Give the United Conservative Party (UCP) government its due – it didn’t publish a really embarrassing news release insulting the intelligence of Albertans until the second day of 2025.
Granted, Premier Danielle Smith’s short message on New Year’s Day did include a gratuitous and tendentious shot at Ottawa for alleged interference in provincial jurisdiction, but that’s pretty much par for the course nowadays. If we even notice, most of us shake that stuff off like the water on the proverbial duck’s back.
Last week, though, things got back to normal with the government’s announcement favoured ministers Mike Ellis and Mickey Amery will be off on a junket to the Lone Star State to talk about “strengthening safety through cross-border collaboration.”
You ask: Since when did Alberta share a border with Texas?
Well, Amery, Alberta’s minister of Justice, explains that in his canned quote. “Alberta and Texas are united by a shared history, common values and enduring ties,” he said, or one of the government public relations boffins said for him. So, not geography, actually. But close enough, eh?
You may also not have been aware that Texas and Alberta share much history – other than the history of cash that should have stayed here in the form of royalties or processing jobs for Albertans going down to pipeline to the office towers of Houston and the refineries of the Gulf Coast.
Alberta certainly never fought a war for territory with Mexico or joined the Confederacy to preserve slavery, but I wouldn’t be all that shocked to learn there are people working in Smith’s office who think we should’ve.
Anyway, you can always get a laugh out of Lone Star locals by explaining why Canadians and Texans seem so simpatico: We’re both citizens of jurisdictions that used to be independent of the United States.
But even that doesn’t really apply to Albertans, seeing as the 10-year Texas Republic came to an end on February 19, 1846, and Alberta wasn’t really a thing until 1905, or 1930 if you go by constitutional jurisdiction over natural resources, which seems to be the be-all and end-all for our provincial government.
So if there is no border between Texas and Alberta, the troubles on the Texas border with Mexico are in no way like whatever happens on the border between Canada and the United States, and there are no meaningful historical ties to speak of, what are Amery and Ellis going to be doing there?
“Learning about each other’s successes and innovations related to the justice system, including digitization and innovative technology,” according to Amery, a Calgary lawyer in his life before politics who also holds the title of Attorney General – making him, as certain old-timey political newspaper columnists like to put it, “Alberta’s top cop.”
“We can enhance public safety and foster trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve,” said Ellis, a former Calgary cop of the real variety, who got to drive around in a squad car and carry a pistol, who is now the minister of public safety and emergency services.
Both of them promised, in similar words, to learn about how things are done in Texas and “bring back new ideas and approaches.”
This may not sound reassuring to people who worry about how law enforcement is actually conducted in that state, but I suspect all it really means is that one of them is going to ask nicely if it’s OK to call the Alberta Provincial Police force that nobody except the UCP wants “the Alberta Rangers.”
So what I’m saying here, just to be perfectly clear, is that I very much doubt that anything of value to Albertans is likely to happen on this trip, but I’m sure a fine time will be had by all.
“Minister Ellis and Minister Amery will be on personal time Jan. 4 and 5 in advance of their meetings with officials,” the release said.
“The ministers’ personal time will be covered at their own expense and will not have any associated government costs,” it concluded reassuringly.
Not, however, the cost of their travel to where they will spend their personal time, it must be remembered.
The Dallas Stars are scheduled to play the Utah Hockey Club at home on Saturday, so I suppose the two caballeros from Alberta could always catch a game that evening, especially if someone was kind enough to come up with some tickets – now allowed under rules for MLA gifts relaxed by the UCP in 2023.
The pair could also visit, say, the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza or the George W. Bush Presidential Library & Museum. When travelling in the United States, as former Calgary MLA and Deputy Speak Wayne Cao used to wisely advise his fellow MLAs, visiting local museums is always an appropriate and positive way to spend time. Too bad his colleagues didn’t always listen.
Luckily, the ministers’ itinerary doesn’t seem all that intensive, although it does include a visit to the Texoma High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, which sure sounds exciting.
They’ll spend Saturday in Austin, the state capital, where they’ll have a chance to see the Texas State Capitol, which with a dome that extends 95 metres into the sky is seven metres taller than the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., as they are sure to be told on numerous occasions.
By comparison, the dome on the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton is a puny 55 metres. I don’t know about you, but I’m sure most UCP supporters blame Trudeau for that.
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