Noteworthy: Danielle Smith and Mark Carney sittin’ in a tree..

By Bruce Penton on December 3, 2025.

Premier Danielle Smith’s lovefest with Prime Minister Mark Carney leading to last week’s memorandum of understanding regarding pipeline construction from Alberta to Canada’s West Coast apparently didn’t go over well with much of the party faithful at the weekend’s AGM of the United Conservative Party.

As the premier talked to the crowd in Edmonton about the deal to plan for another pipeline to take Alberta crude to B.C.’s coast, booing was predominant, according to video reports I saw. It seems the UCP base not only doesn’t want Smith and the UCP to get in bed with the federal Liberals, they don’t even want them to be seen holding hands.

Separation and Alberta independence are still hot topics whenever the UCP faithful gather, but Smith has long maintained her vision of a strong Alberta within a united Canada. That seems to be an attitude popular with the majority of Albertans, but very unpopular with the rightest of the right among the UCP.

The Alberta-Canada MOU opens the door for negotiations, but a new pipeline is still probably years away. Meanwhile, Smith and Carney will continue to have each other on speed dial. Those phone conversations are also likely to include B.C. Premier David Eby and First Nations representatives on the north coast of B.C., where Smith hopes the pipeline’s terminus will be. But a federal government tanker ban in that area presents all sorts of roadblocks, which has led Eby to say he’ll get involved in a love triangle if the tanker ban stays in place and the pipeline goes to a Burnaby port.

So while Smith does premier-like things such as finding additional markets for the province’s oil, her UCP base back in Alberta would rather talk about separation. Oil and B.C. ocean water don’t mix, do they? In fact, those two properties actually separate.

â€¢ Now here’s a screwy story.

Taiwan is … well, screwed.

Here’s a brief synopsis of a story in the New York Times: “Taiwan is the biggest foreign source of screws for the U.S. But its screw factories are struggling with Trump’s tariffsÂ on steel and aluminum.”

â€¢ Do yo ever drive by a pumpkin patch and say to yourself, ‘Is a pumpkin a fruit or a vegetable?’

Just so you know, a pumpkin is a fruit. The seeds found inside are the dead giveaway to its fruity label.

â€¢ Seventy years ago this past Monday, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., was subsequently arrested and, well, the civil rights movement in the U.S. exploded. Parks said she didn’t give up her seat because she was tired, adding, “The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

After her arrest, by the way, she was actually convicted of disorderly conduct because she violated the city’s racial segregation laws.

The U.S. has come a long way since then, for the better, but racial attitudes are still an issue. Racial equality may be the goal, but treatment of racial minorities – in Canada, too, we’ve got our own problems – still has lots of room for improvement.

â€¢ Former Medicine Hat Tigers’ sensation Gavin McKenna is no longer a slam-dunk, undisputed No. 1 pick in next summer’s National Hockey League draft. While the 17-year-old is still atop most rankings of eligible players, his so-so play in the first part of his rookie season at Penn State has made some scouts take a look at some other options.

One of those is Swedish forward Ivar Stenberg, who has been playing in Sweden’s top league and has 20 points in 21 games.

McKenna, meanwhile, has found the competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association a little tougher than in the Western Hockey League, where he racked up 129 points last year. He has only four goals and 14 assists, and a minus-5 ranking, in 16 games with Penn State.

â€¢ Short snappers: Financial note: ATM fee at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas: $44.95. … The late U.S. president Harry Truman might have been on to something when he said, “Show me a man who gets rich by being a politician, and I’ll show you a crook.” … This might be an unpopular opinion, but the only political recall notice I’m interested in will occur at the next provincial election, in October 2027 … The Tyee columnist Steve Burgess on Danielle Smith’s dealings with Ottawa: “One minute she’s singing ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It,’ the next she’s serenading Mark Carney with “Oil Be Home for Christmas.”