South by Northwest: The Quiet Coup from Alberta to Mar-a-Lago
Danielle Smith didn’t just stumble into treachery. She walked it down the runway, waved to the cameras, and smiled for photos.
It’s important to get the timeline straight.
In early 2025, as Mark Carney stepped into leadership following Trudeau’s resignation, Canada was already on edge. Donald Trump had just stormed his way back into power and wasn’t exactly subtle about it: he openly suggested annexing Canada as the 51st state, arguing it would be economically beneficial and that many Canadians would welcome the change."1
Most Canadians rolled their eyes.
Danielle Smith booked a flight.
From January 10–12, while the country tried to make sense of Trump’s rhetoric, Alberta’s Premier flew to Mar-a-Lago.2
And then it got weird.
She didn’t go there to defend Canadian sovereignty. She didn’t go there to backstop the Prime Minister or speak for her province. She went there to ask the Trump team to tone it down — not because it was dangerous, not because it was wrong, but because it was hurting Pierre Poilievre’s chances in the election.3
We only heard one side of that conversation — the quiet part she said out loud in a Breitbart interview.
But what about the parts she didn’t say?
What else was discussed behind closed doors with the same man who, just weeks earlier, had publicly suggested that the "only way" the U.S.-Canada relationship would work was if Canada became a U.S. state?
That comment wasn’t about diplomacy, it was about getting control of Canada.
And the only reason that’s the “only way it works” is because in that scenario, the United States would fully control the Alberta oil patch. We know from Canada’s Equalization system that Alberta is a net contributor to the federation — which makes it a prize, not a problem.
So what was she doing down there — and more importantly, who was she doing it for?
From Wildrose to Wexit: The Long Game
Danielle Smith didn’t become a separatist overnight.4 She’s been undermining federal authority for the better part of two decades.5
Smith first rose to prominence with the Wildrose Party — a vehicle for Alberta-first grievances cloaked in libertarian rhetoric.
But Smith’s most infamous political move came in 2014, when she abruptly crossed the floor with eight other Wildrose MLAs to join the governing Progressive Conservatives. It was an act of political betrayal that blindsided her own supporters and gutted the party she helped build. Many of her constituents never forgave her.
That act wasn't just opportunism — it was a preview. As we are now painfully aware, betrayal isn’t a deviation for Smith; it’s part of her political DNA.
After flaming out, she spent the next seven years on talk radio softening public opinion against public health, against federalism, and against collective responsibility.
SIDEBAR: Alberta Government Transparency Under Scrutiny
In October 2023, The Narwhal reported that Alberta's Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) launched an investigation into Premier Danielle Smith's government. The probe was initiated after journalist Mike De Souza filed over 20 Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP) requests concerning meetings between government officials and oil and gas lobbyists. Many of these requests were denied, citing reasons like administrative burden and insufficient detail.
Subsequently, in November 2024, the Alberta government introduced Bill 34, the Access to Information Act, aiming to modernize the province's access to information laws. The bill proposed changes such as extending response times for information requests and introducing new exemptions, including expanded cabinet confidentiality. Critics, including the OIPC, expressed concerns that these changes could limit transparency and hinder public access to government records.
As of May 2025, the OIPC's investigation remains ongoing, and the implications of Bill 34 continue to be a topic of public and political debate in Alberta.
By 2022, she had returned with a vengeance. Her flagship promise? The Alberta Sovereignty Act — legislation cooked up by her closest ally Rob Anderson, co-author of the Free Alberta Strategy,6 which calls for Alberta to unilaterally ignore federal laws and prepare for eventual independence.
Notably, Anderson is now her chief of staff.
So no, she didn’t invent Wexit. She did something more effective: she gave it credibility.
And then she gave it structure.
Smith’s betrayal of the Wildrose wasn’t a fluke — and neither is this. That betrayal was a template: she abandoned her base when it suited her ambitions. Now, as Premier, she’s applying the same playbook on a national scale.
This time, it’s not a party she’s gutting. It’s the federation itself.
Timing Is the Weapon
This past week, the day before Prime Minister Carney's first state visit to Washington, Danielle Smith announced plans to introduce legislation that would lower the threshold for citizen-initiated referenda in Alberta — including one on the province’s potential separation from Canada.7
The proposal would halve the required number of signatures from 20% to 10% of eligible voters and extend the collection period. On paper, it was framed as democratic reform.
In practice, it was a political hand grenade.
This wasn’t an amendment to the Alberta Sovereignty Act, it was standalone legislation, dropped into the news cycle with precise timing.
There was no federal crisis, no triggering policy dispute. Just a perfectly timed distraction engineered to make national unity look fragile at the very moment it needed to look strong.
