The Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act might have a clumsy and oxymoronic title, but you can boil it down to two words: If only. As in, if only we didn’t have a federal Liberal government under Justin Trudeau, we wouldn’t need a Sovereignty Act to protect the province’s interests. Or, if only we had a federal Conservative government, we wouldn’t need a Sovereignty Act.
Indeed, federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said as much when asked about the Sovereignty Act last December: “When I’m prime minister, bills like this will be unnecessary because I’m going to respect provincial jurisdiction.”
But is that what history tells us when we have a Conservative premier in Alberta and a Conservative PM in Ottawa?
Short answer: no. Here’s the longer answer.
In 2010 relations between the Conservative provincial government of Ed Stelmach and the Conservative federal government of Stephen Harper grew so hostile over environmental monitoring of the oil sands that the normally unassertive Stelmach declared, “Ottawa should stop sticking their fingers in provincial jurisdiction.”
The breakdown was so acute the two Conservative parties ditched their Stampede joint-caucus meeting.
That quote sounds like it was plucked from a recent fire-and-brimstone speech by Premier Danielle Smith about Justin Trudeau, a man she has called, among other things, a “virtue-signalling” prime minister who heads a government that wants “to shut down our energy and agriculture industries as fast as they can.”
Smith’s Sovereignty Act doesn’t mention Trudeau by name, of course, but he’s in there if you read between the lines.
Shortly after becoming premier, Smith said if Trudeau continues with what she calls his anti-Alberta policies, “Alberta will be relentless in our opposition and we will use every tool at our disposal to protect Albertans, their jobs and their future.”
Hello, Sovereignty Act.
Back in 2010 Stelmach didn’t have a Sovereignty Act, but that didn’t stop him fighting with Harper over healthcare funding and Ottawa’s plans to step on provincial toes by creating a national securities regulator. In 2011 the breakdown in relations between Alberta’s federal MPs and provincial Conservative MLAs had become so acute the two sides ditched their annual Stampede joint-caucus meeting.
In 2012 Alberta’s new Conservative premier, Alison Redford, felt that relations with the Harper government were so bad she opened an office in Ottawa with an annual budget of $850,000—an Alberta embassy, if you will—to “advocate Alberta’s perspective on important intergovernmental matters.”
You wouldn’t think we needed an emissary in Ottawa, especially when 27 of Alberta’s 28 MPs were Conservatives. But Redford realized that even though Harper was an ally on some issues he was an opponent on others, especially when going after Ontario votes. In fact, Harper kept his MPs on such a short leash that Edmonton-St. Albert MP Brent Rathgeber quit the Harper caucus in 2013 to sit as an Independent, citing the “government’s lack of commitment to transparency and open government.”
The kumbaya myth of Alberta and federal Conservative governments getting along gets a boost every time this province fights the policies of a federal Liberal government. Most notable, perhaps, was the very public fight between Premier Peter Lougheed and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau over the contentious National Energy Program in 1980.
After Conservative Brian Mulroney became prime minister in 1984, however, western alienation continued to fester. The federal Reform Party rose to prominence, with its rallying cry, “The West Wants In,” and the party won 52 seats in 1993.
You could argue Alberta has felt aggrieved since becoming a province in 1905, a feeling that pretty much grew in lockstep with the province’s burgeoning prosperity after the discovery of vast oil and gas reserves.
Alberta’s population accounts for 12 per cent of Canada’s population, and Alberta’s wealth accounts for 15 per cent of Canada’s GDP, but the province doesn’t enjoy commensurate political power, holding only 10 per cent of seats in the House of Commons and just six of the Senate’s 105 seats (whereas New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, early to the Confederation party, have 10 each).
U of C political science professor Ted Morton summed up local conservatives’ frustrations a decade ago when he was a politician hoping to become premier: “No matter who’s in power in Ottawa, Alberta’s interests are always at risk.”
It’s something Smith, Poilievre and all Albertans should keep in mind. When looking at Alberta–Ottawa relations, it doesn’t matter who is premier or who is prime minister. The two jurisdictions will bump heads—and Alberta’s premiers will always complain that Ottawa has given them a headache.
Graham Thomson is a political analyst, member of the Legislature Press Gallery and former Edmonton Journal political columnist.
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