Alberta

Readers in Eastern Canada may be forgiven for reckoning that Alberta cowboys are trying to jackhammer our province out of the Canadian bedrock.

We must look past the hysterical hand-flapping from Ottawa to understand why Alberta is defending itself.

I have some very good news for you, Danielle Smith: over here in Toronto, the centre of the universe, your recent legislation — the Alberta sovereignty within a united Canada act — is being rebuked, dismissed and ridiculed.

What you think you might know about Danielle Smith’s Alberta Sovereignty Act is probably wrong. Whatever the demerits of the bill, which enables provincial non-enforcement of federal laws, it is not “unconstitutional.” Nor does it “erase the rule of law,” or empower the legislature to circumvent the courts, as Premier Smith’s critics argue. Those criticisms were valid against earlier versions of this proposal, but have no bearing here.

Canada at the national level is run by a fascist man-child, purported son of Fidel Castro, Prime Minister Trudeau. He has been hurtling Canada down a dark path leading to tyranny. He is a tyrant with a pretty smile.

But as with the United States, Canada is a federal system and the provinces each have their own governments. I am no expert on Canadian politics–come on, who is?–but even I know that Western Canada has some much saner residents than Toronto and Vancouver.

In reversal of policy, adviser says Danielle Smith’s sovereignty act would respect Supreme Court decisions

The top adviser to incoming Alberta premier Danielle Smith says her proposed sovereignty act would respect Supreme Court of Canada decisions — a reversal of her core policy promise on how she would challenge Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government.

Rob Anderson, Smith’s campaign chair for the United Conservative Party leadership and now executive director of her transition team, told CBC in a story published Saturday that Smith’s proposed sovereignty act won’t empower Alberta to disregard Supreme Court rulings.

But Anderson promised that the act, which has yet to be drafted, would “have a whole head of very sharp teeth” and “change the dynamic” with Trudeau’s Liberal government.

How many voted  for just that policy? Just another bullshit politician.

OTTAWA – Alberta premier-designate Danielle Smith says she’s ready to take the fight to Ottawa for Alberta’s autonomy to develop its resources, so that it can build pipelines to get oil and gas to market and boost the forestry and agriculture sectors.

“We’ve always been treated like a subordinate level of government,” she said in an interview on CTV’s Question Period, airing Sunday. “We’ve acted like it. But we’re going to stop acting like that. We’re going to take our place as a senior partner in Confederation.”

Smith also plans to take the federal carbon tax back to the Supreme Court, after it ruled just last year that the policy is constitutional.

If you want to know why Danielle Smith’s anti-Ottawa message was so popular during the recently concluded UCP leadership campaign, consider this one statistic. Annual investment in Alberta’s energy sector remains only about one-half of what it was before the world price of oil collapsed in 2014.

Article content
Other oil-producing countries, such as the United States, Norway and Saudi Arabia, that aren’t in the midst of war or domestic turmoil (Russia, Venezuela, Iran), have seen their oil and gas investment return to 70 per cent or more of 2014 levels. But not Canada.

EDMONTON — Only a fool would believe that Alberta’s new premier, Danielle Smith, only appeals to malcontents blindly raging at intrusive COVID policies and Justin Trudeau. That is certainly part of her base — the new United Conservative Party leader actively courted separatists and vaccine refusers — but the anger Smith has so expertly marshalled to her side is the same resentment that the man she is replacing, Jason Kenney, rode to electoral victory just three-and-a-half years ago.

Alberta’s lieutenant-governor says it’s not a done deal that she would automatically sign off on a proposal from a United Conservative Party leadership candidate to pass a bill aimed at ignoring federal laws and court rulings.

Salma Lakhani says she would seek legal advice as required, but says she is duty-bound to ensure the Constitution is followed.

Culture Minister Ron Orr bashes ‘Laurentian elites’ as Alberta celebrates birthday holiday

Alberta celebrated its inaugural birthday party holiday with Culture Minister Ron Orr bashing the prime minster and “Laurentian elites” while asserting the province has received the short end of the stick in the federation for more than a century.

“The family compact of Laurentian elites have always skewed the deal in their favour,” Mr. Orr told assembled dignitaries, including Premier Jason Kenney, Indigenous leaders and Lieutenant-Governor Salma Lakhani, on a sunny morning Thursday near the legislature grounds.

As I see it, the United Conservative race comes down to two leaders, Danielle Smith and Travis Toews. They are polar opposites within conservative politics on how Alberta should best proceed on fixing, building and protecting Alberta’s energy economy.

Toews, a rancher, an accountant and a small businessman, leads an incrementalist camp. He is a steady-as-she-goes type who wants to keep working with the energy industry and First Nations on new oil and gas projects, while pushing hard against any obstructionism from the Trudeau Liberals in Ottawa, but doing so mainly as its always been done, through negotiation and court action.

Seems a prudent approach given the Lunatics in Ottawa.