Alberta UCP leadership race likely doing ‘serious damage’ to party’s brand: pollster
UCP members have been voting since late August on who should replace Kenney, who resigned as premier and party leader in May after narrowly surviving a leadership review.Danielle Smith — the former leader of the Wildrose party that later merged with the Progressive Conservatives to form the UCP in 2017 — has become the perceived frontrunner in the race, attracting large crowds and attention from her rivals for her proposed Alberta sovereignty act.
the act would turn the province into a “banana republic,” while a majority of UCP caucus members have also opposed the plan.Smith has in recent weeks downplayed her proposal, labelling it a symbolic document to seek rights that provinces such as Quebec are employing. But she has stressed that she would refuse to enforce federal rules if she were to become premier, particularly in areas like COVID-19 health restrictions.
Notably, both Smith and her opponents are all “behaving like Danielle Smith is the frontrunner,” she said. “Danielle Smith hasn’t made that switch. Maybe it’s because she’s in a tighter race here in Alberta and doesn’t feel she can safely make that pivot. Or maybe she’s never going to make that pivot. That’s what we’re all waiting to see.”Legal experts unconvinced by Danielle Smith’s ‘Sovereignty Act’ explainer – Sep 6, 2022