The constitutional confusions of a sovereignty act
In the campaign to lead the United Conservative Party, which effectively selects the next premier, Danielle Smith’s cagey promise to enact an Alberta sovereignty act has dominated proceedings.
Most of her opponents for the UCP leadership, and Premier Jason Kenney, have denounced the plan as catastrophically unconstitutional, politically unwise and economically foolish. That may not matter if Ms. Smith wins and takes control of Alberta’s legislative agenda. What will matter very much is the resiliency of the Canadian constitutional arrangements she imagines can so easily be swept aside.
A sovereignty act’s upending of the separation of powers would equally undermine another cornerstone of Canadian constitutional law: federalism. Living under a federal constitution means being governed by the laws of more than one level of government.
Some proponents of a sovereignty act know all that. In an angry era of politics, there is a risk that proposals to break the Constitution and its fundamental principles move from the margins to mainstream. It’s a dangerous game and one we allow to grab hold of Canadian politics at our peril.
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