Western Standard - Stronger rights for Albertans could be a signal for all of Canada

00:00:00.000 welcome western standard viewers we are honored today to have with us premier of alberta

00:00:24.320 danielle smith hi nigel nice to be here well it must feel good to be back on the western standard

00:00:32.080 broadcast network well it's good talking to you you and i have had long long conversations about

00:00:37.680 what we're about to talk about today so i'm looking forward to it well i'm so am i actually

00:00:41.920 and i wasn't going to presume and brag but since you mentioned it yes there is uh there is a

00:00:47.760 considerable similarity between what i see in the documents before me and some of the

00:00:52.320 conversations that took place in the corridor on the editorial board at the Calgary Herald.

00:00:59.600 You've changed a bit, but not on fundamentals. You know, you may remember that I met you after I'd

00:01:06.720 done a turn at the Fraser Institute, as well as I also did a turn as a property rights advocate

00:01:13.280 with the Canadian Property Rights Research Institute. So some of the things that we're

00:01:17.040 implementing today, I've been thinking about and wanting to do for almost 30 years.

00:01:22.320 That is one of the things about today's generation of conservative politicians that a lot of people overlook.

00:01:32.100 But that is the consistency of thought and principle.

00:01:34.440 The methods improve and the articulation improves, but the basic ideas are the same.

00:01:40.140 So let me ask you about the Alberta Bill of Rights.

00:01:43.960 You want to bring in amendments and strengthen it.

00:01:48.280 One might say, what's wrong with it?

00:01:50.340 What do you want to fix?

00:01:51.920 We have to remember a little bit about our heritage of drafting bills of rights. I think

00:01:56.960 that the very first one goes back to Diefenbaker in 1960, when he came up with the Canadian Bill

00:02:02.800 of Rights. And then Lougheed followed very shortly after that in 1972, with the Alberta Bill of Rights,

00:02:10.160 and 10 years later was the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And so I would say that conservative

00:02:15.680 thinkers conservative policy makers have always really led on the discussion of identifying the

00:02:22.000 rights that need to be protected and i and some of some of this i suppose is that we have now

00:02:27.360 recognized that there with the passage of time are some areas where it's not very clear and we want

00:02:32.960 to make make absolutely certain that we're not only leading this the discussion as a province

00:02:37.680 hopefully have some influence on some of our neighbors hopefully have some influence on the

00:02:41.360 federal government, but also a chart of a very clear understanding about what our values are

00:02:46.880 as Albertans. And I think that's what the Alberta Bill of Rights does.

00:02:50.080 So you mentioned the Diefenbaker Bill of Rights. That, of course, only applied to the relationships

00:02:56.000 between citizens and the government. It was not as all-embracing as the later human rights

00:03:02.400 legislation that came along. When we're talking about the Alberta Bill of Rights, are we talking

00:03:07.600 about the government only, or are we talking about a much wider spectrum of interest?

00:03:14.000 Well, you're right. I mean, that's the Alberta Bill of Rights charts out what a citizen's

00:03:18.500 relationship is with their provincial governments. As you know, I'm a constitutionalist too,

00:03:23.300 so I pay very close attention to what our powers are under the constitution versus the federal

00:03:28.680 government. But I would say that there are areas where we absolutely need to have some clarity and

00:03:34.300 some strength. And that's part of the reason why I think the amendments that we're putting

00:03:38.860 forward will create that clarity, because oftentimes it is the provincial level of

00:03:45.240 government, which can also be the ones that are conducting themselves or passing bills in a way

00:03:52.480 that doesn't live up to this high standard. I think we saw that during COVID, that a lot of

00:03:57.620 the policies that impacted on people's choices actually started at the provincial level. And

00:04:03.880 i think uh the federal government followed the lead of the provinces so if we can create a new

00:04:08.840 understanding that the government is going to respect the individual rights of its citizens

00:04:13.400 and enshrine that with more robust language in our bill of rights i think that that could be

