16-05-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Keeping separatists inside the Alberta UCP tent
Opinion
There was a time when then-Albertan premier Jason Kenney seemed to be the constant churlish voice of a rich province wanting even more.
But that's before we met current United Conservative Party Leader and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
Now, Kenney looks like the voice of reason — or at least a someone willing to speak bluntly about the current discussion of the dangers of a possible referendum on Alberta separating from Canada.
Chad Hipolito / The Canadian Press files
Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney
Kenney, speaking to the shareholders of oilfield supply company ATCO — where he sits on the board of directors — called even the talk of Alberta separatism business-destroying 'kryptonite for investor confidence.'
Kenney was blunt.
'This is playing with fire. And if Albertans doubt that, look at a real historical example of what happened in Quebec's economy as a result of merely the election of a PQ government,' Kenney said, saying the threat of instability drained billions of dollars in investment from that province. 'Quebec has paid the price for the uncertainty created by separation for going on 50 years now. I don't want Alberta to be in the same situation.'
But back to Danielle Smith, and her current political stand of I-really-don't-want-Alberta-to-separate-but-here-let-me-make-the-whole-process-easier.
A particularly disturbing aspect of Smith's position on separatism — where she actively foments an idea she says she's not in favour of — is that she has said that it's politically important for the UCP to keep from having a new separatist party form in the province.
In a CTV interview, she said that her actions in changing laws to make it easier to call a referendum in Alberta had just that goal, 'If there isn't an outlet, it creates a new party.'
And in the Alberta legislature, she said, 'We do not want a permanent feature of Alberta politics to be parties that send representatives to Ottawa whose sole purpose is to break up the country or brand-new political parties whose sole purpose is to take this province out of Confederation … What we are working toward is a united Canada with respect for provincial constitutional sovereignty over our areas of jurisdiction.'
Any new party with that goal would drain support particularly and uniquely from the UCP — meaning Smith is protecting her party's rear at a time when Canada is under a particularly dangerous economic attack from the current president of the United States.
The last Alberta provincial election was an extremely close one, The UCP won 49 per cent of the vote compared to the NDP's 30 per cent, but while that sounds like a convincing win, the truth is that the NDP's vote was far more efficient.
While the UCP won many ridings overwhelmingly, the NDP only needed something like 2,600 votes in six particular ridings — out of 1.76 million cast provincewide — to have won the election. So you can understand Smith's concern.
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But looked at it through Smith's politically pragmatic lens, it's hard not to be reminded of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre taking coffee and doughnuts to members of the trucker convoy occupying Ottawa: playing up to a segment of the population just to keep them in your tent.
Never mind the good of the country: first and foremost, protect the standing of your own party and your own political future.
The question has to be asked: is political gain — or the protection of a segment of your support — worth the threat to our country as a whole?
As a country, we can all use more Kenney blunt honesty and less Smith self-serving performance.
Play with fire — get burned.
