If you want to know how Alberta is going to be governed, just read the policies being put forth at the annual United Conservative Party convention. As the CBC’s Jason Markusoff noted in a piece, recent gatherings of the partisan faithful have produced tinfoil-laden resolutions on everything from the dire threat posed by solar farms and the perils of vaccine mandates and electronic voting machines to the supposedly undemocratic behaviour of professional organizations in the province and — of course — the scourge of undisclosed pronouns. The government followed suit in each of those cases with regulatory or legislative changes, despite these resolutions being non-binding. In Danielle Smith’s Alberta, the tail almost always wags the dog. 

That’s mostly because Smith made a calculation somewhere along the way to power that she wouldn’t follow in Jason Kenney’s footsteps. It’s not an unreasonable decision, either. While the outcome of the next provincial election is very much an open question, the consequences of running afoul of the UCP’s base are very clear — as Kenney found out in 2022. And so, if the party’s base wants to tilt at windmills (literal and figurative), Smith is more than happy to help them get a good look. 

Nowhere is that more true than on the issue of separatism and Alberta independence. In both its words and deeds her government has repeatedly bent over backwards to accommodate and amplify the arguments being made by the separatists. It’s not a coincidence that they just happen to make up a substantial minority — and maybe even a majority — of her party’s membership. In the last 12 months alone her government has lowered the threshold required to put a referendum........

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