00:04:18.920 have a major influence on the country yes it would but i would refer you to september 2021

00:04:27.560 when the federal government decided that any individual who worked in government

00:04:34.920 or for a federally regulated industry had to receive the vaccine now i i know much of this

00:04:41.640 is to do with the medical protection of albertans but here's a very particular case where the order

00:04:48.040 was given get the vaccine if not you can't work now that was from the feds

00:04:53.480 that would seem to put the alberta bill of rights in direct opposition to an order of the federal

00:05:04.600 government how does that get resolved well we have the authority over provincially regulated

00:05:11.240 workplaces which is most of them and so what we would do is we would make sure that our

00:05:17.220 provincially regulated workplaces would have that full freedom. And I think by making the

00:05:23.040 statement that Alberta is not going to just go along with whatever edicts the federal government

00:05:29.300 brings down, I think that they would be a lot more judicious in coming through with any type

00:05:34.120 of policy like that again. But we have to start somewhere. And I believe we've got to start by

00:05:39.620 creating an environment for freedom in our province, hopefully seeing other provinces do the

00:05:44.400 same and then ultimately having an impact on the federal level well certainly we wouldn't want

00:05:49.880 the wouldn't want perfection to be the enemy of the good so we do indeed start at the provincial

00:05:56.120 level as you say and yet there is that thing that has to be worked out as the relationship between

00:06:02.480 this set of guarantees and those offered by the federal government am i reading this correctly or

00:06:09.140 or not? Well, look, I mean, I do try to make sure that I asked the federal government to

00:06:15.540 stay out of our lane. And so I do try to make sure that I'm staying in my own lane. And I think

00:06:21.080 we all know that when the provincial government tries to pass laws in the areas of federal

00:06:26.140 jurisdiction, or attempts to pass laws to put reins on the federal government, they've used

00:06:31.220 their power of disallowance. Disallowance is a power that the federal government has under the

00:06:35.600 constitution to strike down provincial laws. They used it 112 times, including several times

00:06:40.880 against Alberta. So I'm not inclined to want to put forward a piece of legislation that the federal

00:06:46.200 government would be able to reject. So I'm going to stay in our lane on this one and just really

00:06:50.380 have the moral high ground saying this is how we conduct ourselves in Alberta. And I would hope

00:06:55.860 that others will follow suit. If you stay in your lane, you certainly will have the moral high

00:07:00.840 ground, thinking of pipeline legislation here now. Look, I'd like you to blue sky a little

00:07:07.320 about what the wider implications of this revamping, or I won't even call it revamping.

00:07:18.240 It seems to be judicious modifications. We don't know what you're going to put forward. Obviously,

00:07:22.720 you know, the legislation will be announced when it's announced. You made a lot about

00:07:28.020 right to refuse medical treatment that you didn't want. Is that going to fly with Albertans,

00:07:36.420 do you think? Well, look, I mean, I think we all had a pretty tough time during COVID. People lost

00:07:43.480 their jobs. People weren't allowed to go into restaurants. People weren't allowed to go see

00:07:48.320 their kids' hockey game. People weren't allowed to go to their places of worship. People weren't

00:07:52.480 allowed to travel. And I don't think we want to see that again. I think when people look in the

00:07:56.580 rearview mirror and look at how they want their government to treat them as as private free

00:08:03.540 citizens, I think they want some guarantee that if we do get into that situation, again, there's

00:08:09.080 going to be more focused protection for the most vulnerable, as opposed to blanket bans that take

00:08:15.660 away people's rights. And this was something that Preston Manning looked into when I asked him to

00:08:20.600 review our covid response and give us some recommendations and his recommendations were

00:08:26.280 that we have a modification to the alberta bill of rights to give more robust protection to an

00:08:32.600 individual's right to either accept or refuse a medical treatment as long as they're a sound mind

00:08:38.600 um they should have the ability to say no thank you um i've made my own choices on that and we

00:08:44.920 should be respecting that right so i think that with the passage of time i think more and more

00:08:49.640 people have begun to realize just how vitally important it is to be able to have that freedom

00:08:53.960 that freedom to say no so in you may recall that in the code years there was a net out migration

00:09:04.040 from california that was a highly restrictive state people went i think i think the numbers

00:09:10.280 are something like 700 000. i mean the joke was that you couldn't get a u-haul in california but

00:09:16.920 but you could get a lot in Texas and you could get as many as you wanted in Florida.

