Danielle Smith once railed about the state pressuring Albertans into taking a vaccine, even one billed as a lifesaver. Today, as premier, she intends to tell us when we’re allowed to die.

That’s what power does to a person.

It’s why anyone claiming to be a libertarian who subsequently chooses a political career is either fooling themself or intends to do exactly that to the rest of us.

The two are mutually exclusive. How can you stand for individual liberty and the right to make your own choices and accept the consequences, but then follow a career where, if successful, you pass laws telling everyone else what to do?

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It is self-delusion tied at the hip with hypocrisy.

That’s why the recent move by Smith’s government to severely curtail an individual’s right to die stands in stark contrast to her past support for Albertans who refused COVID vaccinations despite massive government pressure. These people were, in Smith’s expressed view, the “most discriminated against group” in her lifetime.

If wanting to risk their own health — perhaps their own lives — by not being jabbed, it was their right to do so.

That was then. This is now.

All that previous backing for Albertans to take control of our own lives, even if it results in death, is a thing of the past. Her government’s proposed Bill 18 — the Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act — which severely limits rules around medical assistance in dying, is today’s Big Sister reality.

Such assistance will now be prohibited for those unlikely to die of natural causes within 12 months, for those whose only underlying medical condition is a mental illness and for individuals without the mental ability to make their own health-care decisions.

In tandem, advance requests — pre-approvals for future assisted dying before that individual loses capacity to provide informed consent — will also be prohibited.

So, if you fear living out your days as an Alzheimer’s patient and try to prevent this in advance by making arrangements to terminate your life once you lose capacity, you can’t. And once dementia sets in, you’re still blocked, because now you don’t have the mental capacity required.

Meanwhile, lots of people suffer dreadful pain, whose lives ahead are nothing but continual torment, yet are still judged more than a year away from death. They, too, are now prevented from seeking an end to such abject suffering.

Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery, point man on the proposed new law, believes the government is on the right side of history. One wonders what history he means — the one where the Church owned people’s lives and where the Kingdom of Heaven could only be obtained after relentless suffering?

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Seems more like an extreme episode of Survivor than any expression of care, love or respect.

Maybe that strain of religiosity still thrives within the UCP ranks, and that’s why it is taking this heavy-handed route.

Or perhaps it’s another grab for powers usually held by Ottawa, as in wanting to replace the Canada Pension Plan or the Mounties. If so, it is another example of politics running roughshod over the wishes of regular people. Libertarians would be appalled.

If Smith continues this route, it comes with a hefty price tag.

Preventing a dignified and welcome end to some Albertans’ lives and, instead, making us linger in pain and misery means her government is morally responsible for paying the resulting bill.

We already have major challenges with rising health care and care home costs. With a huge swath of baby boomers now entering their 70s and 80s, such costs will explode.

In curtailing individuals’ right to pick their own escape route, the government can’t then shirk the accompanying tab.

So, don’t be surprised if Bill 18 is later scrapped. Not because of compassion or a return to individual liberty, but because the UCP is too scared to increase taxes to pay for the result.

Chris Nelson is a weekly columnist.

© Calgary Herald