United Conservative Party (UCP) leader Danielle Smith’s victory in the election for premier in Canada’s main oil-producing province Alberta on Monday is likely to herald further friction with liberal Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, particularly over climate change.
Smith’s win signals a further rightward shift in the traditionally conservative province, and comes despite a series of controversies and gaffes from Smith, 52, since she first became premier in October last year.
CBC News projected that the UCP wouls hold on to power in Alberta, but Smith would be going back to the legislature with a diminished caucus.
Photo: Reuters
The victory also caps a stunning personal comeback for Smith, who spent more than six years in the political wilderness after failing to secure a nomination to run as a UCP candidate in the 2015 election.
It is expected to lead to more tension between Alberta and the federal Liberal Party of Canada government, which aims to cut climate-warming carbon emissions 40 to 45 percent by 2030. That would require significant emissions reductions in Alberta, Canada’s highest-polluting province and home to country’s oil and gas industry.
In her victory speech, Smith was quick to take aim at Trudeau and what she described as the federal government’s “harmful policies.”
“I invite the prime minister to instead halt the introduction of these harmful policies and come to the table in good faith to work collaboratively with Alberta on an energy and emission strategy that will both grow the Alberta and Canadian economies,” Smith told her supporters in Alberta’s corporate capital, Calgary.
“As premier I cannot under any circumstances allow these contemplated federal policies to be inflicted upon Albertans. I simply can’t. And I won’t,” she added.
The UCP’s controversial proposals to replace the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police with an Alberta force and withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan are other policies that are expected to test ties between the province and the federal government.
In her seven months as premier, Smith has issued a number of apologies, including one for calling unvaccinated people “the most discriminated-against group that I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime,” and comparing vaccinated Albertans to Nazis in Hitler’s Germany. She was also rebuked by Alberta’s ethics commissioner for breaching conflict of interest laws this month.
Her UCP leadership campaign promised she would stand up to the federal government and proposed a controversial Alberta Sovereignty Act, which was watered down before becoming law on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.
Some business leaders have criticized her effort to bring more autonomy to Alberta, saying it could hurt investment in the province just as the energy industry needs financing to transition to a greener future.
Smith fiercely opposes a number of Liberal climate policies including a net zero electricity grid by 2035. Oil industry participants are broadly supportive of the UCP, but also say they would like to see more collaboration with other levels of government.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
RSS