It can no longer be denied that Alberta’s United Conservatives are a separatist party

No sooner were Alberta separatists celebrating provincial Justice Minister Mickey Amerey’s secession-friendly Bill 14 for ending the court challenge that sought to block the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP)’s separation petition question than the Alberta Court of King’s Bench threw a spanner into the works. 

Justice Colin Feasby issued a decision Thursday that the referendum question proposed by the APP – and clearly supported by its silent partner in this separatist venture, the governing United Conservative Party (UCP) led by Premier Danielle Smith – was unconstitutional.

Justice Feasby also rapped Amery’s knuckles for attempting to make it impossible for Albertans to challenge the constitutionality of referenda questions. But as the judge surely understood, this is increasingly on brand for the UCP.

He should know. As Press Progress reported, Judge Feasby wrote a PhD thesis on Canadian election law. The UCP strategy, he said in his ruling, is “the antithesis of the stable, predictable, and ordered society that the rule of law contemplates, and democracy demands.” 

“The rule of law plays a critical role with respect to the democratic process where stability of the governing legal regime enhances legitimacy and public confidence in the outcomes of elections and referendums,” he added. Indeed, given the direction taken by Amery’s legislation, it gets harder all the time to have much confidence in legitimacy of the Alberta referendum process.

“First Nations, as founding partners in the creation of Alberta, cannot be ignored or bypassed as Alberta contemplates its future whether that is part of Canada or not,” Judge Feasby also wrote. “The transformation of provincial and territorial borders into international borders would contravene the Numbered Treaties by significantly impairing the exercise of Treaty rights by First Nations.”

Of course, judged on their commentary, this is exactly what the separatist crowd intends. 

“This case cannot be discontinued, and the Court cannot be silenced because the case has been decided,” Judge Feasby wrote in a passage referencing Bill 14. “These reasons are delivered despite the anticipated change to the law because reason giving is democratic. This case concerned a matter of importance to the public and these reasons are the product of significant investment of the diverse group of stakeholders who participated in this proceeding. The public is entitled to the fruits of this process that has been conducted largely at their expense so that if they are asked to vote on Alberta independence, they have a tool that may help them make sense of the legal dimensions of the secession of Alberta from Canada.”

Predictably, Alberta separatists (who are mostly 51^st staters at heart) immediately pivoted on social media to calling for a unilateral declaration of independence, which even if not widely appreciated, has obviously been their fall-back all along.

For its part, Smith and the UCP still insist they kinda, sorta, maybe support remaining in Canada, as long as Alberta becomes a kind of super province that rules over all the others, even as they get back to doing whatever they can to effect Alberta’s departure from Canada.

It has been obvious since the start of the Smith Regime that the premier and her fellow travellers intended to create a constitutional crisis. It has become increasingly clear that one goal of that manufactured crisis will be to circumvent the constitutional limitations on unilateral secession.

So it can no longer be denied that the UCP is a separatist party, whether or not they talked about that part of their agenda at their recent annual general meeting. If its leaders had a shred of honour, they would drop the pretence.

They have no intention of letting a ruling by a judge or the constitution of our country stand in the way of their secessionist machinations any more than they are about to pay any attention of the will of the people, who clearly do not support breaking up the country. 

We are entering treacherous waters here. 

Are we ready to trade the rule of law for the rule of Trump, as historian Heather Cox Richardson described it in as essay that put today’s anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor on that infamous Sunday morning in 1941 in the context of the continuing MAGA attack on democracy. 

It is high time for the lieutenant governor of Alberta to brush up on her power of reservation of provincial legislation, for the federal cabinet to start thinking about its power of disallowance, and for the national security agencies on which we lavish so much treasure to start paying attention. 

Meanwhile, the recall plot thickens

Meanwhile, back in Wild Rose Country, the UCP’s self-inflicted recall crisis continues to metastasize. There are now 18 recall petitions listed on the Elections Alberta website. All but one name UCP MLAs. The name of Premier Smith doesn’t appear there, although there have been reports that a recall petition has been started in the Brooks-Medicine Hat riding she represents but does not live in. So that strongly suggests at least one more is to come. 

While it is widely understood that this phenomenon is a popular response both to offensive UCP policies and evidence of corruption, the party’s line is that it’s somehow a conspiracy ginned up by the NDP Opposition and sinister progressive groups. 

In reality, the NDP has been far too timid to adopt such tactics, and most progressive groups are too small and disorganized. As for the labour movement, another suspect, most unions have been too busy negotiating contracts this year. 

The UCP has been smart, therefore, not to organize retaliatory petitions against NDP, because that would suggest they too were abusing the recall law, which they claim was intended only for use against “egregious” misdeeds by individual MLAs.

So the addition of Calgary-Beddington MLA Amanda Chapman, a New Democrat, to the list suggests the UCP has either changed its strategy, or its own members are now joining the popular rebellion in a way not particularly helpful to their own party. 

There are also reports that at least one petition campaign against a UCP MLA was started by the governing party’s own members with the intention of failing while blocking a legitimate petition by residents genuinely unhappy with their local member. TIA – this is Alberta – so nothing is impossible.