Smith has accomplished a lot in just over two years. Pictured: Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Photo Credit: Danielle Smith/X.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has only been in office for a little over two years, yet has already established herself as a leader within Canada on many different issues. Most recently, her government passed three separate pieces of legislation that variously served to enshrine parental rights, protect young people from permanent gender-related transition procedures and promote fairness and protect women in sport.
Bill 27, the Education Amendment Act, imposes the requirement for parental consent before a child under the age of 15 can change their name, pronouns or gender at school. For older children up to age 18, parental consent will not be needed but parents must still be notified if their child requests any changes in these areas. As far as the current sexual orientation and gender identity curriculum goes, parents will now have to decide up front whether they want to have their children participate. Previously, parents had the right to opt out of this part of the curriculum but now they will have to choose to have their children opt in.
Of course, the opposition NDP went insane at these changes, claiming that basic human rights were being violated and that the “opt-in” change would mean some students would not receive any sex education at all. Thinking back a mere 20 years or so ago, the notion that parents would be the ultimate decision-makers for their young children would be completely uncontroversial. And not too long ago, sex education did not have a focus on gender identity, changing pronouns or the like, as it appears to today. The whole “woke” social justice orientation in our public education systems has been a relatively recent development, and not a positive one. Public opinion polls show that a large majority of parents are fully supportive of the changes included in this legislation.
Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, limits the surgical and pharmaceutical options available to transgender or gender-diverse youth below the age of 18 and prohibits members of the health professions from performing procedures to treat gender dysphoria or gender incongruence, or prescribing various drugs for hormone therapy for children and youth. The Bill also contains measures to significantly restructure the provincial health care system, notably to introduce provincial health corporations.
Several LGBTQ organizations have launched legal challenges to Bill 26, claiming it is not constitutional and violates the right to equality, security of the person and not to be subjected to or coerced into a medical procedure or treatment without consent. How the courts end up deciding on this will have implications nationally and potentially even internationally as it will be precedent-setting.
The third piece of legislation, Bill 29, is the Fairness and Safety in Sport Act. The Bill would require sports organizations and academic institutions to establish athlete eligibility guidelines in amateur sport that would ensure that biologically female athletes would only be competing against other biologically females, not transgender females who were born male. The legislation would also enable the creation of coed sports divisions which would include transgender athletes. It is uncertain how many transgender athletes would be affected by this change as there is no reliable estimate of their number.
All of these laws are expected to come into force on Sept. 1, 2025. Most of these changes represent a return to common sense and a debunking of the leftist trends that have entered so many of our public institutions in recent years. As most provinces have not as yet adopted similar policies, Alberta will be the testing ground to see how they work in practice, if they are supported by court decisions and how they are received by the general public. The outcome will likely be viewed with interest by other countries as well. On these issues, all eyes will be on Alberta in the coming months and years.
She has published numerous articles in journals, magazines & other media on issues such as free trade, finance, entrepreneurship & women business owners. Ms. Swift is a past President of the Empire Club of Canada, a former Director of the CD Howe Institute, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, past President of the International Small Business Congress and current Director of the Fraser Institute. She was cited in 2003 & 2012 as one of the most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network & is a recipient of the Queen’s Silver & Gold Jubilee medals.
