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2025 was not a very good year for Alberta conservatives.
Despite the passage of laws to roll back trans rights, to force teachers back to work, to control what books students are allowed to read and to consolidate power to the detriment of the courts and the election-accountability watchdog, Danielle Smith's United Conservatives will go into this new year less united and less popular than ever.
Smith's UCP capped off the year by invoking the notwithstanding clause four times in just two months, to break a teachers' strike and attack the rights of LGBTQ2SIA+ students in schools, going as far as to control permitted pronouns in class and ban puberty blockers.
But as always in this province, the cracks are appearing. "United" doesn't seem to be the natural state of Alberta's right wing.
This past year, I've paid a great deal of attention to an increasingly powerful faction within Smith's government and on the Alberta right in general: the Alberta separatist movement.
It took me to towns in southern Alberta, where I observed Smith's increasingly disgruntled base organize large gatherings, and even run in byelections, to sell the idea of the province's full separation from Canada.
This base has largely turned against the premier.
It's a movement based on pipelines (they want more), immigration (they want less) and general antipathy towards Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ottawa more broadly.
And in the latest development, a ballot question on separation seems likely in the near future, as Smith finds herself walking a tightrope between the separatist wing within her party and the majority of Albertans, who want to keep the province Canadian.
There is an idea out there that this is a fringe group that shouldn't be given attention. It's a fair point, but seeing it up close, I have to disagree.
They don't care if we pay attention to them or not. They're busy organizing town halls across the province, sometimes filling small-town community centres to capacity, to sell the idea of Alberta independence. The leaders are travelling to the States seeking meetings with sympathetic American officials.
Now it looks like a referendum on Alberta's place in Canada is extremely likely.
It's a story I'll continue to tell, because I love doing it.
In the meantime, read my recap of Danielle Smith's rough year .
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