In this episode of Western Standard, we sit down with Alberta s premier, Danielle Smith, to discuss her vision for the future of the province's Bill of Rights. We talk about the importance of a strong bill of rights, why Alberta should have one, and why it needs one.
00:01:51.920We have to remember a little bit about our heritage of drafting bills of rights. I think
00:01:56.960that the very first one goes back to Diefenbaker in 1960, when he came up with the Canadian Bill
00:02:02.800of Rights. And then Lougheed followed very shortly after that in 1972, with the Alberta Bill of Rights,
00:02:10.160and 10 years later was the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And so I would say that conservative
00:02:15.680thinkers conservative policy makers have always really led on the discussion of identifying the
00:02:22.000rights that need to be protected and i and some of some of this i suppose is that we have now
00:02:27.360recognized that there with the passage of time are some areas where it's not very clear and we want
00:02:32.960to make make absolutely certain that we're not only leading this the discussion as a province
00:02:37.680hopefully have some influence on some of our neighbors hopefully have some influence on the
00:02:41.360federal government, but also a chart of a very clear understanding about what our values are
00:02:46.880as Albertans. And I think that's what the Alberta Bill of Rights does.
00:02:50.080So you mentioned the Diefenbaker Bill of Rights. That, of course, only applied to the relationships
00:02:56.000between citizens and the government. It was not as all-embracing as the later human rights
00:03:02.400legislation that came along. When we're talking about the Alberta Bill of Rights, are we talking
00:03:07.600about the government only, or are we talking about a much wider spectrum of interest?
00:03:14.000Well, you're right. I mean, that's the Alberta Bill of Rights charts out what a citizen's
00:03:18.500relationship is with their provincial governments. As you know, I'm a constitutionalist too,
00:03:23.300so I pay very close attention to what our powers are under the constitution versus the federal
00:03:28.680government. But I would say that there are areas where we absolutely need to have some clarity and
00:03:34.300some strength. And that's part of the reason why I think the amendments that we're putting
00:03:38.860forward will create that clarity, because oftentimes it is the provincial level of
00:03:45.240government, which can also be the ones that are conducting themselves or passing bills in a way
00:03:52.480that doesn't live up to this high standard. I think we saw that during COVID, that a lot of
00:03:57.620the policies that impacted on people's choices actually started at the provincial level. And
00:04:03.880i think uh the federal government followed the lead of the provinces so if we can create a new
00:04:08.840understanding that the government is going to respect the individual rights of its citizens
00:04:13.400and enshrine that with more robust language in our bill of rights i think that that could be
00:04:18.920have a major influence on the country yes it would but i would refer you to september 2021
00:04:27.560when the federal government decided that any individual who worked in government
00:04:34.920or for a federally regulated industry had to receive the vaccine now i i know much of this
00:04:41.640is to do with the medical protection of albertans but here's a very particular case where the order
00:04:48.040was given get the vaccine if not you can't work now that was from the feds
00:04:53.480that would seem to put the alberta bill of rights in direct opposition to an order of the federal
00:05:04.600government how does that get resolved well we have the authority over provincially regulated
00:05:11.240workplaces which is most of them and so what we would do is we would make sure that our
00:05:17.220provincially regulated workplaces would have that full freedom. And I think by making the
00:05:23.040statement that Alberta is not going to just go along with whatever edicts the federal government
00:05:29.300brings down, I think that they would be a lot more judicious in coming through with any type
00:05:34.120of policy like that again. But we have to start somewhere. And I believe we've got to start by
00:05:39.620creating an environment for freedom in our province, hopefully seeing other provinces do the
00:05:44.400same and then ultimately having an impact on the federal level well certainly we wouldn't want
00:05:49.880the wouldn't want perfection to be the enemy of the good so we do indeed start at the provincial
00:05:56.120level as you say and yet there is that thing that has to be worked out as the relationship between
00:06:02.480this set of guarantees and those offered by the federal government am i reading this correctly or
00:06:09.140or not? Well, look, I mean, I do try to make sure that I asked the federal government to
00:06:15.540stay out of our lane. And so I do try to make sure that I'm staying in my own lane. And I think
00:06:21.080we all know that when the provincial government tries to pass laws in the areas of federal
00:06:26.140jurisdiction, or attempts to pass laws to put reins on the federal government, they've used
00:06:31.220their power of disallowance. Disallowance is a power that the federal government has under the
00:06:35.600constitution to strike down provincial laws. They used it 112 times, including several times
00:06:40.880against Alberta. So I'm not inclined to want to put forward a piece of legislation that the federal
00:06:46.200government would be able to reject. So I'm going to stay in our lane on this one and just really
00:06:50.380have the moral high ground saying this is how we conduct ourselves in Alberta. And I would hope
00:06:55.860that others will follow suit. If you stay in your lane, you certainly will have the moral high
00:07:00.840ground, thinking of pipeline legislation here now. Look, I'd like you to blue sky a little
00:07:07.320about what the wider implications of this revamping, or I won't even call it revamping.
