Danielle Smith’s Alberta Sovereignty Act is all about creating a political crisis
But unlike 1982, Peter Lougheed isn’t around to play the role of Captain Strong Alberta within a Strong Canada.
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TL;DR
If you don’t have time to read today’s column right away, here are some of my main points:
The big thing to remember about Danielle Smith’s Alberta Sovereignty Act is that it isn’t designed to be a good law. It’s designed to create a political crisis.
There’s probably nothing more that Smith would like than for a federal Liberal cabinet minister to criticize it or for the Lieutenant Governor to refuse to give it Royal Assent.
Alberta had an election where separatism was a big issue in 1982. But unlike 1982, Peter Lougheed isn’t around to play the role of Captain Strong Alberta within a Strong Canada.
That probably leaves NDP leader Rachel Notley to fight it in the next election. Notley has largely steered clear of the UCP’s leadership race, probably not wanting to interrupt her opponents infighting.
Today’s column
Danielle Smith’s Alberta Sovereignty Act is all about creating a political crisis
But unlike 1982, Peter Lougheed isn’t around to play the role of Captain Strong Alberta within a Strong Canada.
Nothing has sucked up as much oxygen in the United Conservative Party leadership race as the fact that the first thing Danielle Smith has promised to do if she becomes Premier: pass the Alberta Sovereignty Act.
Smith claims the Act would give the Alberta Legislature the right to ignore federal laws, court rulings or regulatory decisions of its choosing.
Critics of her sovereignty law are many.
University of Calgary law professor Martin Olszynski says Smith is "wildly incorrect" about the Constitution, the Charter and the division of powers between them.
Outgoing Premier Jason Kenney says it would make Alberta look like a “banana republic.”
The big thing to remember about the Alberta Sovereignty Act is that it isn’t designed to be a good law. It’s designed to create a political crisis.
There’s probably nothing more that Smith’s campaign would like than for some Liberal cabinet minister from Ontario to criticize it, or for the Lieutenant Governor to clumsily muse about not giving it Royal Assent.
That’s what happened back in 1937, when Lieutenant Governor John Bowen refused to sign Social Credit Premier William Aberhart’s Accurate News and Information Act into law until the Supreme Court could rule on its constitutionality.
The Supreme Court ruled Aberhart’s bill was beyond the powers of the Alberta government (so, unconstitutional).
Aberhart retaliated by announcing the elimination of Bowen's official residence at Government House in Edmonton, his government car, and his secretarial staff.
Back to the Alberta Sovereignty Act.
One of its architects admits it would be unconstitutional.
“Indeed, that is the whole point. The Canadian Constitution has never worked in favour of Albertans, so it needs to be changed,” University of Calgary political science professor Barry Cooper wrote in the National Post. “Changing the Constitution, in fact, if not in terms of black letter law, is called politics. Law exists downstream from politics.”
Cooper, along with Smith’s campaign chair and former Wildrose Party deputy Rob Anderson, and conservative lawyer Derek From, are credited with writing the Free Alberta Strategy from which the Alberta Sovereignty Act was born.
Smith’s supporters downplay claims it’s a step towards Alberta separatism, pointing out that the Act hasn’t even been written yet, but Cooper’s history of promoting the separatist cause makes the point hard to ignore.
In June 2021, Cooper penned a column comparing Alberta to the United States in 1775.
“For many Albertans it is 1775. A year later, as every American knows, the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia,” Cooper wrote. “At the time the Colonies were still part of the British Empire; it is, therefore, a British as much as an American document, which is why its logic has such a wide appeal today in the Canadian West."
“Premier Kenney is of the view that such a vote will strengthen his hand in re-negotiating the program. Alberta Patriots fully expect Laurentian Canada to reject any proposals out of hand, thereby precipitating a major political crisis Alberta’s 1776 is fast approaching,” Cooper predicted. “Stay tuned.”
And, in Nov. 2021, he called for a referendum on Alberta separation from Canada.
What’s that old saying about history repeating itself?
Four decades ago, Alberta had an election that was framed as a referendum on separatism.
