'Very worried': Alberta NDP concerned about gender policy impact

NDP House Leader Christina Gray speaks with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about the first week of the Alberta legislature’s fall sitting.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Michael Higgins: Let's start on that trio of bills focusing largely on transgender youth. You've had a day now to review the legislation. What's standing out for you from an opposition perspective?

Christina Gray: The bills that have been introduced are some of the most anti-trans legislation, anti-sex education legislation, that we've seen anywhere in the country and counter to what the premier has said, it's removing choice and removing rights and punching down on vulnerable children.

Yesterday was a really tough day for a lot of Albertans who feel less safe in this province, who feel hurt by this legislation. The official opposition is strongly, strongly opposed, and we're very worried about the impact that this is going to have on kids here in Alberta.

MH: Where do you feel this will leave the relationship between physicians and patients?

CG: Danielle Smith has inserted herself, so she is in the doctor's office now with doctors, parents, patients, taking away the right to choose what's considered in many parts of the world the best medical practice when it comes to options, when it comes to access to puberty blockers, when it comes to access to gender-affirming care.

A lot of misinformation has been introduced into the health conversation. They are talking about removing access to bottom surgery, something that does not happen anywhere in Canada. They are really going further than we've seen with anti-trans legislation than any other part of the country.

Unfortunately, we know with some peer reviewed studies that have come out, that when any jurisdiction see legislation like this, you actually see some of our most vulnerable children have increasing rates of self-harm, suicide, houselessness.

This is going to hurt children in our province. We're very, very concerned about that.

MH: How do you feel these bills will stand up against the government's proposed amendments to the Alberta Bill of Rights announced Monday?

CG: We've had an opportunity to really take a look at what that is and to even start on some of the debate in the legislature, and really the amendments are nothing but desperate virtue signaling ahead of the Premier's leadership review.

Our fundamental human rights are already protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They cannot be overridden by any provincial bill. The UCP continues to focus on anti-vaccine positions rather than addressing real needs, like parents seeking proper care for their children.

On both the Bill of Rights and the anti-trans piece, I cannot over emphasize that we have, as an opposition under leader Naheed Nenshi, been talking to Albertans constantly throughout the summer and none of these things come up in the top 50 of issues that Albertans have.

We are dealing with an affordability crisis, health care crisis, nurses have just rejected the deal. So we're worried about job action in the future, public safety, these are the things Albertans want action on and yet this premier is making choices that are purely self-serving ahead of her leadership review this weekend.

MH: There’s a unique dynamic within your party right now. Naheed Nenshi, your party leader, has a seat in the gallery while you take the role of leader of the official opposition in the assembly. How are you making that work?

CG: I'm really excited to be working with Naheed as the leader now. He is participating in our caucus meetings, and we work very, very closely together, but until he has a seat on the floor of the legislature, he's asked me to act as the leader in the assembly.

I’m very honoured to be asked to play that role, and I will be asking some of those first questions in question period and working with the largest official opposition in Alberta's history to represent what Albertans are telling us they want.

Issues like health care and housing, public safety, education, where we are the lowest funded per student in all of Canada. All of these important issues with his guidance from the gallery, sometimes maybe from other locations. We're really pleased to be working with him.

MH: Does there come a point though, in the near term, where that will need to change? That it is likely someone within your caucus will need to step aside and make way for a byelection that Naheed Nenshi can run in?

CG: Naheed has been clear, when the time and opportunity becomes available, he will seek that seat in the legislature, but he's not in a rush.

We have seen leaders of political parties without a seat in the legislature in the past, in fact I believe Danielle Smith was leader of the Wild Rose opposition for more than two years without a seat in the legislature.

So right now, we're focused on representing Albertans in the legislature, particularly with this very self-serving agenda that is punching down on vulnerable children, that is not respecting what Albertans are looking for. That's certainly our focus.

I look forward to having Naheed join us on the floor when that opportunity comes, but right now, the job we are doing, we are able to do very well under his leadership.

MH: What is the NDP watching for in the outcome of the UCP AGM in Red Deer? Be that policies up for debate or the leadership review?

CG: It's interesting seeing what's happening because my colleague, Deputy Leader Rakhi Pancholi said it very well when she referred to Danielle Smith as the premier of a party, not a province.

Everything she has been doing has been to try and win this leadership vote. I'm curious to see what kind of numbers will come back from that.

I think in contrast, we know that Naheed Nenshi, in a highly competitive leadership race, secured 86 per cent support from the members of the largest political party in Canada, because their membership grew so much.

I don't think Danielle Smith is going to be able to match that. We'll see if she's able to hold on to leadership of this very fractious group. She's certainly catering to the far-right wings of it in the hopes that she will get to stay as leader.

In the meantime, I think Albertans need a government that respects human rights, respects dignity, puts forwards the issues that they are concerned with, and we don't have that right now.

I hope coming out of the leadership, we can get closer to something that looks like a sane and rational government in this province.

Premier Smith received 91 per cent support in the leadership review.