Dear Ms. Smith...

A Guest Op-Ed/Open Letter by Marg Tokar

Dear Ms. Smith,

I will not give you the deference of addressing you as Premier, nor Honourable. You have not earned either.

I was a lifelong Conservative who has spent my entire life in Alberta. Your party is not representative of the party I grew up with. That party, as a result of your governance, no longer exists.

You have had to navigate two Citizen Initiative petitions.

One, Forever Canadian initiated by the Honourable Thomas Lukaszuk, was a policy initiative and required a legislative vote. Please refrain from continuing to frame it as a request for a referendum vote. It was not, the paperwork proves this out. You know this, but you continue to mislead Albertans.

The other was the constitutional referendum requested by the separatist faction in Alberta. You intervened in this petition numerous times. You changed legislation to extend the time allotted for the collection of signatures, reduced the number of signatures required, and twice intervened in the courts on behalf of this petition.

In the end, you had two petitions before you. The Forever Canadian petition, deemed legal with over 400K counted and verified signatures.

The separatist petition, ruled illegal, no signatures counted, no signatures verified, which also had illegal access to our electorate list.

Yet you continue to perpetuate the lie that over 700K citizens were asking you for a referendum on these questions. You have only 400K signatures, counted and verified. Period. Stating a lie repetitively does not make it so. It’s still a lie every time you make this claim.

Throughout the course of these petitions, you repeatedly were given legal off ramps to avoid putting forth a petition that would cause divisiveness, put Alberta’s economy and the unity of our country at risk. The outcome of the separatist petition, it being ruled illegal, with zero signatures counted or verified, was your opportunity to stand behind the majority of Albertans, protect our economy and preserve our country’s unity.

You had a choice. You chose to risk our economy and our country.

You ignored the Forever Canadian petition, and instead put forth your own question to Albertans, a question representative of those who wish to break up our country. Our own premier put this province at risk.

You keep stating that 700K Albertans demanded a referendum. That is a lie. The factual and legal number is 400K. Period.

You state that the separatist group makes up 30% of Albertans, and they deserved to be heard, that this government listens to its constituents. Also a lie.

When have you listened to the majority of Albertans who have spoken out against privatizing Public HC? When have you listened to our Doctors, HCWs about how your silos are not functional? We have a new orthopedic facility at the RAH that is closed, because you choose to give private surgery clinics double what surgeries would cost in the facility that you closed. One of those private surgeries is at the centre of the CorruptCare scandal The one that Sam Mraiche had or has shares in. By the way, does he still have our $49M in his pocket? You don’t even listen when told that Albertans are dying in our ER waiting rooms, waiting for care. You’re trying to normalize dead Albertans.

Did you listen to the majority, teachers, parents, when you defunded Public Education in order to fund “independent” schools? Did you listen while you were increasing the funding to charter schools by 844% from 2022 to 2024? That’s a fact. If you’d like to see the news article “Many Charter School Lobbyists & Owners Closely Affiliated with the UCP”? I can send you a copy. Did you listen to teachers? No. You ordered them back to work, back to the same unstable learning environments that they were striking against. Nothing has changed to this day. Imagine, the “richest” province in the country has the lowest funded education system.

Yours is the only government in Canada who is stealing $15M every single month from AISH clients in the form of the federal CDB benefit that would have brought them closer to the poverty line line. Are you listening to them? Are you listening to the fear they’re experiencing as you switch many of them to ADAP, to “expand their employment skills” with no assistance. Are you listening? Despicable.

But now, you have to listen to separatists, let them be heard to quell their dissatisfaction, “that has been inflamed by Trudeau and the NDP”. If you didn’t have the federal government to fight, you’d have nothing to offer Albertans. It is you who has poured the gasoline on the little brush fire that has always existed. Let’s not forget, in 1982, a seat was won in the legislature by a separatist. You have created a wildfire. Inside, and outside of your party, the separatists have owned you. Yes, I’ve seen your interviews with Ezra Levant & the separatists pre election. You sold your soul to the separatists, and now Albertans have to pay the price. Why? Because you would never step down and call an election. Power is your drug of choice. The irony is that that wildfire you ignited, just may consume you as well.

That phrase, “a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada”? Keep repeating that inane phrase. It means nothing, and Albertans know it. It makes us angrier every time you say it.

You stated that you ran on the Sovereignty Act, just yesterday you said that. Another lie. You didn’t. So many lies.

As well, could you contact your former friend David Parker, you know, from your TBA days, and tell him to comply with the Cease and Desist order. You want a separatist vote on Oct 19th, yet you’ve done nothing to ensure our data will be safe going forward. Nothing.

If you really want to serve the people of Alberta, call an election. Perhaps you’d retain an iota of integrity by doing so.

Marg Tokar

Marg Tokar is the founder of AB Resistance, an activist and an advocate.