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The Alberta Teachers Association has released a comprehensive new survey of its members, showing widespread frustration and pessimism about the state of the province’s classrooms. This comes as the Alberta government has announced its plans to try and address issues around classroom complexity.

In this episode of The Line Alberta podcast, Rob Breakenridge speaks with Alberta Teachers Association president Jason Schilling about the state of public education in Alberta and whether there’s an opportunity now to begin to address the challenges that have been festering and mounting for years around class sizes and the complexity of learning needs. The strike may be in the rear view mirror, but the issues and pressures that led to it are still very much with us.

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In this episode of the Line Alberta podcast, Rob Breakenridge speaks with Tristan Goodman, president of the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada. We’ll look at new numbers showing Canada set record production levels in 2025, and what that tells us about the strength of the industry heading into a year of trade and economic uncertainty.

We’ll also discuss the determination to find new export markets for Canadian oil and gas and whether that will be enough to get some of these proposed projects - like a new pipeline - over the finish line. Plus, we’ll examine some of the lingering policy uncertainty hanging over these big decisions, and what impact that could have on major investment decisions.

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The group Forever Canadian was launched last year to either head off a referendum or beat the separatists to the punch. However, subsequent legislative tweaks allowed the Alberta government to bypass the duplicate petition rule, and bypass the “no unconstitutional questions” rule to make sure the separatists could proceed with their petition (under the new lower signature threshold, of course).

We speak with Forever Canadian founder - and former Alberta MLA and cabinet minister - Thomas Lukaszuk about why Premier Smith went out of her way to accommodate the separatists, what she needs to say and do about possible foreign interference, the concerns about this moment of political uncertainty, and where this is all headed. Forever Canadian is now shifting from a petition-oriented cause to one now focused on defeating separatism at the ballot box.

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First, a conversation with National Observer columnist Max Fawcett on the current state of debate over Alberta separatism and to what extent we should worry about American interference. Last week’s Trump’s treasury secretary went out of his way to mention a possible Alberta separation vote, and other MAGA and Republican figures have been talking openly about Alberta becoming the 51st state. What do we need to hear from Alberta’s premier about this potential meddling and just what the plan is when it comes to a possible referendum?

Also, amid the broader conversation around Canada’s evolving trade relationship with the United States, we’ll take a closer look at how that impacts Alberta’s oil exports and how realistic it is to quickly and significantly export product to new markets. Much of that revolves around a potential new pipeline to the west coast, but there are still many hurdles to that project. We’ll hear from Richard Masson, executive fellow at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy. He’s also a former CEO at the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission - an agency that seems suddenly relevant in the Alberta government’s strategy.

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In this episode of The Line: Alberta podcast, host Rob Breakenridge takes a closer look at the growing concern over the state of acute care in Alberta and what many doctors are describing as a crisis in the province’s emergency rooms.

Calls have been mounting for the Alberta government to declare a state of emergency in acute care, and those calls have grown louder following the high-profile death of a 44-year-old man in an Edmonton ER in lace December. The man’s family said he was suffering from chest pains, but died in the ER after waiting eight hours for case. The province has launched a fatality inquiry into the case.

Our guest this week is Dr. Warren Thirsk, president of the Alberta Medical Association’s emergency section. Dr. Thirsk shares with us his firsthand experience and what he’s witnesses on the front lines of emergency care, and get his assessment on what’s led to the current pressure on the system and the persistent problem of acute care running at near- or overcapacity. We’ll also get his reaction to some of the steps the Alberta government has announced - including a pilot project using so-called triage liaison physicians and what needs to be done longer term to stabilize and strengthen the system.

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In this episode of The Line: Alberta Podcast, Rob Breakenridge takes a closer look at the latest water crisis in the city of Calgary following the catastrophic failure of a crucial water line (again). As Calgarians face weeks or months of water use restrictions and costly and lengthy work on the system, an independent panel (established after the last crisis, just 18 months ago) has released its findings, which are quite scathing when it comes to Calgary's oversight and management of the water system. So much of this was preventable, it seems.

We'll hear two different perspectives on the situation: Kerry Black is an associate professor and Canada Research Chair at the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary. We'll get her perspective on what caused these problems and what needs to change moving forward, both in terms of how the system operates and how businesses and households use that system.

