Colette Derworiz and Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press

CALGARY — Premier Jason Kenney has launched a campaign to recruit skilled workers from Toronto and Vancouver, while repeating his criticism of a so-called Alberta sovereignty bill promoted by candidate Danielle Smith.

Kenney held a news conference Monday to announce plans for the Alberta United Conservative Party government to begin recruiting workers from across the country as the provincial economy grows.

“Alberta is back in full force, but one of the biggest challenges to sustaining this incredible growth is having enough people to fill the newly created positions,” he said. He added that it was “a very good problem”.

The campaign comes after Jason Kenney named an element of the candidate’s program to replace him as party leader Danielle Smith, weirdo.

Ms Smith says if she wins the party leadership, she will introduce legislation this fall to give Alberta the power to ignore federal laws and court decisions that go against the province’s interests. Lawyers say such a law would be illegal, unenforceable and a dangerous breach of the rule of law.

Speaking on two Alberta radio stations, Jason Kenney said he was certain that even if the Legislative Assembly passed the law, Alberta would be a laughing stock and that the Lieutenant Governor would deny him royal assent.

The Prime Minister added that such legislation would ignore and violate the Constitution in a manner unprecedented in Canadian history and would jeopardize investor confidence.

Ms Smith is urging the Prime Minister and other observers to reserve their opinion on the bill until they can read it.

The candidate chastised Prime Minister Kenney in a statement on Sunday, slamming him for what she calls his interference in the leadership race and saying his comments were ill-informed and disrespectful of a large and growing majority of Conservative Party members who support his legislation support project.

“If I am elected to replace him as leader and prime minister, I will work closely with the whole group of the United Conservative Party to ensure that sovereignty legislation is drafted, passed and implemented in accordance with language and sound constitutional principles,” said Ms Smith her testimony.

Premier Kenney said on Monday he was not interfering in the leadership campaign but was reaffirming his position on an important public policy issue.

He pointed out that the current government “was elected with a commitment to create jobs, boost the economy and build pipelines”.

In his opinion, the “so-called sovereignty law” would be a blow to the province for three main reasons. “It would drive back investment massively, it would cause people to leave the province, companies not to come here, just when our economy is seeing fantastic economic investment,” he said.

Mr Kenney added that it could also hurt the campaign to attract people to the province.

“Here we are launching a campaign for Canadians to move to another part of Canada. If Alberta decided to embark on a separatist project, I think that would automatically exclude many Canadians,” Mr. Kenney said.

He says it’s not just a theory, citing Quebec as an example when René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois were elected on a sovereign platform in 1976. “Quebec began suffering a bleed of people, money and investment overnight,” said Mr. Kenney.

Jason Kenney announced in May that he was stepping down as leader of the United Conservative Party government after winning 51% support in a vote on his leadership, but he will remain in office until party members elect a replacement on October 6 to have.

Danielle Smith, who began her campaign with a handful of Conservative faction and Cabinet supporters, seems to have more internal support these days, including some who originally pledged to back one of her rivals, Travis Toews.