Danielle Smith returns to Alberta politics with eye on UCP leadership

“There are people who are offended by the fact that he is very cavalier about fundamental freedoms, there are people who are offended that he doesn’t seem to understand rural Alberta and there are people who are offended that he doesn’t put Alberta first.”

As for why she is running now, Smith says he is dismayed that Kenney has called all of his opponents “extremists and lunatics.”

Smith says, “what is forgotten is that we have all gone through a collective trauma for the last two years” and many Albertans were frustrated that public health restrictions weren’t eased sooner.

Smith also believes “the party made a grave mistake when it cancelled the special general meeting in Red Deer scheduled for April 9 and moved to a mail-in ballot process, a move she feels favours the premier.

Smith says that based on personal experience the mail-in process will likely be “fraught with problems.”

The leadership review results will be announced May 18, and a leadership race must be called if Kenney doesn’t get majority support.

Smith says he needs a lot more than a bare majority to have a credible mandate to continue, adding she’ll run for his job if a leadership race is called.

Smith left politics in 2014 shortly after she and many other Wildrose members crossed the floor to the Progressive Conservatives, a decision she now says she deeply regrets.

by Regan Tate

Danielle Smith returns to Alberta politics with eye on UCP leadership

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