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braid: premier smith coddles the ucp's angriest on way to leadership review vote
the ucp is a roiling cauldron of discontented, angry members. no premier in canada has a party base more ornery and difficult
aug 6 2024
3 minute read
premier danielle smith is shown at the ucp annual general meeting in calgary on saturday, november 4, 2023.
jim wells/postmedia file
thirty-five written questions were put to premier danielle smith at a packed calgary-lougheed riding forum last week.
one was: “why is the ucp caucus reluctant to save children by stopping mrna injection?”
another asked why the number of unexplained deaths of alberta children “increased 3,328 per cent since 2020.”
smith replied that there’s no doubt mortality numbers are higher and she’s working with her chief medical officer to find out why.
they’re looking at “recategorizing” unexplained deaths, she said, according to a summary of the meeting posted on x by freelance journalist katie teeling (@teelingkat), who was apparently the only reporter who got into the event.
the number of albertans who believe these claims is not trivial. unfortunately for smith, many of them are in her own party.
her strategy is to express sympathy for the beliefs, however dubious, without promising much.
no premier in canada has a party base more ornery and difficult. the ucp is a roiling cauldron of discontented, angry members, topped by a more centrist layer that figures she’s doing quite well.
smith plans about 30 events to mollify the dissidents. the dates in everybody’s minds are nov. 1 and 2, the weekend of the mandatory party leadership review vote.
the question is clear: “do you approve of the current leader?” a yes vote of less than 60 per cent would signal a real problem for smith. former premier jason kenney quit when he got 51 per cent .
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these reviews allow a small but organized fraction of the governing party to overthrow a premier who won a general election.
every conservative leader since ralph klein — who also quit — has faced this challenge. the activists call it grassroots democracy. from the overall provincial viewpoint, there’s nothing democratic about it.
some party insiders who support smith are increasingly worried about the upcoming vote. the kenney fiasco showed them how quickly things can run out of control. until the end, his own people had no idea how much trouble he was in.
jason kenney announces he will step down as leader of the united conservative party, after receiving only a 51.4 per cent approval rating in a leadership review, may 18, 2022.
jim wells/postmedia file
kenney never really engaged with his party enemies. he called them “extremists.” smith is more conciliatory. those very people helped get her elected in the first place.
but if she caters to their every wish, she’d send legions of others over to naheed nenshi’s ndp .
smith recently held a video meeting with ucp members registered for the party convention.
and on july 30, she subjected herself to the inquisition organized by calgary-lougheed, the riding most stridently vocal about vaccine mandates, alleged deaths from vaccinations, parental rights, and several other issues.
well over 400 party members were at that meeting. smith was heckled at least twice, according to teeling and others who attended.
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but at the end, the premier got a standing ovation. the riding even pledged support for her in the review vote.
that reflected the ambiguity of the angry. they’re upset that she seems to be backing away from their issues, but still believe she can come around.
to do that, smith would have to ban covid vaccinations, allow doctors to prescribe non-approved medication, enact an alberta pension plan without a referendum, abandon net-zero emissions targets, and a whole lot more.
the questions reflected mistrust of smith’s caucus.
one said: “how do you balance your loyalty between the grassroots voters, who supported and continue to support you as leader, and the established members of your legislature who are still working against your leadership?”
smith said her group of mlas is united. but those who suspect it isn’t have precedent on their side. some of kenney’s harshest and most effective critics were in his own caucus.
in a string of emails exchanged before the meeting, and later sent to me, one member of the calgary-lougheed board said:
“i too have felt that there has been more pandering to the elusive ndp voter and legacy media, than to the sidelined ucp base in the last election.”
another person who was at the meeting said: “she has three months to get it right. otherwise, there’s a problem.”
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it’s a problem smith would dearly love to put behind her.
don braid’s column appears regularly in the herald
x: @donbraid
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