One of the favorites to replace Jason Kenney as Alberta’s prime minister says if he wins, legislation would come this fall to ignore federal laws along with steps to create a provincial police and tax collection agency.
Danielle Smith said the legislature should pass an Alberta sovereignty law as soon as possible to allow Alberta to reject federal dictates on COVID-19, such as ordering vaccines for children or third doses for everyone.
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He also said it is imperative to roll the ball to an Alberta police force and a separate tax collection agency, needed to give teeth to sovereignty legislation, because they are multi-year initiatives.
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“We want to have clear legislation so that (federal officials) understand that we simply will not pass a policy that violates the rights of Albertans,” Smith said in an interview.
“It would be a mechanism for them to know that we are serious about enforcing our jurisdiction.”
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The Alberta Sovereignty Act would give the legislature discretion to refuse to enforce federal laws or court decisions that it considers an interference with provincial rights or a threat to provincial interests.
Smith said that with Alberta’s economy and population growing, it is critical to act now to send a message to the federal government and its members of the United Conservative Party, that the time of the simple saber noise is over.
He said he is not being a pioneer, but is following in the footsteps of provinces like Quebec and British Columbia, which have chosen to reject with impunity Ottawa’s dictates on policies, from drug laws to pipelines.
He said the UCP has a mandate to implement such comprehensive legislation immediately instead of implementing it as a platform in the May 2023 elections.
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He pointed to a provincial referendum last fall in which nearly 62 percent said they wanted equality to be removed from the Constitution.
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He also highlighted a fair agreement panel that issued a report two years ago urging the province to seek autonomy issues such as an Alberta pension plan and the police force.
“There’s been enough conversations around this that I have a good indicator of where people are,” Smith said. “It seems to me that we have a mandate to move.”
In Calgary, opposition NPD leader Rachel Notley said Smith has no mandate to pursue these “extreme political positions.” He said the UCP should focus on solving problems for Albertans, such as waiting times for health care and rising costs due to inflation, rather than “feigning fights with Ottawa “.
Three law professors at the University of Calgary have also refuted Smith’s ideas.
They said that this sovereignty law would not only be “fundamentally illegal,” but would be a demolition ball for Canada’s constitutional order, the separation of powers, and the rule of law that underpins a healthy democracy and protects against “arbitrary state power.”
“Alberta’s act of sovereignty sets a dangerous course in this direction,” write Martin Olszynski, Jonnette Watson Hamilton, and Shaun Fluker in their analysis. Fluker also ran in the NDP in the 2023 election.
Olszynski said in an interview Thursday that while there are concerns and debates about how other provinces interpret or enforce federal laws, “there is no precedent in modern Canadian history for a political movement to declare that it will ignore the courts.”
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He added that politicians should not be tolerated for speaking in this way.
“Once you empower someone who has told you explicitly and very deliberately that you are willing to ignore the rule of law, you are willing to ignore it whenever you want.”
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The act of sovereignty is the central political proposal of the Free Alberta Strategy.
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The strategy was unveiled last September in a policy paper written by former Wildrose party member Rob Anderson, University of Calgary political science professor Barry Cooper and attorney Derek From.
They argue that federal laws, policies, and excess reach are fatally damaging Alberta’s development.
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They urge a two-way strategy to assert greater autonomy for Alberta within the Confederacy while laying the political and administrative foundations for Alberta’s transition to separation and sovereignty in the event that negotiations fail.
Read more: In the vote: the equality referendum largely misunderstood by Albertans
Smith is one of eight candidates running in the contest to replace Kenney as party leader and prime minister.
She is a former leader of the Wildrose Party, which merged with Kenney’s conservative progressives in 2017 to create the current UCP.
The winner will be announced on October 6th. Early polls suggest Smith is a favorite.
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