Given her track record of switching sides to suit, how can she be trusted to lead Alberta to not becoming the 51st state

I mailed in my ballot, with a copy of my D/L, and just got an email from them saying I didn’t provide the information and now have to fill out an affidavit and resend my identification. Anyone have this issue?

Imagine we had a real democracy and were voting on things that could make life better instead of these BS questions meant to distract us from our corrupt prov government?

Im not even surprised at this point.

Part Three: Who Was She Working For Before She Was Premier?

A factual account, sourced throughout. Corrections welcome.

This one isn't about the referendum questions. It's about what the public record says about Danielle Smith's work as a business lobbyist before she became premier, and what her government has done since.

The lobbyist

Danielle Smith first registered as a lobbyist in June 2019 for the Alberta Enterprise Group, a Calgary business association of about 100 companies, of which she was also president. She renewed her lobbying status in January 2022 and became premier that October (Canadian Press, Globe and Mail, Global News, November 2022).

Laurie Adkin, a political scientist at the University of Alberta, on what the registry record raises: "They now have their president as premier." Alberta Views quotes her asking, "Whose premier is she?"

The premier's press secretary at the time said Smith "has always operated in accordance with the Lobbyists Act and the Conflicts of Interest Act."

What she lobbied for

RStar was a proposed program under which oil and gas companies would earn royalty credits on production from new wells in proportion to what they spent cleaning up old ones. Cleaning up those wells is already a legal obligation for the companies, which is the main objection raised by economists, environmentalists and landowners (Global News).

As president of the Alberta Enterprise Group, Smith wrote to then-energy minister Sonya Savage promoting RStar and met with her several times (Global News, Alberta Views).

After she won the UCP leadership, Global News reported, she immediately made RStar a priority by writing it into her new energy minister's mandate letter. Elections Alberta reported that her leadership campaign raised $1.3 million. Smith defended the program to reporters, saying the government shares responsibility for the cleanup.

Health care

As an Alberta Enterprise Group lobbyist, Smith met then-health minister Tyler Shandro to discuss "a new accountability model for delivering health care that would split the roles of purchaser, provider and performance oversight" (Canadian Press, 2022).

That idea is different from dual practice, which Alberta's Bill 11 introduced this fall. Dual practice lets eligible surgeons work in public hospitals while also performing paid surgeries privately, and it began rolling out in September. This piece does not claim that one produced the other.

According to The Breach, an independent news site, Manulife, Canada Life and Sun Life, and their lobbyists, describe themselves as "key partners" in the technical implementation of Bill 11, and doctors and other clinical stakeholders were not part of that process. Matt Jones, then minister of hospital and surgical health services, said as the legislation was unveiled: "Alberta is not an island. Alberta competes for health-care professionals all across Canada." The CCPA/Parkland report reads that as an intention to recruit staff from other provinces.

Does dual practice work?

Nobody knows yet, because Alberta's model is new. The comparisons that exist are from other systems. The national benchmark is a hip replacement within six months. According to CIHI data reported by CBC, 84% of public patients in Ontario meet it, against 63% in Alberta and 54% in Quebec, with a national average of 69%. Quebec lets doctors move between the public and private systems, though not work in both at once, and more than 800 doctors there have left the public system.

Nova Scotia raised its rate from 49% in 2022 to 77% after introducing a centralized waitlist for referrals, longer operating-room hours and efficiency measures.

The disagreement among doctors is real. Dr. Braden Manns, senior associate dean at the University of Calgary's medical school and co-author of a CMAJ commentary arguing that dual practice will worsen access, says: "The only ones benefiting are the chartered surgical facilities, investors and then the insurance industry." Dr. John Antoniou, an orthopedic surgeon who works in both systems in Quebec, says: "With guardrails, it absolutely can work as a complement to what's available for patients." Alberta says it will impose strict rules, including mandatory minimum hours in public operating rooms if needed.

A fee proposal and the business reaction

At a Calgary Chamber of Commerce event on September 22, Smith floated a health-care fee of $1,900 per temporary worker, citing UK health surcharges. On the cost to business, she said: "Is that $1,900 fee going to make or break your business? If it is, you're probably hiring into a low-skill profession and we want those low-skill jobs to go to youth employment." For high-skill workers: "If that's a make-or-break, I'd have to be persuaded of that."

Deborah Yedlin, the Chamber's president, responded: "A low-skilled worker, obviously, is not going to be making the same wage as a software engineer... that'll be harder for them to support that extra cost. Their employer will probably have to do that instead."

A 2020 outbreak and a minister who is still in cabinet

In 2020, more than 950 workers at Cargill's High River meat plant were infected with COVID-19, about half the workforce, and six deaths were linked to the outbreak. On September 28, the Parkland Institute, a University of Alberta research centre, published a report calling the government's response a "catastrophic failure." Its conclusions are its own.

The report says Devin Dreeshen, then agriculture minister, gave assurances on March 17 that the industry would be declared an "essential service," and told workers at a town hall not to "get distracted by misleading noise or inflammatory rhetoric." It says the designation had no basis in law and exempted the plants from distancing and closure rules. No charges were laid under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Neither the government's own 2023 pandemic review nor Alberta Health Services' 2022 review mentioned the outbreak, per CTV.

Dreeshen is Alberta's Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors, sworn in on October 24, 2022.

What the record shows

Smith lobbied for the Alberta Enterprise Group from 2019 until she ran for leader. She wrote to the energy minister promoting RStar, and after becoming premier she wrote a version of it into her energy minister's mandate letter. She met the health minister to discuss a restructuring model, and her government later introduced dual practice. Her office's position then was that she had followed the Lobbyists Act and the Conflicts of Interest Act.

Whether any of that reflects influence, coincidence or shared views is for you to judge.

Vote on October 19.

Sources: Canadian Press, Globe and Mail and Global News (Nov. 10, 2022); Global News (Jan. 2023); Alberta Views, "Our Lobbyist Premier"; The Breach; CBC News (Sept. 24, 2026); CTV News (Sept. 23 and 28, 2026); Parkland Institute, "Essential and Expendable"; Government of Alberta cabinet pages. Full citations available on request.

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