Danielle Smith is no separatist; she's much, much worse

In a televised address last night Danielle Smith launched a xenophobic assault on immigration and proposed a set of referendum questions for next Fall advocating a constitutional agenda that would reduce Canada to a rump of pathetic, disaggregated fiefdoms. Smith seeks to initiate a Maple MAGA revolution. It’s a vision that would see her take control of the courts, punish the most vulnerable members of our society, undermine the rule of law, and destroy Canadian federalism.

As the CBC reports, among Smith’s immigration proposals are:

• Alberta taking more control over immigration, giving preference to economic migrants and giving Albertans “first priority to new employment opportunities.”

• Granting eligibility for provincially funded programs in health, education and social services only to citizens, permanent residents and people with “an Alberta-approved immigration status.”

• Setting up a one-year residency requirement before anyone who isn’t a citizen or permanent resident can qualify for provincial social support programs.

• Charging people with non-permanent immigrant status a fee or premium to access health care and education.

Smith’s vision is one that would create a nightmarish, dystopian underclass. It is a cruel, inherently racist agenda, straight from the far-right populist playbook we have seen play out in the United States and other western countries. It is anti-Canadian.

(It is also worth pointing out the political opportunism at play. As recently as 2024, Smith was complaining to the federal government that Alberta wasn’t receiving enough immigrants - h/t Dale Smith (pdf)).

As for the set of constitutional questions Smith will advance, the CBC lists them as follows: “Those proposed amendments include allowing provinces to choose justices for their superior courts; abolishing the Senate; permitting provinces to drop out of federal programs dealing with health, education and social services while still receiving federal funding; and giving provincial laws priority over conflicting federal legislation in areas of provincial or shared constitutional authority.”

Smith’s desire for control over judicial appointments stems from her desire to assert control over the courts, who render decisions upholding the Charter of Rights that she dislikes. Smith has made it abundantly clear that she cannot be trusted to uphold the rule of law - from the ‘Alberta Sovereignty Act’ to her disreputable threats against courts to her government’s rampaging attack on the rights of trans people - there is no reason to believe that giving her power over judicial appointments would not lead to an attempt to overtly politicize the judiciary, and lead to appointments that would undermine the law, and the rule of law. This is precisely what the Republicans have done to the Supreme Court of the United States, which is now a rotting, corrupt husk of a court that has actively aided and abetted the collapse of democracy in that country.

Her desire to flip what is known as the paramountcy doctrine (“giving provincial laws priority over conflicting federal legislation”), coupled with seeking provincial powers over judicial appointments, is also a nefarious attack on Canadian federalism. This country is already the most decentralized federation in the world. One of the things that keeps it together is the idea that everyone across the country enjoys the same set of rights, the same legal protections, the same social safety net, and that there is, fundamentally, a desire to work together to pursue a thriving and secure future.

Smith represents the antithesis of this vision. It is worse than a secessionist agenda, it is an agenda to make Canada a dysfunctional confederacy of selfish, inward-looking, disaggregated provinces. Her attack on the federal equalization program only further illustrates the point. She frames the program as one where “Alberta taxpayers can no longer be asked to continue to subsidize the entire country through equalization.” “Alberta’s” taxpayers are like every other taxpayers in the country: they pay provincial taxes, and they pay federal taxes. Within Alberta, the provincial government redistributes that money, literally “subsidizing” rural areas, people who need healthcare, etc. The money we all pay into the federal level does the same thing. When the feds make transfers back to provinces, we lift up (equalize) areas of the country to ensure all Canadians share a roughly minimal quality of social services and programs. It’s called being a country. This sort of redistribution is what every functional country does, whether they are a federation or a unitary state.

Once you understand how equalization actually works, it unmasks the core of Smith’s complaints about it: “Alberta’s taxpayers” pay more into federal coffers than they receive solely as a function of having higher incomes. It’s a nakedly greedy notion that because Alberta benefits from sitting on vast oil reserves the federal government shouldn’t use its own tax base to support other parts of the country.

If Smith and other anti-equalization zealots don’t want to be part of a functioning country, they should just admit it. But among the long list of referendum questions she’s planning to pose to Albertans next October, separation isn’t one of them. Instead, we get an ugly set of destructive proposals by a far-right MAGA-hat.

Smith’s address last night is worse than advocacy for separatism. It’s an agenda to destroy Canadian federalism from within. To rely on stoking fear and xenophobia, to attack society’s most vulnerable, to dismantle the grand bargains that make Canada the best country in the world.

It remains important to note that most of the things on Danielle Smith’s referendum question wish list are simply not going to happen. Many require constitutional amendments that no sane federal leader would agree to, and that hopefully most other provinces would also reject. But that’s not really the point. Because as with all far-right populists, Smith’s agenda is as much about sowing division and hate, and about her own inept failures and lack of vision, as it is about serious constitutional reform.

We like to denigrate comparisons to Trump as lazy because Trump is distinct in so many ways. He tells more lies than any other politician. He actively and nakedly seeks unlawful self-enrichment. He is on multiple counts a criminal. He is monumentally stupid. In short, any other politician will always have attributes that distinguishes them from Trump. Smith is no criminal. She’s not stupid. But once we see that Trump is as much a symptom as he is the cause of America’s anti-democratic rot, we should recognize the same holds for people like Danielle Smith. She is the most dangerous politician in Canada, launching an agenda not only of fear and greed, but one that seeks to undermine the country, its federal structure, and its spirit of tolerance and compassion. It is nothing short of evil, and it must be fought on all fronts.