We'll also have a perspective from an expert in the industry: Micheal Montanero is with SmartAqua Technology Solutions, which works with communities and businesses to minimize water loss. One of the findings in the panel's report on Calgary's water system was how serious the issue of water loss was becoming amid an aging and crumbling infrastructure. We'll hear Micheal's thoughts on how Calgary dropped the ball and what the lessons other cities should learns from this crisis.

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The Line: Alberta is a provincial bureau of The Line, edited by Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney. Email us at alberta@readtheline.ca.

Friday afternoon news dumps are nothing new for the Alberta government, but it was surprising and strange to see such a muted rollout of something that has been so pivotal to Alberta politics.

The Alberta Next panel has been central to much of Premier Danielle Smith’s political branding and messaging this year. There’s a reason why she appointed herself chair of the panel in the first place. One might have expected more fanfare to accompany the release of the panel’s final report.

This, after all, is a report that will define much of the government’s agenda in the months ahead. The UCP is going to be in campaign mode — not for an early election, necessarily, but rather for the multiple ballot questions that will be put to Albertans at some point in 2026.

Months of buildup to some carefully crafted referendums helps to distract from a whole host of controversies and missteps in the past two years.

And of all the issues likely to proceed to a referendum and serve as that distraction, it’s worth noting — and fretting — the sudden prominence of the immigration debate.

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No one will be surprised by any of the conclusions or recommendations in the Alberta Next report. Anyone who’s been following this process could have predicted the end result with considerable accuracy. The more cynically inclined might further wonder to what extent this was all pre-ordained.

The report recommends various ways Alberta might assert more autonomy, including the creation of a provincial police force and continuing to push for changes to equalization and fiscal federalism. The report also suggests further study of the creation of a separate agency to collect provincial tax revenue.

And, as expected, the report sets the stage for various issues that will be put directly to Albertans. There are three specific referendums proposed: whether to replace the Canada Pension Plan with a made-in-Alberta plan, whether Alberta should push for specific constitutional amendments to protect provincial jurisdiction, and whether Alberta should assert more control over immigration.

Immigration has frequently been eclipsed by many of these other issues throughout this process. It’s now the preferred focus.

The premier has not been subtle in telegraphing this shift. In at least two separate interviews last week, Smith stated an intention to pose an immigration-related question to Albertans next year.

And just two days before the release of the Alberta Next report, the premier took to social media to lament Ottawa’s handling of the immigration file and to make the case for greater provincial control.

The reason for this is pretty clear. Although Alberta frequently shows somewhat high support for the idea of increased independence in the abstract; polls show mixed-to-low support for the actual mechanics of running an independent state. For example, support for leaving the Canada Pension Plan has consistently polled quite low — including in the Alberta government’s own engagement survey (the results of which they sat on for almost two years).

Immigration, on the other hand, checks a lot of important boxes.

For one, its shared jurisdiction, so Alberta has a credible case to argue for more authority and control.

It’s low-hanging political fruit, too, given the widespread consensus that the federal government has mismanaged the immigration file. Public opinion has started to turn against increased immigration. Ottawa bears much blame for that.

The temptation to exploit the existing dissatisfaction on this issue is easy enough to understand, but that can manifest itself in some troubling ways.

There are two sides of this question to consider: the degree to which Alberta wishes to control immigration and the degree to which Alberta wishes to limit immigration.

In her post last week and in an interview with Postmedia’s Rick Bell, Smith went out of her way to float the idea of limiting newcomers’ access to various social supports, based either on immigration status or number of years spent in Alberta.

This may not be hardline enough for the ardent separatists whose manifesto fantasizes about deportations in the tens of thousands in their new utopia. But it’s a pretty clear signal that the Alberta government wishes to discourage any further influx of newcomers to this province.

This would seem to be a more recent and strategic pivot from this premier. It wasn’t that long ago that Smith was musing about the possibility of more than doubling Alberta’s population and drafting a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau criticizing federal immigration limits. The “Alberta is Calling” campaign may have originated under the previous premier, but it continued under the current one.

The Alberta government wanted population growth, but they didn’t seem prepared for the possibility that they might get it. The focus on the immigration issue provides a convenient scapegoat for the government’s mismanagement of that rapid population growth.

Pointing fingers at Ottawa doesn’t preclude the need to address these growth pressures. New figures from Statistics Canada show that while Canada’s population actually shrunk in the third quarter, Alberta’s population continued to grow.

