In the Ledge
Bill 17: Fiscal Measures Statutes Amendment Act, 2026 or: Increasing fees and taxes for individuals
Danielle Smith and her UCP caucus made it more difficult for themselves to increase provincial revenue through public taxation in 2023; as such they can only increase individual and corporate taxes by putting the question to Albertans in a provincial referendum.
Ms. Smith denied that her government would willingly put the question to add a sales tax in Alberta to referendum, choosing instead to ask permission to refuse access to health and education for families of those who temporarily make Alberta their home. This amounts to an increase in corporate and business obligations for those who hire temporary foreign workers. I’m not opposed to this in theory so much as I’m opposed to individual businesses being forced to cover the cost of provincial services that benefit all of them (in exactly the same way as I’m opposed to making things more expensive for individuals generally when a smaller tax across the board would equalize required expenses of some).
Just saying.
Bill 18: Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act or: Restricting choice for Albertans, the absurdity of Danielle Smith’s libertarianism continues
Watching people die is hard.
Watching them gasp for breath is too, and visiting them while they are sedated and “living” another couple of weeks, lying immobile and taking in shallow breaths, definitely makes the people who keep visiting feel like they have more time with the person who is never regaining consciousness because it would be cruel to them and exceptionally difficult for the staff who look after them. But, hey, it’s not about them, it’s about the rest of us and our “values”.
As lifelong Progressive Conservative Susan Elliott put it in a Facebook post,
A person currently of sound mind ought to be entitled to draw up a legal document instructing medical professionals (and family members) what to do if certain conditions are in play - such as intolerable pain or incapacity with no prospect of improvement, even if actual death is not predicted for 12 months or more (in fact, if death is 12 months or more away, and pain or incapacity is intolerable - all the more reason to allow a voluntary personal directive to end it mercifully).
We should be concerned about protecting the vulnerable. Government should not, however, be mandating that we are legally required to prolong the suffering, should it come to that.
Some families (and doctors) object to the whole idea of determining your own time and means of death, but they do not have the right - nor does government - to impose that personal opinion on me.
I fully agree with Susan’s position; Canadians won the right to decide for themselves, as mature and consenting adults, an array of health situations which they do not wish to be prolonged well before they lose the opportunity to make the decision. In this, I absolutely disagree with the government that a person of sound mind should not be allowed to make some of those decisions ahead of time. We live in a first-world country and should not be forced to suffer an extended life we don’t want just to make someone else— even a family member but especially a stranger— feel better.
Question period
The premier allegedly received a gold statue from a Saudi prince in 2023. It’s well-known in political staffer circles (and outside as well) but apparently only breached the opposition membrane this week.
Dave Cournoyer has launched a new weekly segment called In Session while the Legislature is sitting.
If subscribers find it useful, I will continue writing it out on BlueSky. Engagement is low but readership may be high— let me know if you’re one of them and want me to continue.
Speculation a la ABpoli
As Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu continue to bomb Iran’s oil and gas infrastructure, and Iran takes out its frustrations on its neighbours’ oil and gas infrastructure in response, there really didn’t seem like much of an Alberta angle aside from the fact that our budget numbers were about to take a drastic turn.
That’s where most of the focus has been over the past three weeks since the U.S. president decided to try and play a game of chicken with a nation that might just hate the U.S. more than any other. As could be expected, the Trump Administration put absolutely no forethought into the possible consequences of its actions, nor did it consider that Netanyahu’s goal in attacking Iran might differ from its own, which has landed the Administration in a spectacularly difficult spot internationally, and has once again managed to magnify their idiocy at home.
Within our own borders, the Alberta NDP is also focused on the Middle East, or, more specifically, the personal invitation Danielle Smith received to be hosted as a special guest of His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud of Saudi Arabia last October, ahead of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC).
