

Their newfound unpopularity isn’t even just in urban centres, where they desperately need to hold onto the few seats they have, but in the midsize and small towns that dot our glorious prairies.

It’s not just the fact that they pulled the switcheroo from “principled conservative” party to a sham of a “big tent” separatist party, it’s that they spent time and money “consulting” on petty grievances that have no real impact on the daily lives of people in rural and unilaterally greenlit competition for a resource farms and ranchers in Alberta cannot make a living without: water.

And I’m not even talking about the allegations of un-funny business in the Water Not Coal petition verification process.

One would think that if anyone knows the UCP base in rural Alberta, it would be the UCP but, apparently, one would be wrong.

Almost as if the culture wars the UCP has been droning on about since Danielle Smith was elected were a distraction from things that actually matter to voters.

CBC has been out traversing the prairies, as have I, and they’re reporting the same things I’m seeing: federalist signs far outnumber separatist ones and farmers and ranchers don’t give a damn about the UCP’s newfound money tree if it might have a negative impact on their livelihoods.

Like many items that get approvals faster in the U.S., data centres have a history… and they don’t convey anything close to confidence.

In areas where data centres have been up and running, the draw on local power grids have been excessive and they don’t have enough access to fresh water to quench the thirst of their inanimate being-hood.

When the pushback was brought up by a resident near Indus at the town hall I attended in Strathmore on the 22nd, the Premier shifted the blame to town council.

“The (councils) that have gone to their communities first are the ones that are going to be successful,” the Premier said.

As if the UCP hasn’t stepped in to force councils to do what they want councils to do for the last four years.

“I don’t know about you, but I like low taxes and these data centres are going to provide municipalities with $40 million per year,” Chestermere-Strathmore MLA Chantal de Jong chimed in.

The Premier added that data centres would also be paying $250 million to connect to the grid.

Water was not addressed.

Now, we all know the stereotype about environmentalists that some people like to trot out; they’re latte-sipping, avocado-toast eating Liberals who don’t understand how we make money in this province. As Premier, Jason Kenney was just as handsy with the public purse as his successor, and shelled out more than $3 million to find out that environmental conservationists aren’t the bogeymen they like to point at.

I could have told him that for much less just from my time with my local paper.

“We struggle with foreign-funded environmental forces against projects necessary on a national scale but here, locally, to be credible, we must demonstrate we know how to protect our own lands,” Clark said.

What I couldn’t add then but we know now is that those local advocates were not successful in their attempt to further protect the river valley.

I don’t want to be a Negative Nelly, but I expect the same treatment to befall data centre opposition today, as it did the Rosebud Valley advocates, just as it did the Water Not Coal advocates.

Soft-launching the next election

Why start from a position of strength when you can announce you’re going to be the UCP candidate less than a month after failing to win a by-election in what should have been a slam dunk riding?

There is a generationally tried and tested narrative arc for Conservatives to win in Alberta, however: “if you’re a ‘true Conservative’ we’re your only option.”

Except.. people are really unhappy with the leadership of the UCP. They’re also not happy with the MLAs who stood by the poor leadership as it screws them over.

So, as much as I’m ever-so-sure that the local MLA’s were happy to stand with Danielle Smith and announce they would be the UCP candidate in their riding, I can only assume they are hanging out in their local circle jerk of a Facebook group and basking in the, uh, glowing support they are receiving there.

The Premier is worried about support. The Premier acknowledged voters are unhappy. The same Premier who wants to be seen as omnipotent was flailing around in her flaccidity.

I’m not entirely sure how the town hall with Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Justin Wright actually went (because I wasn’t there), but the town hall in Strathmore felt like a shotgun wedding where the officiant just needed to get through the things they had to say as fast as possible.

I engage on a daily basis, so, I could keep up with the rapidly-delivered list of “accomplishments” and also compare the outcomes, but I wondered more than once if everyone in the room could do the same, let alone follow along. The room was mostly silent as she hurried through her pre-written list.

For the Q and A portion, the Premier denied that making drugs more expensive for Alberta seniors was the “intent” of her government’s Bill 11. I already covered the data centre question. A couple of attendees addressed the “winning an election” elephant in the room. One said that she’s a newcomer to Canada and works with more than a few others like herself. She said there’s a perception among her colleagues that the UCP doesn’t support immigrants.

The Premier blamed living in urban centres rather than acknowledging her anti-business, anti-worker, and anti-immigrant referendum questions might play a role.

She may not be thinking about it but voters are.

A person in Brooks asked me during my recent tour in rural, “what are the options (outside of the UCP)? The (former Mayor) wrecked Calgary and can’t be given a chance to do it to the province.”

I offered him the Tories and he accepted it with a curt nod.

It was one of those rare moments where I was in complete agreement with the Premier, who said in Strathmore a week earlier that she was just really hoping that Conservatives (who are upset with what the UCP is doing) don’t stay home on election day.

Optimistically, Premier, I think that if they know they will be given an option to vote for someone they aren’t expressly angry at, voters might just show up in droves.

Win/win, amirite?

Final thoughts

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