A Politburo in Alberta?

How the new Premier of Alberta aims at weakening Canadian democracy

Incoming Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)

This might be eye-glazingly boring to some, but I'm actually trying to wake us up to the threat to democracy coming from the right wing of the political spectrum. Alberta is about to do something unprecedented and completely undemocratic: But first, a short review of The Three Branches of the Canadian Parliamentary System:

1. The Executive Branch is made up of The Cabinet - a select group of elected members chosen from the governing party - with the Prime Minister as Primus Inter Pares (First Among Equals). They are responsible for actioning a) the legislative agenda and b) the government's priorities, via legislative agenda.

2. The Legislature is the Legislative Branch, that is, the branch responsible for creating, developing, debating, and passing laws and amendments to laws. Once something is debated in the legislative branch, it goes to the Executive Branch for action. Importantly, this branch is made up of democratically elected individuals - that is, the people who make the laws are democratically elected to do so.

3. The Judiciary (the law court system) is responsible for enforcing those laws, provided they are in accordance with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Importantly for our purposes, in Canada, The Executive Branch can override the Legislative Branch, the findings of the Judiciary, along with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by invoking the Notwithstanding Clause. This was a compromise offered to the Provinces at the Repatriation of the Constitution in 1982. This operates somewhat like a Trump Card, essentially allowing the holder to break the rules at will. While rarely used, it is a recent favourite tool of Conservative Premiers in Ontario and Quebec, who have used this Clause to push through legislation that was known to contravene the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

What Danielle Smith, the new Premier of Alberta proposes to do is allow the Executive Branch to assume the duties of the Legislative Branch <permanently,> giving the Cabinet the ability to create laws and amend bills passed by the legislature at will. This is bad in its own right. But remember how I said that the Executive Branch can override the Legislative and the Judiciary Branches by invoking the Notwithstanding Clause? This essentially means that, right from the start, the Alberta Premier can use the Trump Card and sidestep both the judiciary and the legislative branch, allowing Cabinet - the Doers of the Law - to become the Makers of the Law.

Thus, the Cabinet - a small selection of elected members exclusively from the governing party - becomes both the maker of the laws and the actioner of the laws, all while over-riding the judiciary and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the process, shutting out the Legislature, which is understood to reflect the will of the people.

Emmett Macfarlane 🇺🇦 @EmmMacfarlane

What Danielle Smith is advancing is an unconstitutional affront to the separation of powers, the principle of parliamentary sovereignty, the powers of the LG, and democracy itself. It cannot stand.

Emmett Macfarlane 🇺🇦 @EmmMacfarlane

Under our system of government, purporting to let cabinet rewrite legislation and bypass the legislature is LITERALLY the end of democracy. It's the evisceration of responsible government and representation. It is - without exaggeration - an attempt to impose a dictatorship.

That is, Danielle Smith is proposing a good old fashioned Soviet Politburo.