00:09:21.300 People got out when they didn't like the way the system was being run.

00:09:26.600 And I wonder if you would make the case that beyond the matter of mandatory vaccination

00:09:36.380 and the right to refuse it, there is actually a larger market for people who like a relatively free

00:09:47.540 political entity better to be in texas than in california better to be in florida than in new

00:09:52.820 york better to be in alberta than any other place in canada is there an element of that thinking in

00:09:59.060 enlarging the where am i getting to no i think i think that you're you've identified something

00:10:06.340 very important you have to remember we had 13 quarters of out migration in our from our province

00:10:12.980 in uh in the years between 20 2015 and 2019 then of course we had coveted and no one was moving

00:10:21.300 anywhere and so the ideas the cbc writing stories about how no one wanted to be in alberta and yet

00:10:28.100 we knew that with the oil and gas prices turning around we needed to have uh more people come here

00:10:32.980 to help us uh fill the job vacancies i i don't know that we expected quite as many people to come

00:10:38.580 here as they did in 2023, but I think there was a lot of factors. The fact was that we were

00:10:45.380 the first jurisdiction to firmly put COVID restrictions behind us. We banned mask mandates

00:10:50.820 in schools. We banned mask mandates in hospitals. We banned the discrimination against healthcare

00:10:59.460 workers by saying vaccination status should not determine whether you get to keep your job as a

00:11:05.860 healthcare worker um and i think it was because we were the first to go firmly down the freedom

00:11:11.940 track i think that's part of the reason why people move here i know whenever i i travel around the

00:11:16.100 province and go to my town halls and i do a lot of that i have people who come here who come up to

00:11:20.260 me from british columbia from ontario saying that that's one of the reasons why they chose to come

00:11:25.620 here so i think there is something to that that if we if we have a very strong firm statement

00:11:31.060 that we believe in limited government and we believe that government should follow certain

00:11:35.140 rules and that um people and that they should respect the the rights of their citizenry i i

00:11:40.420 think people will continue to want to come to alberta we can be that that little bastion of

00:11:45.380 of liberty uh when when others might be turning a different direction that that that's one aspect

00:11:53.220 of the an expanded bill of rights that i'm the other i wonder whether you're going to whether

00:11:59.860 What 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?

00:12:13.400 I'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.

00:12:24.100 They have had intruders on their property, and they have found themselves in more trouble than the intruders.

00:12:32.580 A lot of people see that as fundamentally unjust.

00:12:36.800 In fact, I think there's a word for it, the castle doctrine, the idea that your home is your castle.

00:12:43.320 Do you want this expanded Bill of Rights to look at that area as well?

00:12:49.960 Well, 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.

00:13:06.140 And 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.

00:13:13.440 That'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.

00:13:29.660 We don't have that structure in Canada.

00:13:33.080 I 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.

00:13:40.240 The 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.

00:13:55.000 That's a provincial area of jurisdiction.

00:13:56.880 So we would be looking at ways to be able to address public safety through a few measures.

00:14:02.880 Number one, we've advocated to the federal government.

00:14:05.700 They stopped their catch and release program.

