Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party never mentioned the prospect of an independence referendum in the last election campaign, and voters never gave them a mandate to pursue one. But that hasn’t stopped her from pushing the province into a polarizing separatist debate, one that’s already attracting attention — and almost certainly interference — from foreign powers. Worse, it might all be a useful distraction from her real political objective: turning Alberta into America’s 51st state. 

After all, while Albertans were collecting signatures for their respective petitions — first the pro-Canada side, and now the separatists — Smith’s government has been rapidly advancing a set of policies and priorities that effectively make the province more American and less Canadian. She began by importing US-style culture wars around transgender youth, LGBTQ-friendly literature in schools and the supposedly corrosive effect of DEI measures. She also forced most Albertans to pay for access to the COVID-19 vaccine, an approach that feels more at home in Florida than Canada.

Smith repeatedly made common cause with some of Conservative America’s leading culture warriors, from Ben Shapiro and Christopher Rufo to Tucker Carlson and the Praeger Institute. She embraced and endorsed their arguments around free speech and the ostensible dangers of “wokeism,” claims that are in obvious tension with Canada’s own constitutional architecture and its more balanced approach to rights and freedoms. Her contempt for Canada’s Charter of Rights of Freedoms is perhaps most obvious in the way she has used — weaponized, really — the Notwithstanding Clause by applying it preemptively to legislation targeting transgender youth, teachers and other out-of-favour groups. 

But Smith’s creeping Americanization of Alberta goes well beyond culture wars and legal skirmishes. Her government has been busy rebuilding the healthcare system in a decidedly American image, one where the private sector and private insurance play a far bigger role than they ever have before. Its Bill 11, which was passed last November, made Alberta the first province to allow a so-called “dual practice” system, where doctors can work simultaneously in public and private settings. The government insists that this will improve competition, efficiency and, ultimately, outcomes for both patients and taxpayers. The reams of evidence from the United States would certainly seem to suggest otherwise. 

Then there’s Smith’s ongoing attack on the credibility of the courts, and especially the judges appointed by the federal government. “The will of Albertans is not expressed by a single judge appointed by Justin Trudeau and never faces any kind of recall campaign, never faces any kind of election,” she said last December. “An unelected judge is not synonymous with democracy. Democracy is when elected officials who have to face the electorate every four years get to make decisions. That’s what democracy is.”

It’s not hard to hear the echo of Donald Trump’s near-constant complaining about unelected judges in Smith’s comments, and I doubt it’s an accident. Like Trump, and like many American Conservatives, she views judges and the courts as an impediment to the fullest implementation of her political agenda. “I wish I could direct the judges, honestly,” she said back in February. “The problem we have is [the province] only choose our judges at the lower court level.” 

And then, of course, there’s her very American attitude towards the administration and execution of democracy. Her government’s decision to effectively embrace US-style gerrymandering of Alberta’s electoral map is a clear break with the longstanding (and multipartisan) Canadian tradition of relying on independent commissions to do that important work. As Calgary Herald columnist Rob Breakenridge wrote, “we’ve needlessly complicated and politicized what has been — and what should be — a straightforward process.” I would suggest that’s a highly charitable description of what is, at its heart, a decision to trade fairness and transparency for naked political advantage. 

It’s safe to assume Smith will use that advantage to continue advancing the Americanization of Alberta. I still think the most likely outcome of an independence referendum is a resounding victory for Canada and a suitably humbling defeat for the people who want to break it up. But I’m beginning to believe that this is all prologue for Smith, and that what she's really doing is preparing Alberta — culturally, legally and politically — for annexation. Maybe those meetings with Kevin O’Leary and Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago last year were more serious than we thought. 

This should be the Alberta NDP’s core message from now until the next provincial election is held. Forget about clutching pearls over the UCP’s obvious attempt to bend the rules, ignore political norms and otherwise offend the democratic principles our system of “peace, order and good government” depends on. As we’ve seen for more than a decade now in the United States, most voters simply don’t care enough about those things, if they even care about them at all. Instead, remind the more moderate Conservatives in the UCP’s midst that they’re helping pave the way to the creation of a 51st state, one that would have even less control and influence over federal policy than it does today. 

Smith might well prefer to live in — and govern — an American state. But poll after poll shows that the overwhelming majority of Albertans, and even a significant majority of Conservative supporters, want nothing to do with the idea. Those who want to see her party defeated need to remind voters that Alberta is already being made into the de facto 51st state under their current government, and that only they can put a stop to it.  

© National Observer