2 weeks Ago By Ari Yanover
“I don’t want to kill you. What would I do without you? Go back to ripping off mob dealers? No. No.
No. No, you complete me.” It’s one of the most-quoted lines from The Dark Knight — the Joker tells the Batman that they are more than arch enemies.
They need each other, like yin needs yang. Like the Oilers need the Flames. Like Alberta Premier Danielle Smith needs the federal Liberal party.
This week, Smith wrote a letter to Quebec Premier Francois Legault, stating Alberta would be an ally in the fight for more provincial autonomy. Smith suggested Alberta would support several directives from a Quebec panel that was commissioned to explore how that province could have more self-determination within Canada. Telling Ottawa to keeps its hands off of areas of provincial jurisdiction is nothing new for Smith.
The premier’s office confirmed Thursday that there are “ 11 challenges to federal intrusion on provincial jurisdiction, at various procedural stages.” Those 11 challenges target seven pieces of federal legislation. As premier, Smith has overseen the Alberta Within a United Canada Act, known as the sovereignty act, which gives the provincial legislature powers to reject federal laws it feels are harmful to the province’s interests.
The province was part of a group of plantiffs that argued in federal court that labelling “plastic manufactured items” as toxic was a constitutional overstep. The court agreed. Last year, the province passed an act requiring it to oversee any new national parks created in the province.
“Albertans elected our United Conservative government with a majority mandate to, among other things, protect families and communities from federal overreach and intrusion,” said Leduc-Beaumont MLA Brandon Lunty, who introduced the legislation. “That’s exactly what this bill accomplishes.” In March, the UCP introduced the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act , which would ban federal employees from accessing emissions data from Alberta.
Again, “constitutional overreach” was cited. Smith called for the construction of new pipelines, and warned new Prime Minister Mark Carney that Alberta’s legal knife is sharp. “If the new prime minister wants to resume an old fight, we’ll fight tooth and nail,” said Smith.
Smith follows a line of Alberta premiers who have had, at best, frosty relationships with Ottawa. Jason Kenney was behind a suit that challenged the constitutionality of the federal government’s Impact Assessment Act, which critics felt would kill any further pipeline development in this country. Alberta won after Smith took power.
Kenney fought the carbon tax , and lost. Go back to 1981, when then-premier Peter Lougheed ordered a cut in oil and gas production as a protest to the federal government’s imposition of the National Energy Program..
