Last week in AB: May 12, 2025

Danielle Smith's new direction for the province should be weighing heavily on current UCP MLAs; and maybe more importantly, former.

Alberta

Last week in Question Period: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

Separation on our minds

As predicted, Danielle Smith’s provincial address changed the focus of our week. I wrote about why we can’t have a “respectful debate” about taking away people’s freedoms, that separation is her new “lake of fire moment”, and how Danielle Smith’s lies are a bigger threat to Alberta than the Liberals.

I also joined Markham Hislop to talk more about the movement in Alberta (spoiler alert: it’s a small group of people who have successfully hijacked our political parties and our discourse — their power lies only in the fact that they’re active in parties with the potential to form government).

Jen Gerson’s post, Danielle Smith is destroying my kitchen, triggered me in a “labour market statistics” kind of way.

Does this matter in the greater scheme of things?

Well, no.

But, also, yes, because this in-depth conversation about cabinets is going to be replicated across thousands of kitchens and thousands of offices and thousands of boardrooms over the course of the next year. Any family or company that is looking to move to Alberta, anyone looking to invest here, or expand their operations, is going to have to ask some version of this question.

"What if we have to move?" "Can we move?" and if yes: "Well, should we invest now, or hold off until we have a better sense of what's going to happen with this vote drama?"

I’ve had 29 jobs in various industries, but they were just that; jobs. While there’s a possibility I would have benefitted from discovering my career choice before I was 40, I wouldn’t have gained the experiences that give me a slightly different perspective on the impact politics has on our daily lives.

My last one was “career coach”. A couple of jobs before that was “post-secondary ambassador” where I partnered with Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training to promote trades education. That background is why Ms. Gerson’s commentary around kitchen cabinets struck me in a very different way than it did her: in her description of these everyday conversations that I’ve had myself, I see labour market disruption, particularly in the skilled trades.

As Danielle Smith avoided questions about the consequences of her commitment to hold a referendum on separation by stating the obvious that “there are a lot of ‘ifs’”, I will preface this by admitting the same.

If these conversations (about uncertainty) are happening around thousands of kitchen tables, and if they reach the same conclusions Ms. Gerson did (that maybe it’s better to hold off making decisions that cost thousands of dollars), it will be disproportionately felt by tradespeople and retail sales.

Ms. Gerson is considering holding off on new cabinets; others may hold off on a new paint job, or new deck. A new car? In this economy??

Political uncertainty impacts consumer confidence, bumping “needs” ahead of “wants”, which impacts spending on personal preferences like refacing the cabinets, buying a new car; even (or especially) a new house.

Prosperity doesn’t “trickle down” but spending restraint always does.

A distraction from the UCP’s AHS scandal cover up?

A GoFundMe has been set up to assist Athana Mentzelopolous with her legal battle with the Alberta government, who is lawyering up handsomely because their fountain of money never stops flowing.

Few things could distract from Premier Smith and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange’s AHS procurement cover up — that has made headlines for months — but suggesting Albertans who don’t want to leave the province be subjected to “respectful debate” over whether they should be forced out is easily one.

It’s pretty much a “nuclear option” which seems like overkill for a government that claims they don’t have anything to be worried about.

Last week, we were treated to the fact that Alberta’s Minister of Justice is not only “long time friends” with, but related by marriage to MH Care Medical’s Sam Mraiche. Premier Smith claimed to have no knowledge of this fact but she’s used that line before, without much success.

As the investigations make their way along, the one commissioned by the premier is scheduled to give her a heads up by the end of the month. A final report from Judge Wyant is supposed to be made public during summer holidays, which I’m sure we can expect around 5:00PM before a long weekend.

Expelled UCP member and former Cabinet Minister Pete Guthrie continues to throw shade from the opposite side of the house, asking why the Premier ignored concerns with procurement that Mr. Guthrie brought to her attention in May 2024. Not going to lie, it’s far more interesting when the member from Airdrie-Cochrane gets to ask questions of a premier he once enthusiastically supported but no longer trusts; it just lends more credibility to those of us who never did.

Premier claims assisting separatists is self-preservation

After an Angus Reid poll found the average a third of Albertans support separation, and a whopping 65 per cent support within the UCP, Ms. Smith admitted that making it easier for them to hold a separation referendum was simply to try and keep the party together at the expense of the rest of us, as any “libertarian” would.

It’s not often you find such lopsided support for issues, but with the UCP it seems to come up far more often, and they’re hardly ever on the side of a majority.

I don’t expect the separatists to go anywhere else — they’ve never been in power before and they’re not going to risk losing it by moving over to one of the many separatist parties that will never appeal to enough Albertans to form government.

Hopefully, Mr. Guthrie could be encouraged to consider the opportunity for his own political future that his public display of integrity has opened up before him.

For those individuals and businesses who are concerned about the direction Ms. Smith seems far too willing to drag the province, contact your MLA, cc the Premier’s office (premier@assembly.ab.ca), opposition (oppositionleader@assembly.ab.ca), and Mr. Guthrie (airdrie.cochrane@assembly.ab.ca) with your concerns.

If the Premier cannot be persuaded to support a majority of people in this province, perhaps someone else would be willing to fill the void.

More Bill 54 drama

The Chief Electoral Officer has entered the chat, raising concerns that some of the Elections Act amendments would have made some of their recent investigations impossible, as the UCP are also proposing a timeline on imposing sanctions from within three years to less than one year.

Rakhi Pancholi snarked during Question Period Monday that maybe that was the point since those investigations have focused on infringements by the government’s own political party.

Good times in the province of personal responsibility, I tell you.

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