CRITIC FROM THE RIGHT
Raymond J. de Souza: Danielle Smith — Canada's first 'alternatively informed' premier
Opinion by Father Raymond J. de Souza -
Opinion by Father Raymond J. de Souza -
TORONTO SUN -Oct 20, 2022
Were it not for Liz Truss, the soon-to-be-former prime minister of the United Kingdom, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith would have been His Majesty’s first minister who had the roughest last 10 days.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith© Provided by National Post
(Spare a thought for King Charles III. His mother’s first prime minister was Winston Churchill; his first prime minister reigned for less time than it would take to read Churchill’s books.)
Premier Smith managed a spectacular triplex reversal to launch her premiership: first reversing her flagship policy on not abiding by adverse Supreme Court decisions; then clarifying her remarks about the unvaccinated as being the “most discriminated against group” in her lifetime; now apologizing for voicing some of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s justifications for his aggressive war against Ukraine.
Back in April, Smith suggested that the Russian bear be permitted to swallow Ukraine’s eastern territories and that perhaps the war was Ukraine and NATO’s fault. In her October disavowal of those remarks, Smith said that her earlier comments were “ill-informed” and confessed that her “knowledge and opinion of this matter have drastically evolved since that time.”
Albertans have a bovine expression to characterize that claim. Danielle Smith may be many things, but “ill-informed” she is not. She is remarkably intelligent and articulate, and has spent a lifetime deeply engaged in public affairs, for years expatiating for hours a day on talk radio. By late April, Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine had dominated the news the world over for two months. Was Smith not watching?
Or what news was she watching? That’s the key part of Smith’s self-exculpatory remarks about her pro-Putin viewpoints. In the early months of 2022, Smith was travelling through rural Alberta, stirring up opposition to pandemic policies with the goal of taking out Premier Jason Kenney.
She achieved that goal by transforming the membership of the United Conservative Party; by the time of the May leadership review vote, more than half of the party members had not previously been members of the UCP, or either of the previous Progressive Conservative or Wildrose parties.
Were it not for Liz Truss, the soon-to-be-former prime minister of the United Kingdom, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith would have been His Majesty’s first minister who had the roughest last 10 days.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith© Provided by National Post
(Spare a thought for King Charles III. His mother’s first prime minister was Winston Churchill; his first prime minister reigned for less time than it would take to read Churchill’s books.)
Premier Smith managed a spectacular triplex reversal to launch her premiership: first reversing her flagship policy on not abiding by adverse Supreme Court decisions; then clarifying her remarks about the unvaccinated as being the “most discriminated against group” in her lifetime; now apologizing for voicing some of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s justifications for his aggressive war against Ukraine.
Back in April, Smith suggested that the Russian bear be permitted to swallow Ukraine’s eastern territories and that perhaps the war was Ukraine and NATO’s fault. In her October disavowal of those remarks, Smith said that her earlier comments were “ill-informed” and confessed that her “knowledge and opinion of this matter have drastically evolved since that time.”
Albertans have a bovine expression to characterize that claim. Danielle Smith may be many things, but “ill-informed” she is not. She is remarkably intelligent and articulate, and has spent a lifetime deeply engaged in public affairs, for years expatiating for hours a day on talk radio. By late April, Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine had dominated the news the world over for two months. Was Smith not watching?
Or what news was she watching? That’s the key part of Smith’s self-exculpatory remarks about her pro-Putin viewpoints. In the early months of 2022, Smith was travelling through rural Alberta, stirring up opposition to pandemic policies with the goal of taking out Premier Jason Kenney.
She achieved that goal by transforming the membership of the United Conservative Party; by the time of the May leadership review vote, more than half of the party members had not previously been members of the UCP, or either of the previous Progressive Conservative or Wildrose parties.
Related video: Alberta Premier Danielle Smith debuts new cabinetDuration 2:06 View on Watch
Who were these new members, who were mad as hell at Kenney and the UCP establishment? Many of them were consumers of alternative news sources, the kind that were very much against vaccines but not so much against Putin. The locals.com site where Smith made her Ukraine remarks is one such forum.
In her April 29 livestream, Smith said it would be best for Ukraine to “denuclearize,” arguing that , “It would be absurd, if you want to draw a parallel, for Canada to have nuclear weapons and be allied with Russia and not think that was going to upset America. So why would we be surprised if Russia is upset because Ukraine has nuclear weapons and is allied with the United States?”