00:07:18.240It seems to be judicious modifications. We don't know what you're going to put forward. Obviously,
00:07:22.720you know, the legislation will be announced when it's announced. You made a lot about
00:07:28.020right to refuse medical treatment that you didn't want. Is that going to fly with Albertans,
00:07:36.420do you think? Well, look, I mean, I think we all had a pretty tough time during COVID. People lost
00:07:43.480their jobs. People weren't allowed to go into restaurants. People weren't allowed to go see
00:07:48.320their kids' hockey game. People weren't allowed to go to their places of worship. People weren't
00:07:52.480allowed to travel. And I don't think we want to see that again. I think when people look in the
00:07:56.580rearview mirror and look at how they want their government to treat them as as private free
00:08:03.540citizens, I think they want some guarantee that if we do get into that situation, again, there's
00:08:09.080going to be more focused protection for the most vulnerable, as opposed to blanket bans that take
00:08:15.660away people's rights. And this was something that Preston Manning looked into when I asked him to
00:08:20.600review our covid response and give us some recommendations and his recommendations were
00:08:26.280that we have a modification to the alberta bill of rights to give more robust protection to an
00:08:32.600individual's right to either accept or refuse a medical treatment as long as they're a sound mind
00:08:38.600um they should have the ability to say no thank you um i've made my own choices on that and we
00:08:44.920should be respecting that right so i think that with the passage of time i think more and more
00:08:49.640people have begun to realize just how vitally important it is to be able to have that freedom
00:08:53.960that freedom to say no so in you may recall that in the code years there was a net out migration
00:09:04.040from california that was a highly restrictive state people went i think i think the numbers
00:09:10.280are something like 700 000. i mean the joke was that you couldn't get a u-haul in california but
00:09:16.920but you could get a lot in Texas and you could get as many as you wanted in Florida.
00:09:21.300People got out when they didn't like the way the system was being run.
00:09:26.600And I wonder if you would make the case that beyond the matter of mandatory vaccination
00:09:36.380and the right to refuse it, there is actually a larger market for people who like a relatively free
00:09:47.540political entity better to be in texas than in california better to be in florida than in new
00:09:52.820york better to be in alberta than any other place in canada is there an element of that thinking in
00:09:59.060enlarging the where am i getting to no i think i think that you're you've identified something
00:10:06.340very important you have to remember we had 13 quarters of out migration in our from our province
00:10:12.980in uh in the years between 20 2015 and 2019 then of course we had coveted and no one was moving
00:10:21.300anywhere and so the ideas the cbc writing stories about how no one wanted to be in alberta and yet
00:10:28.100we knew that with the oil and gas prices turning around we needed to have uh more people come here
00:10:32.980to help us uh fill the job vacancies i i don't know that we expected quite as many people to come
00:10:38.580here as they did in 2023, but I think there was a lot of factors. The fact was that we were
00:10:45.380the first jurisdiction to firmly put COVID restrictions behind us. We banned mask mandates
00:10:50.820in schools. We banned mask mandates in hospitals. We banned the discrimination against healthcare
00:10:59.460workers by saying vaccination status should not determine whether you get to keep your job as a
00:11:05.860healthcare worker um and i think it was because we were the first to go firmly down the freedom
00:11:11.940track i think that's part of the reason why people move here i know whenever i i travel around the
00:11:16.100province and go to my town halls and i do a lot of that i have people who come here who come up to
00:11:20.260me from british columbia from ontario saying that that's one of the reasons why they chose to come
00:11:25.620here so i think there is something to that that if we if we have a very strong firm statement
00:11:31.060that we believe in limited government and we believe that government should follow certain
00:11:35.140rules and that um people and that they should respect the the rights of their citizenry i i
00:11:40.420think people will continue to want to come to alberta we can be that that little bastion of
00:11:45.380of liberty uh when when others might be turning a different direction that that that's one aspect
00:11:53.220of the an expanded bill of rights that i'm the other i wonder whether you're going to whether
00:11:59.860What are your feelings about legislation that would enrich the right of a homeowner to stand his ground when he's faced with a home invasion?
