Under Danielle Smith, Alberta is rapidly being transformed into a place where there are no guardrails on the exercise of power.  In this sitting of the legislature, the government has introduced a pile of legislation that in one way or another is a massive attack on everything from basic rights to division of powers in the Constitution. 

Consider the following: 

Bill 18 – “Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act”

Imposes arbitrary limitations on MAiD by abusing the Health Professions act to impose hard restrictions on practitioners, creating ethical double-binds and imposing “mandatory sanctions” which effectively turn regulators into policing bodies. 

Bill 23 – “Justice Statutes Amendment Act, 2026”

Not only does this once again rewrite the rules for citizen initiatives (what is this – the third go-around for the UCP?), and allows the government to simply sit on, or ignore petitions it doesn’t like.  

The bill also includes prohibitions on AI-generated “deepfakes” that go after politicians (fair enough – to a point), but it is so broad that it gives the government the power to go after people for parody and other long held “acceptable use” expression.  This will have a chilling effect on free speech, particularly during elections.

Bill 24 – “An Act to Remove Politics and Ideology from Classrooms and Amend the Education Act, 2026”

Again, this is another censorship bill.  Now the government is going to dictate to teachers what topics they can talk about.  If the government decides that a topic is “too political” (whatever that means), they can order teachers not to talk about it.  We all know what this really is – it’s an import of the US “Don’t Say Gay” legislation – although it’s been broadly written so the UCP can simply write new regulations for anything they decide they don’t like.  

Expect it to be used to attack 2SLGBTQ topics first (gotta keep the SoCons happy), followed by abortion, feminism, trade unions, and other subjects that conservatives have come to hate.

Bill 25 – “Immigration Oversight Act”

This is part of the government’s attack on immigration.  In this case, it creates impediments to workers moving from other provinces by indirectly imposing controls on the hiring of foreign workers by Alberta companies.

The law is clearly designed to undermine the Federal legislation around immigrant workers, and tries to impose some bizarre “Alberta Standard”.  

Over and above that, we have a Premier who seems all too willing to limit the rights of those she “disagrees” with, and willing to move the goalposts for those she favours (e.g. Alberta Separatists).  This isn’t an accident. It’s intentional, and it’s meant to tie things up in the courts for years to come.  

Every piece of legislation I’ve enumerated here can be challenged on constitutional grounds ranging from unreasonable infringements on rights to breaches of the powers of the province.  The goal is to drive wedges into the bedrock of Canadian law by directly challenging The Constitution and demanding that it be changed to suit her desires.  

If you don’t think you’ve seen this before, I invite you to consider the approach that the GOP has taken for _AT LEAST_ the least 26 years in the United States.  Obstruct everything your political rivals propose, and when you do gain power, do everything you can to polarize things further.  I could make longer ranging arguments here, but I think if you start with GWB’s presidency and the approach taken to everything by the GOP then, and roll forward through the GOP’s approach to both Obama and Biden, I think the pattern is clear enough.  Smith is engaging in very similar strategies here.

Smith’s approach is basically daring the Federal Government to challenge her directly, which she will immediately weaponize by claiming the mean old Feds are trying to strangle Alberta.  It’s a lie, and she knows it – but she has the backing of enough of Alberta’s idiot class to make it a viable political strategy.