‘You have to work it out’: Premier Danielle Smith says signing MOU shows that she is pro-federalist

Are Danielle Smith’s true colours red and white, with a maple leaf in the middle?

Alberta’s premier said as much on her Saturday morning radio program Your Province, Your Premier, pointing to Friday’s signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Prime Minister Mark Carney as Exhibit A of her belief in the idea of Canada.

“I think I showed my true colours yesterday by signing an MOU,” Smith said.

“That’s my view of how our country works, is that we have federal jurisdiction and provincial jurisdiction and where they overlap, you have to work it out,” Smith said in response to a question from host Wayne Nelson.

“Sometimes it takes a little while and sometimes it takes going back and forth, but it’s worth doing and I think we got not only a good result for Alberta but also a good result for Canada.”

That didn’t mean Smith agreed with a federal judge’s decision to quash a citizen initiative petition asking for a referendum on Alberta separating from Canada in October, she says.

The Alberta government and separatist organizers have both appealed the ruling, setting up further legal battle over the scope of Indigenous consultation and the limits of citizen-led referendums.

Smith said her government is reviewing all legal options and hasn’t ruled out extraordinary responses — including invoking the notwithstanding clause — following consultations with her cabinet and caucus.

But for now, her government is focused on appeals and legal review, Smith said.

“The broader interest here is we want to preserve our Citizen Initiative Act,” she said. “The process is supposed to be permissive, because we want citizens to feel confident that they can get their fellow citizens together and put a question of public interest on the agenda – and there are 700,000 people who -- on one side or the other -- have said they want to have this discussion about Alberta’s place inside Canada.

“For a single, Trudeau-appointed judge to come in and say you can’t do that without Indigenous consultation first – I think that upends the entire act," she added.

“Because how is a group of well-meaning citizens supposed to even meet that bar? You can’t!

“It is a bar that we have to meet as government,” she added, “but it only triggers our requirement to do so if it is successful.

“So that’s why we want to make sure that we’re appealing it so that any future citizen’s petition can have the confidence that their work isn’t going to be wasted.

“I can imagine if we let this one stand, why would anyone start a petition campaign if it could be overturned because of a single judge who said there wasn’t enough Indigenous consultation the particular question?”

“So it’s a broader issue and we think an important one to preserve democracy.”

‘Time for Danielle Smith to cowboy up’

Smith has been under pressure from StayFree Alberta and other separatists to push forward with a referendum question regardless of the federal judgement.

Separatist lawyer Jeffery Rath agrees with Smith’s view that the judgement was made in error, and said she needs to push forward with a referendum -- or risk losing the support of separatist sympathizers in the UCP.

“It’s time for Danielle Smith to cowboy up,” he said. “She has the power, authority and jurisdiction under section one of the Referendum Act to put our question on a referendum ballot.”

Rath called the decision “an existential question” for the premier, adding that she will lose the “moral authority” to stay on as the UCP leader if she doesn’t proceed.

‘Violates treaty rights’

Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi meanwhile, posted on social media Thursday that the proposed referendum is not only out of bounds constitutionally -- but moving forward with it would cost the province a bundle.

“This referendum violates treaty rights, it would cost Albertans hundreds of millions of dollars, and is now tied to serious public safety concerns thanks to the largest data breach in Alberta’s history.

“Accept the court’s decision,” Nenshi said. “Nobody is above the law – certainly not this Premier or this separatist government."

Smith meanwhile hedged when asked by Nelson whether she will push through with a referendum in October.

“I have to talk with my caucus and cabinet and there’s some work on committee with that Forever Canada petition which did get over 400,000 signatures – so there’ll be a little more work that we have to do internally to digest the impact of this decision," she said.

“I’ll have more to say on that next week.”

However, when a regular caller named Don brought the subject up late in the show, Smith doubled down on her belief in the Canadian dream when discussing Quebec, where there is also renewed talk of a separatism referendum.

“I’ll be going to Quebec very soon to meet their new premier (Christine Frechette), and I think collectively, we’re going to try to work on convincing Quebeckers just as much as we have to convince Albertans that co-operative federalism can work,” she said.

“And we can have autonomy within a united Canada,” she added. “I think that’s the view of the CAQ (Coalition Avenir Quebec) Party and that’s my view as well – so I’ll be doing my part as well to keep the country together, including having better partnerships with Quebec."

With files from CTV News’ Mark Villani and Cassidy McMackon