During the Standing Committee on Alberta’s Economic Future on March 17 (4:25:17), the Premier claimed that she met the Prince at the World Petroleum Congress (the 24th annual Congress held in Calgary in 2023) and that they “had a bond over the fact that we believe we should be reducing global poverty at the same time as we’re reducing global emissions and making sure we have energy security.”
Danielle Smith, widely-known advocate for poverty reduction globally— so long as Quebec doesn’t get a dedicated amount from the nation’s federal taxes.
“That ‘friendship’ developed into a(n) invitation for me to be hosted by him in the kingdom and the protocol in Saudi Arabia and hosting us, they provided the accommodation, which was approved by the ethics commissioner, and recommended the flight,” she added.
Also in attendance at this invite-only event, according to Smith, was Donald Trump’s “energy czar”, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.
Big wigs. And Danielle Smith.
Egg in thy face
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Danielle Smith wants to sit at the big table with major oil players in OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). Except, thanks to the fact that every premier since and including Peter Lougheed has bowed down to U.S. investor and export interests over those that would benefit Canada (and Alberta, really, since we’re not actually a “Texas of the North”), we don’t really “export” so much as “feed” U.S. interests and theirs alone. We even give them a discount for taking it; as if they’re doing us a favour.
That’s what a sovereign Alberta in a united Canada has gotten us so far; pitting us against the rest of the country with their bellowing and finger-pointing at Ottawa while they sent our second most-valuable resource out right under our feet. And Jason Kenney spent a few million to try and dig up dirt on the U.S. environmentalists who were “hampering” our resource development. Pardon me while I scoff mightily.
While I don’t doubt that environmental interests globally would love to try to stifle oil sands development, they simply don’t have the resources. They’ve never had the resources. I can think of certain organizations with deep pockets who did, and do, though. All’s fair in business, right?
So even while Danielle Smith might want to put her oil advocacy to good use with some of the most powerful players on earth, she can’t because she’s the leader of a sub-national government who isn’t even able to be briefed on matters of national security, let alone matters of international security.
That’s where my consideration went when I heard she’s seeking federal security clearance.
She said it’s so she knows if there is “any foreign interference happening in our province” over the potential separation referendum. On the surface, it only barely seems legitimate because it should have been a concern before she added and amended laws to encouraged a separation referendum. Though she’s yet to strike me as someone who considers the consequences of her actions.
For his part, Naheed Nenshi questioned the timing of the request, and he was looking to her excursion to Saudi Arabia (and the allegedly expensive gifts she didn’t claim that she’s allegedly received while enjoying them).
However, this also came up just before we learned that warrants had been executed for Sam Mraiche’s MHCare (the beneficiary of more than $600 billion in healthcare supply contracts, which doesn’t even include Mr. Mraiche’s other business ventures in recovery centre leases, silent partnerships with chartered surgical facility doctors, and other real estate speculation windfalls) and Sam Jaber’s accounting business. Mr. Jaber is a longtime associate of Mr. Mraiche, who Danielle Smith appointed to the Invest Alberta board in 2023. The Canadian Press reported Thursday that the Premier’s office said they had not been contacted by the RCMP in relation to their investigation.
More than a few words have already been written about whether Ms. Smith herself could be (let alone should be) trusted. Here’s a few more:
When I worked for the Government of Alberta, I drew the short straw and was required to go through the full vetting process for Top Secret briefings.
I have some thoughts about Smith's request.First, my firsthand experience suggests the clearance is not easy to obtain. The inquiries focus largely on your compromisability. Agents focus on whether you have any vulnerabilities that make you susceptible to blackmail.
They also do a character assessment to determine whether you have the ethical wherewithal to maintain secrecy and, above all, put country over personal or partisan ends.
Given her history of prosecutorial interference, close association with known separatists, confirmed and self-proclaimed coziness with foreign powers, and ongoing corruption investigations, I'm not convinced clearance is a slam dunk for her.
