On a B.C. podcast, Senator Paula Simons dismissed the independence movement as naïve and called it a tiny minority, while acknowledging it represents at least a quarter of Albertans.

She said, “I’m an Albertan, and I don’t recognize myself or the province,” saying the aggrieved are “narrow and scared of the world.” Simons added that she was saddened by the “unweaving” of the unity enjoyed by the Elbows Up campaign.

It’s difficult to swallow somebody accusing a large portion of Albertans of not understanding Alberta while being confused on why the province refused to embrace a federal Liberal campaign. She hardly stops there, though.

Simons claims “Trumpist culture” has leeched over the border, with demands heard at UCP townhalls to deport illegal immigrants.

According to the senator, Alberta has imported grievances that are “not even authentic to this place.” She calls concerns about mass immigration “imagined problems” because people get their information from “right-wing social media sites.”

She then lectures on how Alberta doesn’t have many illegal immigrants but has some people who have overstayed their visas. Staying beyond the time allotted in a visa is literally illegal.

If Simons thinks Albertans want open borders, her misunderstanding of Alberta is deeper than imagined.

Senator Simons then goes into some Alberta history, listing a bunch of premiers since Ernest Manning and how they always had to fight to be at the table. She then points out how Preston Manning campaigned on “The West wants in.” How did that work out again?

Simons doesn’t understand the cumulative exhaustion of Albertans who have had to fight for generations for the simple provincial rights that Eastern provinces have always had granted by default.

Then, for a second time tells Albertans we must get “elbows up.”

For an alleged “independent” senator, Simons falls back on Liberal campaign themes readily.

Simons feels Premier Smith must crack down on the elected UCP members and wistfully opined that Rachel Notley was the last premier to maintain caucus unity. Does the senator remember why Notley only served one term at the top job?

She applauded Doug Ford coming to Alberta and said it doesn’t matter if pipelines get built, but that it was so important to have an Ontario premier come out to tell Albertans he loves them.

Simons demonstrated the sort of haughty and gross misunderstanding of Albertans that the cloistered world of the Senate in Ottawa can provide.

In 2013, when employed as a columnist, Simons wrote, "These days, the Senate is failing on almost every front. Instead of being appointed on merit, all too often senators get the gig because they're political cronies or party loyalists, bagmen (and women) who have primarily distinguished themselves as rabid partisans or backroom boys, not deep thinkers."

When the federal trough calls, the principles held quickly disappear.