Smith, more successfully than other candidates, picked up on what the party’s base wanted to hear: re\u002Dlitigiating the pandemic and hammering away at Trudeau
It’s not guaranteed that Smith will win, though conversations with UCP sources in recent weeks suggest that the available evidence — little of it public — puts Smith in a nearly unassailable position.
“I think the biggest risk that Danielle has is her record. You know, she’s been quick to take positions on issues, whether that’s, you know, in her role in media commentary or in her past experience in politics,” said Matt Solberg, with New West Public Affairs, who worked with Smith between 2012 and 2014. “When you’ve got a record in the public life as long as hers … that’s a lot of positions that you need to account for.
“She was able to connect with tens of thousands, if not more, Albertans every single day in a very sort of intimate, real way that you can’t get from simply attending a town hall or a political rally, you can’t get that listening to a speech in the legislature,” said Solberg. And she managed to keep everyone talking through the entire race about her signature platform policy proposal, the Alberta Sovereignty Act, which proposes to allow the Alberta government to ignore federal laws, court rulings and regulatory decisions, should legislators so choose.
While Toews, a rancher and accountant who entered politics in 2019, and Jean and the others have talked about affordability and inflation, Smith is “going after the hardcore activist conservative vote,” as another former Wildrose official put it. “Our read was that affordability was going to be a bigger deal in Albertans’ minds right now,” said the source close to Toews.
Recent polling from the Angus Reid Institute has 42 per cent of Albertans saying a Smith premiership would be “terrible” for Alberta.
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