The MAGA Plot to Take Down Canada
But Smith is now increasingly herself under threat from separatists, whose power within her United Conservative Party, or UCP, has grown massively since reforms that have made it easier for fringe groups to challenge the party leadership. “The core people driving this are perennially aggrieved. They are always angry about something,” said Jason Kenney, Smith’s predecessor as premier and founder of the UCP. “And separatism is a perfect vessel for a wide range of grievances.”
Kenney says it was this faction, radicalized by the pandemic and a drip-feed of alt-media outrage, that toppled his premiership and installed Smith in 2022. Now, he says, they’ve “apparently taken over most of the governing positions within the party”—and are using it to bring down the Canadian federation.
Smith’s games have taken on new significance in light of Donald Trump’s repeated threats to annex the country, and mounting evidence of an explicit U.S. strategy to exploit the Albertan independence movement to destabilize Canada.