NATIONAL PULSE – A new cabinet faces some very familiar challenges
(Kinder Morgan file photo)
Vast majority say Canada would be worse off without Alberta and Saskatchewan amid separation talk
By ANGUS REID INSTITUTE
May 14, 2025 – Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled a new cabinet this week, but some of the key challenges for him and his ministers (and secretaries) are hardly unfamiliar.
Central among these will be assuaging separation movements in the Prairies by setting the agenda for resource development and environmental management. These priorities come to a head in perhaps no more obvious way than in dealing with new demands from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds Canadians offering competing views of how to handle a suite of requests from Smith.
On some, residents offer a relatively clear preference for appeasing the premier and her province. Three times as many support than oppose offering Alberta guaranteed access to the east and west coasts for oil exports.
Canadians, and British Columbians more particularly, are less enthusiastic about repealing a ban on oil tanker traffic on B.C.’s northern coast, however, though a plurality do support this concept.
Further, Canadians are divided equally on each side of one of the key demands from Smith, repealing of the Impact Assessment Act, Bill C-69, also known as the “no new pipelines” law in some circles.
These tensions represent the micro of a macro issue in Canada, that is, the sense among many west of Ontario that Ottawa cares more about the priorities of central Canada than Alberta and Saskatchewan. Angus Reid Institute asked Canadians which provinces they feel will get greater attention and resources from the new Carney government (Ontario 48%, Quebec 41%) and which will get less (Alberta 32%, Saskatchewan 27%), finding regional perceptions largely following this intuition.
All told, Carney’s lift will be heavy in the early months. One-quarter of Canadians (24%) say the separation discussions burgeoning in Alberta and Saskatchewan are a national crisis, while half say they’re a problem (52%), but not at crisis level. Approaching one-in-five (17%) say this is just a passing phase.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
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