The Battle for Alberta
Danielle Smith Brings the Chaos — From Pipelines to Health Care
Well, that was predictable. Danielle Smith’s base hate her pipeline deal with Mark Carney. The premier was booed at a recent UCP gathering in Edmonton when she tried to sell the pipeline deal to supporters.
No doubt the Prime Minister thought that cutting all manner of environmental regulations on the Alberta oil industry and promising to support a pipeline would quell Smith’s separatist drum beating.
What Carney didn’t factor in is that MAGA Alberta doesn’t care about a pipeline.
They care about ideology, and their ideology is about ripping apart Canada while trashing our longstanding commitments to access, fairness and public services.
The Prime Minister went out on a limb for Smith, and it’s cost him.
Carney lost a high-profile Quebec cabinet minister and has deeply alienated Indigenous nations in British Columbia. He has Liberal MPs breaking ranks. His already rickety minority government is weakened.
Elizabeth May, who was key to getting his budget passed, has said she will never support Carney again. May said she trusted the promises the PM made to her, but feels that Carney’s actions were a “significant betrayal.”
“I don’t know if the prime minister lied, but I think he needs to consider what his word means when his word was given. He obviously thought getting a deal with Danielle Smith was more important than his word.”
Carney took these political hits to buy peace with MAGA Alberta.
As for Danielle Smith? She’s already moved on.
Smith is gearing up to fight the federal government over the government’s buy-back program for AR-15 style rifles. That is way outside her jurisdiction. She doesn’t care.
Meanwhile, an even bigger battle between MAGA Danielle and the federal government is brewing — her plan to undermine the Canada Health Act.
The Act was established in 1984 to ensure equitable public access for all Canadians and specifically excludes doctors from charging fees for their services. Under proposed Bill 11, Smith seeks to develop a system that allows doctors to do just that.
The government is pitching it as a way to allow people to access public medicine while using private care to alleviate wait times for procedures like cataract and hip surgeries.
Canada’s public health care system has been struggling for years. Both the federal and provincial governments have undermined public health care and failed to make the investments needed. Smith is using this as the moment to make her move.
Smith has gone out of her way to undermine public education in Alberta (hence her massive war with teachers and parents). Little wonder that she is turning her sights to public health care. Smith claims that public health care will still be available, but that it will be more efficient for all of us if those with money can jump the line.
Comparisons have been made to Australia, which has a private/public system. In Australia, 45% of the population has their own private insurance. To offset the obvious inequities, the government spends over $6 billion a year subsidizing private insurance for the less wealthy.
Private hospitals perform elective surgeries, leaving the public to carry the heavy load of more complex work. The process has become known as cream-skimming”, which is the practice of taking patients who are healthy and require simple procedures. Such a strategy provides good profits for private interests while leaving the public system with the heavier burden of complex care.
Private hospitals are also set up in wealthier areas, whereas rural and poorer areas are left with increasingly long wait times and fewer services. Compared with Canada, Australia’s wait times didn’t diminish; they got longer.
This article is well worth a read.
Alberta was a gold standard in public health and investment.
The UCP’s undermining of public health initiatives has been a disaster. Danielle Smith’s government is now dealing with the largest measles outbreak in North America and it has led to Canada losing its international measles-free designation by the Pan American Health Organization.
Dr. James Talbot, former Chief Medical Officer for Alberta, blames politics and ideology:
“I think they [the Smith government] should be embarrassed. I think they owe an apology to Albertans, to admit that we fumbled. We have the worst record in North America.”
Smith’s failure on the measles file comes down to ideology and pandering to the conspiracy base. Smith’s attack on free and accessible health care will put her on a direct collision course with federal law, and this is precisely what she has in mind.
It is the Prime Minister’s responsibility to defend these principles. Smith is betting that if she can push Carney around on the pipeline, he won’t take her on as she destroys public healthcare in Alberta.
The Prime Minister should learn lessons from everyday Albertans who are organizing to out the run on MAGA Alberta. So far, 14 successful recall petitions have been accepted by the Alberta electoral officer. On top of this, citizens have launched a recall drive against Danielle Smith.
Getting a recall motion to force a by-election is no small feat. It requires obtaining the signatures of 60% of the voters who cast ballots in the last election. And in 15 ridings, including the premier’s, this has been achieved. If we want lessons in defending grassroots democracy, Albertans just might lead the way.
I live in Alberta & petitioned for Forever Canada. When you speak of Albertans keep in mind that smith’s crazy base is a minority. There were 4000 people at her AGM & 446,000 that signed the petition to stay in Canada. The fact that there are 14 MLAs on recall (including smith) proves we are not happy with this corrupt government
A very articulate piece on Smith's bully politics. Like a panzer in a China shop, Albertans rights are crushed by her new and unimproved educational and health care systems.