Danielle Smith has long promised to be the most combative of Premiers. She has lived up to those words, perhaps especially so in legislation introduced this month, the Provincial Priorities Act (Bill 18), which would allow her government to say a pre-emptive yea or nay to every funding deal Ottawa makes in Alberta.
There is a long list of downsides for the academics and cities caught in the crossfire. But given the angry national mood – including frustration with the federal Liberal government’s reach into realms that are mostly provincial, such as housing, electricity, dentistry or school lunch programs, for all the good and the bad – the bill could be a win for Ms. Smith and her unabashed main cause: autonomy from Ottawa.
