It wasn’t even the New Year yet when the first major Alberta political story of 2026 broke – the New Year’s Eve announcement by Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz that she’s leaving her cabinet post immediately and will quit as MLA for Calgary-Shaw in May.
Is Ms. Schulz getting out of Dodge before Premier Danielle Smith lays waste to the place and goes down in history as Confederation’s biggest human disaster, does she have some kind of alternative ambition, or is something else afoot?
At the moment, it’s hard to say. There’s lots of idle speculation on social media, but what actually prompted Ms. Schulz’s resignation, which takes effect Friday, is far from clear. Immediate media speculation that this has something to do with an early election call is too easy since an early election is expected anyway. Ms. Schulz is said to have told cabinet of her intentions last Friday.
Ms. Schulz was one of the more credible candidates to replace Jason Kenney after the Qanon-influenced Take Back Alberta crowd ran the first UCP premier out of town on a metaphorical rail in 2022 – although almost anyone in that contest was more credible than the eventual winner, Ms. Smith.
During the leadership campaign, Ms. Schulz cast herself as a kinder, gentler sort of Conservative leader, promising to deliver “compassion and common sense in addition to conservative values.”
No sooner had she lost and been appointed to cabinet as municipal affairs minister by the new premier, though, than Ms. Schulz began to transform herself into Ms. Smith’s Mini-Me, aping the premier’s over-the-top rhetoric. After being given the environment portfolio in 2023, she acted more like an alternative minister of energy than the minister responsible for the environment and protected areas like the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
Ms. Schulz is the subject of an active recall campaign in Calgary-Shaw, but it seems far-fetched to imagine that it could succeed, especially with the idea a 2026 election is in the offing quickly becoming conventional wisdom.
There were few hints in her anodyne resignation letter, which she posted to social media as a way to announce her plans to the public.
“Timing is everything in life and in politics, and it is time for me to seek new opportunities in my career,” she wrote, without a hint of why this particular time or what opportunities might await her.
“The unity campaign is what drove me to get involved with Alberta politics,” she added in the letter, “after seeing firsthand how radical policies devastated our province and its economy.” Oh, please! Ms. Schulz is too smart to really think Rachel Notley’s Government ever did anything radical, let alone devastated the economy. She speaks, of course, of the unity of the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties, not of Canada and Alberta.
Good old fashioned political ambition, it is said here, is much more likely what drove her to get involved in Alberta politics. Never forget that Ms. Schulz was a communications aide to conservative Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall from 2009 to 2012, and he enthusiastically supported her ambitions in 2022.
No, if Ms. Schulz isn’t dealing with a personal circumstance that we haven’t been told about, I think we can be confident that this is a calculated move to achieve a particular goal – either to avoid being associated with a major policy disaster or to advance her career on some other front.
In 2022, Ms. Schulz was endorsed both by Mr. Wall and former federal Conservative interim leader Rona Ambrose. Both are keen observers of Canadian politics no matter what you may think about their policy preferences, so it’s always possible Ms. Schulz got some forceful advice to put as much distance between herself and Ms. Smith as she can while she can.
She was first appointed to cabinet in 2019 as minister of children’s services by Mr. Kenney. He too may have given her sage advice about the risks of continuing to be too closely associated with Ms. Smith.
Whatever happened, Premier Smith said in her own social media announcement that Ms. Schulz would be replaced in the Environment and Protected Areas Portfolio by Taber-Warner MLA Grant Hunter.
No one should expect Mr. Hunter, the associate minister of water, to be able to turn water into wine in his new role.
Justin Wright, MLA for the nearby riding of Cypress-Medicine Hat, will replace Mr. Hunter as chief government whip, Ms. Smith also said.