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The meeting in a packed hotel ballroom was loud, emotional and profane, which pretty much sums up Alberta politics these days; and so perversely entertaining it should have been part of the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival that opened Friday.

Several members of the audience dropped the F-bomb, Smith herself dropped a bullsh*t bomb and the moderator, struggling to maintain control, issued a “God Almighty” bomb.

Although there were plenty of Smith-supporters in the audience, who frequently applauded the premier, the majority of those commenting at the microphones were not fans of Smith or her “Alberta Next” initiative town halls. The meetings are designed to see what Albertans think of six issues being pushed by Smith, including an Alberta Pension Plan, an Alberta Police Force, an Alberta tax collection agency and withholding social services from some immigrants.

“Alberta doesn’t really want you doing this right now,” said the first audience member at the microphone. “We’re worried about health, we’re worried about education and we’re worried about poverty. Too many of our neighbours are living under a tarp.”

Others spoke angrily against the idea of Alberta pulling out of the Canada Pension Plan, accused Smith of undermining national unity and decried the partisan nature of the Alberta Next panel, whose 16 members include the premier (as chairperson), a cabinet minister and two government MLAs.

Indeed, the “information” presented on the Alberta Next website and the videos played at the town halls can be boiled down to an umbrella complaint that “Ottawa is notoriously anti-Alberta with its decisions.” It is a tactic that makes a parody of some real grievances with Ottawa’s past behaviour.

The elephant in the room at these events is Alberta separation, something Smith says she opposes but tacitly encourages with sympathetic language and actions, including  against Alberta’s chief electoral officer, who asked the courts to rule on the legality of a potential referendum question from a pro-separatist group.

Thursday’s town hall was the third of 10 planned over the summer and it grew more divisive and argumentative over its two-and-a-half hours, not just because of opposition to Alberta Next’s six issues but because of frustration with a host of topics, including ministerial travel expenses, youth unemployment and government transparency.

When a member of the audience accused Smith of callously cutting off free COVID vaccinations for most Albertans, she responded with an exasperated “bullsh*t.”

You have to wonder if the anti-Smith crowd is frustrated with the fact the UCP government is still riding relatively high in  at 52 per cent, the same number they won in the 2023 provincial election while the NDP support, largely centred in Edmonton, has dropped. Smith’s personal approval rating has likewise remained relatively steady.

The New Democrats have high hopes that  once leader Naheed Nenshi enters the legislature this fall and can debate Smith face to face.

Smith is a skilled communicator and canny politician who has managed to turn Alberta into knots over a looming vote on separation next year as she pushes an Orwellian bit of doublethink where Alberta can be both Canadian and “sovereign.”

It is an argument based not on fact but on emotion where Smith is both arsonist and firefighter, inflaming public opinion while presenting herself as saviour.

It is political theatre aimed at her chronically crotchety conservative base, who have a track record of tearing down leaders who disappoint them. It is also a threat aimed at Canadians in the rest of the country to take seriously Alberta’s demands for more freedom over its own affairs, which basically boils down to loosening environmental protections to build more pipelines so the province can increase its oil-dependent wealth.