Danielle Smith defends senior staff member under fire after social media post targeting Canadian immigration levels

Danielle Smith says Bruce McAllister wasn't in the wrong for comments about Canada's immigration system.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is again defending a senior staff member after a social media post targeting immigration drew criticism from legal and political observers.

Bruce McAllister, who heads the premier’s Calgary office and chaired the Alberta Next panel, posted a lengthy statement on X (formerly Twitter) criticizing immigration levels in Canada.

“The people orchestrating this reckless, unsustainable mass immigration into Canada fill me with profound disgust,” McAllister wrote. “To deliberately engineer and champion such explosive, unmanageable population growth in your own nation? That’s the height of civic irresponsibility.”

McAllister later added: “Why import from nations with failed systems when our Judeo-Christian heritage and principles have worked so well here?”

McAllister is no stranger to controversy. Last year, he publicly apologized after telling a teen questioning the Alberta Next panel, “your parents should turn you over their knee.”

CTV attempted to contact McAllister for clarification of his post, but he hung up on the call after hearing the nature of the inquiry.

Premier responds

Smith was asked at a news conference whether McAllister’s statements reflect those of her office and the United Conservative Party.

“Well, I can tell you that Western society is based on the Socratic Judeo Christian tradition,” said Smith. “If you go back and look about why it is we have the society we do, there’s no question that there are some foundational influences to that.”

“However, Alberta was also created since 1905 based on the immense diaspora communities that come here,” she added.

“One of the reasons why Alberta works so well historically is because when people arrive, they have a good paying job, have time to determine whether this is one where they want to put down roots and have a family there,” Smith added.

Smith also linked population growth to pressures on provincial services and said changes are needed.

“I would like to see a newcomer have a job when they arrive, because anyone who arrives in Alberta with a good paying job just has so many greater prospects for success.”

Complexity

Later, under questioning, Smith said children from immigrant families have played an outsized role in boosting classroom complexity.

“The diversity and complexity of that group, whether because they come from war-torn countries, don’t speak English or have other types of issues with delays, it has put an immense pressure, almost to the point of breaking on many of our schools,” said Smith

“We don’t want that to happen,” she said. “We want our frontline workers to feel supported in education. We want to a health-care system that’s able to support people when they need it. And we need to get back to a better balance.”

‘Borderline racist’

Immigration lawyer Raj Sharma said the wording in McAllister’s post echoes rhetoric seen elsewhere.

“It sort of smacks of things that we’ve heard from other places, whether it’s Brexit or the far right, whether it’s from France, whether it’s from the MAGA and the Trump crowd as well,” said Sharma.

“It has shades of the great replacement theory in it. And the great replacement theory, of course, is this: It’s a far right conspiracy theory that posits a deliberate effort by elites, orchestrated by elites or governments, to demographically replace white or European-descended populations with non-white immigrants, leading to a cultural erosion.”

Mount Royal University political scientist Keith Brownsey said that given McAllister’s high profile in Smith’s staff, the comments could have political consequences.

“My take is, I find this a disturbing text,” said Brownsey.

“Those attitudes are borderline racist, anti-immigrant certainly, and I think it demonstrates a profound lack of understanding of the Canadian immigration system,” he said.

“It confirms what a lot of people are saying these days, that Danielle Smith may be a separatist herself, or at least pandering to that part of her party, and it’s not going to serve. the UCP very well at all,” he added.

Smith’s chief of staff, Rob Anderson, also posted ahead of the premier’s planned address.

“Watch the TV address of Premier @ABDanielleSmith to Albertans tomorrow. This absolute insanity needs to stop. It will.”

Smith wouldn’t say if she will be addressing migration in her televised speech Thursday, only saying she plans to address several topics , with the economy at the top of the list.