Her time in office has been so delightfully wacky there’s just too much to cover. She’s tripled down on the Alberta Sovereignty Act while admitting that she would follow any Supreme Court rulings on its constitutionality, and admitting she will likely never use it.
Since everyone knows the Act cannot achieve what she says it can within the confines of the Constitution (indeed, one of the authors of the strategy, Barry Cooper, has written that its unconstitutionality is ”exactly the point”), many Albertans are left wondering “what the hell is she doing?”
The same question has been asked again and again since Smith was elected by a razor thin of her own party in a surprisingly close race. (She got 53.7% on the final ballot, but about 5500 members who voted in the first ballot declined to rank either her or her final opponent, so she ended up with almost exactly 50% of votes cast.)
There are so many greatest hits to choose from; indeed, it seems every time she opens her mouth, something bizarre drops out.
It’s worth noting that she’s a few months older than I am. We went to university together. Residential schools existed for the first half of our lives, as did apartheid.
Heck, Smith even named the largest cabinet in Alberta history, and could find room for only four women and three non-white people, one of whom is the minister of trade, immigration and multiculturalism, another of culture. At least she didn’t relegate the women to the status of women portfolio – because there isn’t one.
She attempted to clarify her comments about discrimination, highlighting that, since her grandmother had “Cherokee relatives,” she has Indigenous ancestry and understands discrimination.
Notably, she did not apologize and instead doubled down, vowing to make vaccine status a protected class under the Alberta Human Rights Act (does this mean your hairdresser can’t be required to be vaccinated against Hepatitis B, or a firefighter who lives in close quarters with others, against measles? Who knows?). Of course, she has not actually done so, having perhaps received some legal advice.
She was forced to apologize for another gaffe, in which she parroted Russian talking points about Ukraine and NATO being responsible for the invasion and suggesting that if only Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons (which it did in the 1990s) and just ceded some territory to Russia, all would be fine.
Before her advisers reminded her that Alberta has one of the largest Ukrainian diasporas in the world, she blamed the controversy on the media digging up things she had said long ago, while she was wearing a different hat.
However, the comments were made last year, when she had declared she would run for the leadership of the UCP.
When she finally did apologize, she noted that one of her great-grandparents (not the Cherokee-adjacent one) fled Ukraine and that she, like so many Albertans, is proud of her Ukrainian roots.
And there’s the constantly changing story on whether she interfered with criminal prosecutions of those facing not just COVID-related charges, but those involved with alleged criminal activity around the blockade of the Coutts border crossing.
Regardless of which of her explanations one believes (and it’s impossible for more than one of them to be true. She calls it “imprecise” language, others call it “lying”), she has admitted to far more than Justin Trudeau was accused of doing during the SNC Lavalin affair.
The only thing she has not done is replace her Attorney General – because she has no one to replace him with. (He’s under investigation for bad behaviour from the Law Society himself, but that’s yet another story)
How in the world did we get here? There are two schools of thought: one is that Smith is simply incompetent (she’s never been in government before and has only worked in media, lobbying, and politics, other than washing dishes and light bookkeeping at her family restaurant).
Indeed, amongst University of Calgary grads of the early 1990s there are active group text debates on whether she’s always been like this or if something has broken.
The other school says this is all an act. That like Boris Johnson or her political idol Ron DeSantis, she’s putting us all on.
She herself has lent credence to this theory. In an attempt to change the channel, she told a press conference that she sees journalism as a form of entertainment, focused on getting clicks and ratings. Therefore, she shouldn’t be held responsible for anything she said or espoused as a talk radio host.
Setting aside the cynicism of this statement – was she always playing her listeners for chumps? Will they abandon her when they figure it out or is she counting on their blind loyalty? – there is a political strategy here.
Shortly after taking office, she again said the quiet part out loud, suggesting that the math meant she could get a bare majority by sweeping rural Alberta and more or less ignoring Calgary and Edmonton.
She believes, therefore, that there is an audience for her extremism in rural Alberta and in cities such as Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Red Deer and the Grande Prairie region (all of which elected NDP members in 2015) to bring her back to the Premier’s office.
She may well be right. Polls consistently show a deadlocked race, with a small lead for the opposition NDP. However, the NDP must run a perfect campaign and win every seat they are competitive in, while the UCP has much more room for error.
‘THE LURE OF KEEPING POWER IS SEDUCTIVE INDEED’
Her caucus knows this. While they grumble loudly in private, they have fallen behind their leader in public, even on issues such as the Sovereignty Act that they had previously angrily denounced. The lure of keeping power is seductive indeed.
Many of them understand that all but one of the last five Conservative premiers have been removed by a party revolt after winning an election but before finishing the term. Many of them figure that they’ll be rid of her soon enough, so why put their necks out now?
Time will tell if Smith proves to be a good premier after all, but one thing is certain. She has done what I would have thought impossible: she’s made many Albertans long for the leadership of Jason Kenney.
Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi wrote this opinion column for CTV News
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