But this is a volatile issue at the best of times. The political pressures that have thrust this issue to the forefront for the Alberta government, and their motivations for elevating this to a top priority — alongside a separation vote, no less — create the potential for a divisive and unhelpful debate.

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Rob Breakenridge is a Calgary-based podcaster and writer and host of The Line Alberta. He can be found at robbreakenridge.ca and and reached at rob.breakenridge@gmail.com

In this week’s episode of The Line Alberta podcast, Rob Breakenridge sits down for a conversation with Airdrie-Cochrane MLA Peter Guthrie, who just recently became leader of the Alberta Party.

Guthrie, of course, started the year as a member of Danielle Smith’s cabinet, before stepping down over his concerns about how the government was handling the controversy around health care contracts and procurement. His calls for a public inquiry into the matter led to his expulsion from the UCP caucus.

Since then, Guthrie has become a sharp critic of the Smith government and has been organizing to present Albertans with a more moderate - and federalist - conservative option. Efforts to revive the Alberta PC Party have been met with lawsuit threats from the UCP and ultimately legislative roadblocks in the form of Bill 14.

In this episode, we discuss Guthrie’s own political journey and what future holds for the Alberta Party and its possible rebranding. We’ll also discuss the referendum question whether the UCP has been co-opted by the separatist movement, and what it all means for the possibility of an early election in 2026.

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By: Rob Breakenridge

So, as it turns out, constantly changing rules mid-stream for reasons of political expediency has some unforeseen consequences. Who knew?

It’s now quite a mess the Alberta government has created for itself in its repeated — and myopic — attempts to satiate the separatist movement.

Arguably, the premier has helped to deliver quite a blow to that movement with her energy and pipeline agreement with the federal government. But it was also clear from the rocky reception that agreement received at the UCP AGM, that separatists wield enough clout within the party to cause problems for the leader.

It is a fine line Danielle Smith is walking in trying to reduce the appeal of separatism while strenuously avoiding anything that might antagonize the movement’s adherents. Suddenly, though, her government has wandered right into a constitutional morass where there are no fine lines to be found. The government might end up antagonizing everyone before all is said and done.

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Earlier this year, Smith pressed ahead with a plan to lower the threshold for triggering a referendum under the province’s citizen initiative legislation. This was in the immediate aftermath of the federal election, the results of which were seen as the last straw for Canada by many separatists

But the prospect of a sudden plunge into a discussion on Alberta’s future in Confederation raised many obvious questions about Constitutional and treaty implications. On the latter point especially, First Nations expressed concerns about the impact on treaty rights and their exclusion from the process.

So the hasty changes to the Referendum Act got some further hasty last-minute changes to alleviate those concerns.

The government added a section to make it clear that “nothing in a referendum held under this act is to be construed as abrogating or derogating from the existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada that are recognized and affirmed by section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982.”

And in case there was ever any uncertainty about a potential question, the Chief Electoral Officer could seek “the opinion of the Court as to whether the proposal conforms to the requirements.”

Fast forward just a few months, and the government has suddenly changed its mind on all of that. After empowering the Chief Electoral Officer to refer a matter to the courts, Bill 14 takes that power away and discontinues any initiated court proceeding.

But even that change tripped up the government, prompting even more hasty, last-minute alterations. Originally, Bill 14 sought to put the justice minister in charge of whether there would be any future court references.

The problem, though, as the chief electoral officer warned in a letter to MLAs, is that such a change constitutes “an erosion of the separation of powers.”

“The chief electoral officer should not be taking direction from the executive branch of government. If adopted, Bill 14 would require just that,” Gordon McClure wrote.

So, now neither the chief electoral officer nor the justice minister will be able to refer a potential question to the courts.

It’s confused and convoluted, to say the least. And all of this is complicated further by the very process the government unleashed to begin with.

As per the original legislation, McClure, upon receiving the proposed referendum question from the separatist Alberta Prosperity Project, referred the matter to the Court of King’s Bench for further clarity on its constitutional implications.

The day after the government announced its intention to quash the case and free the separatists from legal purgatory, we got the court’s decision: the question does indeed contravene the Constitution Act.

Court of King’s Bench Justice Colin Feasby concludes that the Constitution Act “guarantees the rights in the Charter” and therefore the referendum proposal runs afoul of the Act “because it does not guarantee the rights specified therein.” Furthermore, “Alberta cannot succeed to the Numbered Treaties without the consent of First Nations.”

