Last week in AB: November 1, 2025

Throne speech, week one of the legislature sitting, Bill 2, Forever Canadian, UCP gifts, notwithstanding clauses

In the Leg (not a typo, pronounced “ledge”)

Throne Speech

Throne Speeches are communications tools. They are generally flowery and very optimistic about the present, future, and above all else, extremely supportive of the governing party’s agenda.

It’s also written by the governing party but read into the record by the Lieutenant Governor who, unlike the King, isn’t likely offered an opportunity to edit the document to make it something they would personally support saying on the record.

I didn’t watch it, but I did read it afterwards.

First, I realized that the Wildrose, I mean “UCP”, is the only party who could get away with saying that their deficits and imprudent over-reliance on royalty revenue is totally not a big deal. That’s because they’re the only ones who used to demand that no government ever be allowed to run deficits, or collect enough tax to pay for services, and any government who did was made up of fiscally irresponsible spend thrifts who couldn’t manage a simple thing like a budget with all the money they force Albertans to pay.

So, for the first time, in my life at least, the official opposition cannot mount an eye-rolling false narrative against the governing party on deficit spending that would bring all the rage muffins to the yard. Fancy that.

Albertans are well aware of the effects of both high and low oil prices and inherently understand there is no need to panic or overreact. This isn’t Alberta’s first oil price rollercoaster, after all.

The vast majority of Albertans do not want deep and disruptive cuts. Nor do they want declarations of economic emergency used as a pretext for a proliferation of government programs and spending.

They want calm, steady and smart fiscal leadership until the dip in energy prices inevitably passes, as it always does.

Speech from the Throne, Economy and Budget, October 23, 2025

The governing party also promises to invest in education only as much as they are required, and promises passenger rail that might be complete at some point over “decades” (Investments in infrastructure).

Under Health, the UCP says problems exist because “Canada’s healthcare system is broken,” which is par for the course if you can be led to believe that the federal government is responsible for creating and managing that system at the provincial levels (which it is not). Provincial governments are responsible for delivering health care, organizing health care systems, and funding the operation of those systems. If the feds were responsible for them, the UCP would be ranting daily about how they couldn’t tear it down, rather than bragging about how they’re making it better. Food for thought.

As for continued steps toward sovereignty, the UCP claims it is negotiating with the federal government to obtain more pipeline access (ostensibly through other provinces who should not be allowed sovereign decision-making authority) because only one pipeline was built to tidewater in the past 75 years. The first, TransMountain, received approval under Canada’s 12th Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent, and the second, TransMountain Expansion, received approval under Canada’s 23rd Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. I think there’s a hockey reference that would apply if, under Bill C5, a third approval were to be received from a Liberal Prime Minister, no?

Bills

Bill 1: International Agreements Act, whereby the province continues on its path of sovereignty from the federal government’s responsibility to be part of global initiatives. Premier Smith dubbed it “Stand your ground” legislation, a nod of course to gun violence advocates in the U.S.. This session, it sets the stage for the Alberta government to proclaim their complete authority to ignore their responsibilities in confederation, and to Albertans.

Bill 2: Back to School Act, to impose a three-year contract on teachers that removes their right to strike for five years, and has implications for collective bargaining generally because it looks a lot like the government had no intention of bargaining in good faith. The Bill had to override its own legislation protecting Albertans from government overreach including: The Alberta Bill of Rights, Alberta Human Rights Act, The Education Act, The Public Education Collective Bargaining Act, and The Labour Relations Code.

Bill 3: Private Vocational Training Amendment Act, which aims to protect students from being fleeced by institutions who presumably got approval to set up shop in the province in the first place. Issues have been registered for years (2023, 2022) not unlike the programs and institutions themselves. Apparently, little regulation, standardization, and oversight allow bad actors to “slip through the cracks”, according to the government’s public engagement with the sector in 2024. Colour me shocked.

Bill 4: Public Safety and Emergency Statutes Amendment Act, which makes official the provincial police force a majority of Albertans did not want but unlike Education, few are asking how we’ll pay for it because Berta conservatives support more police to handle the impacts of a government shirking its responsibilities rather than spending on resources like education that are known to reduce crime far better than policing.

