Smith’s sovereignty-law gambit a non-starter By: Editorial Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Tuesday, Sep. 6, 2022

Opinion

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This article was published 05/09/2022 (841 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Danielle Smith’s first task, if Alberta’s United Conservative Party members choose her as their leader on Oct. 6, will be to back away from her promise to enact an Alberta sovereignty law that would grant the province the right to ignore federal laws and court rulings deemed harmful to Alberta’s interests.

Liz Truss, the newly chosen Conservative leader and prime minister in the United Kingdom, may be showing Ms. Smith how the necessary flip-flop can be executed. Ms. Smith should pay close attention to the way the British prime minister wriggles away from her inconvenient campaign promises.

Ms. Smith borrowed the Alberta sovereignty idea from prominent Alberta separatists Rob Anderson and Barry Cooper. She adopted the idea to appeal to newly recruited party members impatient with energy and environment policies of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his federal Liberal government.

The sovereignty plan has embroiled her in public quarrels with departing UCP leader and premier Jason Kenney, with Alberta Lieutenant Governor Selma Lakhani and with her rival leadership candidates. It may also propel her into office ahead of her chief rival, finance minister Travis Toews.

Her quixotic plan recalls the 1936-37 attempt by former Alberta premier William Aberhart to regulate banks in the province, hand out $25 social dividends to the citizens and suppress unfavourable press coverage, contrary to the Canadian Constitution. The idea brought the Social Credit movement to power but was shot down by the courts of law and ultimately came to nothing.

Like Mr. Aberhart’s banking law, Ms. Smith’s sovereignty law is an obvious non-starter that can have no legal effect but most certainly can stir up rage and frustration among Albertans who feel ill-treated by Ottawa. It would also raise doubts about the stability of the legal structure in Alberta and about the rationality of the province’s political leaders.

Britain’s new prime minister, Ms. Truss, won the party leadership this week by telling the grassroots members of the party what they wanted to hear about the good old days of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher and the need for lower taxes and smaller government. She faces an economic crisis of inflation, rising energy bills and rising unemployment that will, in fact, require increased government spending.

Ms. Smith’s sovereignty law is an obvious non-starter that can have no legal effect but most certainly can stir up rage and frustration among Albertans who feel ill-treated by Ottawa.

The minute her victory was announced, Ms. Truss watered down her promises. She will deliver, she said many times, not specifying what she will deliver. She will produce a bold plan for energy costs, she continued, giving no hint of its contents.

Ms. Truss runs the risk of disappointing the 81,326 party members who voted for her (against 60,399 for former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak). As long, however, as she can keep the party in power and win support from most Conservative members of Parliament, she can probably survive the party members’ disappointment.

Ms. Smith may be able to dilute her Alberta sovereignty plan into an angry fist-shaking exercise that will express anti-Ottawa rage without actually damaging the structure of law that provides a reliable basis for Albertans and Canadians to conduct their affairs. She has already said she will listen to other views and perhaps change course accordingly.

The ruling UCP caucus she proposes to lead may save her from the folly of carrying out her threatened attack on the Constitution. She cannot put a bill through the legislature without their support.