This compilation photo shows Premier Danielle Smith (left) as she speaks at an economic forum in Calgary, Alta., Tuesday, April 18, 2023 and NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley as she addresses the Calgary Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022. United Conservative Leader Danielle Smith and NDP Leader Rachel Notley are scheduled to debate tonight as the May 29 Alberta election draws closer. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
EDMONTON – Alberta’s two main election rivals squared off in a feisty, televised debate Thursday that came down to the topic of who voters should trust.
The debate came on the same day the province’s ethics commissioner found United Conservative Leader Danielle Smith, in her role as premier, broke conflict-of-interest rules.
NDP Leader Rachel Notley, who was premier from 2015 to 2019, said she has never breached conflict of interest legislation.
Notley said voters can’t trust Smith and her actions have created fear.
“Every day is a new drama, you just don’t have to put up with this,” Notley said.
Smith did not address the conflict-of-interest finding but described herself as “imperfect.”
She also said controversial comments she made in her prior career as a radio host and on podcasts are in the past.
“Albertans are my bosses now and my oath is to serve you and no one else,” Smith said.
A key issue in the report by ethics commissioner Marguerite Trussler was a phone call Smith made in January to then- justice minister and attorney general Tyler Shandro related to criminal charges against Calgary pastor Artur Pawlowski.
Earlier this month, a judge in Lethbridge, Alta., found Pawlowski guilty of mischief and other charges for his role in a protest over COVID-19 restrictions that snarled Alberta’s main border crossing into the United States in early 2022.
Trussler said a premier discussing an ongoing criminal case with an attorney general is not acceptable.
“In the whole scheme of things, it is a threat to democracy to interfere with the administration of justice,” she wrote.
“It is the first step toward the type of judicial system often found in a non-democratic or pseudo-democratic country where members of and friends of those in power are shielded from prosecution or are acquitted by the courts on the instructions of those in power.”
The UCP campaign has also been dogged this week by remarks from a candidate in Lacombe-Ponoka in September comparing transgender students in schools to feces contaminating a batch of cookies.
Smith said in a statement sent by her party Thursday that Jennifer Johnson, if she wins the central Alberta constituency, would not be welcome to sit with the UCP in the legislature.
Johnson “used offensive language and a vile analogy when speaking about the 2SLGBTQIA+ community for which she has apologized,” Smith said in the statement.
Johnson has apologized, said she’s embarrassed that she hurt people and promised to do a better job communicating her concerns.
Smith was not asked about Johnson during the debate.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 18, 2023.
