While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from Gillian Steward.
What Canadian politician would vacation in the U.S right now, just as we are locked into an ugly trade war with our southern neighbour? Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, of course.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, certain people were at the forefront of the resistance to public health orders. They were against masking, social distancing and ultimately the vaccine itself. Today, those same people are leading the Alberta separatist movement.
In less than two weeks Alberta is expected to deliver to the federal government a solid proposal for a pipeline to the northwest coast of B.C. But so far there is no private sector partner willing to come forward to pay for it. This is definitely a fly in the ointment of a proposal that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has...
Ever since Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced the referendum on a referendum there has been a flurry of speculation from one end of the country to the other. Most of it comes in the form of a warning: things could look much more dire if this confusing referendum question propulses Albertans into a real referendum on separation. Separatists don’t give...
Is Alberta premier Danielle Smith’s strategy for getting a bitumen pipeline to B.C.’s northwest coast about to reach its breaking point? Sure, she’s got two Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with Prime Minister Mark Carney that pave the way for the pipeline but there’s still a lot of terrain to cover before it becomes a reality. And the thing that could...
The Alberta separatism movement is caught up in yet another controversy and its credibility has been blown to bits. Last week it was revealed that an affiliated group had somehow got its hands on the complete list of registered voters — all 2.9 million of them with their names, addresses, phone numbers and electoral districts — and put them up...
It’s a mere six months until Albertans decide whether they want to separate from the rest of Canada. And yet there is no apparent all-inclusive campaign for those of us who want to vote No.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith just can’t seem to stop satisfying her demanding, needy base with one gift after another. Public libraries, the heart of every community, are the latest to be attacked. Her government introduced legislation last week that would make it difficult for young people to get hold of what it calls “pornographic” material they think young people shouldn’t...
Danielle Smith is getting desperate. She knows the provincial budget will be revealed Thursday and all indications are that it will have a whopper of a deficit: $5.2 billion to nearly $8 billion. Last year Alberta had an $8.3 billion surplus. She could just blame it all on low oil prices, which Alberta has no control over, yet still dictates...
Never one to let pass an opportunity to promote her pet project, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith penned a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney a few days ago urging him to speed up approval of the proposed pipeline that would go from Alberta to B.C.’s northwest coast. Her reason? All that Venezuelan oil the Americans stole threatens to take a...
We are about to embark on 2026. Should we look ahead with optimism, pessimism or trepidation? Essentially, it is unknown as the crazy man in the White House continues his rampage, destroying what were warm relations between Canada and the United States and turning them to ice. Most Canadians know how to deal with ice so we should have the...
It’s been two weeks since Danielle Smith ended a province-wide teachers’ strike with the most draconian method possible. Surprisingly, her actions have led to widespread support for the teachers; a notable departure for a province that is not known for its championing of unions and labour in general. Smith resorted to invoking the notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights...
The notion that the Alberta separatist movement was gaining strength was severely deflated last week by a heroic effort to turn the proposed separation referendum into a rallying cry for Canada. The new referendum question could be: “Do you agree that Alberta should continue to be a part of Canada?”
A recent poll shows that the majority of Canadians support the proposal for a pipeline from Alberta to B.C.’s northwest coast. But is that just a reflection of the concern most people have about getting out from under the insane insults and tariffs U.S. President Donald Trump hurls our way? Is it the result of all that talk about “nation...
Danielle Smith finally did it. She backed Prime Minister Mark Carney into such a tight corner that he is going to have to out himself on where he stands on the question of an oil pipeline from Alberta all the way to the B.C. north coast. This was no easy task and Smith prides herself on taking the initiative to...
It’s easy to see the fix is in as the Alberta Next panel criss-crosses Alberta and Danielle Smith pitches her style of sovereignty and separation in preparation for a referendum on the matter next year. So far the various venues have been packed mostly with separatist supporters and Smith, who heads up the panel and is at every town hall...
