Monday is the big day. The modern Alberta separatist movement has existed in one form or another since the 1980s. And Monday’s referendum represents the closest they’ve ever come to achieving their goal.
And the person who has gotten them this close to the promised land says she isn’t even a separatist herself.
It’s a very strange position overall. Danielle Smith is the leader of a party whose membership is increasingly dominated by people who want Alberta to leave Canada. She has a prime minister who has been increasingly willing to give her what she wants. Even though it was the election of Mark Carney that directly prompted Danielle Smith to lower the thresholds for referendums, leading us to this moment.
But what is clear is that for all of her contradictions, Smith is the most important political figure in Canada right now, aside from the Prime Minister himself.
So what happens to Smith after Monday? And will Alberta separatism continue to grow even if they lose this vote?
Jeremy Appel is the founder of The Orchard, and has just published a new book on Alberta’s premier called Dark Phoenix: The Rise, Fall and Reemergence of Danielle Smith.
