During the lead-up to Alberta's 1905 creation as a province, Stuart was initially critical of the terms imposed by the Liberal federal government of Wilfrid Laurier; these terms kept control of natural resources, which was held by the provincial governments of the older provinces, under federal control. Stuart was a Liberal, however, and he eventually joined his party in defending these terms. He was less sanguine about Alberta's new electoral boundaries, which disproportionately favoured the province's north, and about the Liberals' policy of fixing Calgary's rival Edmonton as the interim provincial capital, with the first legislature to make the final decision—he felt that the issue should be put to a vote in the first provincial election. He lost both of these fights, and once again loyally adhered to his party's program.