Justice Feasby even tacked on a section admonishing the government over Bill 14. He lamented how “legislating to pre-emptively end this court proceeding disrespects the administration of justice” and that the government displayed a “cavalier disregard for court resources and lack of consideration for the parties and First Nations intervenors who participated in this proceeding in good faith.”

In response to Feasby’s ruling, Premier Smith argued that “gatekeepers,” such as judges, shouldn’t stand in the way of referendum questions. But Justice Feasby would have never heard this case in the first place had it not been for the legislative changes brought in by this very premier and her government only months ago.

Does anyone think for a moment that if a separatist group — one with some apparent clout within the premier’s political party — wasn’t pursuing a referendum question that we’d have seen any of these legislative changes?

This is the same government that made a very public display of trying to show First Nations that their concerns were being heard and taken seriously. Now, they’re left to defend a strategy that displays a “cavalier disregard” and a “lack of consideration” for those same First Nations.

It’s all the more bizarre given that a petition on the issue of Alberta’s place in Confederation has already been verified by Elections Alberta. The Forever Canadian petition should have been the final word on all of this, since the law originally stipulated that only one petition on any given issue could proceed. It’s yet another concession to the separatists to give them the green light here, despite all of that.

There’s no undoing Justice Feasby’s ruling. There’s no going back on Bill 14 now, either, now that the legislation has passed. They’ve backed themselves into quite a corner here.

Rob Breakenridge is a Calgary-based podcaster and writer and host of The Line Alberta. He can be found at robbreakenridge.ca and and reached at rob.breakenridge@gmail.com

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Rob Breakenridge is a Calgary-based podcaster and writer and host of The Line: Alberta Podcast. He can be found at robbreakenridge.ca and and reached at rob.breakenridge@gmail.com

The Line: Alberta is a provincial bureau of The Line, edited by Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney. Email us at alberta@readtheline.ca.

In this week’s episode of The Line: Alberta Podcast, Rob Breakenridge speaks with Stephen Buffalo, who is president and CEO of the Indian Resource Council, board chair of the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation, and a member of the Samson Cree Nation.

The Assembly of First Nations has voted to call on the federal government to withdraw the Alberta-Ottawa memorandum of understanding (MOU) on a new pipeline deal and to express support for the First Nations on the B.C. coast who have spoken out against the proposal.

Stephen Buffalo, though, maintains that the AFN resolution was pushed through without meaningful debate and that the process excluded the Indigenous voices that support energy development and see the benefit in partnerships and ownership stakes in such projects. The Indian Resource Council, for example, represents more than 150 First Nations.

We’ll get Buffalo’s perspective on how the conversation about First Nations and energy developments needs more balance and how much progress has been made with government and industry on moving projects forward with Indigenous involvement and partnership. He believes that there is tremendous opportunity for communities to generate wealth and employment opportunities and that these First Nations can also help be guardians when it comes to ensuring environmental protections.

Certainly the issue of Indigenous consultation and participation will be front and centre as this MOU and the pipeline project move forward. We’ll find out what a successful path forward might look like.

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The Line: Alberta is a provincial bureau of The Line, edited by Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney. Email us at alberta@readtheline.ca.

Two big topics in this week’s episode of The Line: Alberta Podcast, as Rob Breakenridge breaks down the hugely significant Alberta-Ottawa memorandum of understanding (MOU) on energy as well as Alberta’s proposed health reforms that will open the door for physicians to practice in both the public and private systems in the hopes of bringing down wait times.

We begin the episode with a conversation with Robert (RJ) Johnston, director of energy and natural resources at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy. We’ll get his thoughts on the significance of the Alberta-Ottawa MOU and the potential impact of the policy concessions made by both sides. We’ll also look at what still needs to happen to make a new west coast pipeline a reality, including the question of who, exactly, will build and own this project.

We’ll also be joined in this episode by Dr. Brian Day, founder of the Cambie Surgical Centre, an award-winning surgeon, a former president of the Canadian Medical Association, and author of the new book My Fight for Canadian Healthcare: A Thirty-Year Battle to Put Patients First. We’ll get his reaction and analysis of Alberta’s proposed health care changes, and whether he believes this represents the sort of health reform that our system needs.

