Berniceness - 🥓🥓🥓🥓

NINE THOUGHTS: WHAT EXACTLY IS CONSERVATIVE ABOUT DANIELLE SMITH? 1. So what, exactly, is conservative about @ABDanielleSmith? Remove the slogans, photo ops and Rob Anderson’s carefully rationed crumbs of conservative red meat. Look at the GOVERNING RECORD. 2. Smith advocated an “aggressive target” of 10 MILLION Albertans. She named immigration from India, China and South Africa and called explosive population growth a “tremendous blessing.” Then our hospitals, housing and classrooms were overwhelmed, and suddenly she discovered “sustainable immigration.” She helped sell the growth model and now campaigns against its consequences. 3. Her government TABLED a $9.4 billion deficit. Higher oil prices later rescued the forecast, turning it into a projected $2 billion surplus. But the spending remains: $84.2 BILLION. Government grows. The bill grows. And fiscal discipline apparently means waiting for commodity markets to save you. 4. Meanwhile, the public-sector payroll expands. Major union wage agreements, thousands of additional education positions and ever-rising costs. Some increases may be justified, but where is the structural reform? Smith embraces rapid population growth, then sells the spending required to cope with it as conservative management. 5. She signed an agreement with Mark Carney’s Liberal government setting an industrial carbon-price schedule reaching $140 per tonne by 2040. A proposed west-coast pipeline is linked to a carbon-capture megaproject. This isn’t nationalization, but it certainly isn’t the Alberta energy sovereignty many were promised. 6. The federal Liberals are now her most consequential governing partners. She talks confrontation for the base and collaboration for Ottawa. Name the powers transferred permanently from Canada to Alberta. The Alberta Pension Plan? Provincial control of EI? Québec-style immigration authority? An Alberta Police Service replacing the RCMP? Where are the results? 7. Then came the $100 “Dani Bucks,” a one-time rebate instead of temporary fuel-tax relief. Take the money, redistribute a little and issue a press release. Retail politics pretending to be a philosophy. 8. Remember Kenney’s 2021 equalization referendum? 61.7% voted YES. Five years later, no constitutional victory. Smith followed it with NINE more questions. All four constitutional proposals FAILED. Five immigration questions passed, and Smith says action can wait. It was nonbinding; nothing will come of it. 9. Rob Anderson now offers a DEI hiring bill and a property-tax freeze following previous hikes. This is a retreat to retail politics to placate us. But a few selective conservative gestures cannot camouflage a government of record spending, demographic expansion, Ottawa-centred energy deals and constitutional retreat. There is a difference between doing occasional things conservatives like and actually governing as a conservative. Conservatism by press release. Federalism by policy. Alberta First deserves more than theatrical opposition and permanent submission.

Alberta’s bureaucracy is amongst the most liberal in Canada.

Yes Anthony, Danielle Smith’s referendum was an extraordinary political bait-and-switch: the appearance of advancing Alberta sovereignty while avoiding any binding obligation to deliver it. First off, we elected her. Listen to how she used to talk. Then something changed. She had the authority to initiate a direct Independence referendum. She chose not to. The courts had explicitly distinguished restrictions on citizen-initiated referendums from the government’s own powers. Although subsequent litigation raised constitutional obligations concerning Treaty rights, the original ruling did not prohibit Alberta from holding an Independence referendum declared by Smith. Smith instead constructed a government-controlled, ten-question exercise, culminating in a nonbinding vote on whether Albertans wanted another referendum. This is when she lost support. A referendum to have a referendum. A vote about a future vote. A democratic exercise that could settle nothing but end the conversation. This was not the direct Independence question citizens had petitioned for. Nor was it a clear secession question capable of engaging the process contemplated by the federal Clarity Act. It offered another procedural step, not a decision on Independence itself. And the political consequences were revealing. Approximately 75% voted Remain, while 520,233 Albertans voted to begin the Independence referendum process (the UCP base). Five questions supporting greater provincial control over immigration and related policies passed. Four proposed constitutional reforms failed. Smith subsequently declared that no further Independence referendum would occur and insisted that UCP officials and candidates uphold her pro-Canada position. The vote against another Independence referendum became the government’s definitive mandate. The five successful votes for greater provincial control remained nonbinding. That is the contradiction. The government invokes democratic finality when the results support its federalist position, yet retains discretion over implementing the results that support greater provincial autonomy. And what of the 2021 equalization referendum, when 61.7% of Albertans voted to remove equalization from the Constitution? Five years later, that constitutional objective remains unrealized. Alberta First conservatives have demanded something considerably more substantial than referendum theatre. They have demanded the Alberta Firewall: an Alberta Pension Plan, provincial policing, greater control over immigration and taxation, autonomy over federal programs, and the institutional foundations of meaningful self-government. Some of those reforms require federal cooperation. Others can be advanced through powers Alberta already possesses. None requires another referendum merely to begin the work. Smith has the results of two referendums, the legislative authority of a majority government and considerable scope to pursue provincial autonomy. What remains in question is how far her government intends to go. From our perspective, the central objection is not that Albertans voted to remain in Canada. Their decision deserves recognition. It is that Smith substituted a nonbinding procedural question for the direct Independence vote sought by petitioners, then used the outcome to declare the subject closed while the practical work of autonomy remained unfinished. She chose the referendum question. She chose its nonbinding character. She chose the political interpretation of its result. And she retains considerable discretion over what happens next. The Alberta Firewall remains largely unbuilt. The equalization mandate remains unresolved. And the successful immigration questions have yet to produce the promised legislative changes. So what do we want? We want Québec autonomy.

Danielle Smith wore Liberal red for Mark Carney. The color match isn’t subtle. Neither is the message. The premier who once sold herself as the hard line against Ottawa shows up dressed for the federal Liberal team photo. UNIPARTY!