https://open.substack.com/pub/davidkrayden/p/alberta-and-bc-can-choose-freedom?
“The real question in my mind is why does Smith appear to really believe that Carney is on Alberta’s side. Maybe he’s on her side, but I’m not sure which side Smith is on anymore. Clearly, she has been a political chameleon throughout the years through her leadership and membership in various provincial parties, she has managed to constantly evolve in a way that keeps her politically viable.

I don’t know where she thinks she’s going to go right now, because she is the leader of the United Conservative Party, and up to 70% of the membership of that party supports Alberta independence.
It will be untenable. Indeed, it is probably impossible for Smith to continue to lead that party and remain a federalist.
I don’t know if she has somehow convinced herself that one can be of two minds and somehow convince people of two different concepts at the same time, to appease the separatists as well as the federalists simultaneously; but this kind of politicking is doomed to failure sooner or later.

So the premier must be looking at her political tea leaves right now and saying, “My time is limited.
Where do I go next?”
Clearly, at least as I write this on Oct. 6, 2026, Daniel Smith does not think Alberta independence has a future and has opted to remain a federalist wherever that path takes her.

That path might take her to be the next leader of the CPC.
It could also take her to be a federal Liberal, since she seems to believe, or at least acts like she believes, that there is fundamentally no difference between the federal Liberal Party and the federal Conservative Party right now, and there is a dramatic, perhaps diametric, difference between Carney and his predecessor, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.”