Do you think you know Alberta politics? Well, let’s see if you do. As a change of pace, I present to you this little quiz to point out the sometimes wonky nature of Alberta politics. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, Alberta politics is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma that has been stuffed in a sack and tossed into the North Saskatchewan River. I call this quiz “Who said it: UCP or NDP?” I’ll present a quote, and you’ll try to figure out where it came from: the United Conservative Party or the New Democratic Party. Answers at the bottom (no peeking). 1. “We are in what I would de ..read more

It was an unusual time for Alberta’s ethics commissioner to table a report into a sitting premier’s impropriety. Just two weeks before Election Day 2023, Marguerite Trussler released a scathing rebuke of Danielle Smith’s interference in the justice system. The commissioner concluded that Smith had indeed sought to interrupt the prosecution of Artur Pawlowski for his 2022 crimes related to the Coutts border blockade. The abuse of power was so serious that the commissioner’s report could not wait. “The legal system is an independent arm of government,” Trussler wrote, “and neither the Legislativ ..read more

As the 2023 campaign opened last spring, the NDP and UCP were essentially tied. The UCP was receiving support from Albertans who credited a conservative government rather than high oil prices for a humming economy. The NDP was backed by Albertans focused on the collapse of public services and the unfair distribution of benefits from oil revenues. But, as every canvasser learns, many undecided voters barely follow politics. They only ask: How will your party help me immediately? During the first week of May two fellow Edmontonians and I doorknocked in the swing riding of Sherwood Park. The slog ..read more

Troubling Trends in Canadian Democracy by Feo Snagovsky, Policy Options, December 2, 2022 As the rebranded Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act was tabled recently, many observers were keenly watching whether it would keep what many people see as its more blatantly unconstitutional provisions. Not only did it keep them by arguing Alberta could refuse to enforce federal laws, it doubled down: under its provisions, cabinet would have the authority to unilaterally amend provincial legislation. These powers move dangerously close to rule-by-decree in a system where cabinet ..read more

On March 10, 1998, Alberta invoked the notwithstanding clause, pre-emptively, in an attempt to prevent people who’d been victims of the Eugenics Act from suing for redress. The Klein government had been spooked when Leilani Muir, sterilized as a girl without her consent or knowledge, successfully sued and won a judgment of more than $740,000—plus costs. To head off more lawsuits, the province proactively invoked the notwithstanding clause to stop others from suing and capped damages at $150,000 a person. The media and public outcry was instantaneous. Albertans were revolted at the idea of usin ..read more

Guy Smith, the president of the province’s biggest union, the Alberta Union of Public Employees, is grey haired but spry. He chooses his words politely but with candour. Over the course of two long interviews, one at a Starbucks tucked away in west Edmonton between 170th Street and 172nd Street, and the other at AUPE’s impressive modern headquarters 12 blocks away, he had no vindictive words for any of the seven premiers that have governed the province since 2009, the year he was elected to the AUPE’s top job. Those premiers are, in order, Ed Stelmach, Alison Redford, Dave Hancock (interim), J ..read more

When Premier Danielle Smith unveiled her proposal for an Alberta pension plan (APP) last September, I immediately thought of Brexit, and how that disastrous policy was foisted by unscrupulous politicians on a gullible 52 per cent of the British public who voted to leave the European Union. I was in Britain on vacation for part of the Brexit fight as the “Leavers” and “Remainers” held protests and counterprotests. What stood out for me were the buses, the travelling billboards that criss-crossed the UK during the long Brexit battle. The Leavers had a red bus with the infamous pro-Brexit message ..read more

In Robert Kroetsch’s novel The Words of My Roaring, Johnnie Backstrom, a rural undertaker, is running for Social Credit in the 1935 Alberta election. He needs an edge, and so he tells the parched farmers of his riding that, if they vote for him, it will rain. When it rains on the eve of the election, Backstrom’s victory is guaranteed. A comparison to Danielle Smith may not seem apt. Premier Smith, after all, won an election just last spring. Why would she have needed to make ludicrous promises? One reason would be if the election had been frighteningly close, but by most standards it wasn’t. S ..read more

You probably thought the 2023 Alberta election campaign is over. It’s not. Oh, Danielle Smith and the United Conservative Party won the May 29 election with the most seats, 49 to the NDP’s 38. But some debate remains about what that victory means for Smith and her mandate. More to the point: Did winning the election give Smith permission to now push ahead with her more controversial ideas, namely withdrawing from the Canada Pension Plan to set up an Alberta pension plan and abandoning the Canada Revenue Agency to create an Alberta agency to collect personal income tax? These are contentious is ..read more

It’s 10:55 a.m. on a Thursday in early November, and I’m on the clockless, windowless main floor of Calgary’s Elbow River Casino watching a woman with a wispy grey braid and seafoam-green sleeves play Lamp of Destiny. Her slot machine is a Genie-emblazoned behemoth with two high-definition video screens (“set against a smooth black surface,” says the manufacturer, “to create a cinematic feel”). The woman pushes a button. Lights flash, music plays, reels spin. She pushes it again. And again. And again. Her body is still. Her face glows golden. I move along. Dozens of people are hunched at dozen ..read more