Premier Danielle Smith's Alberta Next panel kicked off this week, and the topic of independence came to dominate the discussion.

“Ottawa has ignored us and will continue to ignore us,” a speaker said during the event's open mic portion.

“It doesn't matter what we do here tonight or what the outcome of this is, they will continue to ignore us,” he continued before asserting the only solution was to hold a referendum on the province's relationship with Canada.

“At that point, then you'll be able to negotiate with Ottawa, then you'll be able to negotiate with Quebec. Without that, they will continue to ignore us.”

In a special Buffalo Roundtable livestream, which focused solely on issues facing Western Canada, panellists Sheila Gunn Reid, Ezra Levant, Lise Merle and Cory Morgan weighed in on a speaker's plea to the panel.

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“I think the Alberta government might think that this Alberta Next panel could placate people, but I think they're going to get a lot of that on the open mic portion,” Sheila said.

Premier Smith finds herself in a “tough spot,” added Western Standard publisher Cory Morgan. “While the majority of her party membership tend to be sympathetic to independence, the majority of the province isn't quite there yet,” he said, noting the premier needs to appeal to the provincial majority to retain power.

Concerns over the premier's panel are rooted in former premier Jason Kenney's similar efforts — which led nowhere, Cory said. “So is this actually going to lead towards something — towards changes whether it's a referendum or things like a pension plan or collecting our own taxes — or if it's just an exercise in kicking the can down the road.”

Pensions, policing and other issues are concerns for the government, but “the people of Alberta come in guns blazing like, 'nope, we need to threaten to leave, we need to threaten to leave right now,'” said Lise.

“There's no way that the government of Alberta can pretend that they didn't hear them loud and clear. I think this is going to be something we hear at every single one of their Alberta Next panels — and it will be interesting to see how the government of Alberta responds.”

The speaker's comments were spot on, added Ezra. 

“It shows the media, it shows Ottawa observers that there is something cooking in Alberta,” he said. “The entire federal government was recalibrated after the last separatism referendum about 30 years ago to detect any inkling of upset into Quebec and immediately ameliorate or, in some ways, attend to.”

Alberta's same “seismograph” isn't as prominent as Quebec's, the Rebel boss continued, saying “you have to magnify the sounds of discontent for Ottawa to hear it.”

Unlike Quebec, Ottawa “doesn't care as much” about Albertan issues. “They don't have as many political operators on the ground; they don't have as many cabinet ministers. So, it's important that Ottawa and the Ottawa media know that there's discontent, so I'm pleased what I just saw there.”