When Danielle Smith accepted the leadership of the “United” Conservative Party last week, with an underwhelming 54 percent of the vote after six ballots, she took to the stage cackling. She laughed and laughed and laughed, like someone who couldn’t believe what just happened. It reminded me of a moment from The Simpsons of Sideshow Bob laughing maniacally after being named mayor of Springfield. (I worry about how often life reminds me of Simpsons episodes. Maybe I need to get out more.)
Smith’s first words after her laughing fit ended were “I’m ba-a-a-ack!” Not a great start. You would think that a politician who flamed out in spectacular fashion the last time she was a party leader would be a little leery about reminding the public about her past. (In case you’ve forgotten, Smith was the leader of the Wildrose Party back in 2014, when she and eight of her MLAs crossed the floor to the Progressive Conservatives. She was turfed in the next election, and the Wildrose Party was destroyed. Now, THAT’S leadership.)
But she is back, alright, from radio talk show host to premier of the soon-to-be sovereign province of Alberta. She has won over a slim majority of the 85,000 party members, but can she win over a somewhat larger audience of a couple million Alberta voters?
Part of me says no. Part of me says that she is so far right, so divisive, that even Alberta’s famously conservative voters might find her just a bit too much. After all, this is the woman who claimed that “hydroxychloroquine cures 100 percent of coronavirus patients” and that ivermectin (remember the horse medicine?) would help in the fight against COVID, but its benefits were being suppressed by the government for some reason. She even wrote in 2003 that “moderate cigarette consumption can reduce traditional risks of disease”. Makes you wonder what reforms she has in mind for our health system (“Cigarettes for all!”)
Then there is the attention-grabbing Alberta Sovereignty Act, which would give Alberta the right to refuse to enforce federal laws and ignore federal regulations if they were not in Alberta’s best interests, as defined by, I guess, Danielle Smith. Constitutional experts (can you imagine a more boring person to meet at a party?) say it is unworkable, and it probably is. But will the public buy it? Maybe so, if Smith sticks to one talking point to simplify the issue. In a National Post opinion piece in August, she wrote that the Sovereignty Act “would essentially give Alberta the same power within confederation that Quebec has.” Well, when you put it THAT way …
It took less than 24 hours as premier for Smith to set off her first firestorm when she said the non-vaccinated “have been the most discriminated group” that she’s witnessed in her lifetime. From this comment, despite appearances, I can only assume that Smith is two-years-old. (She had to issue an apology of sorts the next day.)
Oh, and she is also going to repair our healthcare system by putting new people in charge. No word as to where these medical geniuses will come from.
She has also opted to run in a by-election in Brooks-Medicine Hat, created by the retirement of a non-descript UCP MLA. Meanwhile, there’s a seat in Calgary that is empty, but no byelection is planned for that seat. Sounds fair.
Not a good start, to put it mildly. Smith seems in so many ways to be unelectable. She has more baggage than a Canadian airport.
And yet … there are signs of a worldwide shift to the right, likely in response to the worst excesses of the woke left, that could impact our election.
Here at home, Pierre Poilievre is the most right-wing leader the Conservatives have ever had, and polls indicate he could defeat Justin Trudeau. Around the world, the right is on the march. Italy has elected its most far-right leader since Mussolini, a woman who leads a party that actually calls itself the Brothers of Italy. Spain has shifted right, and Sweden – ultra-liberal Sweden! – has elected a far-right party that began as a neo-Nazi group (Swedes are apparently very forgiving). And the U.S. could make a severe right turn in the mid-term elections in November.
So many things can happen between now and May 2022, when the next provincial election will be held, that making a prediction now is a fool’s errand. While I disagree with most everything that comes out of Danielle Smith’s mouth, I agree wholeheartedly with one thing she said in her acceptance speech.
“Albertans,” she said, “don’t want to elect a socialist NDP government any more than they want to see the Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup.”
Smartest thing she has ever said. And possibly, the only thing.
In This Corner 
Good column, Maurice. As you point out, Daffy Danielle has attracted support because of her extreme right-wing views. Those concern me. Perhaps even more I am concerned by her deplorable power of judgment. The floor-crossing episode was but the most publicized example. However, her views on vaccines, quack medicine, the supposed discrimination against the unvaccinated, the sovereignty act and other matters show someone who falls extraordinarily short of the amount of prudence that political leaders require to govern well. The possibility of her shooting herself in the foot again prior to the May election are quite high.
You also hit the issue on the nose when you singled out Smith’s first comment as UCP leader. “I’m back” says what she thinks is most important — herself. Her big ego and evasive answers to questions at yesterday’s press conference show what we should expect. A government more interested in polishing its own image than in serving the needs of Albertans.
As for her comments on the Maple Leafs and the NDP, the Leafs winning the Cup is not the thing I fear most from the coming hockey season. I am a serious Oilers’ fan, but if the Leafs should win the Cup, I would not be so ungracious as to rain on their parade. Perhaps Smith would prefer that an American team like the Avalanche or the Lightning repeat. That says more about her than it does about Albertans in general.
Further, the NDP has never been a socialist party, and its current claim to be social democratic is tenuous at best. However, its four years running the Alberta government were the most stable and most well considered that we have had in recent memory. The NDP, despite its errors, were far more balanced than anything we can expect from Daffy Danielle.
Daffy Danielle has a nice ring to it.
Thank you. Typo on my part