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The Line: Alberta is a provincial bureau of The Line, edited by Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney. Email us at alberta@readtheline.ca.

In this week’s episode of The Line: Alberta Podcast, Rob Breakenridge takes a closer look at one of the more fascinating stories emerging from the recent municipal elections: the political evolution and successful comeback of Jeromy Farkas.

In this conversation with Calgary’s new mayor, we reflect on his political journey from firebrand city councillor, to unsuccessful mayoral candidate, to the political wilderness, to the comeback trail. Farkas 2.0 eked out a narrow win in the recent election — an election that also saw the defeat of the incumbent who bested Farkas four years ago. It also featured — for the first time — municipal political parties in Alberta’s two largest cities.

We also discuss the many challenges facing the new mayor and the rest of the new city council and the commitments to making Calgary a safe and affordable city, while also meeting the housing needs of a rapidly expanding metropolis. The mayor also speaks to some of the more immediate controversies and debates that have flared up at city hall in the short period since the election.

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The Line: Alberta is a provincial bureau of The Line, edited by Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney. Email us at alberta@readtheline.ca.

In this week’s episode of The Line: Alberta Podcast, Rob Breakenridge takes a closer look at the debate over direct democracy and how opponents of the government have taken advantage of the UCP’s own voter recall and citizen initiative laws.

In the aftermath of the teachers’ strike and the government’s use of the notwithstanding clause, a number of UCP MLAs are now being targeted with voter recall campaigns. The Alberta Federation of Labour has also announced its intention to try and force referendums on a number of issues, including the use of the notwithstanding clause.

All of that is in addition to the two previously approved referendum petitions: the Forever Canadian anti-separatist campaign (now going through the verification process) and a campaign to force a vote on private-school funding (currently in the signature-collecting phase). The government recently denied a request from the chief electoral officer for an additional $13 million to ensure that Elections Alberta has the resources to manage and administer all of these petitions and potential referendums and recall votes.

Our guest this week is Dr. Jared Wesley, professor of political science at the University of Alberta and co-author of the new book No I in Team: Party Loyalty in Canadian Politics. We’ll get his take on whether this tumult was predictable when the UCP brought these laws in, and what this all might be leading to in 2026.

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The Line: Alberta is a provincial bureau of The Line, edited by Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney. Email us at alberta@readtheline.ca.

By: Rob Breakenridge

Creation-turning-on-the-creator is a well-worn trope in popular cinema, usually serving as a cautionary tale or providing some deserved poetic justice.

Alberta’s experiment with voter recall is shaping up to be a real-world case study of this phenomenon. It is certainly a cautionary tale for other governments, but also, arguably, some well-earned comeuppance for this government.

Unfortunately, with the potential embarrassment of seeing their own members devoured by recall, the UCP is prepared to inject some chaos into what’s already shaping up to be a tumultuous period. Things are going to get messy.

Alberta, of course, has both voter recall and citizens’ initiative laws on the books. Both pieces of legislation were passed while Jason Kenney was still premier, but didn’t come into effect until 2023. Last year, Danielle Smith’s government introduced changes to those laws that made it easier to both recall a politician and get a referendum question on the ballot.

All of this, by the way, falls under the auspices of Elections Alberta, and there is suddenly a lot on their plate.

Elections Alberta is currently counting and verifying the approximately 456,000 signatures gathered by Thomas Lukaszuk’s Forever Canadian campaign. The agency has also just approved a petition aimed at forcing a referendum on funding for private schools. On top of that, there are now two approved recall petition campaigns with several others apparently in the works.

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Last week, the Chief Electoral Officer appeared before an all-party committee to plead for an extra $13.5 million to manage all of these recall and citizens’ initiative petitions and to prepare for the eventuality of recall votes and referendums (including those the premier is considering for next year).

That plea fell on mostly deaf ears. The UCP used their majority on the committee to approve barely a tenth of what the Chief Electoral Officer was seeking — a paltry $1.46 million. He’s appealing to the government to reconsider, but he shouldn’t hold his breath.

None of this is intended to be an argument against direct democracy, but this does help explain why it’s relatively rare. Governments are loath to create circumstances that could make life difficult for themselves. So to that end, the UCP deserves some credit.

However, this was not about the UCP holding themselves to account. This was more of a concession to the party’s conservative base, sold as a way of keeping any future left-wing governments (provincial or municipal) in check.

