The premier built her power on the party activists who now demand a separation referendum — and the Centurion data breach has turned it into a democratic crisis she has every incentive to ignore.
Key Takeaways:
Since Ralph Klein, small groups of aligned party members have exercised outsized control over Alberta’s premier. Danielle Smith learned this lesson and built her leadership on Take Back Alberta and Free Alberta Strategy supporters, groups that now both rally around separation.
The Centurion Project’s alleged breach of Elections Alberta’s voters list, 2.9 million records improperly shared, has compromised the legitimacy of the separation referendum petition. Smith faces a fatal conflict of interest: calling a public inquiry would provoke the separatist base that controls her party leadership, but failing to call one should cost her the next election.
Smith’s most likely path is to ignore calls for an inquiry, let the referendum proceed (expecting separatists to lose), and run on economic wins including the Carney MOU — a plan that requires running roughshod over democratic principles and hoping severely normal Albertans don’t make their voices louder than the separatists who control the premier.
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