If anybody had approached me two years ago and said Danielle Smith would be elected as Alberta’s premier in 2023, I would have told them to get their head examined.
When Smith formally entered the UCP leadership in July 2022, it was assumed she was a long-shot candidate trying to regain some political profile. Few believed she could win the race. When every other contender for the leadership turned their guns against Smith, it became apparent she was the front-runner. By the time Smith won the leadership and became the premier of Alberta in the fall of 2022, few were surprised.
With the UCP already trailing the Alberta NDP in the polls while an election loomed in 2023, the common consensus among the chattering classes was that Smith would lead the UCP to a stunning defeat. How could she possibly overcome her own controversial history and statements?
As the political establishment among legacy media outlets, unions, and academia became increasingly hysteric with attacks against Smith, it became clear she was on a path to winning the 2023 Alberta general election. Despite having few allies in the public eye and enduring one of the harshest, personally focused attack campaigns Alberta has ever seen, Smith emerged victorious with a majority government, albeit a reduced one.
Whatever one may think of Danielle Smith, she is not a person to be dismissed or underestimated.
Smith returned to electoral politics by taking the leadership of the small, provincial Wildrose Party in 2009. The party grew under her leadership to form the official opposition in 2012. After two tumultuous years in the official opposition, Smith and seven of her MLAs crossed the floor to the Progressive Conservative government in 2014. That move proved to be a political disaster. Smith lost her own nomination for the party and the NDP formed the government in Alberta for the first time ever in 2015. Smith’s treachery against her own party was often credited for the NDP win.
Smith then vanished from public view for a time and was a political pariah. She resurfaced as a talk show host on a Calgary radio show where she worked until 2021. Her departure from the radio show wasn’t on amicable terms and it was evident she crossed swords with management regularly. She was a popular host though, and with years on the air, she had won back the hearts and minds of many conservative supporters who had been aghast at her floor-crossing in 2014. That created a new base of support that lifted her eventually to the premier’s chair in Alberta.
Smith’s greatest strength is also her greatest weakness. She likes to speak her mind and share idea-balloons. While people appreciate her willingness to examine new ideas, some of her vocal speculations were controversial at times and were later politically used against her. She learned quickly that she can’t be so unconstrained in her speech as premier as she was when in media.
Smith can be ideological and impulsive. These are difficult traits to manage in a political role, but they are also endearing for those who would like to see political changes made. Smith isn’t afraid to think outside the box and she isn’t afraid to put new policies into action. This of course scares the tar out of people enjoying and benefiting from the status quo.
Now with a mandate from the Alberta electorate, Smith can pursue substantive political change. She has hinted at challenging the sacred cow of public health care, pursuing autonomy from Ottawa through provincial policing and pension plans, and entrenching personal rights against coercion for things like vaccinations.
Every move Premier Smith makes will be greeted with vigorous opposition, while pundits will no doubt say she is pursuing the impossible.
Having made such a quick return from political oblivion to the top job in Alberta, nothing Smith sets her sights upon now should be considered impossible to achieve.
Alberta’s wild ride is just beginning.