Beyond her personal circumstances and suitability, though, we should ask why Smith, herself, would insist on being cleared to receive briefings directly. Tradition holds that senior provincial officials are well-positioned to receive and interpret information for the premier's use.
Maybe we live in a different time, where ministers and premiers now need to have access to that sort of information. Maybe we should be encouraged that, unlike the federal opposition leader, Smith has an interest in securing this sort of clearance.
But maybe we ought to be skeptical, at the same time.
For someone interested in preventing foreign interference, Premier Smith has done little to this point to prevent it. In fact, by loosening campaign finance laws, she has made it easier for foreign dark money to flow into Alberta politics.Let's be optimists.
If Smith cares about foreign interference in Alberta elections and referendums, let's engage her government in an earnest discussion or what it takes to protect the vote in Alberta.That means putting aside the anti-immigrant, conspiracy-driven vote suppression agenda (e.g., voter ID laws and bans on vote tabulators). It means engaging experts who have been raising alarm bells about disinformation and foreign interference for over a decade.
It means starting with the premier's own base, where conspiratorial thinking is most prevalent and dangerous. And it means the premier's office snuffing out (not amplifying) foreign governments' talking points on national unity, migration, and climate change.
Thanks to Ms. Smith’s refusal to protect herself and cabinet ministers from even appearing to be in compromising position, the Premier isn’t exactly a paragon of trust. I’d keep linking but I’d say 90 per cent of my Substack is fairly dedicated to capturing the many ways in which the Premier has attempted to get away with something, with a big or small lie.
It’s not just me. Someone who has shown that she has no respect for rules isn’t a great contender for having top secret security clearance which— hold onto your hats— really relies on the information holder’s ability to follow rules.
Let’s be honest here— who around her doesn’t seem compromised by the lies and coverups on the MHCare scandal? Every cabinet minister has sat on their thumbs and pretended everything is fine. They’re as crooked as she is at this point because they’ve been complicit; a fact former UCP Infrastructure Minister and now Alberta Tory leader Peter Guthrie has loudly declared, multiple times, and keeps reminding us.
My apologies to Dr. Wesley but I don’t think Danielle Smith has the chops to act with integrity because she’s too busy playing pick-me girl. Whether it’s with the separatist membership who’s trying to cozy up with the Trump Administration, or she’s trying to cozy up to Donald Trump, or a Saudi prince, or even just a random conspiracy theorist she meets at a UCP event… “compromisability” might just be her middle name.
Final thoughts
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Excellent as always. One small point on death. In the last five years we buried both my mother in law and my mom. Both died of cancer, and both died at home.
Sadly I witnessed my fare share of family dieing in this manner. I will go on the record here and say unequivocally that if anyone thinks that prolonging the suffering of another human being, to what amounts to a death by thousands of drips, that person either lacks empathy, morality, or carries traits of being a sadist. All the above are not mutually exclusive.
Deirdre, I spent a week in the hospital while my mom was undergoing some treatments. I saw some of the ugly side the horrible side of some patients
" lives" try and justify that with what some politicians like to portray Canada as a Just and Caring society or Caring country.
So much material, so little time. According I’ll make comment on one section only. MAID
Pierre Elliot Trudeau (you may know him Dani as T2’s father) rightly said decades ago. “ “There’s no place for the State in the bedrooms of the Nation”*
Today there is no place in the end of life medical decisions of the individual for the State.
You, Mrs David Smith Moretta and all of your sycophants north and south of the medicine line do not occupy any moral high ground here.
You and your Talibangelicals with their White Jesus Prosperity Bible alt right bent certainly do not occupy a moral nor an ethical high ground. In fact it should be considered by those who believe in Christian values that you have forsaken those teachings in your self interests.
So to paraphrase Trudeau - STFU , and to paraphrase you Stay in your own lane.
*origin of the quote maybe Martin O’Malley from the Globe and Mail ““…It has no right or duty to creep into the bedrooms of the nation.”