Of course, Ukraine doesn’t have nuclear weapons, having given them up in 1994 under the terms of the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances for Ukraine. It was one of the most important steps in creating a post-Cold War, post-U.S.S.R. security structure. Russia agreed to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity if Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons.
Perhaps Smith didn’t know this. But the Budapest Memorandum is hardly a secret. I wrote a column about it in January, and not for the first time. But in the conversation at locals.com and other such places, the historical facts are not always the starting point.
Smith’s premiership began with her trio of U-turns because she has latterly learned that saying in October as premier what she was saying in April on the hustings was no longer tenable.
Smith is the first premier to come from the world of alternative news sources. That’s very important to understand. After she decamped from her prominent Alberta talk show in 2021 because she felt that mass-market radio was too stifling, Smith moved onto alternative platforms. She was not “ill-informed,” so much as she chose to be “alternatively informed.”
Smith moved into circles where it was thought possible to simply ignore the Supreme Court and where Putin being offside with global institutions was attractive. Those circles are politically potent, strong enough in Alberta to capture the UCP and topple its founding leader. Smith was clever enough to mobilize them.
Governing from that base is another matter, though, and Smith will be the first in Canada to try it. How she fares will have an impact on politics throughout the Dominion. And it will determine her own future, as Liz Truss discovered, very, very soon, but not soon enough.
National Post
Jesse Kline: Will Danielle Smith winning the UCP leadership lead to an NDP revival?
As her resume reveals, practically everything Smith touches goes south
Author of the article: Jesse Kline
Publishing date: Oct 05, 2022
As her resume reveals, practically everything Smith touches goes south
Author of the article: Jesse Kline
Publishing date: Oct 05, 2022
UCP leadership candidate Danielle Smith speaks at an all-candidates forum at the Oil Sands Trade Show in Fort McMurray on Wednesday, September 14, 2022.
Vincent McDermott/Fort McMurray Today/Postmedia Network
A POLITICAL PARTY OF THE OIL INDUSTRY
PETROLEUM IS THE P IN UCP
When historians look back at the past 15 years in Alberta politics, they would be wise to cite Danielle Smith’s stunning transformation from presumptive premier to political pariah, and her subsequent resurrection as the front-runner in the United Conservative Party leadership race, as a case study in how a politician’s image and political fortunes can be radically altered.
A decade ago, Smith was one of the most promising politicians in the country. Running on a libertarian platform, (NOT LIBERTARIAN, AYN RANDISM) she was a staunch defender of Alberta’s economic interests and a poignant critic of how far the long-ruling Progressive Conservative party had strayed from its small-C conservative roots in the post-Ralph Klein era.
In the lead-up to the 2012 election, as leader of the Wildrose party, Smith was widely seen as a sure bet to become premier and end the PC’s four-decade long dynasty. That didn’t happen, and two years later, Smith and eight of her MLAs, representing over 50 per cent of her caucus, struck a deal with the devil and jumped ship to the very party they had spent years trying to convince Albertans had become tired and out of touch.
It was an almost treasonous betrayal of her party and her principles, but perhaps it should not have come as a surprise, considering that the writing had been on the wall for some time.
Starting with her first political gig as a trustee on the Calgary Board of Education, where she almost immediately developed an adversarial relationship with her colleagues. Less than a year later, the board had become so “completely dysfunctional,” as its own chair put it, that the education minister fired the lot of them.
(Smith later admitted she was too “strident” and should have been more “open-minded” about her colleagues’ views, yet the whole debacle seems to have foreshadowed the antagonistic relationship she intends to forge with the rest of Canada, with her promised introduction of an “Alberta sovereignty act.”)
A few years after supporting Ted Morton’s failed PC leadership bid in 2006, Smith was elected leader of the Wildrose party. Polls conducted in the lead-up to the 2012 election had the Wildrose leading by as much as 10 points; but in the end, it lost by about that much, in no small part due to Smith’s refusal to condemn one of her candidates who said that gay people would burn in a “lake of fire.”
In her defence, Smith cited the candidate’s religious freedom, which is certainly important, but voters know that just because you have a right to say something offensive does not mean that they want you to govern them.
Nevertheless, Smith put on a commendable showing, taking Wildrose from a party without a presence in the legislature, to the official Opposition. Unfortunately, she lacked the patience to see the Wildrose revolution through, instead choosing to cross the floor with her tail between her legs, which paved the way for Rachel Notley’s socialist takeover of the province.
