Vincent J. Curtis
7 Oct 22
On Thursday, the United Conservative Party of Alberta chose Danielle Smith over Travis Toews as the party’s next leader, and prospectively the next provincial premier. In doing so, the party chose confrontation over co-existence, and stridency over firmness. Central Canada can expect an Alberta government that as much gets into the face of the Ottawa-Trudeau government as Trudeau’s government gets into the face of Albertans.
Smith was once the leader of the Wildrose Party, an Alberta separatist party along the lines of the Parti Quebecois. The Wildrose amalgamated with the Alberta PC party to form the UCP after the Alberta PCs lost to the NDP in the 2015 provincial election
Smith has a hard-core minority support within the UCP. She gained 41 percent of the vote on the first ballot of the leadership race, and did not go over 50 percent until the sixth and last ballot, a head to head matchup against Toews, a social conservative in the Kenney mould. Direct confrontation with Ottawa is a strong minority opinion in the province, and much turns on how far the Trudeau government pursues it policies that are hostile to Alberta.
Alberta is pretty conservative. Think of Toronto, 1962. And libertarian. Christianity is highly respected out here, and woke progressivism and leftist politics abrasively rubs people the wrong way. Kenney got into trouble when police were arresting protestant pastors and closing churches upon the order of health officials, of all people, and charging rodeo organizers for putting together outdoor rodeos on a completely voluntary basis killed. His failure to restrain out-of-control policing during the COVID epidemic cost Kenney any love there was for the man. Kenney tied his star to Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Henshaw instead of restraining her excesses.
There is hardly a Liberal elected west of the Ontario-Manitoba border. The Trudeau government responds in kind, and all three of Alberta’s major industries are under attack by the Trudeau government. Oil & gas, agriculture, and cattle ranching are all in Trudeau’s sights for their alleged contributions to climate change (A Central Canadian and big city hobby horse out here.) In particular, the Trudeau government has done nothing to expand exports of Alberta resources by the construction of pipelines over the Rocky Mountains, or push Keystone XL when Trump was president. Alberta is valued only for its transfer payments.
Albertans are pretty calm about gun ownership, and all the types of guns most useful for dealing with prairie dog infestation and small predators have been prohibited by Ottawa, and will soon be confiscated by force if necessary. The Ministers of Justice of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, have told Ottawa that the RCMP, which they hire for provincial police services, cannot be diverted to the confiscation of firearms, while on the province’s dime not less. Guns may scare big city Ontarians, but seizing the private property of people because Ottawa thinks it immoral is a serious point of confrontation between Alberta values and Ottawa whimsy. Besides, in rural Alberta police response can be 45 minutes at best.
Smith’s brand of confrontational politics wouldn’t work but for the thoughtless antagonism Ottawa engages in. Alberta was nearly three weeks behind Ontario in receipt of the first supplies of COVID vaccine. Ottawa’s moralistic values are not Alberta values, and Trudeau can’t leave well enough alone.
Danielle Smith can be expected to
stridently confront the Trudeau government early and often. Smith’s rise is the product of decades of Ottawa
pushing its values on Alberta with the power it has as a Federal
government. Smith’s Alberta Sovereignty
Act is going to challenge that. Most
Albertans prefer peaceful coexistence with Ottawa, but there are lots of young
people out here with the stomach for confrontation, and the Trudeau government
pushed enough people into the “we have fight” camp that Smith’s strong minority
became a majority on Thursday night.
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