Don’t underestimate the stupidity of racists. That’s how we got Trump and co.

Stupidity is not contained solely to Alberta.

I've lived most of my life in Alberta, in both rural and urban centers.

It's actually a pretty long story, politically, to understand how we went from Klien to Smith.

The short version is that the old conservatives stalled in direction after achieving the goal of eliminating all provincial debt.

They (the party) finally found a purpose, independently (and predating) Trump, of simply using Ottawa as a foil. For everything.

I genuinely believe Smith's US podcasts likening PP to Trump were designed to HURT PP. A Conservative federal government would be a political disaster provincially. They have no plan. They have no playbook. They ONLY have the "stand up to liberal Ottawa" drum to bang, and they lose that if the liberals aren't in power anymore.

It isn't HARD to find Albertans that say they want to separate. But, they're not anywhere NEAR common enough that a referendum could ever actually find a majority in favour. It's not anywhere near as popular of an idea as Quebec separation in the 90s.

And OF the Albertans that want to separate, they're envisioning a country of our own, not becoming a US state. And, as foolish as a notion that it is, I think a good number of supporters recognize the reality that they could end up getting annexed by the US.

Trump's behaviour on the world stage overall hurts the proposition of Albertan separation. There is a reason pro-separation organizers are trying to distance themselves from Trump. It's a liability to thier goals. If there was no other measure than that to evaluate what separatist Albertans about Trump statistically (always will be individuals otherwise), that should be enough to answer that.

Are conservative Albertans that far gone? Considering Albertan conservatives as a contiguous block is nonsense to start with.

The vast majority of Albertans would self identify as "conservative" (small "c"), and yet 1000 flipped votes in the last election would have put (ANOTHER) NDP government in place. A great number of Albertan small "c" conservatives don't vote conservative provincially because they just refuse to acknowledge the overton window shift. Smith (or Kenny) isn't offering anything but "blame Ottawa". It's BARELY enough to get a slim majority. It's not meaningfully compelling on the grand scale.

Speaking of Overton window shifts, Carney and Harper from a policy perspective are pretty damned similar.

Will Alberta separate? No. Simply, no. Regardless of what interference Trump brings.

Conservatism lost a lot of steam in Canada when Trump was elected and his promises started taking shape. They realized it wasn't just rhetoric , they were looking to break down democracy. Even our poor people get a decent education and understand that is a dark road to travel. I don't think they'll cede their sovereignty but who knows? Their premier is bought and paid for by the same people as Trump, but their constituents are Canadian and proud of it. They'll fight a propaganda war, but I don't think they'll win many victories.

How many people with educational degrees vote conservative?

That might mean something.

A percentage of them certainly are.