Alberta

It was eight minutes into her 12-minute victory speech when Danielle Smith got into the stuff the United Conservative crowd liked more than anything, other than the victory itself.

The “warning to Ottawa” — the one she said she hoped Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberals were listening to (at a few minutes before 2 a.m Eastern on Tuesday morning).

The premier, now armed with a mandate, urged Ottawa to scrap its plans for a net-zero electrical grid in 12 years, as well as the Liberals’ proposed regulations to cap emissions from the carbon-intensive oil and gas sector.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her United Conservative Party retained control of Canada’s top oil-producing province in an election Monday, setting up a series of energy-policy clashes with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Danielle Smith leads UCP to Alberta majority government

UCP majority winner Danielle Smith's victory speech sends a clear warning to Trudeau

I will not let Trudeau’s federal policies be inflicted upon Albertans.pic.twitter.com/n4ztDjjQ3Q

— Mad Yet (@HaveWeAllGoneM1) May 30, 2023

Today is election day.

Many Albertans have already made their voice heard during last week’s advance polls with 758,550 votes cast, smashing the previous record of 700,476 in 2019.

If all goes to plan, by the end of tonight Albertans will have elected 87 MLAs to represent them in the province’s 31st legislative assembly. Although Calgary has been cited as the deciding battleground, there are plenty of ridings to watch with every election offering its own surprises.

The conclusion of the Alberta provincial election on Monday will herald yet another stage in the federal-provincial relationship, often characterized in recent years by either tense co-operation or outright opposition.

Where political analysts in Alberta often talk about the province’s three electoral “regions” — Edmonton, Calgary and rural areas — Ottawa has also been a point of focus throughout the campaign.

Opposition to the federal government is a “baseline” for both of Alberta’s major parties, Corey Hogan, a political commentator and strategist, said in an interview on CBC’s The House that aired Saturday.

OK, I get it. Albertans don’t have to be New Democrats to think Premier Daniel Smith spent too much time during her first months in office re-fighting pandemic battles.

From October through January, I wrote several columns urging her to drop her fights over lockdowns, mask mandates and vaccine passports, and to move on from her close associations with the loopiest elements of the pandemic protest movement.

Sitting at a cafe terrace overlooking a park commemorating the birthplace of the vast oil industry in the western Canadian province of Alberta, Audrey Cerkvenac and Ernestine Dumont, wrestled with a political dilemma.

In a province long the epicenter of Canada’s conservative politics, the two older women had been unwavering conservative supporters.

But now, as Monday’s provincial election approached, they said they had been turned off by the strident right turn the province’s conservative party had taken as it ruled Alberta during the pandemic, fueled by extremist protests against Covid restrictions and baseless claims about vaccines.

NYT hit piece …

CBC News poll suggests United Conservative Party headed for victory in Alberta

Imagine, if you can, an Ontario premier or member of the provincial parliament badmouthing that province’s auto sector and fighting to stop the creation of a new auto plant in the province — because automobiles (even electric ones) and manufacturing creates greenhouse gasses.