Danielle Smith’s belief in Canadian unity shouldn’t be conditional on pipelines and politics

Althia Raj/Toronto Star: I believe Smith cares deeply about Albertans who suffered emotionally and financially during the downturn, who lost their jobs or small businesses, and saw family members move away in search of new opportunities. But support for Canada must rest on a deeper foundation than support for a pipeline project, or successful reversal of policies one disagrees with. We should expect political leaders who do not explicitly run on a sovereigntist platform to believe unequivocally in the Canadian project, and not threaten or work to split up the federation when they disagree with Ottawa or don’t get their way…