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.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS