Smith greeted with support Alberta Next panel stop in Airdrie

AIRDRIE — Premier Danielle Smith and her Alberta Next panel met another friendly audience at a packed town hall in Airdrie on Monday night, where the crowd cheered for separation and voted enthusiastically for the province’s proposals for greater autonomy from Ottawa.

Only after passing through buttoned-down security, the crowd of about 550 people packed the city community centre with 150 people lodged in an overflow room equipped with a television.

With the panel hitting the home stretch on its eighth stop of the summer, the town hall followed a similar script to the previous panels with the audience voting overwhelmingly in favour of the six proposals.

The panel was constructed by Smith to help brainstorm possible referendum questions that aim to find ways to fix Alberta’s relationship with the federal government. Smith has said referendum questions would be voted on next year.

The six ideas include exiting the Canada Pension Plan for an Alberta plan, replacing the RCMP with a provincial police force and advocating for equalization reform.

In keeping with prior town halls, Smith and the panel’s partiality toward the proposals were critiqued on a handful of occasions. Some have argued the government’s survey questions are leading people in the direction of the province’s preferred outcome.

One audience member said they felt the crowd in Airdrie wasn’t representative of the rest of Alberta.

“Look around. This crowd does not look very diverse to me and I would guess there are very few people out here that are under the age of 30.” The comment was met with boos from the crowd.

Panelist Melody Garner-Skiba responded to the comment more than an hour later, saying the panel will listen to those willing to show up or take the survey.

“We understand that this may not be statistically representative of Alberta as to the demographics and necessarily the viewpoints,” said Garner-Skiba. “But you have another option as well with the survey. We are listening … If you want us to listen, you have to show up.”

When the audience voted almost entirely in favour of the province exiting the Canada Pension Plan for an Alberta-run pension, host Bruce McAllister remarked that the result was in tow with the previous seven town halls.

“I will tell you that absolutely every city we went to has been positive on this issue,” said McAllister, also executive director of the premier’s office.

The province is also conducting online surveys on the proposals, the results of which haven’t been released.

The crowd also heard rousing applause for suggestions of separation, as have other recent town halls in Lethbridge and Medicine Hat.

One audience member asked Smith about her estimate in 2023 that Alberta’s population would reach 10 million by 2050, saying she was “back tracking” on it. Alberta’s population recently surpassed 5 million people.

McAllister deferred the question, saying inquiries about immigration could be asked later.

The town hall was otherwise a friendly affair for the panel, with numerous people showing support for the province’s effort to take greater control over its affairs.

Smith has contended at several town halls that Alberta has grown to a size where it’s capable of managing itself with less involvement from Ottawa.

She summarized that position near the end of Tuesday’s town hall in response to one man’s criticism of the province’s health-care restructuring, saying the proposals are “all connected” to the broader aim of having enough resources for Alberta to function properly.

“There’s a reason we’re talking about this. It’s not money for the sake of money … we have programs that have become unsustainable with the level of revenues that we get, and that’s part of the reason why we need to take more control and develop our economy,” Smith said.

The panel is set to reconvene Wednesday in Grande Prairie, followed by the final town hall on Sept. 29 in Calgary.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2025.

Matthew Scace, The Canadian Press