Danielle Smith, who has just been sworn in as Alberta’s premier, will prepare to run in a byelection in Brooks-Medicine Hat, which has now been scheduled for Nov. 8.
“Appointments have been made for the returning officer and election clerk in Brooks-Medicine Hat and they are ready to conduct voting in the electoral division,” said Resler.
Candidate nominations are open until Oct. 21 at 2 p.m.
For most of her leadership race, Smith maintained that she would run in her home riding of Livingstone-Macleod, a district held by UCP MLA Roger Reid, who won in 2019 with 70 percent of the vote.
Smith had said she wouldn’t call a byelection in Calgary-Elbow.
When questioned about running in a riding so far away from where she lives, Smith responded, “People will have seen from when I was leader before—as well as the kind of campaign that I have run—I’m prepared to travel a lot, and be in communities a lot, and do town halls a lot, and reach out a lot … I have that work ethic that people will be able to have full access to me. I will be advocating for their issues.”
Smith said she plans to spend lots of time in Brooks-Medicine Hat, and her first priority is fixing Highway 3.
“It’s quite dangerous. When you look at the amount of traffic that we have on there—with big industrial developments, as well as manufactured homes, trying to compete with farmer equipment and farm machinery, especially in harvest—it has caused tragedies, and we have to make sure that that is corrected.”
The sovereignty act she proposes will give Alberta the same type of autonomy as Quebec, governing as a nation within a nation.
Some areas Smith says need improvement under the sovereignty act are enabling the province to circumvent Bill C-69, termed by conservative parties as the “no new pipelines law,” and opposing federal cuts to fertilizer use, federal mandatory vaccination policies, and federal firearms ownership regulations.
