UCP leadership candidate Danielle Smith details several of her policies in a Q&A with Western Standard columnist Linda Slobodian. .How badly do you believe the UCP is fractured now? What will you do to unite the party and end the infighting? .Smith: The party has already demonstrated it’s more united now that the premier is stepping aside..One of the big things that caused the division was the question of how Alberta was going to assert its sovereignty..I’ve reached out to all the different groups that have been splitting off, frustrated the premier didn’t act on the equalization mandate he got. .I think those folks are going to come back in and help make sure we’ve got a strong mandate to go forward with fighting those things..And we need to make it very clear the last round of lockdown restriction mandates and passports was not what UCP members wanted, not what the public wanted, and we won’t do that again..We’ll develop a different strategy when we get into respiratory virus season in the fall..If we do those two things, I think the party will stay united..What is the first thing you would do after being sworn in as premier?.Smith: Bill One would be the Alberta Sovereignty Act. We need to start taking control over our affairs the same way Quebec has so if there’s ever an Emergencies Act declared we could convene our legislature and say we are not enforcing that here..The act would essentially say we would not enforce any federal law or court decision that violates our areas of provincial jurisdiction..There’s precedent for this. BC negotiated an exemption from the Criminal Code so people can possess and use fentanyl and crystal meth and cocaine..I have a whole list of things we’ll be wanting to get federal exemption from in our province, things where we can assert our right develop our own resources and charter our own destiny just like Quebec has. .How will you stand up to the federal government’s assault on Alberta’s energy sector? .Smith: We must make sure that we continue fighting all the way to the Supreme Court on the challenge to C-69. .It’s absurd the federal government interfered in every single aspect of resource development in our province. That can’t be allowed to stand..Quebec doesn’t sit there cowering in fear that the federal government is going to refuse a project. We’ve got to get Ottawa feeling the same way about Alberta, that they can’t just be coming in and kiboshing our development when we’ve got a Constitutional right to develop our resources ourselves. .Albertans voted 61% to remove equalization from the constitution, but the provincial government appears to have done little to act on that mandate. What will you do to pursue the reform of abolition of equalization beyond words? .Smith: Equalization comes up for renewal in 2024, so we need to put a proposal on the table for how we’d abolish equalization. .We can do it in year one, convert the $20 billion earmarked for equalization into equal per capita transfers, so it goes to the health transfer, which is what the provinces want anyway..That would certainly benefit the large provinces more, but it would also make sure that some of those dollars were coming back here. .If doing it in one fell swoop is too much … I’d be flexible with the time-frame on that..We got a clear mandate from Albertans that they want it gone. .Our second step in Alberta would be once we know what our total amount of federal transfers are, to just convert that to tax points. .The federal government is incrementally moving towards a gun ban. What would you do as premier to protect the rights of firearms owners? .Smith: That’s one of the areas that we’d seek federal exemption from. I think that we would have Albertans behind us saying we’re not going to enforce the ban on the 1,500 firearms, that we are going to be going after criminals who are breaking and entering, committing violent acts. That’s the priority for policing, not going after law-abiding citizens for paperwork crimes..The UCP government abolished the NDP’s consumer carbon tax, but has kept in place the industrial carbon tax. Would your government abolish it, or maintain it? .Smith: I think we can keep the industrial pricing scheme, but we have to eliminate the retail carbon tax..What would you do as premier to increase the sovereignty or autonomy of Alberta visa-vie Ottawa, and how far would you go? .Smith: I would go as far as Quebec. The next step after an Alberta Sovereignty Act would be to start collecting our own provincial income taxes. .And we have to start our own Alberta provincial police. If we’re going to take the view that we won’t enforce federal legislation that violates our provincial jurisdiction we have to take autonomy over our policing. But we also have to make sure we have autonomy over our dollars as well. .At some point Quebec is going to ask to collect all tax revenues and just rebate Ottawa the portion that they should pay for federal services. When Quebec does that, we need to have the architecture in place here to do the same. .Quebec is showing the pathway for having the autonomy within Canada and that’s what Alberta should follow. .Do you believe if attempts at a fair deal with Ottawa fail, that Alberta should ever pursue independence?.Smith: It’s up to Canada. I haven’t given up on Canada. I think if we make these changes, we can have a very productive relationship with the rest of the country. .But they need to understand there is a refederation coming because we are, within the next 10-15 years, going to be the second largest economy. By 2050 we are going to be the second most populace province. .So how are we expected to operate in the country that gives Quebec 24 Senate seats and gives us six? Or gives them guarantee of House of Commons seats and doesn’t give us that? Or when they get to appoint three judges to the Supreme Court, and we don’t get a guarantee of appointing any? .With a balanced budget, what would be your government’s priority for the surplus?.Smith: We have to have a debt repayment strategy. The other side of it as well is we’ve got to come up with a savings plan along the very same lines, because part of my identity is having a Heritage Trust Fund that sadly has not been invested in. .Vaccine and mask mandates, and lockdowns were a key reason for discontent with outgoing Premier Kenney. Would you pass legislation banning governments from these kinds of mandates and lockdowns in the future? .Smith: We would change the Human Rights Act so that you cannot discriminate against somebody on the basis of medical choice. We would hire back all the workers in the public service who had been let go because of vaccine mandates. And we would eliminate any mandate for future hires. .Do you believe that the government of Alberta should issue an official apology to Albertans who were excluded from society through vaccine passports, and to churches and businesses that were shut down by lockdowns? .Smith: Alberta should issue an apology..The floor crossing of December 2014 was a debacle that ended terribly. You have apologized for this many times, but many former Wildrose supporters are still upset with you. How do you intend to get over this and convince them that you deserve another chance? .Smith: I believe Albertans are very forgiving. I think they expect their politicians to recognize when they’ve made a mistake and apologize and pick themselves back up and try again..I’ve been very upfront that it was clearly a mistake. I got punished for it. Jim (PC leader Prentice) got punished for it. The NDP won for four years. I think people now realize it was for an honourable reason. We were trying for unity. We did it the wrong way. .I think that people realize that unity now is more important than ever, that if this movement splits apart, then the NDP are going to win again. .So, I’m hoping people see that coming back into politics I’m still on the side of unity. .You already had one election in Alberta as leader of the Wildrose Party but failed to form government. What makes you believe that you can do it this time? .Smith: “It’s rare for a party to come out of nowhere and be able to win an election the first time out. Even (former premier) Peter Lougheed when he had his breakthrough, he only had six seats. We had our breakthrough with 17 seats. .I’ve learned a lot more over the last seven years so I’m better prepared than I might have been in 2012. I hope that’s why folks will give me a chance to be premier. .COMING NEXT: A Q&A with Brian Jean.