00:12:13.400I'm thinking of some incidents that have taken place over the last few years in which people who live in rural areas where the police response time is slow have actually been attacked.
00:12:24.100They have had intruders on their property, and they have found themselves in more trouble than the intruders.
00:12:32.580A lot of people see that as fundamentally unjust.
00:12:36.800In fact, I think there's a word for it, the castle doctrine, the idea that your home is your castle.
00:12:43.320Do you want this expanded Bill of Rights to look at that area as well?
00:12:49.960Well, look, I mean, there's a lot of area of law that falls under the criminal code. And the decision that our constitutional drafters made in our context was that criminal code provisions are federal jurisdiction, not provincial jurisdiction.
00:13:06.140And so that's why there's a little bit of a difference between Canada and the United States. In the United States, that criminal law powers at the state level.
00:13:13.440That's why you can see very different policies play out in criminal law in California, for instance, versus Texas, because there is a lot more latitude on the part of the governor and the elected judges and the elected crown attorneys to be able to chart a different course.
00:13:29.660We don't have that structure in Canada.
00:13:33.080I know some people are frustrated by that, but there are certain things that I think require a change in federal government if you want a different outcome.
00:13:40.240The things that we do advocate for is because we also are jointly responsible for property, we're jointly responsible for policing, jointly responsible for administration of justice, and we also have the right to protect property and civil rights.
00:13:55.000That's a provincial area of jurisdiction.
00:13:56.880So we would be looking at ways to be able to address public safety through a few measures.
00:14:02.880Number one, we've advocated to the federal government.
00:14:05.700They stopped their catch and release program.
00:14:07.200that's part of the reason why so many people are continuing to be victimized by criminals who are
00:14:12.480constant repeat offenders we have also created a role for the the justice of the peace those are
00:14:19.600the individuals we appoint so that individuals go before them for a bail hearing and hopefully
00:14:25.520the really bad guys are going to be kept behind bars we have also expanded our role for our
00:14:30.560provincial sheriffs to do a fugitive apprehension program which has been very successful so
00:14:35.440successful we've just rolled it out in calgary as well so that we can catch the bad guys um and
00:14:40.240make sure that they they do stay behind bars um we i would hope that we would get to a point where
00:14:45.120our policing function and our administration of justice it is so trustworthy that people
00:14:50.480wouldn't feel like they had to take matters into their own hands so that's one part that we're
00:14:54.560looking at but we do know that we can do more to protect the rights of law-abiding firearms owners
00:15:00.320and we do know that we can do more to protect property rights those are two other major elements
00:15:04.160of this of the amendments that we're bringing forward in the Bill of Rights. Well talk to us
00:15:08.160a little bit about the firearms owners. Obviously that's a matter of huge concern in Alberta.
