Abstract:Premier of Alberta Danielle Smith’s comments comparing the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act with the Indian Act has sparked widespread outrage and condemnation. Premier Smith would later clarify these remarks to show they were intended to demonstrate that Alberta and First Nations have a “common problem” with Ottawa (Alberta, 2022b: 385). In this brief article, we argue that these comments, and the Act itself, can be analyzed using Jerald Sabin’s contested colonialism framework (2017). We then launch a brief critical discussion of what our analysis means for Canadian politics by addressing the possible intentions and harms of the comments.