Bill 7: Water Amendment Act, a “common sense” approach to transferring water between basins that doesn’t worry about little things like also transferring “invasive species”. Science, right? What is it really good for anyway? If god didn’t want invasive species’ to exist, he wouldn’t have allowed them to flourish in separate spaces, probably.

Question Period

I’m following along with Question Period on BlueSky again this session. Come for the real-time fact-checking and snarky gifs, stay for the summary. (Note: it is a summary, and helpful to use as a guide to find exact quotes in Hansard :))

From the week of October 27, 2025:

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

Bill 2 sparked disbelief but also another debate; on the NWC

Bill 2, The Back to School Act, was passed with limited performances by the governing party as they ceded the stage to the Official Opposition, with limited debate time, and no real debate.

Most people know that conservatives prioritize money. It’s generally folded carefully within “fiscal responsibility” but it is, at its core, “money”. Teachers had the upper hand in the strike from day one because they had, some time ago, decided they would no longer contribute to a strike fund, which meant they were not getting paid at all while on strike. Make no mistake; even if teachers were only receiving $30/day, the government would have spun it into some luxurious payout, but without it, the government quickly lost ground.

Choosing to forego income made the more conservative-minded curious about the issues teachers were concerned about because people don’t choose to stop getting paid unless there are real problems. And there were. There still are. However, after using the notwithstanding clause to legislate teachers back to work, the Minister of Education is at least, after two and a half years with this portfolio, and at least three years of teachers trying to tell this government there is a problem, now saying he’s doing something to find out what those problems are.

The use of the notwithstanding clause, when, as Dr. Jared Wesley points out, other options were available, led to a cascade of debate that’s actually worthy of consideration. Should the “nuclear option” be used, whose opinion is worth including, and what should the role of the courts be?

It’s like Christmas came early!

Polling by Leger collected during the strike, but before the UCP passed Bill 2, showed that just over 60 per cent supported the teachers, while around 49 per cent said the strike impacted how they felt about the government during that time. Around 30 per cent of UCP voters claimed to support teachers.

They’ve legislated more for fewer.

Alberta’s Premier was not in attendance after question period on Monday because she was heading to the middle east to see an oil baron about jobs, or a gold statue… whatever one would go to Saudi Arabia for, really.

Speaking of gifts to government officials

The UCP drafted a ministerial order a couple of days after the Premier left for Saudi Arabia to clarify/expand/hedge rules on gifts for political staffers. Specifically, that they are not able to accept gifts exceeding $100 from the same individual/organization/corporation, notwithstanding that they may accept gifted tickets for events/conferences/training, waivers of fees and reimbursement of travel whether on government business or not, so long as the Minister or Premier’s Chief of Staff sign off and it’s less than $500, or if it’s worth more than $500 the gifts must also be reviewed by the UCP’s Ethics Commissioner. I mean, the Ethics Commissioner who used to be a UCP member. I mean candidate. You know what I mean.

(Note: I am snarking on the optics of Mr. McLeod’s appointment, not his suitability for it.)

Forever Canadian dropped the mic

October 28 was the deadline for the Forever Canada petition signatures and wow — did they deliver! A whopping 456,365 signatures were collected under the old rules, which were changed because separatist-supporting UCP members claimed the previously 10 per cent of eligible Alberta electors as of the previous election, along with only 90 days to collect signatures, was an insurmountable barrier to getting a referendum question in front of Albertans.

Former Progressive Conservative Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk’s successful clearing of the bar conclusively demonstrates that it was not, in fact, a barrier at all; apparently all Albertans needed was someone who was passionate enough about a question to move them to show up and do the work.

It’s almost certain that Mr. Lukaszuk’s petition would not have managed without his personal interest, the volunteers, or without his use of AI to get volunteers into regions where Albertans were requesting an opportunity to sign, all of which contributed to the petition’s success. I’d also like to draw attention to one person’s experience in northern Alberta: a short story in three parts on Tumblr. His story was humbling and I hope you’ll take a moment to read it.

Final thoughts

BlueSky

Former Bird Site

Former bird site; article

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