‘Shut the mic off’: Smith’s Alberta Next panel wraps up summer town hall tour

EDMONTON — It’s all over but the recommendations for Premier Danielle Smith’s Alberta Next panel, a touring summer town hall that saw Smith lionized and criticized amid straw polls, finger pointing, separation anxiety, and references to idiots, brats and spanking.

“It has been a real great exercise in democracy,” Smith said at the final town hall, an online discussion, Wednesday night.

“We’ve obviously heard from the whole spectrum who have given us their feedback and it’s important to have that robust exchange of ideas.”

The panel of politicians, experts and other leaders was designed by Smith as her government, with a burgeoning provincial population now at five million, looks to leverage its strength to carve a path separate from the federal government.

It featured 10 in-person town halls and the online session, bouncing from one corner of the province to another, from Fort McMurray to Medicine Hat as summer turned to fall.

The discussion was limited to the six topics put on offer by the panel: immigration, pension, police, equalization, taxes and the Constitution.

Many at the town halls voiced support for Alberta going its own way and ditching the Canada Pension Plan.

“The federal government is not trustworthy anymore and I don’t think I’m paying a whole bunch of money out there for them to throw it around to wherever they want to get their votes or whatever,” said a man in Grande Prairie.

Another in Edmonton was not on board, telling the panel he didn’t trust Smith’s government to deliver. “I can stick with the (Canadian Pension Plan), which is one of the most effective things in the world, or I can gamble with you idiots,” he said.

Alberta separatism was never on the program but made its presence felt. Smith had said another reason for the panel was to nip a growing separatism movement in the bud, but her government has also eased rules to get such a referendum launched.

Some town-hallers said forget the referendum.

“If you ask for permission for freedom, you’re never going to get it. If you declare your freedom, that’s where we can start,” said a speaker in Red Deer.

“No amount of begging, pleading or lists of demands will actually permanently fix this root issue,” said another in Lethbridge. “Albertans have ridden this roller-coaster for way too long. We want off.”

Another separatism supporter in Lethbridge told Smith that she was doing a “bang-up job” and that she would make a “fine president for a new sovereign nation.”

But in Edmonton, one woman criticized Smith for drumming up division with Ottawa, saying it was making Alberta appear like a province composed of “bratty children.”

In the parking lot after the Sherwood Park event, a protester wearing a large papier mâché head of Smith held up a sign saying, I love (U.S. President Donald) Trump.

Immigration, and whether Alberta needs to wrest more control over it from Ottawa, was a hot topic.

In Lloydminster, a woman asked Smith if the province would embark on a mass deportation effort instead of just cutting some newcomers off from services like health care. The comment garnered one of the loudest rounds of applause of the night, but Smith responded by saying she didn’t think immigration to Alberta had reached that point “just yet.”

At times, the focus shifted away from the panel and fell on the moderator Bruce McAllister, the executive director of Smith’s office.

Everyone had 45 seconds to speak, and sometimes McAllister had to bring the hammer down. Things got testy at times, especially when the speakers pushed a point hard or strayed off topic.

One speaker in Edmonton took the microphone to criticize Smith for her laws on student pronouns and rules on transgender care and youth in sports, mockingly commiserating with a premier kept busy with “trans kids to bully.”

“OK,” said McAllister, stepping in. “Shut the mic off.”

In Edmonton, McAllister publicly disparaged an attendee who challenged the panel’s pre-made video for its discussion around immigration. The attendee said he found the panel’s decision to blame immigrants for high housing costs and overcrowded classrooms “disgusting.”

McAllister shot back, “I think you are.”

At the same event, McAllister compared those who asked off-topic questions to whiny children.

“Just knock it off or I’ll ask somebody to get you out of here,” he told another attendee. “Jeez, like, you don’t reward a toddler in the grocery store and give them what they want.”

At the final in-person event this week in Calgary, McAllister publicly urged the parents of a teen to spank him for pushing for answers on a looming teachers strike.

Others at the event called out the comment as outrageous and the next day, as the uproar grew, McAllister delivered a vague apology on social media that failed to even mention what it was he was specifically apologizing for.

Smith later said she accepted McAllister’s apology, that he had been spoken to and that she expects everyone to be treated with respect.

At the conclusion of Wednesday’s forum, Smith publicly thanked McAllister for his work.

“It’s not always been easy to be in your chair moderating with some of the tension that’s been in the crowd,” Smith said.

“Thank you,” he replied. “It’s sure been a challenge for me, too.”

Smith and the panel will now compile a report expected by the end of the year containing recommendations on which proposals the government should put to a referendum next year.

However, Smith said Wednesday, based on what they heard at the town halls, her government can act now.

“Some of the ideas will have seen such overwhelming support that we think we might be able to move on some of them right away,” Smith said.

Political scientist Duane Bratt said he is curious to see how the panel’s final report shapes up given the work is underpinned by anecdotal comments, online surveys and in-person straw polls that he said are not scientific “by any stretch of the imagination.”

And, he noted, they were based on discussions framed around predetermined topics and videos outlining what was to be discussed.

“This isn’t all about consulting Albertans,” said Bratt, with Mount Royal University in Calgary.

“This is about swaying Albertans.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2025.

Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press