EDMONTON, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) – Alberta Premier Jason Kenney met with Alberta Lieutenant Governor Salma Lakhani only hours before she said she might try and stop a law proposed by Alberta leadership candidate Danielle Smith targeting federal government overreach.
Last Thursday, Kenney appeared with Lakhani, the Queen’s representative for the province, during an Alberta Day ceremony.
It was the same day on which Lakhani told reporters regarding Smith’s Sovereignty Act idea that “we will get the appropriate advice that we need, as to whether we can sign whether it’s against our constitution.”
“This is where we keep checks and balances,” Lakhani told reporters.
“I’m what I would call a constitutional fire extinguisher. We don’t have to use it a lot, but sometimes we do have to use it.”
Smith is currently considered the frontrunner in the race to lead Alberta’s governing United Conservative Party (UCP). The party is set to elect its new leader to replace Kenney in October, after he announced he would step down due to poor ratings after imposing vaccine mandates and hard lockdowns.
She promised that if she becomes premier she will introduce the Alberta Sovereignty Act to deal with federal overreach, which she said will help make Alberta as independent from Ottawa as possible while staying in the Confederation.
Kenney has voiced his opposition to Smith’s proposed Sovereignty Act, calling it “flagrantly unlawful.”
Kenney also said that Smith’s Sovereignty Act “would never become law.”
“Alberta would become a laughingstock, with the lieutenant governor doing her job, which is to ensure the law, the Constitution is upheld,” he added.
Yesterday, he went on the attack again, calling Smith’s idea a “catastrophically stupid” idea from “right wing” special interest groups.
It is not yet clear if Kenney made his concerns regarding the Sovereignty Act directly to Lakhani before they met last week.
Smith late last week blasted Lakhani’s comments as “entirely inappropriate.”
Over the weekend, Smith voiced her concern over possible meddling by Kenney into the UCP leadership race.
“This latest article is extremely alarming. Any coordination by @jkenney with @JustinTrudeau‘s appointed Lieutenant Governor, would be a serious violation of our democratic processes,” Smith tweeted.
She has noted the “Lieutenant Governor is an unelected figurehead, appointed by the Prime Minister, that plays a wholly ceremonial role in our system of Government.
Smith’s Sovereignty Act would shield Alberta from Trudeau’s overreach
Smith is running on a platform of medical freedom, no more lockdowns, and no more vaccine mandates.
On Tuesday, she released the details of her Sovereignty Act, which she said would is a “proposed law that would affirm the authority of the Provincial Legislature to refuse provincial enforcement of specific federal laws or policies that violate the jurisdictional rights of Alberta under Sections 92-95 of the Constitution or that breaches the Charter Rights of Albertans.”
Smith noted that “Invoking the Alberta Sovereignty Act via Special Motion against a specific Federal law” could happen “if Justin Trudeau announces tomorrow that under authority of the Federal Emergencies Act, all school-aged children must be vaccinated for COVID.”
She also noted that the Sovereignty Act could be used if the Emergencies Act is utilized again by Trudeau “to jail & freeze accounts of peaceful protesters.”
Smith said the legislation, should it ever be passed, would also fight federal vaccine mandates as well as any federal attacks on Alberta’s oil and gas sector.
Lakhani was appointed as Alberta’s Lieutenant Governor by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2020.
Documents from Elections Canada as reported by the Counter Signal show that she has donated over $27,000 to the Liberal Party of Canada.
As for Smith, she opposes vaccine mandates at all levels and said vaccine mandates enacted in the province were a “human rights violation.”
She promised that as leader that she would make it illegal for anyone to be fired because of their vaccine status.
In May, Kenney announced his intention to resign as UCP leader as soon as the party elects a new head. This came after he narrowly passed a confidence vote from party members, no doubt due to his track record of locking down Alberta hard.