As her resume reveals, practically everything Smith touches goes south, and her political machinations have had wide-ranging consequences for the province — shattering its historically stable governance and lifting the fortunes of the NDP. Yet, after six years in the talk-radio wilderness, Smith revitalized her image and re-usurped her role as a powerful and potentially disruptive force in provincial politics.
Ironically, when Smith quit her job at Calgary’s venerable 770 CHQR radio station last year, she cited the vitriol she received in today’s “hyper-sensitive social media environment,” but ended up choosing a career path that will open her up to even more criticism. And in the intervening time, we’ve learned that many of her views, especially on the subject of medicine, are, well, downright loony.
This includes falsely claiming on Twitter that “hydroxychloroquine cures 100 per cent of coronavirus patients,” and alleging that ivermectin could not only treat or cure COVID-19, but that information about its benefits was being suppressed by the government. Both drugs deserved to be studied as potential treatments for COVID, but both have since been found to be of little to no benefit. Touting either as some sort of miracle cure, either before or after the relevant data was available, was wholly irresponsible.
Smith has not only argued against vaccine mandates, which is completely legitimate, but she has openly courted the anti-vaxxer vote and drawn false and unsupported comparisons between vaccine mandates and unethical Nazi experiments.
More recently, she featured a naturopathic doctor in one of her campaign videos who made false statements about cancer, suggesting that naturopathic treatments were just as effective as conventional ones until the cancer hits Stage 4.
By doing so, Smith put herself in the same camp as the left-wing soccer moms and right-wing conspiracists who reject medical science, while touting the healing benefits of crystals and homeopathic snake oil. Again, this shouldn’t come as a total surprise: in a 2003 newspaper column, she erroneously claimed that “moderate cigarette consumption can reduce traditional risks of disease.” And this is the person who may soon be in charge of Alberta’s health-care system.
If her “unconventional” views on health weren’t bad enough, Smith has made the unconstitutional “Alberta sovereignty act” a key plank of her campaign. If passed, it would allow the Alberta legislature to disregard federal laws and court rulings it deems to be in violation of the constitutional separation of powers. Yet by disregarding the very institution intended to interpret the Constitution and adjudicate disputes between different levels of government — the courts — it will surely precipitate a constitutional crisis.
This not only poses a dangerous threat to the rule of law, it also displays short-sighted thinking, as it would be far better for Conservatives to focus their efforts on electing Tories, both federally and provincially.
A federal government led by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, working closely with a strong UCP government in Edmonton, would have a historic opportunity to renegotiate Alberta’s place in Confederation and make a united stand against the provinces that have traditionally worked to block new pipeline infrastructure.
Yet if Smith were to insist on butting heads with the federal government by enacting unconstitutional legislation and flouting the judicial system, even Poilievre would have little choice but to take an adversarial position against her.
The only saving grace may be that, although Smith is the assumed front-runner, there is very little data to back this up, and the party’s single-transferable vote system has historically produced unforeseeable results.
Should Smith win on Thursday, recent polls indicate that her support may be concentrated among the party base, rather than the general electorate: a September Angus Reid poll found that the majority of Albertans, 54 per cent, think Smith would make a lousy premier. Though Notley didn’t fare much better, Smith’s take-no-prisoners style of politics and her fringe medical views could put off enough Albertans to once again open the door for the NDP to take power, just as Smith’s actions did back in 2015.
If Smith wins on Thursday, it could be a boon for Rachel Notley, and bad for Alberta.
National Post
jkline@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/accessd
A decade ago, Smith was one of the most promising politicians in the country. Running on a libertarian platform, (NOT LIBERTARIAN, AYN RANDISM) she was a staunch defender of Alberta’s economic interests and a poignant critic of how far the long-ruling Progressive Conservative party had strayed from its small-C conservative roots in the post-Ralph Klein era.
In the lead-up to the 2012 election, as leader of the Wildrose party, Smith was widely seen as a sure bet to become premier and end the PC’s four-decade long dynasty. That didn’t happen, and two years later, Smith and eight of her MLAs, representing over 50 per cent of her caucus, struck a deal with the devil and jumped ship to the very party they had spent years trying to convince Albertans had become tired and out of touch.
It was an almost treasonous betrayal of her party and her principles, but perhaps it should not have come as a surprise, considering that the writing had been on the wall for some time.
Starting with her first political gig as a trustee on the Calgary Board of Education, where she almost immediately developed an adversarial relationship with her colleagues. Less than a year later, the board had become so “completely dysfunctional,” as its own chair put it, that the education minister fired the lot of them.
