Having made sure its secessionist wing’s Alberta separation referendum will have an easy time getting on a ballot, Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party (UCP) cabinet has moved to ensure no other competing referendum can make the cut.
The mid-game rule change passed by Order in Council at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting immediately raises the price of launching a so-called “citizen initiative” by 4,900 per cent, to $25,000 from $500!
In statements to media, the UCP claimed changing the regulations of the Citizen Initiative Act is merely intended to prevent “frivolous applications,” while allowing only those with “serious intent.”
The obvious purpose, though, is to guarantee that only wealthy citizens can get their hobbyhorses to be the subject of a province-wide referendum vote. In Danielle Smith’s Alberta, in other words, if a single individual can’t afford to pony up $25,000, his or her views are by definition frivolous.
This is pretty rich coming from a party that claimed when it introduced the legislation in March 2022 that the Citizen Initiative Act would “give Albertans the ability to directly set the priorities for the government.” The law, and its sister Recall Act, were “among the most important democratic reforms in Alberta history,” boasted then UCP premier Jason Kenney.
“This legislation strengthens democracy in our province by helping Albertans to be directly involved with it,” then justice minister Tyler Shandro chirped supportively in the government’s news release.
Smith’s latest move – about which there is no press release, only the murky Order in Council and list of regulations to be changed – guarantees that only citizens who already have the ability to set the priorities of government will be able to do so. That is to say, those who are already wealthy.
An individual proponent must now pay the steep new $25,000 deposit fee up front, cannot legally accept donations to raise the necessary funds, and in the event the petition fails to gather the required number of signatures, forfeit the money.
Said former Progressive Conservative deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk, whose recent Forever Canadian petition campaign collected nearly half a million signatures from Albertans determined to remain in Canada under the act’s old rules: “This is truly the Rich Citizens’ Initiative Act now. Because unless you’re extremely affluent and you can spare $25,000, you don’t get to participate in this democratic process.”
“When she was in Opposition with the Wild Rose, Danielle Smith always wanted recall legislation and citizens’ initiatives because they’re all about the power of the people,” Lukaszuk recalled. “But the moment they do it, they say, ‘Oh shit, this is not what we meant! We only wanted initiatives that we actually agree with! We only wanted to recall people that we actually don’t like!’”
So, yes, Wednesday’s changes are bad. But they’re not the worst part of this legislative jiggery-pokery. First, keep in mind that this has always been atrocious legislation, designed to be misused and at odds with the Canadian Parliamentary tradition. But the worst feature now is the transparent way Smith and the UCP are using repeated rule changes to advance the cause of Alberta separatism.
“The premier no longer has any credibility when she says that she’s not a separatist,” Lukaszuk asserted. “She changed every rule in the book, just for separatists. Then, the moment they got through, she closes the doors again. Her actions speak louder than words.”
Lukaszuk is referring to the fact that the rules in Kenney’s legislation, which applied to his Forever Canadian campaign, required petitioners to get 300,000 verified signatures and gave them only 90 days to get them. There were also strict fund-raising rules.
As soon as the separatist Alberta Prosperity Project wanted to file its petition, though, the Smith Government changed the rules to make it easier, giving them 120 days to collect only 170,000 signatures. Now, with their allies’ petition safely in hand, the UCP has re-rigged the rules to make it much harder for anyone else to launch a petition.
“This is hijacking a democratic process where you set the rules for like-minded petitions, and the moment those petitions are filed, you change the rules so nobody else can file after that,” Lukaszuk stated.
Meanwhile, Opposition NDP Justice Critic Irfan Sabir also protested the changes, but in a strangely mild-mannered critique.
“This UCP government keeps changing the rules of the game as they go,” Sabir complained in a statement emailed to media. “This change is clearly meant to stifle democratic action by citizens who are simply exercising their rights under legislation created by the UCP themselves. This is a concerning trend from this government …”
A concerning trend? Seriously. It’s an outrageous abuse and evidence of a government that’s becoming increasingly comfortable exercising its worst authoritarian instincts!
The NDP would be polling better, it is said here, if its leader, critics and MLAs would speak up and state the obvious forcefully and more frequently.
Lukaszuk vows to pivot his Forever Canadian campaign “into a fully fledged referendum campaign.” Leaders in the UCP’s separatist faction boast they’re already negotiating with the Trump Administration in Washington. And the NDP, presumably, is thinking about what to say next, if anything.
Meanwhile, an early election next spring, seems more likely by the day. “A March election solves all of her problems,” Lukaszuk said of Smith. No need for an embarrassing budget deficit, no embarrassing auditor general’s report about the dodgy health care contracts scandal, and opposition parties likely to be polling weakly and unready to take the government on.
The UCP could then have a free hand to stage its separation referendum at the most advantageous moment, with Danielle Smith’s thumb on the scale.
In such circumstances, would Stephen Harper speak up for Canada? Pierre Poilievre? Preston Manning? It’ll be interesting to see. Sad to say, the chances are increasing that we’re going to find out.
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Nick Seebruch, editor
