The egg on my face

It was Sunday, just a little over 48 hours ago, that I hit publish on a piece that suggested that we should think of Danielle Smith as a moderate, a voice of reason relative to her TBA-captured party.

Well, don’t I feel silly today!

This morning, we learned that the Premier would be meeting up with Tucker Carlson, the guy so radical that Fox News doesn’t want to have anything to do with him. Yeah, the one who mused about American invading Canada to liberate us from Trudeau.

And then the news dropped that the Standing Committee on Legislative Offices (which has 6 UCP and 4 NDP MLAs on it) voted to establish selection committees to replace both the Ethics Commissioner and the Chief Electoral Officer when their terms expire in May 2024 and December 2023, respectively.

Both positions are appointed on five-year renewable terms. Certainly, this decision could simply be a function of a belief that it’s time for a change in leadership in these offices. The use of five-year renewable appointments for these positions really isn’t ideal. I’d much prefer to see 10-year non-renewable terms (as is the case for the federal Chief Electoral Officer).

But it sure isn’t a good look for the UCP majority on the committee to be ushering the Ethics Commissioner out the door after (a) she issued a stinging report during the election on Danielle Smith’s interference with prosecutorial independence, and (b) the Premier recently made comments complaining about the commissioner holding her accountable on a recent podcast.

In her May report, the Ethics Commissioner wrote:

“In the whole scheme of things, it is a threat to democracy to interfere with the administration of justice. 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. As well, those opposing the Government face trumped up charges and are convicted based on political instructions to the judiciary which slavishly follows the government agenda in order to keep their positions. This independence is a cornerstone of any democratic society and democracy will fail without it.”

I’ll add to her critique here. It’s a threat to democracy when governments appear to be acting to punish individuals in key positions for doing their job. Whether it’s firing the Chief Medical Officer of Health after a pandemic or not renewing the contract of the Ethics Commissioner under these circumstances, governments that indulge in this kind of behaviour create an environment in which people occupying positions that are essential for good governance and democracy are unable to fulfil the roles they are assigned. This leaves us all worse off.