“Our campaign will be ‘For Alberta’ - within Canada,” Premier Peter Lougheed declared as he launched the Progressive Conservative Party’s re-election campaign on October 5, 1982. “The citizens of this province, in the vast majority, feel very strongly about being part of Canada. In fact, I’ve sensed over the ’70’s, they want to be even more a part of the mainstream of Canadian life.”
It was Lougheed’s fifth and final time leading his PC Party into the electoral breach and Alberta separatism was at the top of the ballot.
The separatist Western Canada Concept stunned political watchers by winning a by-election eight months earlier in Olds-Didsbury and party leader Gordon Kesler was hoping to ride a similar wave of discontent into the provincial election.
“The premier initiated a battle with Ottawa and he failed miserably to win the war,” Kesler claimed in 1982. “After failings of the government to stand up for the rights of Albertans…. now he’s going to fight those who are prepared to go out and do the job that he couldn’t.”
Not surprisingly, the WCC’s separatist cause was paired with what Edmonton Journal politics columnist Geoff White described as “paranoid vision.”
“Pierre Trudeau has obliterated the chance we once had to be an economically strong Canada,” Kesler told the Women’s Canadian Club in Calgary in September 1982. “That man in Edmonton [Peter Lougheed] sold us down the tube; and if we give him any longer he’ll give the tube away. We’ve reached that point of last chance”
“We are at the crossroads of the future of mankind,” Kesler told delegates to his party’s July 1982 convention in Red Deer. “We have reached that point in the history of the world where a small few people are trying to dictate every aspect of our life at their own fanciful whim.”
Does the rhetoric sound familiar?
If the Tories could make separatism the primary issue, White argued, Kesler’s WCC was likely to be crushed in the stampede to return the Lougheed government to power.
When the dust settled and the ballots were counted on November 2, Lougheed’s PCs decimated the WCC. The separatist threat was over.
Now a different type of separatist threat has appeared. But instead of coming from members of a right-wing fringe party, it’s coming from inside the governing UCP.
There’s no doubt the Alberta Sovereignty Act, along with Smith’s embrace of conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and the World Economic Forum, has helped mobilize a group of energetic supporters in her favour to the point where a first ballot win on October 6, 2022 might not be a wild prediction.
But unlike 1982, Peter Lougheed isn’t around to play the role of Captain Strong Alberta within a Strong Canada.
Kenney isn’t the right person for the job.
Four of Smith’s opponents, Travis Toews, Brian Jean, Rajan Sawhney and Leela Aheer, held a joint press conference denouncing the Act, but without a clear ‘Anybody but Smith’ candidate emerging it made them look weak.
Aheer’s campaign even bought ads opposing it but her chances of making it much further than the second ballot look slim.
That probably leaves NDP leader Rachel Notley to fight it in the next election.
Notley has largely steered clear of the UCP’s leadership race, probably not wanting to interrupt her opponents infighting. Though it will be hard for her to avoid, I expect she’ll want to talk less about separatism or autonomy and more about the three big things on Albertans minds - health care, education and the economy.
But if Smith has her way, the Alberta Sovereignty Act and the political crisis it’s designed to create will continue sucking up a lot of oxygen in Alberta politics.
ONE MORE THING
Chasing votes in rural places: The UCP leadership candidates have been spending a lot of time outside of Alberta’s two largest cities and a lot of time talking about farming and rural issues.
There’s a good reason why.
The ridings with the biggest concentration of UCP members are outside the two major cities. According to a CBC analysis of a party membership list, the ridings with the most UCP members are Cardston-Siksika, Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre, Chestermere-Strathmore, Innisfail-Sylvan Lake, and Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills. Only 4 of the 20 ridings with the most UCP members are in Calgary.
The top 5 ridings with the least UCP members are Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood, Edmonton-North West, Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview, Edmonton-Strathcona, and Edmonton-Castle Downs. All of those are held by the NDP.
I welcome the clarity and perspective of this much needed voice in a province that bears its self-administered, roughly hewn and bruised chip on its shoulder - to the delight of many outsiders and the embarrassment of Albertans who tire of "the woe is me, hard done by crowd" - that serves none other than its "I'm alright Jack" brethren.
Great start to the column—thanks. Appreciate the clear, nuanced insights.