Danielle Smith has been sworn in as premier of Canada’s major oil-producing province Alberta, days after she won the United Conservative Party (UCP) leadership race with pledges to engage the federal government in Ottawa.
Smith became Alberta’s nineteenth Premier and third female premier at the ceremony in Edmonton.
During a news conference that took place after the swearing-in, she talked about plans to reform the provincial health service, ban COVID-19 vaccine mandates and made it known she would sack Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer, Deena Hinshaw, who led the public health response to the pandemic.
But she seemed to have backtracked on her most eye-catching plan, the proposed Alberta Sovereignty Act, which during her campaign, she said would allow the province to ignore federal laws that are harmful to Alberta.
Instead, she told pressmen that Alberta would respect Supreme Court of Canada rulings and litigate decisions it does not agree with, like the federal carbon tax.
She said: “It’s not a perfect application of what the original idea was, but I felt it was my job to look at the constitution, see what was possible, find out the ways in which the federal government interferes with our jurisdiction….and also indicate that we were going to defend the Charter of Rights of our citizens.”
While talking further, she said she had seen “nothing but hostility” from federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.
She will appoint her cabinet this month and will run in a by-election in the electoral riding of Brooks-Medicine on November 8, as she currently does not hold a seat in the Alberta legislature.
Alberta will hold a provincial election next May.
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