Danielle Smith harbours many separatists in her partty

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith continues to publicly maintain the fiction that she is not pro-separatism, and that neither is her party. She claims to support "a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada", whatever that might mean.

The truth, though, is other. The Republican Party of Alberta, the official pro-independence political party, maintains a list of pro-independence MLAs on its website that includes no less than 19 MLAs from Ms. Smith's United Conservative Party (out of 48). 

Ms. Smith's own words and actions, while carefully avoiding outright boat-burning professions of independent aspirations, are far from those of a die-hard federalist. And her underlying beliefs are perhaps better exemplified by her omissions rather than her commissions.

For example, she has made no attempt to reign in the rabid pro-independence anti-Canadian talk of one of her more outspoken MLAs, Jason Stephan, who represents Red Deer-South and is currently Alberta's parliamentary secretary for constitutional affairs. 

In a piece for the strongly pro-independence newaper The Western Standard, Stephan urged Albertans to "act and sign the petition", claiming that "Canada is in serious decline" and moving "towards a third world country". He asserts that Canada's standard of living is declining due to "stupid laws and policies emanating out of Ottawa", laws and policies that also "erode Alberta's freedoms in favour of a nanny state". He concludes "Ottawa wants Alberta broken too".

These do not sound like the opinions of a pro-Canada federalist, somehow. Some of the other UCP members have been shamed into distancing themselves from Stephan's comments. But Smith clearly does not see the need to distance herslf from such incendiary talk from a member of her own caucus by taking concrete actions like removing him from caucus. "Sovereign Alberta within a united Canada" my arse.

Trump is just the "steward" of the White House

Brave US District Judge Richard Leon has ordered the Trump adminsitration to suspend construction of the $400 million "ballroom" Trump wants to replace the East Wing of the White House.

Unfortunately, it comes too late to prevent the demolition of the old East Wing, so what the practical effects of the judicial ruling will be remains unclear. But it re-states what everyone else already knew - that Trump cannot go around remodelling national treasures on a whim and without congressional approval. As Judge Leon put it: "The President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner!"

"Steward", eh. He's not going to like that.

Having already remodelled much of the interior of the White House along the lines of an extravagant 19th century brothel, Trump figured he could also do whatever he wants with the outside, and even to construct a lavish bomb shelter and "military complex" underneath it. Well, not so, says the law.

Mark Carney vows not to resort to proroguing Parliament

Mark Carney had been getting a bit of flak recently for some of his inconsistency. dithering and prevarication. But, like it or not (and I don't), these are times that call for a bit of circumspection and evasion where necessary.

Kudos where kudos is due, though, he has been very clear about refusing to prorogue Parliament if - and it is still an "if" - the Liberals win enough of the upcoming by-elections to reach a majority government.

Some unspecified Liberal sources have been positing the idea that, if they do achieve a majority, they should immediately prorogue Parliament so that any existing parliamentary committees get reset, and can then be re-established to reflect the new majority status, making it easier to control committee agendas and push legislation through.

This is a legitimate political strategy and governments of all stripes have resorted to it at some point. But it is always controversial and contentious, as it is seen as self-serving and almost a kind of legal cheating and loopholing. Most governments that have taken recourse to it is usually face some level of backlash for it. 

Carney is sensible enough to want to avoid backlashes. If he thinks he can get his policies through committees without proroguing Parliament - through the usual minority government tactics of collaboration with other parties - then he should certainly do that. I approve of his stance.

Alberta education bill a classic of DoubleThink

Alberta's right-wing government at it again with the DoubleThink and the gaslighting. They must be big fans of classic books and films!

The irony has probably never occurred to them, but by introducing a bill called "An Act to Remove Politics and Ideology from Classrooms and Amend the Education Act", the Alberta government is in fact introducing politics and ideology into classrooms, where none existed before.

Education and Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides introduced the bill, with a straight face, saying,"This bill reflects that schools should teach students how to think, not what to think". The bill in fact bars teachers from making "political or social statements", displaying flags, and naming or renaming school buildings. It imposes school trustee codes of conduct, and various other restrictive measures. It is demonstrably NOT designed to make classrooms less political, merely to change the politics to something they approve of.

They might just as well have included, "War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, Ignorance Is Strength", for good measure.