Danielle Smith launches charm offensive in the Alberta United Conservative Party leadership race
CBC
This column is an opinion from Graham Thomson, an award-winning journalist who has covered Alberta politics for more than 30 years. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.
After weeks of heated rhetoric in the United Conservative Party leadership race, the perceived front runner, Danielle Smith, is trying to cool things down in Alberta.
Smith is employing a charm offensive specifically geared toward winning the party's complicated preferential balloting system.
It's a strategy based on math and human nature as well as lessons learned from previous leadership races.
Smith is not so much attempting to poach supporters from the other camps as she is trying to plant seeds in their minds, hoping they bear fruit later.
On Thursday, she issued a statement calling for party unity and posted a video segment where she praised each of her competitors, including her nemesis in the race, former finance minister Travis Toews.
"People look at him as a person of integrity," said Smith, who not so long ago accused Toews of using "smear" tactics against her.
"He's given some good thought as to how we could have an Alberta Provincial Police and an Albertan pension plan and I would look forward to working with him on implementing those."
She applauded Brian Jean's plan to reduce the price of gasoline, pronounced Rebecca Schulz a "young talent," supported Rajan Sawhney's call for a public inquiry into the COVID-19 response, described Leela Aheer as "lovely," and called Todd Loewen "one of my favourite people."
Smith sounded very much like a premier-in-waiting announcing her picks for a new cabinet.
(Smith even said nice things about former Liberal leader Raj Sherman, indicating her video was recorded before Sherman was denied permission to enter the race last month).
Smith is doing all of this because she wants to be seen, of course, as a party unifier but also, more strategically, because of the vagaries of the UCP's preferential balloting system.
On the ballot, party members rank the candidates numerically by preference.
The ballots will be counted on Oct. 6. If one candidate wins a majority on the first count, the race is over. However, with seven people in the race, a first-ballot victory is unlikely.
An underpass revitalization project that was meant to pay tribute to the people of Parkdale has instead deteriorated into “a garbage dump,” according to nearby residents.
A young man has been charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm after a fire at a frat party near Western University that injured five sorority sisters, including two seriously, late Tuesday night.
The massive deal to combine one of Hollywood's oldest studios with a streaming giant hasn't even been approved yet, but it's already riling multiple related industries and politicians concerned about monopolies and media concentration.
Mi'kmaq chiefs and a former Nova Scotia justice minister are criticizing the provincial government for directing police to crack down on illegal cannabis, saying the order undermines relations with Indigenous Peoples.
For years, there has been “glaring inequity” in the way the province has allocated the millions of dollars in its county roads budget, according to Department of Transportation Minister Chuck Chiasson.
Six months after passing a law aimed at making it easier for new grocery stores to open, Manitoba's premier says lower grocery bills could be on the horizon.
Timothy Smith was acting in self-defence when he punched Landon Waddell, and shouldn't be found guilty of manslaughter, his lawyer says.
Thoroughbred horse racing at Vancouver’s Hastings Racecourse is ending after more than a century, with the operator announcing Friday it will no longer run a racing season at the historic facility.
A memorial to remember lives lost to gender-based violence was held in Charlottetown Friday, ahead of the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, which is marked annually on Dec. 6.
A Calgary dentist who defrauded five insurance companies over a decade should spend up to three years in prison, the prosecution argued Friday.
B.C. Conservation Officer Service says it has called off its search for a bear responsible for an attack on a group of school children in Bella Coola, B.C. on Nov. 20.
The union president called it a rally for solidarity as Iqaluit Housing Authority employees gathered Friday while negotiations are ongoing between the Nunavut Employees Union and the employer.
The federal government is stoking Quebec separatism by walking back its climate commitments — including in its recent deal with Alberta — Liberal MP and former cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault says.