Danielle Smith’s gamble

David Cameron wanted to be Prime Minister of the UK. He ran for the position in two general elections and won both times. He was leader of the Conservative party for over 10 years. But he didn’t really like leading. 

His party was deeply divided over the question of whether the UK should stay in the European Union (EU). Cameron himself preferred staying in the EU but he didn’t feel up to forcing the question within his party despite it being, probably, the most consequential policy matter facing the country. There was a political party (UK Independence Party) dedicated to leaving the EU. They got votes that the Conservatives thought they were entitled to, and Cameron wanted to keep more Euro-skeptics from jumping ship from his party.  So, he decided not to decide. 

Cameron promised a referendum on Brexit, keeping the skeptics in the party for the election of 2015 (where he won a majority). He himself would campaign for “Remain” but let his MPs decide whether to campaign for “Leave,” and many of them did. Cameron probably figured that “Remain” would win, and that mollifying the Euroskeptics with the referendum would result in their losing the vote and dropping the question. He’d still be in charge, but he wouldn’t have to make any hard decisions. It was brilliant.

British regrets 

Except we know what happened. Cameron lost; first the referendum and then his leadership. And the UK lost. Brexit has been a disaster. Now, alienated from full participation in the European common market, the British Prime Minister is reduced to having to suck up to Donald Trump in the hopes of getting humiliating trade concessions.

A lot of us who talk about politics for a living have “rules” of politics we like to refer to when events seem hard to explain. One of mine is this: “No one in politics ever learns things the easy way.” By “the easy way” I mean “by learning from the mistakes of others.” I cite this rule because someone is once again not learning the easy way. Danielle Smith, Premier of Alberta, seems determined to repeat almost every mistake that Cameron made.

To leave or not to leave

In the wake of another Liberal federal election win, Smith “leads” a party divided over sympathy for the idea of Alberta separating from Canada. She claims not to support the idea but has just passed legislation making it easier for activists to force a referendum on the question. She wants to avoid either the emergence of an independence party that might bleed support from her party or a movement to unseat her from leadership from within her party. Like Cameron, she wants to be in charge, but she doesn’t want to make the hard decisions or speak hard truths; she wants to play with fire and hope that we’ll make her dilemma go away.

Nothing in this is about leading us toward the common good of the province or the nation. In Christian social thought, government is tasked with enacting “public justice”: the conditions under which the various institutions and communities in society can thrive according to God’s purposes. That requires leadership, not self-protective buck-passing.