Smith credits Carney for 72% of Albertans supporting 'remain'

Sheila Gunn Reid and Lise Merle question whether Premier Smith is giving the prime minister too much credit after the way the Liberals have treated the province.

Premier Danielle Smith is crediting Mark Carney for polling that shows 72% of Albertans intend to vote to remain in Canada on October 19.

On Tuesday's Rebel Roundup livestream, Sheila Gunn Reid and Lise Merle said they weren't buying it.

Asked whether anger was clouding the debate, Smith said Albertans had reason to be frustrated after a decade of harmful federal policy, but that the new prime minister has acknowledged it. She pointed to repealed laws, a memorandum of understanding on a West Coast pipeline, and joint housing and wastewater initiatives.

"I think the prime minister is doing that in good faith," Smith said, adding that the 22% intending to vote to leave is "still too high for my comfort."

Sheila had one question: "Is the reach out from the federal government in the room with us right now?" It has been a year, she noted, and not a single pipeline has been fast-tracked through the Major Projects Office, which exists specifically to fast-track projects.

She also rejected the idea that repealing some bad laws is enough. "If you come from a place of truth, you would acknowledge that all of the Liberal policies passed over the last 10 years were harmful to Alberta and to the West," she said. "All of the bad Liberal laws have to be repealed."

Sheila also objected to Smith delivering federal talking points from a podium.

"What I see there is an outsourcing of the messaging to the Libs," she said.

Lise Merle pointed out that Smith's lead over NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi has been narrowing, and not because of anything Nenshi is doing. "Danielle Smith does well when it's us versus them," Lise said. "You win when you fight for the people that elected you."

Then came the second clip, in which Smith walked through the history of Western separatism: the first separatist MLA elected in 1982, the collapse of that movement after Brian Mulroney repealed the National Energy Program, another surge to roughly 25% in 1993, and another decline after Stephen Harper addressed Western grievances.

Sheila said the premier had just made the case for Option 2.

"She actually lays out the cycle of why people are so mad right now and why it's only a temporary fix," she said. A Conservative prime minister fixes things, a Liberal government returns, and it starts over. "What's the common denominator in all of that frustration and anger? It's the Liberal government." Carney, Lise added, won't be the last federal leader Alberta has to deal with.

And the frustration, she said, hasn't lasted 10 years. It has lasted 121.

The hosts closed by noting Alberta is already outpacing the rest of the country economically, and that Albertans could govern themselves better than Ottawa does any day of the week.

Rebel Roundup airs Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 11 a.m. MT / 1 p.m. ET.

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