I’ve been thinking about how the story of David Cameron and his Conservative Party differs so starkly from the story of Danielle Smith and her United Conservative Party and the looming referendum they have orchestrated in the province of Alberta. Smith, in contrast with Cameron, has never promised a referendum to decide Alberta’s place in Confederation, nor run an election campaign on that promise. If Canada is united, Alberta, as a sub-national province of Canada, is not sovereign. The UCP was not formed in 2017 as a separatist party—and did not run, and was not elected in 2019 or 2023, on a separatist agenda. Reprinted from “Is Danielle Smith a Separatist?” by Patrick Lennox (Substack).