00:14:07.200 that's part of the reason why so many people are continuing to be victimized by criminals who are

00:14:12.480 constant repeat offenders we have also created a role for the the justice of the peace those are

00:14:19.600 the individuals we appoint so that individuals go before them for a bail hearing and hopefully

00:14:25.520 the really bad guys are going to be kept behind bars we have also expanded our role for our

00:14:30.560 provincial sheriffs to do a fugitive apprehension program which has been very successful so

00:14:35.440 successful we've just rolled it out in calgary as well so that we can catch the bad guys um and

00:14:40.240 make sure that they they do stay behind bars um we i would hope that we would get to a point where

00:14:45.120 our policing function and our administration of justice it is so trustworthy that people

00:14:50.480 wouldn't feel like they had to take matters into their own hands so that's one part that we're

00:14:54.560 looking at but we do know that we can do more to protect the rights of law-abiding firearms owners

00:15:00.320 and we do know that we can do more to protect property rights those are two other major elements

00:15:04.160 of this of the amendments that we're bringing forward in the Bill of Rights. Well talk to us

00:15:08.160 a little bit about the firearms owners. Obviously that's a matter of huge concern in Alberta.

00:15:13.040 Yeah well I think people and maybe I'm not sure why it was ever neglected in the discussion of

00:15:20.480 previous bills of rights. Maybe it was because it was such a given that our hunters and our ranchers

00:15:26.480 and our farmers and our sport shooters had such legacy rights to be able to legally own firearms

00:15:33.360 and use them responsibly that no one could imagine a future government trying to take away those

00:15:38.480 rights but sure enough i think throughout the 90s and 2000s and even today we continue to see

00:15:43.920 governments attack the right of of law of lawful firearms owners to be able to use enjoy and own

00:15:51.760 their firearms so that's one of the provisions that we'll be putting into the bill of rights is

00:15:56.640 just recognizing that right hopefully as a bit of a shield i guess the federal government i mean this

00:16:02.080 is where constitutional rights end up bumping up against each other we we believe we've got the

00:16:07.040 right to protect the private property rights of our citizens the the federal government has been

00:16:12.080 taking a crass of action to make legal firearms owners criminals just by the stroke of a pen

00:16:18.000 and i'm prepared to put a line in the sand and fight that out in the courts because i i think

00:16:23.040 that uh what the federal government should be focused on is the criminal use of firearms they

00:16:28.400 they should be focused on gun smuggling, they should be focusing on gangs, they should be

00:16:31.740 focusing on the commission of a crime using a firearm. They should not be going after

00:16:36.740 the law-abiding citizens. Many Albertans are law-abiding firearms owners, so that's one

00:16:43.660 of the reasons why we're putting that in the legislation too. Good to hear that. I heard an

00:16:48.040 astonishing thing on Fox News a week ago that firearms owners and Christians tend not to vote.

00:16:55.520 I 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.

00:17:08.040 I 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.

00:17:18.440 I think that that can result in some apathy.

00:17:21.200 And I don't want people to feel apathetic.

00:17:23.200 i want people to feel like engaging in the political process matters and giving feedback

00:17:28.400 to politicians matters and i think conservative politicians should govern as conservatives and

00:17:33.680 and conservatives believe in the the rights of law-abiding firearms owners not to be targeted

00:17:39.200 by their federal government in the way that that we've seen happen in the past so that's part of

00:17:43.200 the reason why we've got that in there good excellent i heard you speak recently on

00:17:53.200 on the nature of Albertan identity.

00:17:57.100 And you made the comment that there are some people in Alberta

00:18:03.460 whose families go back, and I believe you said seven generations,

00:18:07.640 sounded like you had somebody in mind,

00:18:10.180 been here seven generations and they still don't get it,

00:18:13.960 whereas there are recent arrivals in Alberta

00:18:17.500 who once they're six months, they get what Alberta is about.

00:18:22.300 But couldn't you just repeat what it is that Alberta is about?

00:18:27.320 And then I got a follow-up for you on that.

00:18:29.900 I think so.

00:18:30.780 I was being interviewed by somebody and they posed it that way to me.

00:18:33.860 And I didn't disagree with the way that they posed it.

00:18:36.320 But I can tell you what I think Alberta is about.

00:18:38.880 And I talk about it in every group that I go before.

00:18:41.700 I talk about the values that we have.

