The UCP is fond of pulling strategy from "the Quebec Playbook."
There are worrying signs Danielle Smith hasn't actually read the whole thing. 🧵
May 11, 2025 14:18Smith wants to hold a sovereignty referendum to prevent the emergence of a viable separatist party in Alberta.
"If there isn't an outlet, it creates a new party," Smith said.
The raison d'être of the PQ and BQ was to hold a referendum. Smith deliberately made that easier for the Republicans.
Smith stole Robert Bourassa's "five conditions" strategy in developing her "Alberta Accord."
Thing is: Bourassa spent years building consensus on the much broader Meech Lake Accord, which eventually included something for everyone. And failed miserably.
Smith isn't even bothering to try.
On the surface, the UCP is drawing on the old "firewall" strategy, which, itself, involved creating QC-style institutions for pensions, policing, and revenue.
Problem is: Smith has abandoned those ideas. Instead of building up.AB capacity, she's making impossible demands of Ottawa.
Outwardly, at least, Smith is bullish on her ability to win the upcoming sovereignty referendum (a David Cameron-esque folly).
She missed the part of the QC Playbook where investment in the province dried up for decades. For a party so focused on economic prosperity, that's a big chapter to skip.
Quebec's autonomist strategy is powered by Crown corporations and cultural homogeneity -- in other words, resource and ethnic nationalism.
Alberta lacks both.
All in all, the UCP is being selective in drawing tactics from Quebec.
As they gear up for the Hail Mary, perhaps they should read the whole playbook.
She hasn't read the part where the big banks move out of the province b/c of the political instability?
Maybe Westjet and CPKC CEOs and other large corps including non USA oil&gas should have a little chat with the Mistress of Mistrust.
It’s not the Quebec playbook, it’s the Brexit one
Spend years lying to your base to generate an alternate reality for short-term political gains
Discover your base believes all the lies
Double down to avoid an internal schism
Face either a referendum, or admitting the lies
Choose the referendum
