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Or a separate country.

Or perhaps through some political hocus-pocus, a combination of the three.

Such is the logic of comments at town halls orchestrated by Premier Danielle Smith’s ,� a travelling road show where she and 15 hand-picked members are gauging the feelings of Albertans at 10 town halls over the summer.

Based on proceedings at the first two events — Red Deer on Tuesday and Edmonton on Wednesday — this is an exercise in emotion, not facts or reason. Smith is measuring the temperature of her province after taking a blowtorch to the thermometer. 

Unfortunately, she is not only inventing grievances but making a parody of some reasonable complaints over Ottawa’s past behaviour.

Smith has put forward six issues for debate: an Alberta pension plan; an Alberta tax collection agency; an Alberta police force; the federal equalization program; withholding social services from some immigrants; and changing the Constitution.

All are potential questions for provincial referendums in 2026. Notably absent from the list is Alberta separation, an issue Smith refuses to reject out of hand but is egging on through the cynically manipulative nature of the Alberta Next panel itself.

On equalization, a slickly produced video told the audience of 450 in Red Deer and 500 in Edmonton that most tax dollars sent by Albertans to the federal government are “spent by Ottawa in Quebec and other Liberal-leading provinces across the country.�

On an Alberta Pension Plan, a different video with the same political bias declares “Ottawa is notoriously anti-Alberta with its decisions.�

The videos reflect Smith’s dystopian view of Alberta as a downtrodden victim of a Machiavellian federal Liberal government bleeding the province dry. A majority of her town hall audiences agreed. “Why should we have to pay for someone else’s steak dinner while we’re eating hamburger?� asked one person Wednesday night.

“Voting Alberta the hell out of Canada,� said another disgruntled Albertan , a sentiment shared by many of the audience members both nights.

More than a few apparently believe Alberta can effortlessly set up its own pension plan (); easily set up its own tax collection agency (it will cost upwards of $1.5 billion and take five years, according to the government’s own numbers); convince provinces to change the Equalization program (already tried with a that other provinces ignored); and persuade provinces to open the Constitution (anyone remember the failures of Meech Lake and the Charlottetown accord 30+ years ago?).

This, however, is what has been conveniently forgotten in Smith’s bleak narrative: Alberta is producing a of oil per day; the Alberta government just posted an ; and Albertans enjoy the  of any province.

Completely forgotten: Much of Alberta’s recent success is thanks to the federal government spending $34 billion to triple the capacity of the .

Also missing is the fact that the government’s own polling indicated to withdrawing from the Canada Pension Plan.

There were certainly contrarians at both town halls. A few in Red Deer and perhaps  spoke against Smith’s narrative, with one saying, “we sound like bratty children,â€� another accusing Smith of “punching down on immigrants,” and a third saying he’d prefer to stick with the Canada Pension Plan than “gamble with you idiots.â€�

But Smith’s town hall meetings do not represent a cross section of Alberta. That’s not the point.

Her target audience is not just her chronically grumpy Conservative fringe members who hold a sword of Damocles over her head.

It is Prime Minister Carney and, by extension, all of you in the rest of the country who Smith has threatened with an  if Alberta doesn’t get what it wants: fewer environmental protections; changes to the Equalization program; and unfettered freedom to build energy pipelines every which way out of the province.

Smith is notorious for her relentless sabre rattling. But this time the Alberta premier is looking for ways to use the sabre to slash at the fabric of Canada’s Confederation.