Smith ready for court fight over Alberta map

The Alberta premier says she will assemble a legal team if the NDP takes the new riding map to court. Lise Merle and Tamara Lich also react to her list of conservative wins at Rebel News LIVE!

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government will assemble a legal team if the NDP takes the province's proposed electoral boundaries to court. Lise Merle and Tamara Lich took up the fight on Wednesday's Buffalo Roundtable.

The proposed map comes from an advisory panel report issued Monday. NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi has called it "illegal" and "unconstitutional." In a clip the hosts played, he accused the UCP of drawing the map to save the finance minister's seat and, he said, other ministers' seats too.

The panel's chair has said he does not believe the proposals are unconstitutional, though two members of the panel disagreed. Smith says she hopes it doesn't come to a court fight and would rather debate the report in the legislature.

Elections Alberta is the other front. Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure has suggested holding the 2027 vote under the existing boundaries or delaying it. Justice Minister Mickey Amery replied that the government has "no intention of changing" the election date, which is set by law for on or before Oct. 18, 2027, Global News reported.

Tamara said the agency should get on with it. "We're a year out," she said. "What would happen if you or I couldn't do our jobs? We would lose it and we would be replaced. It's in their name. Elections Alberta. You have one job."

Lise said she likes seeing the Alberta government press the agency. "I love when a government reins in a bureaucracy the way the government of Alberta currently is," she said.

The hosts also played a clip of Smith's speech at Rebel News LIVE! in Calgary, where the premier listed what her government has done. She said Alberta has protected fairness in women's sport and protected kids from "being given life-altering drugs and surgery to change their sex or gender."

She also pointed to what she called the "Peterson law," protecting professionals' off-duty speech, and to ending DEI hiring requirements and removing "sexually explicit content in the school libraries."

"It is a roadmap for the rest of the provinces to de-woke their institutions," Lise said. The one thing she would add to Smith's list is "the discontinuation of prosecution of regular Albertans and Saskis by the federal government."

Tamara said she loved the speech. "I thought she did really well," she said. "I think we're on the right track in a lot of areas."

The Buffalo Roundtable airs Wednesdays at 11 a.m. MT / 1 p.m. ET.

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