Former Deputy Prime Minister Criticizes UCP’s Bill of Rights

Former Deputy Prime Minister Thomas Lukaszuk discusses the recent resumption of the Legislative Assembly and the upcoming United Conservative Party Annual General Meeting with Michael Higgins, host of Primetime in Alberta.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Michael Higgins: Maybe let’s start with those amendments to the Bill of Rights. The government claims these changes will modernize and strengthen human rights protections. How far do you think they will go to achieve that?

Thomas Lukaszuk: They’re not going anywhere. Unfortunately, because even though the Human Rights and Bill of Rights legislation are largely symbolic as a piece of legislation, they were really intended to underscore the values ​​of Albertans and what we value in our society and our communities. I hate to be rude about it; Prime Minister Smith has turned it into a kind of bathroom wall on which you can write whatever you want.

The things that she’s introducing, number one, Alberta has no jurisdiction over, so what’s the point of enshrining it in such an important piece of legislation? And the other aspects are really contradictory. If we have autonomy over our own bodies, does this apply to women’s reproductive rights? Suddenly, no, not that one. Here the government tells you what you can do. Does this also apply to transgender children? No, this is where the government will intervene. If we have the right to decide what is best for our children, does this apply to parents who consent to a variety of medical treatments? No, this is where the government intervenes.

She also includes gun ownership, knowing that it is 100 percent solely federal jurisdiction. It is enshrined in the Criminal Code of Canada. If a province can’t do anything about it, why would it include it in Alberta’s Bill of Rights?

It really makes a mockery of something that was very important on a symbolic level and now it really means nothing.

MH: Then there is a good chance that roadblocks will arise.

TL: There will certainly be legal challenges. Danielle Smith is best known for telling Ottawa to stay out of Alberta’s jurisdiction on gun laws. She’s definitely going to have 100 percent federal jurisdiction, so she’s really contradicting herself on this level as well.

But not only will there be legal challenges, which will cost us both on the provincial and federal side – we’ll pay for it twice – but it’s actually a travesty of a bill. No one can rely on this bill anymore as a foundational piece of legislation that we can point to and say, “Look, this is my right. This is what we as Albertans believe in.”

MH: This is a response to its grassroots, to ensure that their rights and freedoms are respected. Isn’t that her prerogative?

TL: It certainly is, and that’s the sad part about it, because it’s actually politicizing this important piece of legislation. And let’s not forget that her base is no more than five to ten percent of Alberta’s population. She would be the premier of all Albertans.

MH: However, it is a powerful foundation.

TL: Powerful in terms of her remaining Prime Minister or leader of the party, but not powerful within the reach of Alberta voters, and I find it very unusual that she seems to be faking her leadership assessment, this coming weekend in Red Deer , is the end all. Forgetting that there will actually be an election in this province and that some of the announcements, including the Bill of Rights, that she has put forward in the last two or three months are clearly aimed at those five to ten percent of her supporters, but will lose a lot of votes to moderate conservatives who may have voted for her in the last election, but who will say, “Well, this is just too much.”

MH: Let’s then switch to this weekend’s UCP AGM and, as you point out, the importance of the leadership assessment. Jason Kenney stepped aside with 51 percent support. Allison Redford and Ed Stelmach were shown the door by 77 percent during your time in government. How challenged do you expect Danielle Smith to be this weekend?

TL: This leadership assessment is important because these are your party members, these are people who paid $400 to register for a convention, they travel, they pay for a hotel.

and if you can’t gather more than 70 percent in that group, you have a problem with the rest of Alberta.

A leader should score in the high 80s within her own environment, her own constituency, but I can see that for some reason she is very concerned. So whether or not she gets internal party polling for taking steps again and proposing legislation that will jeopardize her re-election, I think she’s worried.

She is taking unusual steps by making promises to our Muslim community, by attracting large numbers of children to the convention and by really pushing the envelope with her announcements, such as the Bill of Rights. Which really jeopardizes her re-election just to win this leadership race.

Personally, I think she would have made it because they are motivated UCP supporters who will be at this particular convention and the number of people showing up is quite high. But I think she is concerned and is taking unusual steps to overcome this hurdle, probably hoping that Albertans will forget about it and that she will return to moderation after leadership.

MH: When you look at the convention overall, what are you looking for in terms of the outcome? Perhaps on top of the leadership assessment itself, and what does that say about the way forward for this administration?

TL: Well, the road forward will be difficult because it started with Jason Kenney. To win his leadership and combine the two parties, Jason Kenney has recruited some of the most radical members of the Wildrose Party, hoping that once he uses them for this one vote, he will be able to mingle them or to loosen more and free themselves from them.

It’s kind of like that saying: once you sleep with dogs, you catch the fleas and it’s hard to get rid of the fleas. He never got rid of them and when he left he actually said that the crazies had basically taken over the asylum.

Danielle Smith was part of the group that joined the UCP and she not only attracted more of them, but also began to pander to them and change her policies to appease them, forgetting that the majority of UCP supporters are still mainstream Albertans looking for some kind of balance.

So for the next two years she has two options: either she continues on this path to keep that small fringe group happy, thereby jeopardizing her ability to be re-elected in a general election, or she moderates and moves a little closer to go downtown, but still upset that ten percent, because they will feel that they have been fooled, that they have been fooled.

So it’s kind of like the analogy of dating two people at the same time. Valentine’s Day becomes a problem if they both want to go on a date with you at the same time.

Danielle Smith will face the same problem on Election Day. She will have to decide which Danielle Smith she is, and by doing so she will upset one group or the other.