Back in May, Alberta’s minister of education announced that the government would soon be coming up with standards for sexually explicit books in school libraries. But it wouldn’t be a book ban, Demetrios Nicolaides said.
Last week Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said that Albertans’ desire to go their own way and separate from the rest of Canada has never been higher. That’s a strange thing to proclaim when only two days before the separatist party got a shellacking in three by-elections, one of them in the heartland of what used to be the independence movement...
There’s a narrative in Alberta that claims if we just had a different federal government, a Conservative government, things would be so much better for the province and the oil and gas industry. It’s a defining narrative that has gripped a lot of people who simply don’t want to give it up. But is it true? Do the Liberals in...
Pierre Poilievre has retreated to a safe Alberta seat after losing his Ottawa one to the Liberals. Of course, he will win by a comfortable majority. But in the meantime he’ll have to figure out what to do about the ticking time bomb he’s been handed by the Alberta premier. The day after the election and before Conservative party leader...
There is no danger that Alberta won’t return plenty of Conservative MPs to the House of Commons at the end of April. It’s practically a sacrosanct duty in a federal election to elect as many Conservatives as possible. So why is Premier Danielle Smith talking as if the Conservatives are going to lose? Why isn’t she boosting their chances across...
So much for Team Canada. Mark Carney may want all the premiers united behind him, but Alberta’s Danielle Smith has other ideas: she wants to use the election as her bargaining chip to get what she wants. Her list of demands is long and she’s giving the federal government, whoever may be elected, six months to appease her or she...
Early last week Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was getting kudos from her base for what they saw as a successful foray to Mar-a-Lago to beg for a tariff exemption; which she almost got — 10 per cent on oil instead of the 25 per cent for everything else. It was time to do some crowing while preparing for the next...
Danielle Smith has distinguished herself by going it alone. No Team Canada for her. She has opted out of the premiers club to pursue her own agenda — getting a tariff exemption for Alberta’s oil imports to the U.S. But is she really going it alone? Not at all. She is accompanied by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP)...
Ever hopeful, Danielle Smith met Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend to try and persuade him not to impose tariffs on the huge amount of oil the U.S imports from Canada. Accompanying her were Canadian businessman and TV personality Kevin O’Leary and Jordan Peterson, of all people. O’Leary has already said he is interested in an “economic union” and...
President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff tirade sent Canadian politicians scrambling for a response. Within days Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talked to him by phone, held a virtual meeting with premiers and then unexpectedly flew to Florida to have dinner with Trump and several of his cronies. The man isn’t even officially president yet but he is appointing cabinet members and shooting...
It was just six months ago that Premier Danielle Smith was bragging about Alberta’s population growth and cheerfully predicting that we would hit 10 million people by 2050. Remember “Alberta is Calling?” She even named the city of Red Deer — current population 160,000 — and said she could see it mushrooming to a million. “Because if you have that...
Last week, Alberta environment minister Rebecca Schulz took to Rebel Media to brag about the province’s forward-looking policy on renewable energy. All those solar panels and wind turbines will need to be recycled in 25 years or so, she said, so we are going to charge a fee up front to make sure they are disposed of without filling up...
Canada is broken. We’ve heard that a lot from Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre followed by a list of things that are broken: the carbon tax, grocery prices, housing, addiction treatment programs etc., etc. You’d think that we were a failed state.
Naheed Nenshi, the new leader of the Alberta NDP, knows he has his hands full if he wants to take on a provincial government that is coming perilously close to declaring independence. The former mayor of Calgary, who won the leadership with an astounding 86 per cent of the vote, is ready for the fight. He intends to take down...
More people are moving to Alberta than ever before. “Toronto is too big and daunting, Vancouver too expensive so they come here,” Saima Jamal, co-founder of Calgary Immigrants Support Society told CTV recently. Over the past year, 184,000 people arrived in Calgary — more than double the previous record and leaving Alberta with the highest […]