00:18:43.700 It starts with freedom, support of family, support of faith groups and community.

00:18:50.600 because and i'll talk about why this this this construct is in my mind in a moment uh free

00:18:56.600 enterprise and philanthropy and part of what grows healthy individuals is having strong families

00:19:02.520 part of what creates strong communities is when uh something happens in the in an environment

00:19:08.280 and people need support and they can go to their faith community or they can go to the the broader

00:19:12.440 community to be able to get assistance free enterprise is one of the ways that we're able

00:19:16.120 to enjoy such a high quality of life and high standard of living is because we give people the

00:19:19.880 the freedom to be entrepreneurs and innovators. And then oftentimes what I see is that when

00:19:25.800 somebody's successful, they give back to the community. We have some of the greatest philanthropists

00:19:29.840 in our community, and we honor many of them through things like the Alberta Order of Excellence.

00:19:34.280 And so I would say anyone who comes to this province is likely coming here because we value

00:19:40.960 those things so much. There was a woman who was at one of the events I went to from Fairness,

00:19:47.480 Alberta from a few years back. Bill Buick used to run that group. And she ended up giving $10,000

00:19:53.240 on site. And she was a woman of color. And I went up to her afterwards. I said, well, why do you feel

00:19:58.160 so strongly about this group? And she'd said, I have worked everywhere around the world. And the

00:20:03.860 place where I have felt most valued for my contribution and merit is Alberta. People don't

00:20:10.800 care the color of your skin, don't care that I'm a woman, don't care where I came from.

00:20:13.880 They just care what I can add, what I can do, and that's why I value this place so much.

00:20:20.100 And 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,

00:20:30.660 want 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.

00:20:38.320 And I think that's why people come here.

00:20:40.120 I think I would say that that's also one of the reasons why we have a public consensus about having such a diverse society.

00:20:49.680 And it's because people leave their historic conflicts behind and they come here to create a new life.

00:20:54.540 And 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.

00:21:04.600 Well, I think it's that matter of the community consensus that I want to take you to.

00:21:12.680 In your remarks that have just been broadcast, you said the following,

00:21:19.960 and I've known you for a long time, as you said at the beginning of the episode,

00:21:27.240 so i know that this is these are your real feelings um that you want a less intrusive

00:21:34.440 government and that's a very deeply held conviction of yours so when you talk in your

00:21:39.880 statement about the the rights and freedoms that are central to our identity as albertans i know

00:21:47.320 that's i know that's your heart uh so look i've been advocating for it for a long time

00:21:56.600 One other area, of course, is that, as you know, since I started off as a property rights advocate,

00:22:02.920 one thing that was always missing from our various statements on property, like it's completely

00:22:07.400 absent in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It exists in the Bills of Rights, but it doesn't

00:22:12.360 enshrine a concept of just compensation. It talks about being able to take property with due process

00:22:18.840 of the law. Well, that just means you can pass a law saying we're taking your property. I always

00:22:23.320 felt that to be inadequate and so the notion of fair compensation is also important because

00:22:29.720 it's a way of ensuring less intrusive government if government is going to have to pay full fair

00:22:35.080 timely market compensation for interfering in your ability to own and use your property

00:22:40.200 then they're going to be less interfering that's the reason why those are our companion is that we

00:22:45.560 we do i think in alberta um people look to them themselves and their family and their communities

00:22:50.520 first for help they look at government as a last resort not first resort and i think government

00:22:55.880 should look at it the same way they should be very light-handed in interfering in an individual's

00:23:01.160 personal affairs and individual freedoms and i think that's what i'm charting some of these

00:23:05.480 these areas out in a bill of rights is meant to do i guess that's the point that i'm coming to

00:23:11.240 that's what you think that's what i think that's what a tremendous number of people in alberta do

00:23:15.880 think but i want you to take back to the uh the covet era and you're you're pulling up at a red

00:23:22.640 light this is before you got to you know when you still had to drive your own car and you look and

00:23:29.480 there's somebody in the next vehicle they're in their car they're on their own and they've got

00:23:34.860 the mask on there are people in alberta who i have to wonder whether they share that same

00:23:44.120 emotional affection for freedom as you do, and that when you speak of the rights and freedoms

00:23:58.020 that are central to our identity as Albertans, they're not necessarily feeling that sense of

00:24:06.860 identity with those things. So what about, do you think that you have the mass support needed to

00:24:16.500 put through strong amendments to Alberta's Bill of Rights? Well, I guess we'll see the reaction.

