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At the conference I attended this weekend there were a lot of panels on Alberta, the referendum, separatism, etc. To be clear, there were very sober, thoughtful experts, and my takeaway was this: 1/n

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What's happening in Alberta is even more batshit than I ever thought. Danielle Smith is a dangerous psychopath, and the AB separatist movement largely exists because COVID broke far-right brains, and is led by Christo-fascist religious white nationalists, relying on dark money. 2/n

I'm not saying others didn't know this. I'm not saying at different points I didn't think aspects of these things. I'm saying the overwhelming evidence is THAT stark. This isn't nuanced, it's nefarious. Evil grievance politics. 3/3

Lots of quantitative and qualitative evidence was marshalled and the language was more nuanced, but that is the overall thrust. It was great that you were able to attend so many of the panels and soak it in.

As an Edmontonian who grew up in rural Alberta, I’ve spent a lot of time following the various separatist influencers and Facebook groups. So I’d like to be really clear: they have no real, legitimate grievances that could ever be addressed by a government. It’s all completely unserious.

In addition to a bunch of people having their brains melted during Covid, a lot of the more hardcore separatists seem to have found meaning to their lives during the convoy protests, and just rolled from those to separatism to maintain that feeling of community and purpose. Missionary zeal.

Doesn’t help that Alberta is such a redneck province. I think the oil got into the water supply. Never felt comfortable there as a long hair, even when I had short hair.

As an Albertan, I'm shocked &numb. What people don't understand, & I fear Canadians aren't seeing, is it CAN happen here. Not because AB wants it, bc big oil, tech bros, and their money do. Foreign interference, bot algorithm manipulation... Albertans voices won't matter unless we are REAL loud. 🔊

This is how the Orange Felonini south of the border works, she steals from the playbook and is using it to hide her malfeasance and grifting from Albertans. The Skybox affair is the start of the grift and is only the beginning. Follow the money, she needs to be investigated for corruption.

This book was recently published: Dark Phoenix: The Rise, Fall, and Re-emergence of Danielle Smith is a 2026 political biography of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith written by Edmonton-based journalist Jeremy Appel