Submitted by Red Deer South MLA Jason Stephan

The Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act is Good for Alberta

There is a lot of fear mongering on the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act. My purpose is to share why this Act is good for Alberta.

Eastern politicians do not like the Act. It threatens the status quo they benefit under.

Their status quo has enabled a pattern of abuse and economic warfare on Alberta, disrespecting its jurisdiction over its resources, creating chaos and injecting commercial uncertainty, chasing away billions in private sector investments and thousands of Alberta jobs. They are a threat to our freedom and prosperity.

Some of them are using straw men to misrepresent the Act and then attack the worst version of it manufactured out of their misrepresentations, only existing in their minds. The Act says Alberta possesses a unique culture and shared identity within Canada.

What is Alberta’s culture and identity?

Alberta is a land of freedom and prosperity. To many Albertans, this inheritance and heritage is an integral part of our culture and identity.

Why is Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act necessary?

Is it because there are concerns we are sleepwalking towards disaster? Yes.

Is it because the morally and fiscally bankrupt Trudeau, Canada’s first NDP prime minister, government is a hostile, one trillion plus fiscal train wreck, attacking Alberta, threatening to drag us down with it? Yes.

Yet, in spite of this incompetent Ottawa, Alberta still succeeds. But they are a growing danger. We need to protect ourselves.

If Alberta was not a part of Canada, and was invited to join this rigged partnership, under current terms, would we join? No.

Is Alberta compelled to be a “host” in a parasitic relationship? No.

Alberta is not compelled to suffer constant harassment and attack.

But, what about unity? For the sake of unity, are we forced to allow ourselves to suffer attacks from politicians seeking power? No.

Albertans do not need to unite with political corruption. Unity without integrity is fake.

Canada is a dysfunctional partnership. That is the truth. Alberta is a rainmaker partner. A partnership that undermines and attacks its rainmaker partner would never survive in the real world.

There are some partners, such as Quebec, that “game” this partnership and take from Alberta families and businesses for political gain. This partnership is becoming corrupt.

A partnership where “producing” is displaced with “taking” as a ruling principle will never survive.

A foundational principle of the Act is accountability. Accountability can take a partnership that is dysfunctional and corrupt, restore integrity and make it competitive.

There are dark clouds in the horizon. Trudeau is the paymaster of the CBC and others, seek to fill our minds with mush, virtue signaling pablum.

Yet, we must prepare, we cannot be slothful, we cannot be neglectful, we cannot sit in a thoughtless stupor, not understanding, sticking heads in the sand.

The more truth, the better.

Doesn’t Ottawa seek to do indirectly, what constitutionally it is not allowed to do directly, such as with Alberta’s constitutional authority over its oil and gas resources? Yes.

Didn’t Alberta’s Court of Appeal describe Trudeau’s carbon tax as a sneaky “constitutional trojan horse”? Yes.

Isn’t Trudeau now proposing a new carbon tax or cap and trade that singles out and disproportionately punishes Alberta? Yes.

Wouldn’t that inflict more economic “chaos”, chasing out additional billions in investment and Alberta jobs with it? Yes.

Is this part of a pattern of hostile behavior from Ottawa seeking to attack and take advantage of Alberta, holding it back? Yes.

How have sternly worded letter served us?

Isn’t the purpose of this Act, to assert and defend constitutional parameters that Ottawa habitually ignores and attacks? Yes.

Under section 92A of the Constitution Act, Alberta has jurisdiction over its natural resources, not Ottawa. This Act should be invoked and say NO to Ottawa and their “discussion paper” and leave Alberta and their constitutional jurisdiction alone.

The unfortunate truth is that Ottawa has made itself an unpredictable and hostile variable, a threat to the freedom and prosperity of Alberta businesses and families that should not be underestimated. Alberta is compelled to protect itself.

Boundaries support accountability, boundaries are integral to normal adult relationships. This Act seeks to impose boundaries that Ottawa continually disrespects, to discriminate, attack, and force itself into Alberta’s constitutional jurisdictions.

Ottawa is the risk that we can no longer afford, not a law that seeks to do something about it!

The Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act is good for Alberta.
Alberta is a land of freedom and prosperity. We must be vigilant to keep it that way.

The Alberta government says it has secured another five million bottles of children’s medication to manage fever and pain.

Premier Danielle Smith says the government is working with Alberta Health Services and Health Canada to bring in the pediatric acetaminophen and ibuprofen.

Parents across Canada have been scrambling to manage their children’s fever and pain as rates of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, and influenza skyrocket amid a dire shortage of the medications.

Smith says overwhelmed parents can feel confident the government is moving as quickly as it can to bring in the medication and get it to pharmacies across the province.

The federal government also imported one million units of children’s acetaminophen — commonly known as Tylenol — across the country late last month.

Health Canada has distributed the children’s Tylenol to retailers and has also sent children’s ibuprofen — commonly known as Advil — to hospitals.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2022.