00:15:13.040Yeah well I think people and maybe I'm not sure why it was ever neglected in the discussion of
00:15:20.480previous bills of rights. Maybe it was because it was such a given that our hunters and our ranchers
00:15:26.480and our farmers and our sport shooters had such legacy rights to be able to legally own firearms
00:15:33.360and use them responsibly that no one could imagine a future government trying to take away those
00:15:38.480rights but sure enough i think throughout the 90s and 2000s and even today we continue to see
00:15:43.920governments attack the right of of law of lawful firearms owners to be able to use enjoy and own
00:15:51.760their firearms so that's one of the provisions that we'll be putting into the bill of rights is
00:15:56.640just recognizing that right hopefully as a bit of a shield i guess the federal government i mean this
00:16:02.080is where constitutional rights end up bumping up against each other we we believe we've got the
00:16:07.040right to protect the private property rights of our citizens the the federal government has been
00:16:12.080taking a crass of action to make legal firearms owners criminals just by the stroke of a pen
00:16:18.000and i'm prepared to put a line in the sand and fight that out in the courts because i i think
00:16:23.040that uh what the federal government should be focused on is the criminal use of firearms they
00:16:28.400they should be focused on gun smuggling, they should be focusing on gangs, they should be
00:16:31.740focusing on the commission of a crime using a firearm. They should not be going after
00:16:36.740the law-abiding citizens. Many Albertans are law-abiding firearms owners, so that's one
00:16:43.660of the reasons why we're putting that in the legislation too. Good to hear that. I heard an
00:16:48.040astonishing thing on Fox News a week ago that firearms owners and Christians tend not to vote.
00:16:55.520I couldn't think of a constituency more that needs to vote more than firearms owners, especially here in Alberta, where we have an active threat from the federal government.
00:17:08.040I think, you know, I think that sometimes people get demoralized when they see that it doesn't matter what political stripe a party wears, if they're worried that their rights are not going to be protected.
00:17:18.440I think that that can result in some apathy.
00:17:21.200And I don't want people to feel apathetic.
00:17:23.200i want people to feel like engaging in the political process matters and giving feedback
00:17:28.400to politicians matters and i think conservative politicians should govern as conservatives and
00:17:33.680and conservatives believe in the the rights of law-abiding firearms owners not to be targeted
00:17:39.200by their federal government in the way that that we've seen happen in the past so that's part of
00:17:43.200the reason why we've got that in there good excellent i heard you speak recently on
00:18:43.700It starts with freedom, support of family, support of faith groups and community.
00:18:50.600because and i'll talk about why this this this construct is in my mind in a moment uh free
00:18:56.600enterprise and philanthropy and part of what grows healthy individuals is having strong families
00:19:02.520part of what creates strong communities is when uh something happens in the in an environment
00:19:08.280and people need support and they can go to their faith community or they can go to the the broader
00:19:12.440community to be able to get assistance free enterprise is one of the ways that we're able
00:19:16.120to enjoy such a high quality of life and high standard of living is because we give people the
00:19:19.880the freedom to be entrepreneurs and innovators. And then oftentimes what I see is that when
00:19:25.800somebody's successful, they give back to the community. We have some of the greatest philanthropists
00:19:29.840in our community, and we honor many of them through things like the Alberta Order of Excellence.
00:19:34.280And so I would say anyone who comes to this province is likely coming here because we value
00:19:40.960those things so much. There was a woman who was at one of the events I went to from Fairness,
00:19:47.480Alberta from a few years back. Bill Buick used to run that group. And she ended up giving $10,000
00:19:53.240on site. And she was a woman of color. And I went up to her afterwards. I said, well, why do you feel
00:19:58.160so strongly about this group? And she'd said, I have worked everywhere around the world. And the
00:20:03.860place where I have felt most valued for my contribution and merit is Alberta. People don't
00:20:10.800care the color of your skin, don't care that I'm a woman, don't care where I came from.
00:20:13.880They just care what I can add, what I can do, and that's why I value this place so much.
00:20:20.100And so I would say that that is the consistent thing that I hear when I go across the province, is that we honor each individual for who they are,
00:20:30.660want to provide the greatest support that we can to them to be able to build out strong families and strong communities and be able to live their dreams here.