00:24:22.600 I mean, I've always felt like Alberta is a bit of a special place. When you look at our history,

00:24:29.520 we do consistently, with some very minor exceptions, tend to vote for conservatives

00:24:36.040 at the federal level we tend to vote for conservatives at the at the provincial level

00:24:40.360 um and and we do tend um when we do have popular conservative leaders to have them win

00:24:47.480 not just a a plurality but a majority of of the vote and so um i would say you never get 100

00:24:55.400 of the people agreeing with you 100 of the time in any society in any jurisdiction but alberta

00:25:01.880 I think is slightly more conservative than the rest of Canada. And I think there's a lot of

00:25:08.380 things that stem from that. I think you do end up seeing a lot more innovation here. You do end up

00:25:14.060 seeing people coming here because of that. You do end up seeing, I think, the economic successes

00:25:19.700 that we have had. I think that the respect that we have for one another and the fact that we have

00:25:26.520 less conflict it seems here on a number of issues.

00:25:29.660 All of those suggest to me that there is something

00:25:32.220 a bit unique about the Alberta culture and character.

00:25:35.440 And I'll find out a little bit more

00:25:37.840 about what the public consensus is

00:25:39.960 when these amendments have had a chance to be introduced.

00:25:44.300 But I can tell you, I have heard from hundreds

00:25:48.560 if not thousands of Albertans over the many, many years

00:25:51.480 of advocating on these issues.

00:25:53.280 And I feel pretty confident that the majority

00:25:56.020 Albertans are going to be with us.

00:25:57.960 Premier, when do you think we're going to see the draft legislation?

00:26:01.660 I can tell you that we go into the legislature on October 28th, and October 28th is normally

00:26:07.700 our private members business, and then we have government business that'll be on the Tuesday,

00:26:12.940 Wednesday, Thursday, and so I would imagine that if the finishing touches have been put

00:26:18.680 on it by our legislative review committee, it may be in that first week back in the legislature.

00:26:23.240 Last question then, Madam Premier. You have your Sovereignty Act and you have an amended

00:26:30.440 Bill of Rights. These are foundation stones of the Smith legacy, or is there something else that you

00:26:37.800 value even more? Oh, well, I can tell you I'm so gratified to see that I've got a United Caucus

00:26:45.640 and some really talented cabinet ministers and a strong party and and people who are are

00:26:52.840 participating in our policy process to to make sure that we're having that check that we're

00:26:57.960 heading in the right direction so we're we have been here for a couple of years we've got a few

00:27:03.960 more years to go before the next election but i believe in bold government i believe that when we

00:27:08.680 identify problems we've got to identify a solution and we've got to move quickly to solve it so we

00:27:13.560 we won't be resting on our laurels for the next three years.

00:27:16.300 So you may have to ask me in three years' time

00:27:18.600 whether or not we managed to get everything done

00:27:21.760 that we intended to.

00:27:23.780 Well, you said to me that Danielle Smith 1.00

00:27:25.960 is having altogether too much fun as Premier of the province.

00:27:29.820 I hope you continue to have fun for two more times.

00:27:33.840 Madam Premier, thank you for this.

00:27:36.680 On behalf of the Western Standard, we thank you.

00:27:39.880 And for the Western Standard, I'm Nigel Henneport.

00:27:43.560 Thank you.

Western Standard - September 25, 2024

Stronger rights for Albertans could be a signal for all of Canada

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