Premier Kenney mocks ‘Sovereignty Act’
CALGARY — Premier Jason Kenney kicked off a campaign to lure skilled workers from Toronto and Vancouver as he doubled down on his criticism of a so-called Alberta sovereignty act pitched by one of the candidates running to replace him.
Kenney held a news conference Monday to announce the United Conservative government’s plans to start recruiting workers to Alberta as the provincial economy grows.
“Alberta is back in a big way, but one of the biggest challenges to sustaining that amazing growth is having enough people who are filling the jobs that are being created,” he said. “As far as problems go, that’s a pretty good one to have.”
The campaign comes after Kenney called a key platform promise of one of the candidates “nuts.” Candidate Danielle Smith has said if she wins the leadership, she would bring a bill this fall to give Alberta the power to ignore federal laws and court rulings deemed not in the province’s interest. Legal scholars say such a bill would be illegal, unenforceable and a dangerous dismissal of respect for the rule of law.
Kenney said he’s certain that even if the legislature passed, the lieutenant-governor would refuse to give it royal assent and Alberta would become a “laughingstock.”
Smith chastised Kenney in a statement Sunday for interference in the leadership contest, saying his comments were “illinformed and disrespectful to a large and growing majority of UCP members that support this important initiative.”
Kenney said Monday that he’s not interfering in the leadership campaign, but restating his position on an important public policy issue. “This so-called sovereignty act would be a body blow to all three of those things,” he said.
Kenney said it could also hurt the campaign to attract people to the province.
“Here we are launching a campaign for Canadians to move to another part of Canada,” he said. “To the contrary, instead of being able to attract people, we would start hemorrhaging people.”
He said that’s not theoretical because of what happened in Quebec in 1976 when Rene Levesque and the Parti Quebecois were elected on a separatist platform.