Alberta premier flips pancakes, gets shouted at during KDays kickoff on legislature grounds
Posted July 16, 2026 12:36 pm.
Last Updated July 16, 2026 1:39 pm.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was back flipping pancakes on the legislature grounds in Edmonton Thursday morning.
The Premier’s Breakfast, which marks the kickoff to Edmonton’s KDays festivities, returned for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Smith was all smiles cooking pancakes on the south lawn of the legislature alongside some of her ministers. At one point, Alberta’s premier flipped a pancake to Tourism and Sport Minister Andrew Boitchenko.
But not everyone welcomed the premier with open arms; some protesters had harsh words for the leader of the UCP.
While most waited in line to get a pancake flipped by the premier, take a picture, or even get Smith’s autograph, a few used the opportunity to confront her about her government’s coal mining and data centre policies, as well her stance on separatism.
Security guards dragged one woman out of line and away from the legislature grounds after she argued with Smith about her government’s efforts to have major artificial intelligence data centres built in the province.
Last week Smith and tech giant Meta announced the company was building its first data centre campus in Canada just north of Edmonton. The $13-billion project is set to be one of Meta’s biggest data centres and be powered by a major natural gas-fired power plant.
The woman accused Smith of “selling out” Albertans in favour of artificial intelligence, to which the premier replied by asking whether the woman used Meta’s major social media platforms, Facebook or Instagram.
As security was intervening, the woman swore off Smith’s “fascist pancakes.”
Smith was surrounded by at least four or five security guards while she kept dishing out flapjacks.
