Alberta Prime Minister Danielle Smith, would like to have a Tête-à-Tête with Quebec Prime Minister François Legault about affirming his provincial sovereignty, according to a letter that Smith wrote last month.
“I see an opportunity before us, like democratically chosen leaders of Alberta and Quebec, to draw a path to a new era in Canadian federalism,” Smith said in a March 21 letter written to his Quebec counterpart, in which he requested a meeting.
Smith was responding to the recommendations contained in a report prepared last year for the Quebec government, which suggests ways in which the province could affirm its provincial authority.
The panel of six people made 42 recommendations last November, including the adoption of a Quebec Constitution, the creation of Quebec citizenship and approve a law to defend against federal interference in the provincial jurisdiction.
In the letter, provided by the Alberta Premier office, Smith says he supports at least eight of the Quebec panel recommendations.
Smith says that it would support Quebec requests for constitutional amendments so that the Quebec Property Law replaced the Federal Law, and demand that the federal government designate judges of the superior courts of the lists of candidates prepared by the province.
The Quebec panel also proposes that the Government celebrate a mandatory public debate every time its use of the clause is about to expire, an expiration that occurs automatically five years after a provincial government chooses to cancel a federal law with the provincial law.
Smith’s letter says this idea is “considerable interest” to Alberta.
“The elected legislatures, not judges designated by the federal government, must have the last word about the scope of the rights subject to a parliamentary sovereignty clause,” Smith wrote, referring to the clause despite what
Smith’s letter also said he is “open to share information and advice” about how his government created Alberta’s sovereignty within a United Canada Law. It allows Alberta Legislature to approve a motion that orders provincial entities to take defensive measures when the legislature decides that a federal initiative is contrary to the best interests of Alberta.
In a statement on Tuesday, Smith said he told Legault that Alberta wants to work with Quebec to improve provincial autonomy.
“Alberta and Quebec have significant common interests regarding the overreach of the federal government in issues of exclusive provincial jurisdiction,” said his statement.
An application to the Legault office to comment was not immediately answered on Tuesday afternoon.
Frédéric Boily, Professor of Political Science at the Campus of the University of Alberta, Saint-Jean, said that the letter is a good movement of a prime minister to show that he is advocating the interests of Alberta without asking questions about the separation of Canada.
At an unrelated press conference on Tuesday in Brooks, Alta., Smith said he is not interested in a referendum about Alberta’s independence, but citizens have a legal mechanism to boost it if they wish.
Smith has previously committed to touching a panel to consider the options, if the next federal government proceeds with the environmental policies that she considers harmful to Alberta’s economy.
Boily said that the moment of Smith’s letter to Legault during the federal electoral campaign is interesting, since surveys suggest that liberals have the opportunity to return to power.
He said that it is also a message for the frequent ally of Smith, Ontario’s prime minister, Doug Ford, who, according to reports, has refused to publicly support the conservative leader Pierre Poilievre in the elections.
Smith is likely to obtain the support of Saskatchewan Scott Moe’s prime minister, Boily said.
“From the point of view of Pierre Poilievre and the conservatives, this type of initiative between Danielle Smith and other prime ministers, such as François Legault or Scott Moe about provincial autonomy, is not a bad thing,” he said.
“It is more problematic for liberals and Mark Carmy.”
