Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has introduced her highly anticipated sovereignty act, which would allow cabinet to direct cities, police, health authorities, universities and other entities to ignore federal laws that the government believes are unconstitutional or harmful to the province.
The bill, formally known as the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act, was a central promise of Ms. Smith’s successful United Conservative Party leadership campaign, which focused on escalating the province’s fight with Ottawa on a range of issues from environmental protection to gun control. Legal scholars previously panned the idea as unconstitutional and it has been divisive even within the UCP, with former premier Jason Kenney and most of Ms. Smith’s leadership rivals condemning it during the campaign.
