While it has only been a couple weeks since Premier Kenney announced he would be stepping down and the party has not yet laid out the leadership process, the race is on as Danielle Smith passed through the valley on Sunday, June 5.
Smith, who left politics about seven years ago, has put her hat in the ring to be a leadership candidate and is running for the UCP nomination in Livingstone-Mcleod.
While she has been out of politics since 2015, after the infamous “floor crossing” where Wildrose MLAs joined the PC Caucus, she has not been out of the spotlight. She has enjoyed a career as a broadcaster and columnist, restaurateur, and President of the Alberta Enterprise Group.
Smith outlined her motivations for getting back into politics. One point was not wanting to see restrictions come in again in during the fall respiratory season, following the Alberta response to COVID -19.
“There is a way to keep our vulnerable population safe without sacrificing our kids. That is one of the main things we have to make sure we do not do in the fall. We already have kids that are falling behind because they can’t read over the last two years,” she said to a crowd of about 80 at the BCF Sunday.
“We have to make sure the public has confidence in us enough that we can take care of our vulnerable population in a different way. And that different way is how they have done it in other jurisdictions and that is focus protection.”
Her other major concern is making sure the NDP does not return to power and that takes building a united front.
“We will see the targeting of the agricultural community, we’ll see the targeting of our resource sector, we’ll see an increase in government spending, it will be unaffordable and we’ll continue to see them placate and pander to Ottawa.”
She also says she does not want to see Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister any longer and has voiced her support for Pierre Polivere for the Conservative leadership.
In looking at the breakdown of seats in the province, she infers the NDP is focusing on winning the large urban centres, which could carry the majority of the seats and ignoring rural areas.
“We need to hold strong in rural Alberta and don’t split the vote to allow for another party to win, and then we only have to win five seats in Calgary and Edmonton to win a majority government. But we can’t do it sacrificing the values of rural Alberta.”
“Rural Alberta is the heart of conservatism, and there’s a lot of reason for that… We start from a sound principle of individual responsibility, and then we build out from that saying the family is the fundamental building block of society. Beyond that we go to our neighbours, we go to our churches and we go to our Rotary Club, our Elks, and our Lions, and we have a strong network within our community where we can help each other.”
“I think we need to rebuild how we do government from the ground up and that is why we have to be mindful of what we are hearing in rural Alberta.”
