Following Mark Carney's election as prime minister, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith delivered a speech addressing the steps she wants to see the federal government take to repair its relationship with the province. In the speech, the premier laid out the challenges Alberta faces, largely driven by restrictive legislation placed on natural resources, and raised the issue of separatism that has been gaining in support in the province.

While her view is to work for a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada, Premier Smith acknowledged the possibility of a citizen-led initiative leading to a referendum on the issue, something she said she would respect after lowering the near-unobtainable threshold of the policy brought in under Jason Kenney's tenure as premier.

On Tuesday's Rebel Roundup livestream, hosts Sheila Gunn Reid and Lise Merle shared their thoughts on Premier Smith's statement aimed at the Carney Liberals.

“For anybody who's saying this is just Albertans having a tantrum because their guy didn't win, that's not even close to what this is about,” Sheila said, referring to the strong support the federal Conservatives consistently see in the province.

Instead, Premier Smith's comments were “doing her best to make the rest of the country understand what it's like to be in Alberta when we just want to be allowed to work and do what's best, and you have the overreach of the feds telling us no, no, no, you just cannot.”

The attitude was reminiscent of COVID-19 era messaging of “follow the science,” added Lise, saying that Liberal voters in Eastern Canada were sending the message that “You must believe what we believe, you must be committed to our crazy, green net-zero sustainability goal.”

Those goals, however, conflict with Western Canada's natural resource sector, said Lise, praising Premier Smith for communicating the “frustration” Western Canadians are feeling following the election.

“So, this is a natural consequence of that election result,” she said.

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