Alberta Prosperity Project lawyer Jeff Rath says Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is blocking an October referendum on Alberta independence to appease Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, in the hopes that he will continue to support a pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific Coast.

Smith shocked both proponents and opponents of Alberta separation last week when she announced she would be having a referendum on whether to have a referendum on independence.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Rath tells The Post Millennial. “We actually had a contact that was in the room with her and Carney, and we’re, you know, we’re told by our source that was there that [Smith] absolutely promised Mark Carney that there would not be a referendum this year on independence, so I think this is just her keeping her promise, right? So she’s done it again, she’s now crossed the floor for the second time, this time now she’s crossed the floor to join the Carney Liberals,” says Rath, noting that Smith is constantly insisting the Carney Liberals are different and better than the Liberals of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“I mean, don’t think that it was missed on anybody that she just went … ‘Mark Carney’s such a nice man, and everybody, he’s not Justin Trudeau …’ ignoring the fact that Carney has now tried to pass a bill to create back doors into all of our electronic devices to surveil us in real time, right? Pass bills to make it illegal for preachers to read the Bible in church, you know. Won’t lift the West Coast tanker ban, won’t … accord basic respect to Alberta.”

Rath says a controversial memorandum of understanding (MOU) jointly signed by Carney and Smith will not guarantee that a pipeline is built – despite both leaders insisting it will – but will increase the cost of already expensive Alberta oil. “There’s some producers that I’ve spoken to, and these are like CEOs of billion-dollar companies, have said their internal numbers indicate that the MOU of Danny’s has just added $10 a barrel to the cost of production.”

“Danielle just agreed to a 600% increase in the carbon tax when she signed the MOU back in November.”

Rath also maintains that a recent court decision from the King’s Bench of Alberta that was interpreted as a brake on this October’s referendum question, does not prevent the province from moving ahead with the separation question and that Smith knows this.

“She looked at, look every Albertan in the eye on Thursday night and just lied through her teeth to all of us,” he says.

The lawyer says Smith is playing a dark political game by trying to please everyone with a referendum on a referendum. Rath points out that 2028 is a provincial election year and the premier is unlikely to have a referendum on independence at the same time but she will be banking on independence supporters voting for her United Conservative Party and not the socialist New Democratic Party opposition.

And by the time a referendum on independence is held, Alberta could look like a vastly different province.

“That’s the issue, right? We’re flooded with temporary foreign workers, international mobility program, visa people, I mean, all of these, you know, donut makers, coffee makers, and you know, and you know, burger flippers that they brought in on these visas, I mean, I could see Carney in the Fall … amend the Canada Citizenship Act, just to grant all of these people citizenship, right? Or if it doesn’t happen then, it could happen in January or February, or whatever. He has a majority government, he can do whatever he wants.”