Last month, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith replied snippily to a reporter’s question at a news conference that it was quite proper for her husband to take part in discussions about the province’s passenger rail system.
“My husband’s an adviser to me, and that’s allowed because he’s married to me, so I can ask for his advice on anything I choose,” Smith responded.
David Moretta, the premier continued, “happens to have 25 years in media, much of it covering issues of rail. And so I asked for his advice as we had a multitude of different projects coming forward to seek guidance on the path forward.”
End of story, Premier Smith seemed to imply. This riposte is quite typical of Smith, it must be noted – delivered confidently, but not without more than a small serving of defensive self-righteousness.
The CBC reprised the premier’s explanation in a story about how documents obtained in a Freedom of Information request show Moretta took part in three meetings about passenger rail projects in 2023 – participation that has raised eyebrows among government officials , lobbyists, rail company officers, and academics, the CBC’s Janet French reported.
Last night, though, another former premier’s husband added his thoughts to the debate.
Smith, said former premier Rachel Notley’s husband Lou Arab in a social media post, “is full of it.”
Now, those of us who have worked with Arab know that he speaks clearly and says exactly what he thinks. During his wife’s years as premier and Opposition Leader, though, he kept his own counsel. Now, it would appear, he feels he is free speak his mind again, sharply if necessary.
“When Rachel was premier, despite my having two decades of professional experience in labour relations, I was not allowed within 10 light years of setting labour policy,” Arab said in a Facebook post. (For those in the UCP base, a light year is a measure of distance, not time, roughly equivalent to 9.46 trillion kilometres or 5.88 trillion miles. So quite far.)
“I was not actually allowed to lobby any minister on ANY subject whatsoever,” Arab continued. “And that wasn’t just good ethics, that was the law. Enforced by the ethics commissioner.”
“Nobody sought out a legal opinion because we didn’t need to,” Arab said in response to a question after he’d published his post. He noted that Marguerite Trussler, Alberta’s ethics commissioner from 2014 to 2024, “told me point blank that as Rachel’s spouse, I couldn’t lobby any minister, not any government official. I could socialize with them, but I couldn’t lobby or talk about government policy with them.”
“CUPE adjusted my responsibilities in response to this reality so I wouldn’t be put into any conflict,” he added.
Readers will recall the constant claims on social media by UCP bots and trolls suggesting that as a Canadian Union of Public Employees communications official, Arab somehow had the ability to influence government in his employer’s interests. A classic case of projection by the UCP and its supporters, one now suspects.
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