Danielle Smith won. Danielle Smith Derangement Syndrome lost | Substack - Andrew Lawton:
May 30, 2023 - "Danielle Smith won Alberta’s general election last night, just under eight months after winning over the UCP and becoming premier.... Her win is a strong rebuke to the myriad commentators who claimed she was too 'radical,' too 'crazy,' and too 'far-right' to win over anyone but her own party’s loyal members. Throughout the campaign, the media obsessed over whose wedding she attended, which of Albertans’ concerns she’d hear out, and even what a tattoo she has really means. (I’m not joking).
"But through it all, voters saw the real Danielle Smith, who put in the time and effort to rebuild her reputation and listen to Albertans... Not only is she amiable and compassionate, but also tremendously smart. She was successful as a broadcaster and a business advocate because she was unafraid to delve into the details and try to find solutions to complicated policy problems, from healthcare to energy and beyond. When it mattered during the Covid era, Smith was a culture warrior. She stood up for religious freedom despite not being religious herself and fought against vaccine passports and mandates when her party, then led by Jason Kenney, embraced them....
"The NDP and media (a distinction often not worth making in Alberta) attempted to pluck out whatever unflattering bits of Smith’s past work they could, but it didn’t stick. I wish Smith had been firmer in standing by some of her past statements throughout the campaign, but I realize politics is often about choosing battles. (In general, conservative politicians need to choose more of them). However, while the NDP was scouring through old Facebook Lives, Smith was pitching Alberta voters on a message of hope....
"A couple of weeks ago, NDP leader Rachel Notley held a press conference to appeal to conservative voters, who she presumed hated Smith so much they’d prefer to vote NDP. (Notley’s purported desire to reach conservative voters didn’t stop her from repeatedly banning conservative journalists from her press conferences). The move was as transparent as it was arrogant: the NDP tried to paint Danielle Smith as being outside the realm of acceptability.
"Now, the joke’s on the NDP and those who so eagerly carried water for them in the media. It’s Notley who was evidently out of the realm of what Albertans found acceptable. If Notley was as eager as she claims she is to purge Alberta politics of radicals, perhaps she should have stepped down as leader last night. In electing the UCP, voters rejected the smears and proved the NDP and its media allies failed in their attempts to make Smith into an absurd caricature."
Read more: https://andrewlawton.substack.com/p/danielle-smith-won-danielle-smith
Danielle Smith speaks after UCP victory | ALBERTA ELECTION | CTV News } May 30, 2023:
The only person who can stop Danielle Smith now is Smith herself | Western Standard - Cory Morgan:
May 30, 2023 - "When Smith invoked the late Ralph Klein in referencing his 'miracle on the prairie', she wasn't drawing an unfair parallel.... When Klein took the reins of the Progressive Conservative Party in the early 1990s, the party was in serious trouble. It was polling at 20% against Lawrence Decore's Liberals, and many were declaring the Progressive Conservatives as electorally dead in the water. The elites and chattering classes dismissed Klein as an uneducated bumpkin who stumbled his way into the premiership and who would become little more than a footnote in political history. Voters felt otherwise and gave Ralph Klein a reduced majority government.... The Alberta establishment was aghast and humbled.
"Fast forward to 2022 and we saw the governing UCP polling as low as 22% under the leadership of Jason Kenney. When Kenney was replaced by Danielle Smith, the usual establishment suspects were all but confident this would be the beginning of the end of the UCP's reign.... Smith proved her detractors wrong and pulled a reduced majority win from what was the most personal and negative provincial election campaign in living memory. While she may have fewer seats than the 1993 PCs did under Klein, she has a larger segment of popular support. Klein garnered 44.5% support in 1993. Smith's UCP took 52.6% of the electorate. Her opponents can no longer claim she hasn't a mandate from Albertans....
"The election may be behind Smith now, but her opponents are far from gone. Notley is remaining as leader of the NDP for now which ensures the negative tone of opposition will continue. Legacy media is as biased against Smith as ever and they will pan every move she makes.... Unions, academics and media will all oppose Smith's every move just as they did with Klein. People within Smith's own party will get nervous as opposition to her policies mounts. She will need to ignore her opponents and reassure her allies....
"Smith has a mandate and she needs to pursue it. She can't succumb to the temptation to pull the political reform band aid off slowly through minor, incremental policy changes. For one thing, her opponents will go wild when she makes even minor changes. Secondly, that's how Jason Kenney tried to govern and look how well that turned out.
"Albertans are willing to embrace positive political changes even when it comes to the healthcare system and the pension plan. Smith needs to bring about reforms quickly and to offer no quarter to opponents to her work. Changes need to be made in her first two years in power so positive results can be measured before she faces the electorate again. She can't let civil servants, union heads or her own advisors slow-roll her mandate. Hesitation would be her undoing."
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