Ignoring Danielle Smith is Justin Trudeau’s best strategy as she tries to bait him into a fight leading up to Alberta election
‘The heat in the federal-provincial arena has to do with who’s coming up for re-election and who’s not,’ says pollster Nik Nanos, whose poll recorded the lowest scores on the federal-provincial relationship in 16 years.
Alberta is, indeed, a ‘distinct society’
The province’s reputation for individualism is more than a cliché. Facing the challenges of eking out a living ranching and farming, people had to rely on themselves.
The business, environmental, political, security and self-interest cases for energy exports to Japan
In Western Canada, where the full range and importance of the trade relationship with Japan is well understood and appreciated, the hope that ‘we don’t blow it this time’ runs strong. But it is clouded by real worry.
Is the federal government on autopilot?
There will be future case studies on how not to run a government based on the recent FUBARs in Ottawa that make the Phoenix debacle look like a cakewalk.
Smith leads the way as the right challenges democratic norms in the post-COVID political wasteland
Alberta’s Sovereignty Act takes place against a backdrop of anger and grievance aimed at the Trudeau government that is largely based on myth.
Danielle Smith a political mayfly, not long for the job
The idea that a province in Confederation can decide which federal laws it will obey, and which ones it won’t, is absurd. Is it really a step forward to give Smith the right to order the national police force, the RCMP, not to enforce federal law?
Smith wants Alberta’s sovereignty
If Danielle Smith doesn’t like a federal law, she and her cabinet will simply toss it out. Sovereignty in a united Canada—sounds just like the separatists.
Feds should view Alberta Sovereignty Act as ‘a warning’ that needs careful ‘wait-and-see’ response, say strategists
The bill puts ‘lots on the page to be worried about’ but there’s no guarantee it ever ‘comes to pass,’ says political scientist Lori Turnbull, so the federal response may shape the ‘narrative’ around it.
