Oh, goody.
We now find out there WILL BE a meeting scheduled between Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney bright and early Friday morning in Ottawa.
The news comes to your scribbler Wednesday afternoon.
On Tuesday, Carney said there would be a chinwag with the Alberta premier. For her part, Smith didn’t even know about a meeting. I wrote about how she didn’t know about it.
Now she knows about it.
On Friday, the hope is the premier will speak truth to power in Ottawa.
Smith really can’t come out after the to-and-fro with the prime minister and tell people everything is going swimmingly with Carney if the man and his Liberals are more the problem than the solution.
An Alberta pipeline to the west coast?
Carney talks in riddles. More likely than not. More probable than possible. Definitely not certain.
Is the prime minister just jerking Alberta around? How long can Smith’s sunshine optimism hold out?
It is known the Smith government is not overjoyed Carney and Smith are still sweating the details over a carbon tax.
Smith and Carney will surely jaw over the Alberta independence movement scoring 300,000-plus signatures of Albertans wanting the province to vote this October on whether to remain in Canada or leave.
Carney is already flapping his gums about how if Alberta wants to separate from the rest of Canada they must follow the rules laid out in federal law.
Carney is already laying it on thick about how he will make the country work for Albertans through his “co-operative federalism.”
A TIP: You always know when Carney is going to spread another load of manure. He brings out the ten dollar words and he does use a lot of ten dollar words.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney during an interview in Calgary on Saturday, July 5, 2025.
Though nowhere near a majority back Alberta independence right now, the number crunchers agree most supporters of Smith’s UCP would vote to exit Canada.
And yes, Albertans will vote this fall on the independence question. Bet the farm.
Alberta and Carney still have not agreed on the rate the higher industrial carbon tax Carney demands will rise. He no doubt wants more than Alberta is willing to give.
Smith has said she is playing the cards she’s been dealt.
The Alberta premier says because Canadians elected Carney, and the industrial carbon tax play is a priority for Carney, the province has to meet the prime minister part way in order to get a pipeline to the west coast.
I would suggest the premier watch the film Rounders, especially the scene where the Matt Damon character plays the Teddy KGB character, since she is playing high-stakes political poker with the crafty Carney.
More seriously, I would suggest Smith come armed with some ammo like the shot across the bow from Cenovus boss Jon McKenzie, straight talk reported widely on Wednesday.
Cenovus Energy president and CEO Jon McKenzie takes part in a panel discussion during the Global Energy Show in Calgary on June 10, 2025.
According to news reports, the oil sands heavy hitter says talk about further development of the oil sands has been “myopically focused on the climate agenda and climate policy” and ignored the benefits the oil sands has brought to Canada.
Canada has created policies and regulations making resource development and investment uncompetitive with the rest of the world.
Dollars have fled Canada to other places along with the high-paying jobs, taxes and royalties going elsewhere.
To add insult to injury, Canada’s climate policies and regulations have not reduced global demand for oil by one barrel.
The oilpatch CEO says it does Canada no service to “negligibly reduce” the impact of climate change over the next century and “erode our social benefit network over the next 15 years.”
TRANSLATION: Canada is shooting itself in the foot. Both feet. Repeatedly.
The Cenovus boss turns to the industrial carbon tax. Carney loves that baby.
The industrial carbon tax is unique to Canada. No other big-time oil producing nation has one.
The tax is an incentive for money to go outside of Canada.
Federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre fires off a quick response,.
“The grand illusion is colliding with reality. Business is finally calling out the B.S.”
So here we are.
Smith says her job as premier is to show Albertans Canada can work.
Let’s change that up ahead of Friday’s faceoff with Carney.
It is Carney’s job to show Albertans that Canada can work. Carney’s job.
And so far the politician so many Canadians believe is Captain Canada come to save us has been far from being a superhero.