Leong: Danielle Smith can’t stay above Alberta separation fray

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What happens when a government outsources its principles?

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Albertans are about to learn, thanks to Premier Danielle Smith.

In an interview with CTV News last week, she plainly stated her strategy to resolve the angst among some Albertans about the province’s place in Confederation was motivated by … not what you think.

You would have expected her to say something about the betterment of Alberta while helping to keep Canada together.

But in a moment of welcome and clarifying candour, she said all the machinations about making it easier to trigger a referendum on Alberta separation was to preserve the unity of the United Conservative Party.

“If there isn’t an outlet, it creates a new party,” she said.

Earlier last week, in a live-streamed address, she stated she wanted to help Alberta prosper within a united Canada.

In the legislature, she said she didn’t believe it would be helpful for Alberta to have its own version of the Bloc Québécois.

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And yet by injecting even a hint of partisanship into the national unity debate, she has made herself an unacceptable cheerleader for either camp.

For those who fervently believe Canada can’t be fixed and Alberta would be better off as its own country or as part of the United States, Smith’s conditional endorsement of Confederation might be too much for them to handle, even if she and her party are on the cusp of flinging the door open to a vote on separation.

For those who staunchly believe Alberta’s troubles can still be addressed within a strong and united Canada, Smith’s unwillingness to embrace Confederation without qualification and equivocation does nothing to instil confidence in her messaging.

And making a potential vote on separation citizen-initiated is a cynical attempt to stay politically clean in what will undoubtedly be a messy debate, giving up control of the file to whoever even though she says she’d prefer for this not to happen.

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Maybe Smith should give former British PM David Cameron a call.

To grossly simplify: The Brexit fiasco was partly the result of Cameron’s ill-fated attempt to keep Conservative forces united and thwart the rise of political alternatives.

Brexit has yet to live up to many of its proponents’ expectations. Meanwhile, Cameron’s gambit led to his own downfall and the slow unravelling of his party’s hold on power.

(Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had to help sort out the mess Brexit left behind, in his previous role as the governor of England’s central bank. Maybe Smith should talk to him about this, too.)

Smith can’t argue for a united Canada while also saying all sorts of things that essentially agitate for and invite a referendum on Alberta separation.

If the premier can’t make up her mind about where she stands, I would damn well hope her MLAs can.

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When the legislation on citizen-initiated referendums reaches them, we will all learn whether they will put country above party, or the other way around.

If they find the idea of Alberta separation even a little premature, off-putting or repugnant, they should stand up for their beliefs by sending the lower thresholds for citizen-initiated referendums into the nearest garbage bin.

If they don’t, it would mark a huge bait-and-switch, with the UCP turning into a de facto separatist party even though they didn’t receive any kind of mandate for this during the 2023 election.

Actions speak louder than words, Smith said in her address last week, and she is quite right to demand action from Ottawa to back up the nice words from the freshly elected Carney government about making Alberta and Canada an energy superpower.

Albertans are similarly entitled to demand the same of their premier and the government she leads — that is, if you can even use the word leadership to describe what the UCP and its members are doing for national unity.

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