(Smith later admitted she was too “strident” and should have been more “open-minded” about her colleagues’ views, yet the whole debacle seems to have foreshadowed the antagonistic relationship she intends to forge with the rest of Canada, with her promised introduction of an “Alberta sovereignty act.”)
A few years after supporting Ted Morton’s failed PC leadership bid in 2006, Smith was elected leader of the Wildrose party. Polls conducted in the lead-up to the 2012 election had the Wildrose leading by as much as 10 points; but in the end, it lost by about that much, in no small part due to Smith’s refusal to condemn one of her candidates who said that gay people would burn in a “lake of fire.”
In her defence, Smith cited the candidate’s religious freedom, which is certainly important, but voters know that just because you have a right to say something offensive does not mean that they want you to govern them.
Nevertheless, Smith put on a commendable showing, taking Wildrose from a party without a presence in the legislature, to the official Opposition. Unfortunately, she lacked the patience to see the Wildrose revolution through, instead choosing to cross the floor with her tail between her legs, which paved the way for Rachel Notley’s socialist takeover of the province.
As her resume reveals, practically everything Smith touches goes south, and her political machinations have had wide-ranging consequences for the province — shattering its historically stable governance and lifting the fortunes of the NDP. Yet, after six years in the talk-radio wilderness, Smith revitalized her image and re-usurped her role as a powerful and potentially disruptive force in provincial politics.
Ironically, when Smith quit her job at Calgary’s venerable 770 CHQR radio station last year, she cited the vitriol she received in today’s “hyper-sensitive social media environment,” but ended up choosing a career path that will open her up to even more criticism. And in the intervening time, we’ve learned that many of her views, especially on the subject of medicine, are, well, downright loony.
This includes falsely claiming on Twitter that “hydroxychloroquine cures 100 per cent of coronavirus patients,” and alleging that ivermectin could not only treat or cure COVID-19, but that information about its benefits was being suppressed by the government. Both drugs deserved to be studied as potential treatments for COVID, but both have since been found to be of little to no benefit. Touting either as some sort of miracle cure, either before or after the relevant data was available, was wholly irresponsible.
Smith has not only argued against vaccine mandates, which is completely legitimate, but she has openly courted the anti-vaxxer vote and drawn false and unsupported comparisons between vaccine mandates and unethical Nazi experiments.
More recently, she featured a naturopathic doctor in one of her campaign videos who made false statements about cancer, suggesting that naturopathic treatments were just as effective as conventional ones until the cancer hits Stage 4.
By doing so, Smith put herself in the same camp as the left-wing soccer moms and right-wing conspiracists who reject medical science, while touting the healing benefits of crystals and homeopathic snake oil. Again, this shouldn’t come as a total surprise: in a 2003 newspaper column, she erroneously claimed that “moderate cigarette consumption can reduce traditional risks of disease.” And this is the person who may soon be in charge of Alberta’s health-care system.
If her “unconventional” views on health weren’t bad enough, Smith has made the unconstitutional “Alberta sovereignty act” a key plank of her campaign. If passed, it would allow the Alberta legislature to disregard federal laws and court rulings it deems to be in violation of the constitutional separation of powers. Yet by disregarding the very institution intended to interpret the Constitution and adjudicate disputes between different levels of government — the courts — it will surely precipitate a constitutional crisis.
This not only poses a dangerous threat to the rule of law, it also displays short-sighted thinking, as it would be far better for Conservatives to focus their efforts on electing Tories, both federally and provincially.
A federal government led by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, working closely with a strong UCP government in Edmonton, would have a historic opportunity to renegotiate Alberta’s place in Confederation and make a united stand against the provinces that have traditionally worked to block new pipeline infrastructure.
Yet if Smith were to insist on butting heads with the federal government by enacting unconstitutional legislation and flouting the judicial system, even Poilievre would have little choice but to take an adversarial position against her.
The only saving grace may be that, although Smith is the assumed front-runner, there is very little data to back this up, and the party’s single-transferable vote system has historically produced unforeseeable results.
Should Smith win on Thursday, recent polls indicate that her support may be concentrated among the party base, rather than the general electorate: a September Angus Reid poll found that the majority of Albertans, 54 per cent, think Smith would make a lousy premier. Though Notley didn’t fare much better, Smith’s take-no-prisoners style of politics and her fringe medical views could put off enough Albertans to once again open the door for the NDP to take power, just as Smith’s actions did back in 2015.
If Smith wins on Thursday, it could be a boon for Rachel Notley, a
National Post
jkline@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/accessd
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