It’s no coincidence, then, that the first organized recall campaign did not target any MLA, but rather now-former Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek.

And it should also be noted that it was in the midst of this very recall effort — which ultimately fell short — that the premier signalled her intention to lower these thresholds.

At the time, Smith took to social media to declare that, “My position is clear: voter recall is part of our democracy to hold all elected officials accountable in between elections.” Her post also included a graphic proudly touting this quote from a Rick Bell column: “Premier Danielle Smith leads a government looking to make it easier to recall a politician.”

It wasn’t quite an endorsement of the Gondek recall petition, but there was certainly no objection whatsoever to that attempt. Its organizer, by the way, became enough of a political celebrity that he parlayed that into a seat on the new city council.

Now, suddenly, the premier’s much less sure about the ethics and appropriateness of recalling politicians. Last week, Smith suggested that these petition drives are aimed at toppling her government, and accused petition organizers of not acting “in good faith.”

To be clear, there is nothing in the legislation that stipulates a specific reason or purpose for a recall campaign or anything in particular that makes a politician eligible. It’s basically, “here’s when you can launch a recall petition” and “here’s how to do it.”

But, yes, the timing is problematic for the UCP. Folks are ornery these days, exacerbated in no small part by the handling of the teachers’ strike and the decision to use the notwithstanding clause to force teachers back to work.

It’s also true that the UCP is only three seats above the majority threshold in the Alberta legislature. And so a few successful recall campaigns could indeed threaten to topple the government. But that’s not something petition organizers really need to concern themselves with.

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It could be something for voters to consider, though. Remember, no MLA is recalled or replaced until and unless the voters say so.

Each riding is different, since the threshold for a successful recall petition is the equivalent of 60 per cent of the number of votes cast in that riding in the last provincial election (to be gathered within 90 days). If that bar is cleared, there would then be a yes/no recall vote. If 50 per cent or more of voters opt to recall, the seat becomes vacant and a by-election would then occur.

Turfing government MLAs — especially in solid UCP ridings — wouldn’t be easy. Then again, there was plenty of skepticism that the Forever Canadian petition drive would succeed, and they appear to have far exceeded the minimum target.

For now, the premier says no changes are coming to either the recall or the citizens’ initiative legislation. It’s probably too late to put this genie back in the bottle, anyway.

The bigger question is whether Elections Alberta will be allowed to do its job here. If the resources aren’t there for petitions to be approved and verified, not to mention the need to administer everything that comes after a successful petition, then these laws may as well not exist.

The government can’t have it both ways. If they truly believe Albertans deserve access to recall and referendums, then there’s an obligation to cover those costs. Direct democracy isn’t free. If, on the other hand, they believe it’s too disruptive and not worth the cost, they should scrap these laws.

The problem here is that they professed to believe the former and only when they became a target did the latter position suddenly become appealing. But their buyer’s remorse is really just their problem. They need to suck it up, fund the system, and face the music.

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Rob Breakenridge is a Calgary-based podcaster and writer and host of The Line: Alberta Podcast. He can be found at robbreakenridge.ca and and reached at rob.breakenridge@gmail.com

The Line: Alberta is a provincial bureau of The Line, edited by Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney. Email us at alberta@readtheline.ca.

In this episode of The Line: Alberta Podcast, Rob Breakenridge sits down for an in-person conversation with former Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.

As Alberta faces a possible independence referendum next year, Jason Kenney is becoming increasingly vocal about the need to take on the separatists and to make the case for a united Canada. We’ll hear more from Mr. Kenney about why he’s been more visible and more vocal these days, why he feels compelled to make the conservative case for a united Canada, and what’s at stake for Alberta in a possible referendum campaign.

He’s also got plenty to say about the need for Ottawa to listen to and address Alberta’s concerns and how the federal government — and other provincial governments — can help strengthen the case for national unity. We’ll also hear his thoughts on what the separation debate in Alberta tells us about the struggle to control and define the conservative movement.

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The Line: Alberta is a provincial bureau of The Line, edited by Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney. Email us at alberta@readtheline.ca.

In this week’s episode of The Line: Alberta Podcast, Rob Breakenridge takes a closer look at the debate around the notwithstanding clause and Alberta’s decision to invoke Section 33 of the Charter as part of their back-to-work legislation to end the teachers’ strike.

