Smith betting her unfiltered style will pay off in leadership review

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OTTAWA — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has rankled friends and foes alike with her frequent verbal detours — most recently a lengthy digression on chemtrails at an Edmonton Q&A — but her freewheeling style could be her ace in the hole heading into a high-stakes leadership review next month.

The regular leadership reviews held by Smith’s United Conservative Party and its predecessor Progressive Conservative party used to be a mere formality. But that was before former premier Jason Kenney was forced to resign after an unfavourable 2022 leadership review brought on by an internal pressure campaign led by anti-COVID lockdown group Take Back Alberta.

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Unlike most Canadian politicians, who are brought down by partisan adversaries, Alberta conservatives have to worry more often about their own party ending their political career.

Smith knows this well, which is why she’s spent much of the past few months appearing at UCP-member only town halls across the province. Smith is betting that her knack for engaging with party members one-on-one will lead her to a better showing than her predecessor.

Calgary-based conservative strategist Evan Menzies says this is a smart bet for Smith to make, even if it leads to the odd embarrassing soundbite when town hall participants raise fringe topics like chemtrails and COVID vaccine conspiracies with the premier.

“(Smith is) a reflective listener and a curious person,” says Menzies. “She’s used this communication technique throughout her career.”

Menzies says that sometimes embarrassing verbal digressions into controversial terrain are “baked into (Smith’s) brand.”

“Albertans understand who she is,” he said.

Calgary filmmaker and onetime UCP candidate Caylan Ford adds that Smith’s willingness to engage with contrarian ideas sets her apart from more conventional, risk-averse politicians.

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“When it comes down to it, most people — and certainly most politicians — will filter new ideas through a lens of ‘am I allowed to believe this thing?’” said Ford. “Danielle Smith, refreshingly, does not seem to do this.”

Smith, then a daily talk radio host with a Calgary Global affiliate, was the first mainstream journalist to speak publicly with Ford in 2019 after she was forced to withdraw from that year’s provincial election amidst accusations of racism.

Ford has since launched a defamation claim against more than a dozen parties for framing leaked Facebook messages in which she discussed demographic change in the West as white supremacist.

It may be that Smith’s genuine open-mindedness is a key part of why she’s done a better job of navigating the UCP’s factions than Kenney, although it could alienate moderates in the province.

Kenney did himself no favours by calling the factions plotting against him “lunatics” in the weeks leading up to his failed May 2022 leadership review. These remarks betrayed what many felt was an air of superiority over the right flank of the UCP’s base.

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Smith, while herself rooted in the party’s libertarian wing, has thus far shown a greater willingness to engage with other ideological viewpoints.

Not everyone has been won over yet, though. Take Back Alberta leader David Parker told the National Post last week that he was undecided over whether he’d support Smith at the upcoming leadership review.

Parker blasted the party on social media Thursday afternoon over the delay of an anti-COVID vaccine speakers forum organized by a local Calgary members’ association.

Peter McCaffrey, president of the libertarian-leaning Alberta Institute, said that Smith’s classically liberal bona fides make her a more natural manager of the party’s ideological divisions.

“Libertarianism is a philosophy for what the role of the government should be,” McCaffrey said. “It’s not a philosophy for how people should live their lives.”

“(Smith) doesn’t have to be at odds with social conservatives (in the party), because the goal should be to give individuals the freedom to live their lives the way they choose.”

And it’s not just libertarians and social conservatives Smith needs to placate at the upcoming leadership review. The UCP arguably has the biggest tent of any major Canadian party, bringing together Alberta sovereigntists, ex-PC moderates and various elements of the very online new right.

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The party’s highly diverse membership base is a lot for any leader to manage.

And Smith’s recent comments about chem trails, whether they were example of political calculation or her unique style, are an example of how she listens to just about everyone in the big tent.

The ultimate test of Smith’s active listening skills, and broader management of the fractious UCP coalition, will come in a few weeks time, at her November 2 leadership review in Red Deer, Alta.

National Post
rmohamed@postmedia.com

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