{"id":92251,"date":"2025-05-09T08:40:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T12:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=92251"},"modified":"2025-05-09T08:40:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T12:40:14","slug":"smith-says-sovereignty-referendum-provides-outlet-to-avoid-creation-of-new-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/09\/smith-says-sovereignty-referendum-provides-outlet-to-avoid-creation-of-new-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Smith says sovereignty referendum provides ‘outlet’ to avoid creation of new party"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lisa Johnson Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is fighting criticism she’s being selfish and dangerous by risking a separation referendum in part to avert the emergence of a political rival. Smith says she doesn’t support separating her province from Canada, but says Albertans have genuine grievances with the federal government, and she wants concessions from Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney. On Thursday in question period in the legislature, Opposition NDP Leader Christina Gray said Smith’s own words show she is jeopardizing national unity to bolster her own power. “Why is the premier dividing the country and our province just to avoid dividing her party?” The day before, Smith was asked on CTV News Channel if it wasn’t easier to quell separatism by taking it off the table. Smith responded, \u201cIf… <\/p>\n

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By Lisa Johnson Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is fighting criticism she’s being selfish and dangerous by risking a separation referendum in part to avert the emergence of a political rival. Smith says she doesn’t support separating her province from Canada, but says Albertans have genuine grievances with the federal government, and she wants concessions from Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney. On Thursday in question period in the legislature, Opposition NDP Leader Christina Gray said Smith’s own words show she is jeopardizing national unity to bolster her own power. “Why is the premier dividing the country and our province just to avoid dividing her party?” The day before, Smith was asked on CTV News Channel if it wasn’t easier to quell separatism by taking it off the table. Smith responded, \u201cIf... <\/p>\n

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Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"\nSmith says sovereignty referendum provides 'outlet' to avoid creation of new party - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/09\/smith-says-sovereignty-referendum-provides-outlet-to-avoid-creation-of-new-party\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Smith says sovereignty referendum provides 'outlet' to avoid creation of new party - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Lisa Johnson Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is fighting criticism she’s being selfish and dangerous by risking a separation referendum in part to avert the emergence of a political rival. Smith says she doesn’t support separating her province from Canada, but says Albertans have genuine grievances with the federal government, and she wants concessions from Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney. On Thursday in question period in the legislature, Opposition NDP Leader Christina Gray said Smith’s own words show she is jeopardizing national unity to bolster her own power. “Why is the premier dividing the country and our province just to avoid dividing her party?” The day before, Smith was asked on CTV News Channel if it wasn’t easier to quell separatism by taking it off the table. Smith responded, \u201cIf\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/09\/smith-says-sovereignty-referendum-provides-outlet-to-avoid-creation-of-new-party\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-09T12:40:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/09\\\/smith-says-sovereignty-referendum-provides-outlet-to-avoid-creation-of-new-party\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/09\\\/smith-says-sovereignty-referendum-provides-outlet-to-avoid-creation-of-new-party\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Smith says sovereignty referendum provides ‘outlet’ to avoid creation of new party\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-09T12:40:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/09\\\/smith-says-sovereignty-referendum-provides-outlet-to-avoid-creation-of-new-party\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":796,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/09\\\/smith-says-sovereignty-referendum-provides-outlet-to-avoid-creation-of-new-party\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/09\\\/smith-says-sovereignty-referendum-provides-outlet-to-avoid-creation-of-new-party\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/09\\\/smith-says-sovereignty-referendum-provides-outlet-to-avoid-creation-of-new-party\\\/\",\"name\":\"Smith says sovereignty referendum provides 'outlet' to avoid creation of new party - 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