by The Honourable A. Brian Peckford
May 6, 2023
OH, NO , Smith Is Flip Flopping ?
Can you believe it?
I mean she was so adamant about the Sovereignty Act Act , looking at replacing RCMP for provincial law enforcement , and the Province’s own Pension Plan Etc——
And now I read in the Epoch Times as reported by the Canadian Press :
‘United Conservative Leader Danielle Smith says she won’t be campaigning on some of her party’s more contentious ideas—sovereignty legislation, a provincial police force and an Alberta pension plan—ahead of the May 29 election.’
Here are her own words :
“They’re not in our campaign because I think we’ve got so many things that we have done that we’re excited about. We’re bringing in $10-a-day daycare,” Smith said.
“We have a partnership with the federal government to be able to bring that through, and we expanded it out to both non-profit and private spaces. We’ve also undertaken a significant improvement in the health-care system.”
She even speaks well of the Federal Government —and in an area that is the EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION OF THE PROVINCE. Wasn’t she against the Feds poking their nose in areas of Provincial Jurisdiction just a few months ago???
We should have known the capitulation was coming.
I reminded readers at the time she signed the new health deal with Ottawa that the Province was being hypocritical . No Federal nose in resource matters but let the nose come right in with Federal dollars in health care .
And I reminded readers of the fact that the covid inquiry that she announced did not get the sanction of the Legislature ——one would have thought this automatic given her stand on provincial rights and individual rights under the constitution when campaigning for the leadership—you know full democracy.
Money and power talks —-and Danielle Smith who we thought was above this type of politics has succumbed.
This is the real time for her to show her bona fides —-PRINCIPLES —-in an election —to persuade the people that a return to the division of powers in the constitution was necessary. Abiding by the Constitution. One wonders whether she consulted with Saskatchewan’s Premier on all this.
But it seems this strong Provincial Rights stand was only to appease the more hard core conservatives in the party for leaderships purposes—now with that achieved ????
Now Alberta has lost the credibility in defending and advancing legitimate Provincial rights and jurisdiction under the Constitution .
By this move , now fully declared , the Federal Government of whatever political persuasion ( because it really makes no difference) knows that the Alberta Conservative Provincial Leadership were really not serious about all that provincial rights bluster—it was just a mechanism to achieve the leadership of the Party——and provides the Judiciary in future in difficult federal provincial decisions of jurisdiction the flexibility to side with the Federal Government .
You don’t think the promise to take these critical important issues up after the election means anything now do you. ? Or that it has any credibility?
The more things change———-
Incredible how so many politicians are bought off Smith is no exception. The political corruption is simply beyond belief in my opinion
Never Trust Career Politicians of any ilk. None of them can be trusted.
The leopard doesn’t change its spots. This is the same Danielle Smith who as leader of the Wildrose Party committed electoral fraud on the voters and her own candidates, pretending to oppose the Conservatives while secretly plotting to join them. I’m not going to even mention the fact that she’s from Calgary, but runs in a rural riding, no doubt because she can’t get elected in Calgary.
Thank you. I suspected something was wrong when I heard about her slinking away from the whole ‘amnesty for anyone caught breaking the covid tyrannical laws’. Snakes don’t fall far from the tree, huh?
Unfortunately, this comes too little, too late. What is the public supposed to do with this information? Their election is coming up shortly and there isn’t any grassroot party that has enough support to stand up to Smith, nor is there enough time to build that support. Ontario’s New Blue had months to prepare for an election and they scored 5th place and no seats (Though I believe with Dominion’s involvement, their vote count was artificially lowered… The Cambridge riding should still be treated as suspect, at best) And what is the alternative to Smith: Notley? HA! Notley is as pro-Trudeau as you can get and another term with that expletive will mean the literal death of Alberta.
This really should have been determined much sooner, sadly…