Supporters of Danielle Smith’s bid to become the new leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP) flocked into Ducks on the Roof pub in Cochrane on Tuesday, and they liked what they heard.
With the thermometer pushing into the 30s, and as Smith progressed through her speech, much like the weather outside, her Cochrane crowd warmed up.
As the night rolled on, it became clear Smith knows her audience. She asked the crowd to ask themselves, “Who will stand up to Ottawa?” which drew applause.
“I’m going to fight for you because we need someone who’s up for the fight,” she said.
Smith claimed the way Alberta is growing, it is projected to become the second most populated province by 2050. She asked the crowd to join her in making Alberta the economic engine of Canada.
“Why do we have to wait for Ontario to build our cars?” she asked.
Generally regarded by pundits, polls, and media commentators as the front runner at this point of the leadership race, Smith has more name recognition than the other seven candidates right now. She also has garnered a reputation for promoting provocative ideas such as the enactment of the “Alberta Sovereignty Act,” which would grant the legislature discretion to refuse to enforce federal laws or court decisions it deems an intrusion on provincial rights or a threat to provincial interests.
She also is promoting a provincial pension plan, and a provincial police force. She said on Tuesday that a provincial police force wouldn't necessarily mean the end of the RCMP in Alberta, but could possibly augment the RCMP.
Smith garnered applause again for her pledge to push decision-making down the ladder of government.
“Top-down almost never works. We need to empower MLAs,” she said.
Instead of relying on cabinet ministers to handle everything that falls under their respective files, Smith said she would promote the idea of MLAs becoming subject matter experts in areas they were interested in.
Alberta Health Services (AHS) was a popular target of hers during the Cochrane campaign stop. Ever-expanding budgets, she argued, have led to ever-expanding bureaucracy, with no associated accountability.
“AHS hires more managers. We need to go back to individual health boards,” she said.
It was clearly an anti-vaccine crowd, as applause and murmurs of approval greeted any reference to that area. Smith said she would not support any mask mandates or mandatory vaccines if she becomes the UCP's leader.
“Everyone who wants to wear a mask, we should honour that, but no mask mandates,” she said, to loud applause.
On the topic of reform to ambulatory services, Smith acknowledged the need for major improvements to EMS, citing a couple of changes she thinks could be implemented relatively soon. Those include stationing a team of paramedics in hospitals, and putting an end using ambulances to do infra-facility transfers.
One of the last questioners asked Smith if she was willing to take a public vow in front of the crowd, which prompted her to laugh before he started to recite the words that it felt like a wedding vow. But she repeated his wording, much to the delight of the audience.
“I will be aggressive, fearless and I will do what it takes to get us out of the quagmire,” she said.
Before she took the microphone at the start, a roar of applause greeted the news from organizers that Smith had reached the $175,000 threshold required for candidates just that morning. Smith’s team said they had also submitted the required 4,500 nomination signatures to the UCP.
After the meeting wrapped up, a UCP supporter named Peter, a community planner who just moved to Cochrane, said he’s supporting Smith because he likes her vision.
“Because she is actually showing an interest in a long-term vision for Alberta for infrastructure and getting smaller cities to grow and not be centralized in Calgary and Edmonton,” he said.