00:20:38.320And I think that's why people come here.
00:20:40.120I think I would say that that's also one of the reasons why we have a public consensus about having such a diverse society.
00:20:49.680And it's because people leave their historic conflicts behind and they come here to create a new life.
00:20:54.540And that's what we want to be able to offer to anyone who comes to Alberta, is the chance to put behind some of the hatreds and conflicts and just be able to make a wonderful life for themselves and their families.
00:21:04.600Well, I think it's that matter of the community consensus that I want to take you to.
00:21:12.680In your remarks that have just been broadcast, you said the following,
00:21:19.960and I've known you for a long time, as you said at the beginning of the episode,
00:21:27.240so i know that this is these are your real feelings um that you want a less intrusive
00:21:34.440government and that's a very deeply held conviction of yours so when you talk in your
00:21:39.880statement about the the rights and freedoms that are central to our identity as albertans i know
00:21:47.320that's i know that's your heart uh so look i've been advocating for it for a long time
00:21:56.600One other area, of course, is that, as you know, since I started off as a property rights advocate,
00:22:02.920one thing that was always missing from our various statements on property, like it's completely
00:22:07.400absent in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It exists in the Bills of Rights, but it doesn't
00:22:12.360enshrine a concept of just compensation. It talks about being able to take property with due process
00:22:18.840of the law. Well, that just means you can pass a law saying we're taking your property. I always
00:22:23.320felt that to be inadequate and so the notion of fair compensation is also important because
00:22:29.720it's a way of ensuring less intrusive government if government is going to have to pay full fair
00:22:35.080timely market compensation for interfering in your ability to own and use your property
00:22:40.200then they're going to be less interfering that's the reason why those are our companion is that we
00:22:45.560we do i think in alberta um people look to them themselves and their family and their communities
00:22:50.520first for help they look at government as a last resort not first resort and i think government
00:22:55.880should look at it the same way they should be very light-handed in interfering in an individual's
00:23:01.160personal affairs and individual freedoms and i think that's what i'm charting some of these
00:23:05.480these areas out in a bill of rights is meant to do i guess that's the point that i'm coming to
00:23:11.240that's what you think that's what i think that's what a tremendous number of people in alberta do
00:23:15.880think but i want you to take back to the uh the covet era and you're you're pulling up at a red
00:23:22.640light this is before you got to you know when you still had to drive your own car and you look and
00:23:29.480there's somebody in the next vehicle they're in their car they're on their own and they've got
00:23:34.860the mask on there are people in alberta who i have to wonder whether they share that same
00:23:44.120emotional affection for freedom as you do, and that when you speak of the rights and freedoms
00:23:58.020that are central to our identity as Albertans, they're not necessarily feeling that sense of
00:24:06.860identity with those things. So what about, do you think that you have the mass support needed to
00:24:16.500put through strong amendments to Alberta's Bill of Rights? Well, I guess we'll see the reaction.
00:24:22.600I mean, I've always felt like Alberta is a bit of a special place. When you look at our history,
00:24:29.520we do consistently, with some very minor exceptions, tend to vote for conservatives
00:24:36.040at the federal level we tend to vote for conservatives at the at the provincial level
00:24:40.360um and and we do tend um when we do have popular conservative leaders to have them win
00:24:47.480not just a a plurality but a majority of of the vote and so um i would say you never get 100
00:24:55.400of the people agreeing with you 100 of the time in any society in any jurisdiction but alberta
00:25:01.880I think is slightly more conservative than the rest of Canada. And I think there's a lot of
00:25:08.380things that stem from that. I think you do end up seeing a lot more innovation here. You do end up
00:25:14.060seeing people coming here because of that. You do end up seeing, I think, the economic successes
00:25:19.700that we have had. I think that the respect that we have for one another and the fact that we have
00:25:26.520less conflict it seems here on a number of issues.
00:25:29.660All of those suggest to me that there is something
00:25:32.220a bit unique about the Alberta culture and character.