Notwithstanding frequent protestations to the contrary, it gets harder by the day to believe Premier Danielle Smith and a significant portion of her cabinet and caucus are not fully committed to severing Alberta’s ties one way or another with the rest of Canada.
At least, if they’re not, they’re playing an extremely dangerous game to keep a lid on their party’s angry anti-Canadian MAGA base.
The premier and her justice minister, Mickey Amery, tried to bully Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure into dropping his plan, announced Monday, to ask the courts to determine if a referendum question ginned up by a separatist group that appears to be working hand in glove with the premier violates Canada’s Constitution.
The question, submitted on July 4 (perhaps symbolically) by Mitch Sylvestre of the so-called Alberta Prosperity Project, would ask Albertans: “Do you agree that the Province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada?”
This, obviously, is precisely what Smith and Amery want the referendum they plan to hold next year to ask.
Having learned of McClure’s plan on Monday, Smith and Amery quickly published statements on social media complaining about his decision to refer the matter to the Court of King’s Bench and urging him pointedly to withdraw it immediately.
“The recently passed amendments to the Citizen Initiative Act are intended to be broadly permissive and to allow Albertans the opportunity to launch a referendum petition without needless bureaucratic red tape or court applications slowing the process,” Amery said on Twitter/X in a post labelled “Statement: Response to Citizen Initiative process.”
Tellingly, this supposedly official statement does not appear on the government’s official website.
“As it is the Government of Alberta that ultimately decides how or if to implement any referendum result, those government decisions will ultimately be subject to constitutional scrutiny,” Amery continued – obviously tendentiously, since the concept of a fait accompli is well understood. “We encourage Elections Alberta to withdraw its court reference and permit Albertans their democratic right to participate in the citizen initiative process.”
Then Smith weighed in, also disingenuously, on Facebook: “Although I believe in Alberta sovereignty within a united Canada, Minister Mickey Amery is right. Albertans have a democratic right to participate in the citizen initiative process. They shouldn’t be slowed down by bureaucratic red tape or court applications.”
McClure’s response in a news release was, in effect, drop dead.
“The Chief Electoral Officer is an independent, non-partisan Officer of the Legislature,” his news release began. “The Citizen Initiative Act permits important questions that have constitutional implications to be put to a referendum.”
The proposed question, he explained, “is a serious and significant question, with the potential to have profound impact on all Albertans.”
McClure specifically asked the court if the question contravened the constitution’s Charter rights, democratic rights, mobility rights, rights to life, liberty and security of the person, equality before the law, enforcement of rights, and recognition of existing treaty rights. Needless to say, for the UCP’s separatist program, that approach is likely to open a proverbial can of constitutional worms.
Yesterday’s release ended with a reminder of its opening: “In seeking the opinion of the Court, the Chief Electoral Officer is fulfilling his duty under the Citizen Initiative Act in an independent, neutral and non-partisan manner.”
It is, of course, utter nonsense for Amery and Smith to suggest that a referral to the courts of a question on the constitutionality of a proposed referendum question amounts to “red tape.”
This statement illustrates their deep contempt for the rule of law, and a troubling inclination to ignore even the UCP’s own legislation the instant it becomes inconvenient.
Back on April 29, when her government announced a number of changes to various laws governing democratic processes, many of them intended to tilt the electoral playing field in favour of the UCP and its allies, Smith was quoted in the government’s news release saying “I believe that democracy thrives when people trust the process.” Her goal, she claimed, was protecting the integrity of votes and “ensuring confidence in the outcomes.”
Proceeding without the court’s examination of Sylvestre’s question, which is worse even than the one that led to the Brexit catastrophe in the United Kingdom, will surely not strengthen democracy in Alberta or ensure confidence among its citizens.
It must be noted that when Smith talks about “Alberta sovereignty within a united Canada,” her notion of sovereignty is completely incompatible with the idea of a united country.
Under the what we might call the “Alberta model” of provincial sovereignty, Alberta’s government would be able to invade the jurisdiction of the federal government and exert jurisdiction over the territory of any province at will, with no reciprocal rights for the other jurisdictions. The concept, obviously, is untenable, and intended to be so.
The intervention of the chief electoral officer, who was appointed last fall by a UCP led Legislature committee, is an interesting and unexpected wrinkle. One wonders if someone in the Premier’s Office is now grumbling, “Will no one rid us of this turbulent electoral officer?”
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Nick Seebruch, editor
