Prime Minister Mark Carney was sworn in on Friday, one month after launching his leadership bid in Alberta’s capital, where he grew up.
While the former Edmontonian has touted his western roots, Alberta’s premier shared doubts the new prime minister’s roots would lead to a new and improved relationship between her province and the Liberal Party.
“I think what we’ve observed is that anyone who’s elected under the banner of this party follows the party line. It doesn’t matter where they’re from,” Smith said at a press conference.
“I haven’t really seen any change that would lead me to be encouraged that we’re going to have a reset on a relationship.”
Smith accused the Liberal party of spending a decade bringing in “destructive policies” that have been “terribly damaging” to Alberta’s oil and gas industry, including emissions caps and a failure to build pipelines.
At a recent campaign event in Calgary, Carney made comments about the need for more energy infrastructure (though he didn’t use the word pipeline) and he said on Friday he wants to make Canada an energy superpower, in both conventional and clean energy.
Smith does not appear convinced.
“I just haven’t seen any concrete action that leads me to believe that there’s been a change of heart on the part of this current government,” she said.
One notable change of heart from Carney has been the removal of the unpopular consumer carbon pricing, also known as the carbon tax.
The tax will end on April first, with the last rebate checks going out that month. Removing the consumer tax – a focus of conservative attacks for years – was one of Carney’s platform promises in the leadership race.
Cutting the tax will lower the price of gasoline by 17.6 cents.
Smith has been a vocal opponent of the carbon tax, as was her predecessor Jason Kenney, who unsuccessfully challenged the policy in court.
When asked how she felt about it being axed by Carney, Smith said she would like to know what the plans are for industrial pricing -- saying Carney was simply getting rid of the “transparent” in favour of raising a “hidden” one.
“I don’t think it does Alberta any good if we end up seeing massive increases to industrial carbon taxes,” she added. “He’s been quoted many times saying he thinks that the carbon tax is too low. So I’m going to just reserve judgment.”
Carney has said that he plans to increase the industrial price on carbon for big polluters, with former environment minister Steven Guilbeault saying that price results in three times the emissions reductions than the consumer carbon tax.
“We in Alberta have had industrial carbon pricing since 2007, so it’s unclear to me if he intends to layer on top of what we’re already doing or what that price is going to look like,” Smith said. “That’s why we need an election.”
The premier may not have to wait long, with Carney saying Canadians won’t have to wait until November for an election.
Carney does not currently hold a seat in Parliament and where he will run remains a mystery, with the new prime minister refusing to answer questions about the possibility of vying for a seat in Alberta.
On Tuesday, current Edmonton Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault said he would not be stepping aside in Edmonton Centre, because he plans to run for reelection himself.
“The new leader is going to have lots of choices for a seat,” Boissonnault said. “His family is in Ottawa, but look, if he wants to run in Edmonton, there’s lots of seats available. It will be a greater challenge to do that.”
At the same event, United Conservative MLA Jason Nixon said he would welcome Carney campaigning in his own home town.
“We would love to see the prime-minister designate to come and run in Sundry, Alberta, where I’m from,” Nixon said. “We would welcome it with open arms to the campaign. I suspect he won’t take us up on that offer.”
Political analyst John Brennan said he believes the election will come before the end of the month – but he’s not confident the Liberals will secure any more than the two seats they hold in Alberta.
“If you are a first-time party leader, and this is the first time you run for public office, do you really want to take a gamble and run in a seat you might not win?” he asked.
Parliament returns on March 24. Carney will be able to observe, but he will not be able to debate until he holds a seat.
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Chelan Skulski
