EDMONTON — Former Deputy-Premier Thomas Lukaszuk has doubled down on his claims that Premier Danielle Smith is utilizing Nazi tactics in her anti-immigration approach, after Smith called the accusations "disgusting." "I know that Danielle Smith was offended with some of the comments that Rachel Notley made and I made, but I'm glad that she's offended, and I'm hoping that it caused her to reflect," said Lukaszuk in an interview for The OShow with Laura Babcock on Sunday while in Poland. Smith placed partial blame for Alberta's anticipated multi-billion-dollar deficit on mass immigration and poor federal control during her address to Albertans on Thursday. She also scheduled a referendum on new provincial policies seeking greater control over immigration. "The fact is, Alberta taxpayers can no longer be asked to continue to subsidize the entire country through equalization and federal transfers, permit the federal government to flood our borders with new arrivals, and then give free access to our most-generous-in-the-country social programs to anyone who moves here," said Smith. .Smith's remarks sparked criticism from her usual opponents, including Lukaszuk and former Premier Rachel Notley, who both claimed that her rhetoric and policies mirrored those used against Jewish people in Nazi Germany."Immigrants are not Alberta’s problem. They’re here legally. They’re the ones serving you coffee at Timmies. Immigrants are the engine of our economy. They’re start most small businesses," Lukaszuk wrote in a Facebook post on Friday."But there is a pattern. Populist governments need a scapegoat, a culprit, an 'out-group.' For Hitler it was Jews, for Trump it’s Latinos. In Rwanda it was the Tutsis. It’s an un-Canadian and deplorable political strategy."Smith later called their remarks "gross" and "disgusting," while saying that calling someone a Nazi should only be used when talking about the Holocaust and the "devastation" it caused to the Jewish people.Jewish Edmonton, a group that serves the city's Jewish community, has rejected Lukaszuk's comparison, saying that Adolph Hitler's murdering of millions should not be used to make a "cheap political point," and it takes a "special type of irresponsibility to do so," especially in the current global climate. "He should apologize and stop using that language, and have a mature discussion about what it is that we're trying to address here," Smith said in a press conference on Monday. According to her, the issue is an economic deficit, partially caused by volatile oil prices and by previous governments that left Alberta overreliant on the industry. The effects, which are amplified by poor immigrations policies that have flooded Alberta. She said her government is working to prevent future issues by building overdue pipelines and investing in the Alberta Heritage Fund. However, in the short term, Albertans need to have a tough conversation about how to ensure immigrants are integrated into the economy. .Lukaszuk is not walking back the comments, though."If Premier is offended that her policies and her methodology is compared to some of the darker parts of our history, that's good, let her be offended," Lukaszuk said."Because, you know what? No one can be more offended than immigrants and other vulnerable groups, whom she is now blaming for all the problems."He said he was not talking about the actions that took place during WWII, but about how Germany reached that point and about the signs in advance."It was a slow buildup, and not enough people spoke up and we have to make sure that something like this never happens again," Lukaszuk said. "And by no means am I suggesting, right now, that Danielle Smith can be compared to some of the darkest characters in the history of Europe.""However, it is the kinds of policies that were slowly creeping in, and people were sort of accepting and saying, 'Well, you know, they don't mean bad. It means really nothing. You know, what's the big deal?'".Lukaszuk and many other critics have called Smith's approach divisive and said that it is brewing hatred and even racism among Albertans.He said that Albertans are being led to believe that "if not for those nasty immigrants, everything would be fine.""I've been in government for many years, I know that the problem of overcrowded hospitals and overcrowded schools has nothing to do with immigration," Lukaszuk said."Go into those classrooms. Those classrooms are not overfilled with immigrants. They're overfilled, actually, with even students born in Canada.".Like the Alberta NDP, Lukaszuk said that Smith and her failure to sufficiently invest in public education and healthcare are to blame for the challenges. Regardless, she is taking a "populist" approach and blaming others for her own mess.He also called out Smith's record in 2024, when she asked the federal government for a large allotment of immigrants under the Provincial Nomination Program.Smith has defended this record by stating that her issue is not based solely on the number of immigrants, but rather on a decrease in economic immigrants and an increase in asylum seekers, international students and temporary foreign workers.The referendum asking Albertans whether they would like the provincial government to fight for greater control over immigration, along with eight other questions, is scheduled for Oct. 19.
