Alberta government backs away from podcast comments made by Premier Smith, Calgary MLA

Alberta’s governing UCP contradicted itself Friday regarding past comments made by both Premier Danielle Smith and Calgary-Lougheed MLA Eric Bouchard.

The backing away followed heavy criticism, including from conservatives, over a pair of podcast videos regarding COVID-19 vaccines and doubling Alberta’s population to 10 million people by 2050.

“Let’s have an aggressive target to double our population,” Smith told the Shaun Newman Podcast in January.

“People are going to want to come here, and we have to embrace them, and we want to build this place out.”

Video of that interview was clipped and posted Thursday and became widely shared and commented on by Friday afternoon.

It also caught the attention of Maxime Bernier, leader of the People’s Party of Canada.

“The whole fake conservative establishment in this country are sellouts who care more about power, pandering to minorities, and pleasing their business friends and lobbyists, than about saving our culture, identity and social cohesion,” Bernier posted on X, formerly Twitter, along with the video of Smith.

Smith said on the podcast that 10 million people would give Alberta more political power, placing the province second in population in Canada, only to Ontario.

When asked where 5 million additional people would come from, Smith said many will be from the rest of Canada but also immigrate from Africa, India, and China.

“It’s interesting [Smith said] that, given there is an anti-immigrant aspect to the UCP. Not Smith, but members of the UCP, who are pushing back on this,” political scientist Duane Bratt told CityNews.

Friday afternoon, the premier’s office backed away from her comments.

A statement said that while many are moving to Alberta for jobs and low taxes, the federal government’s “open-border policies are resulting in unsustainable levels of population increase that make it very difficult for any province…to keep up, leading to shortages in housing, public infrastructure and needed health and education professionals.”

Smith’s population stance was just one ongoing controversy for the government.

UCP MLA Eric Bouchard was also under fire Friday for things he said on a different podcast about COVID-19 vaccinations. 

“My win would be when the shots are removed, of course,” he told Unscrew The News, in an interview posted in early July.

“But, you know, as I mentioned, government moves incredibly slowly. So I think the fact that the discussions are – it’s begun. So the wheels are in motion.”

Bouchard wasn’t clear if he meant vaccine mandates would be outlawed or if COVID-19 shots themselves would be banned from Alberta, although some online took it to mean the latter, including Bratt.

A spokesperson for the province’s health ministry said the government does plan to amend Alberta’s Bill of Rights to guarantee vaccine choice, effectively outlawing mandatory vaccine laws, in the fall.

But the office of Adriana LaGrange said Alberta will maintain vaccine choice for people who want to take them and is not considering any changes to COVID-19 vaccine funding or accessibility.