Mr. Anderson has known Ms. Smith for more than a decade and helped create the vision for her winning leadership campaign
. He also played a prominent role in the May election campaign that saw her United Conservative Party win againstHe is a lawyer from the right flank of the conservative movement, known for his combative style. The Alberta Premier and Mr. Anderson have similar views and share parallel political paths, especially in their losses and the way they’ve somehow come back. They now have what appears to be a seemingly unbreakable working partnership.
He says he’s not a separatist, but Mr. Anderson is one of the strongest proponents of provincial autonomy measures to ever occupy such a high-ranking position. A manifesto he co-wrote informed much of what became of the Sovereignty Act last fall, the controversial and still untested law that purportedly gives the province the power to resist federal laws it deems unconstitutional and harmful to Alberta. Mr. Anderson says “the Premier sanded down the edges” of his plans.
Mr. Anderson won the PC nomination for Airdrie in 2007, and says what turned it in his favour was support from former premier Ralph Klein, whom he had befriended at his law firm. He “gave me an actual written endorsement that I mailed to every Conservative in the riding.” The period coincided with another big change: Mr. Anderson left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that he had been raised in. “I had some personal beliefs that convinced me I needed to go a different direction,” he says, still expressing admiration for the Mormon church and its emphasis on public service.
“It was never a promise of a cabinet post. It was more of: ‘We will need to give a cabinet post to the Wildrose for this to be legitimate’ … it was always couched language.” His views ventured into other extreme territory. In November, 2020, he called for the decentralization of government power and talked about how Ottawa was using the wealth of western provinces for its own socialist ends. He talked about taking control of police, pensions, natural resources, health care, education and tax collection.
“Jason Kenney’s heart was in the right place,” Mr. Anderson says now. But at the end of the day, “I don’t think Ottawa ever thought Jason would push back really hard.”
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