First of all, we’ll hear a defence of the notwithstanding clause and Alberta’s decision to apply it in this situation. We’ll hear from Geoffrey Sigalet, director of the UBC Research Group for Constitutional Law, an assistant professor of political science at UBC Okanagan, and senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. He argues that Alberta is on solid legal and constitutional ground with its BIll 2.

On the other side, however, the Alberta Federation of Labour is quite outraged over BIll 2, and the use of the notwithstanding clause specifically. They’re describing it as an attack on organized labour and labour rights in the province. The AFL has even raised the spectre of a general strike in response to the government’s actions. We’ll hear from AFL president Gil McGowan.

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The Line: Alberta is a provincial bureau of The Line, edited by Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney. Email us at alberta@readtheline.ca.

By: Rob Breakenridge

With the fall sitting of the Alberta legislature underway, Danielle Smith’s government wasted no time in tabling legislation to force Alberta’s striking teachers back to the classroom.

Okay, well, maybe they wasted a little bit of time.

The Back to School Act was actually the second bill introduced in the legislature following last Thursday’s speech from the throne. That was rather curious, given the obvious and identified priority of getting kids back to school. What could possibly take precedence over addressing the strike?

That would be Bill 1, otherwise known as the International Agreements Act. And while this might seem like an odd choice as the top legislative priority for this government, there is a purpose to it. Unfortunately, that purpose is a very strategic and targeted form of pandering.

It’s not exactly government-by-conspiracy theory, although the premier hasn’t been above dabbling in conspiracy theories herself. Rather, it’s an acute awareness of the conspiracy theories that are festering within certain motivated segments of her base, coupled with a very real fear of alienating those same voters.

And while keeping this crowd placated might be politically useful to the premier, this is not an ideal way to be governing the province.

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The scant coverage of — and muted reaction to — Bill 1 may also lie in just how nebulous and hypothetical it seems on the surface. The bill stipulates that any international agreement pertaining to a matter of provincial jurisdiction would have to first be approved by the Alberta legislature.

Mind you, the government couldn’t provide examples of previous treaties that posed such a problem. Furthermore, treaties that commit Canada to specific actions need to be implemented via federal legislation, and provinces can obviously challenge any federal law that intrudes on provincial jurisdiction.

However, a government spokesman did cite an interesting example of a possible future issue: the World Health Organization Pandemic Agreement. Canada is still deciding whether to sign this treaty, which aims for “greater collaboration, governance and investment to prevent, prepare for and respond to future pandemics.”

Alberta is not being forced to do anything and, again, any law Ottawa passed would have to respect constitutional jurisdiction. Moreover, the World Health Organization does not have the authority to force countries to pass certain laws or implement certain health measures.

Yet, there has been no shortage of conspiracy mongering about this treaty and it’s no coincidence that the Alberta government is suddenly signalling its opposition.

At the same time, though, folks aren’t likely to get too fussed about a symbolic paper tiger. This law isn’t costing anyone anything or really affecting anyone’s life in any way. It’s virtue signalling to a certain segment of the population that will likely evoke apathy from everyone else.

But we should still take an interest in how the government is setting priorities and the groups and individuals from whom they’re taking their cues. This tendency has manifested in other ways, some with real-world consequences.

While Albertans were coping with varying levels of vote and vote-count delays in last week’s municipal elections, one prominent political activist was taking a victory lap.

The founder of Take Back Alberta (who was also thrilled with Bill 1) boasted on social media that, “my proudest accomplishment in politics is getting rid of electronic voting machines in Alberta. As you wait for results, know that it is taking longer because of patriots fighting for election integrity.” Weird flex, as the kids say.

Alberta, of course, never had “electronic voting machines,” but rather, electronic vote tabulators to help count our paper ballots. That was a process overseen by scrutineers and backed by a post-election review process to verify results. Last year, though, the Alberta government banned the tabulators.

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There was no obvious need for the ban and it hardly enhanced “election integrity.” In fact, in Edmonton, a recount found that a city council candidate who had lost by six votes actually won by about 600 votes. Human error appears to have been the problem.

But the rhetoric about “voting machines” and “election integrity” — not to mention “patriots” — gives the game away. This is the importation of the conspiracy theories and related rhetoric around the 2020 presidential election in the United States.

Of course, neither the premier nor any of her cabinet ministers even advanced any such theories. They also never presented any evidence or made any claims about the supposed unreliability of electronic vote tabulators. It was merely about maintaining public faith in the electoral system, they claimed. In other words, some folks decided that they distrusted this technology and the Alberta government was worried about alienating them.

Consequently, municipalities faced significant added costs in administering their elections. The only benefits appear to be of the imagined variety. Absent these conspiracy theories, it’s abundantly clear that nothing would have changed.

What’s clearly not changing, though, is this propensity for political pandering. Especially now, in the face of backlash over Bill 2 and other policies, there’s even more pressure to keep as much of the base happy as possible.

So where might this lead next? The National Post reported this week on the list of issues UCP members are hoping to see addressed at the party’s upcoming AGM, including policy proposals around mRNA vaccines and “weather modification” programs.

Well, mRNA vaccines have been a constant target for many in the UCP and we’ve already seen the province make the shots harder to access.

We also shouldn’t discount the possibility that “weather modification” or “chemtrails” could somehow end up on the government’s radar. Donald Trump’s EPA has just announced an “investigation” into these matters and we’ve already seen Smith’s willingness to give oxygen to these conspiracy theories.

It all just serves to embolden these factions, ensuring that we’ll see more and more of this kind of nonsense. Ultimately, it doesn’t do the UCP — or conservatism, for that matter — any favours in the long term, even if Smith staves off any stirrings of dissent or rebellion.

It would be nice to have a premier willing to, at least once in a while, disavow these conspiracy theories. Instead, unfortunately, we have a premier who is not just afraid to do so, but has a troubling level of sympathy for these causes.

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Rob Breakenridge is a Calgary-based podcaster and writer and host of The Line Alberta. He can be found at robbreakenridge.ca and and reached at rob.breakenridge@gmail.com

The Line: Alberta is a provincial bureau of The Line, edited by Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney. Email us at alberta@readtheline.ca.

In this week’s episode of The Line: Alberta Podcast, Rob Breakenridge takes a closer look at the Alberta government’s decision to introduce back-to-work legislation.

Alberta teachers went on strike over three weeks ago and after virtually no progress was made at the bargaining table, the Alberta government has taken the opportunity with the fall sitting of the Legislature underway to use the metaphorical hammer to end the strike. Bill 2, the Back to School Act, was tabled in the Legislature Monday afternoon. Classes resumed today.

In bringing an end to the strike, the government is taking two very controversial steps: they’ll be invoking the notwithstanding clause to shield the back-to-work legislation from a Charter challenge and they’ll also be imposing a four-year contract on teachers — the terms of which are very similar to those contained in the offer that was widely rejected by teachers in late September. Suffice to say, this will not go over well.

In this episode, Rob speaks with Peter MacKay, an Alberta teacher who was previously lead negotiator for the Alberta Teachers Association. We’ll get his thoughts on how things got to this point, what led to the strike in the first place, and the pressures teachers are dealing with amid all of these unresolved issues.

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The Line: Alberta is a provincial bureau of The Line, edited by Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney. Email us at alberta@readtheline.ca.

In this week’s episode of The Line: Alberta Podcast, Rob Breakenridge takes a closer look at the controversy surrounding procurement at Alberta Health Services and what we learned last week with the release of a major report into the matter.

Retired Manitoba judge Raymond Wyant was brought in by the province to conduct a third-party investigation into the contract for the 2022 purchase of children’s pain medication, as well as contracts to conduct publicly-funded surgeries at private clinics.

The report concludes that there were conflicts of interest and that policies were not followed, but it also found no evidence of wrongdoing by any elected officials or any political staffers. The premier’s former chief of staff, Marshall Smith, has also denied any wrongdoing.

The opposition, though, has pointed to limits in the scope of this investigation and say the report only strengthens the case for a public inquiry.

In this episode, a conversation with Carrie Tait, reporter with the Calgary bureau of The Globe and Mail. She has done some important work on this story and helped bring many aspects of this controversy to light. We’ll get her insight on what this report uncovered, what questions remain unanswered, and where this whole scandal goes from here.

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(Video goes live in 30 minutes.)

You can also see the video via our Twitter accounts. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Plus these newer accounts: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn.

Enjoy the episode, and help us out, as ever, by liking and subscribing and leaving slavishly devoted reviews on all the platforms. Thanks!

Subscribe now

The Line: Alberta is a provincial bureau of The Line, edited by Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney. Email us at alberta@readtheline.ca.