You know, the big takeaway from this, should we be reading it as simply, like, about the separation referendum? Is there a larger, like, issue set that was at play here? How should we – what should be our big takeaway?

Yeah.

So, I mean, the – I think there's a couple issues that are at play here.

You know, the NDP afterwards have been saying this isn't just about separatism.

They said they heard a lot about frustration with the healthcare system in Alberta.

You know, Daniel Smith's doing some stuff with private healthcare, which isn't that popular.

This is a riding, I think, that... as a school shortage.

Can you lay out some of the underlying numbers you have about how Albertans view how Daniel Smith has been handling the kind of Trump trade issue?

How do you think Lewis has been doing so far? And what does success look like for the NDP in these by-elections?

So, yeah, on the three that are happening right now, you know, Beaches is the riding that feels the most NDP friendly.

You know, they won it in 2011.

It's the type of riding that if they had a really good election nationally, they could win.

You know, they're not in that position right now.

There was some rumor that, you know, Mike Layden, son of Jack Layden, was thinking about running that in that riding.

I think...

And going back to the big picture, what does it mean if the Liberals are successful, if they pick up a few seats when you already have a kind of a slim majority government? Does adding a few extra MPs really change anything?

So can you take us into maybe where the risks are for the federalist forces in, in any separatist referendum in Alberta?

Yeah.

I think, like when you just look at the top line number, we've got support for separatism in Alberta at 27%, uh, among decided voters, which is, I think, pretty consistent with other media polls that are out there.

Now, this is the highest we've recorded.

Polara's been tracking this question for six years.

We were asking about separatism before it was cool to ask about separatism.

It was more of a, a hypothetical, like, "How would you want the prime minister d- to deal with, with an alien invasion?" And, and those sort of things.

Um, but what do you make of it?

Just on preference numbers, what do they tell you beyond the surface thing that, oh, God, my guy is popular and my guy isn't popular? Just walk us through that and why you found those numbers so interesting yesterday.

Well, it's just such a big, big gap.

You know, when you ask who you're going to vote for, you know, the polls vary.

There was a poll today that the Conservatives were within four points.

I think there were 15 back on Nanos.

Blair did something a couple weeks ago that was a seven-point gap.

You know, the Liberals are leading, but it's not insurmountable.

How do you put all of that in and how does a prime minister weigh through that, Dan?