Thursday, May 11, 2023

Braid: Smith is not a conservative and shouldn't have been allowed to run by UCP, says veteran activist

Author of the article:
Don Braid • Calgary Herald
Postmedia
Published May 10, 2023
UCP leader Danielle Smith makes a campaign announcement at Braeside Automotive in Calgary on Thursday, May 4, 2023.
 Gavin Young/Postmedia
Article content
Ken Boessenkool says the UCP would have disqualified Danielle Smith long ago if she were only a riding candidate for the party.

The poppy comment, equating vaccinated people with Hitler followers, denying child deaths in residential schools — all that and much more should not have passed muster, according to Boessenkool, a longtime conservative activist.

In fact, at the very beginning of the UCP leadership race last year, he tried to get Smith kicked out.

“I talked to numerous party officials about whether Danielle Smith should be allowed as a candidate, and was rebuffed at every turn,” Boessenkool says.

“My argument then was no different than it is now. I think she represents things that are not conservative. She represents things that will ultimately harm the party. Everything we’ve learned about her since has borne that out.”

Boessenkool’s views carry weight in conservative circles. A founding partner of Meredith Boessenkool Policy Advisors, he has worked for Preston Manning, Ralph Klein, Stephen Harper, Stockwell Day, Ric McIver and Rajan Sawhney.


He ran Sawhney’s leadership campaign last fall. Under his guidance, she was the candidate most fiercely opposed to Smith.

“A Danielle Smith victory today means a Rachel Notley victory tomorrow,” Sawhney said, referring to the NDP leader. Smith’s sovereignty plan was “risky and hotheaded.”

Sawhney has since fallen into line with Smith, like every other UCP member and minister. Sawhney first said she wouldn’t run again, but then was appointed by Smith in Calgary-North West.

Rajan Sawhney, Minister of Trade, Immigration and Multiculturalism, speaks during a press conference at the McDougall Centre in Calgary on April 3. 
PHOTO BY GAVIN YOUNG/POSTMEDIA

Beating the NDP is the priority that temporarily papers over grave private doubts about Smith.

Boessenkool refuses to keep the worries to himself.

“I am very proud of what we did in that campaign,” he says. “I think we ran an honourable campaign. Afterward, Rajan decided politics is a team sport and decided to join the team. I hold no ill will toward Rajan and told her that just last night.”

He also says he likes Smith personally.

“I’ve been friends with Danielle Smith for 20 years. I have been to conventions and had hundreds of conversations with her — many, many gatherings over the years. It’s not like I’m talking about somebody I’ve never met.

“She’s a kind person. I don’t have anything against her personally.

“But I’m friends with Shannon Phillips, too, and I’d never vote for her,” Boessenkool said, referring to the NDP member for Lethbridge-West.

Boessenkool says Smith’s lack of judgment is dangerous for the party. Regarding her entanglement with street pastor Artur Pawlowski, he says, “the very idea that you think you could associate with that guy and not get into trouble is just astonishing to me.”

But his main problem with Smith is that he says she isn’t really a conservative.


Calgary pastor Artur Pawlowski speaks to protesters near the Coutts border blockade on February 3, 2022. 
PHOTO BY DARREN MAKOWICHUK/POSTMEDIA

In an article written recently with U of A professor Jared Wesley, he outlined the case in blistering detail.

“Danielle Smith is not a temperamental conservative. Indeed, she is rarely an ideological conservative. Instead, her politics amount to libertarian-laced populism, directly opposed to the sort of principled, incrementalist politics Albertans have appreciated from conservative governments in the past,” they wrote.


“Danielle Smith shows little understanding or respect for the rules and norms that guide our democracy.

“Not knowing whether Canadian premiers have the pardon or clemency powers of U.S. presidents and governors is unfathomable. Framing the treatment of Alberta by Ottawa as on par with Canada’s treatment of First Nations is unconscionable. Knowingly eroding our democratic institutions is unconservative.

“Her anti-scientific support for health-care quackery places her alone among government leaders in Canada. Her promotion of arguably antisemitic conspiracy theories has raised serious questions about her judgment and the ability of her advisers to provide her with a factual basis to make important decisions.

Other conservatives — including former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk — have been even more fierce in their opposition to Smith.

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