Smith insisted she wasn’t calling for separation. But she positioned herself as the willing executor of a hypothetical mandate: “If Albertans want it, I’ll have no choice.”
How exactly is that leadership?
While no immediate policy action followed, her timing sent a clear message: she was willing to throw a political wrench into the gears of diplomacy at the moment Canada most needed cohesion.
No policy development prompted it. No urgent event required it. It was a strategic stunt designed to seize the national conversation.
And it worked.
She drowned out Canada’s Prime Minister on the eve of one of the most important diplomatic moments in decades.
We can stop calling it coincidence. That was choreography.
She didn’t have to say “separation” to do damage. All she had to do was whisper it and wait for the echo.
Keiretsu Politics and the Alberta Node
This isn’t just Smith going rogue, it’s part of a broader pattern.
Danielle Smith is not a solitary disruptor. She’s a keiretsu politician — part of an international network of conservative actors who don’t take orders from each other, but who move in lockstep.
She’s embedded in the same ideological architecture that links Canada’s Conservative Party to the GOP, Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, the UK Tories, and Israel’s Likud.8 The International Democrat Union (IDU) — chaired by Stephen Harper — provides the connective tissue.
The Quiet Network: Keiretsu Politics, the IDU, and Canada’s 45th Election
On the surface, it still feels like Canada and the United States operate in different political realities. Different systems. Different traditions. Different parties.
These actors don’t need to coordinate directly. They just share tools, talking points, consultants, and enemies. One culture war in Florida becomes a school board issue in Red Deer three weeks later.
Smith’s alliances with Greg Abbott, her trade office in Dallas, her Mar-a-Lago trip, her Texas-style energy policy — these aren’t just Alberta-first ideas. They’re on page one of Stephen Harper’s IDU playbook.
She's just doing the job of translating them into prairie populism.
The Real Question: Who Benefits?
Let’s ask the only question that matters.
Who benefits if Alberta breaks away — or even just threatens to?
Not the average Albertan. Not Indigenous nations whose Treaty rights would be shattered. Not the national economy.
But others?
Foreign energy interests, who would suddenly have direct access to Alberta’s resources without federal oversight.
The American right, which would love to see the destabilization of a liberal, pluralistic, resource-rich democracy to its north.
Pierre Poilievre, who could claim federalism has failed — and promise to "restore unity" by giving Alberta even more concessions.
Meanwhile, Smith gets to play queenmaker. Or chaos agent. Whichever pays better.
Danielle Smith doesn’t wear a separatist badge. She doesn’t need to.
She’s governed like a foreign asset for years — whether she knows it or not. Her allegiances aren’t to Confederation. They’re to an ideological network that thrives on fragmentation.
So no — this isn’t just another "Premier doing what's best for her province."
This is a Premier undermining her country.
With strategy. With timing. With intent.
And let’s be honest: it’s not just her. It’s a coordinated attack on Canadian sovereignty, staged by a network of actors, yes, but benefiting most clearly one foreign state. The United States of America.
We should stop calling it bad judgment.
We should start calling it what it is:
Sedition. By design.
Sources
Associated Press. (2024, December 15). Trump again jokes about annexing Canada as 51st state. Associated Press.
https://apnews.com/article/7e1959c7d430899b01629c800db6f17b
The Economic Times. (2025, March 2). What was Alberta Premier Danielle Smith doing at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago? Documents reveal her trip cost Canadian taxpayers $10,000. The Economic Times.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/what-was-alberta-premier-danielle-smith-doing-at-donald-trumps-mar-a-lago-documents-reveal-her-trip-cost-the-canadian-taxpayers-10000/articleshow/120936423.cms?from=mdr
Bartko, K. (2025, March 23). Alberta premier faces backlash for asking America to pause tariffs until after election. Global News.
https://globalnews.ca/news/11094625/danielle-smith-tariffs-canada-election/
AP News: "Alberta's premier would allow a citizen-led referendum on separation from Canada"
https://apnews.com/article/b3da116c6800347f82da5011ee29f8f3
Anderson, D. (2025, May 8). Danielle Smith says separation is about alienation. It’s really about oil. The Narwhal.
https://thenarwhal.ca/free-alberta-separation-oil/
Wikipedia contributors. (2023). Free Alberta Strategy. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Alberta_Strategy
Bennett, D. (2025, May 5). Danielle Smith proposes new Alberta referendum rules, opens door to 2026 separation vote. Global News.
https://globalnews.ca/news/10477279/alberta-danielle-smith-referendum-legislation-separation/
International Democrat Union. (n.d.). About the IDU. International Democrat Union. https://www.idu.org
Another excellent and informative article, albeit quite frightening. I have shared this with many others. Thank you.