I mean, is this an identity crisis, Mel? Is it a communication issue? Uh, can they solve this with a big ad campaign, uh, with the Premier wrapping herself in the Canadian flag? Like, w- what's the solution here from the strategist standpoint?

Well, I'd just say that after the resounding response of Albertans, 75% of all the votes that we've had with pretty high voter turnout saying that they don't want to separate, let's come back to the reason why political parties exist.

They exist to get elected, and you've just heard a message from the electorate that this is not something that a vast majority of Albertans want to pursue.

And I think that there probably are even more people who don't wanna actually pursue separatism but voted in protest to Option 2.

So that number's probably even higher.

So my question to people who are operating within the UCP that don't want to listen to the democratic information that's been given to them is, do you want to be part of a political party, or do you want to be part of a very niche advocacy or, um, political movement? And if you wanna be part of a movement and you wanna have those niche views heard, I respect your right to do so.

I am not the type of person who is gonna judge what you think.

Part of me sees a little bit of defiance in that, like, "For as long as I'm premier," in other words, like, this could be a long runway, or, uh, "If you're gonna come for the queen, let's do this." I like how she phrased that, but is this a, a decisive act of leadership, uh, or is this maybe an acknowledgement or even an admission to the general public that she knows that she needs to draw the line on separation and the separatists in the party right now?

Is this a change in position from Premier Smith? I mean, I don't know if she's ever advocated completely throwing out equalization, has she?

I don't think so.

And just to be clear about the way in which that would happen, that is a constitutional discussion that we're having.

So, like, I mean, again, the question of separation and equalization aren't the same level of discussion because they're sort of different in how they're built into our constitution.

But this is not just something that the liberals have created.

They just won't get rid of.

So I don't think it's actually smart for her to advocate eliminating it.

Do you think there's been a marked shift in the way that she's handling things?