Western Standard - May 19, 2022


Danielle Smith kicks off her UCP leadership campaign.

Topics
campaign events
Mentioned
Livingston McLeod Danielle Smith Rachel Notley Pincher Creek Jim Prentice Corey
Triggered： Released thug kills a mother of five FILDEBRANDT - Inside the long revolt against Kenney

Episode Stats


Length

7 minutes

Words per minute

200.65

Word count

1,597

Sentence count

131


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, I sit down with Danielle Smith to discuss her campaign to become the next leader of the United Conservative Party of Canada. We talk about what it means to be a conservative leader in Canada, why she's running for the party leadership, and why she thinks she has the best chance of winning the next election.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 You never made a secret of if the job was going to open up.
00:00:02.720 I believe you kind of leaked that out way back at the AGM this year
00:00:06.120 that you would throw your hat in the ring.
00:00:08.240 So you've formally announced your full intent
00:00:10.980 and started your campaign today, have you?
00:00:13.060 Yeah, I did.
00:00:13.620 We did that at 11 o'clock.
00:00:14.600 I know that you were busy doing your show,
00:00:16.480 so I'm glad you were able to make some time for me.
00:00:18.220 The only sad part is I had a couple of other shows
00:00:20.680 that I had planned for Western Standard,
00:00:22.980 but I'm going to have to suspend the Danielle Smith show
00:00:25.120 until further notice as we go through this leadership campaign.
00:00:28.580 And I think from my perspective,
00:00:31.580 part of the reason that I want to do this is I know that my decision years ago
00:00:35.920 to join Jim Prentiss and try the early flawed failed effort at unity
00:00:41.480 was very unpopular, and both of us suffered as a result of that.
00:00:45.980 But I think that what we're seeing now with the passage of time
00:00:50.480 is that unity is really the only answer for conservatives in this province,
00:00:55.300 especially now that we see that Rachel Notley and the NDP
00:00:58.940 have been polling at 40% to 44%.
00:01:01.640 That may not have been the case back in 2015,
00:01:05.160 so who knows how that would have turned out.
00:01:06.980 But the fact that the left is that unified,
00:01:09.780 it means that there needs to be a unified conservative movement.
00:01:12.580 And if we can get a lot of voices from a lot of different perspectives
00:01:15.440 rebuilding this party,
00:01:17.140 I think we have a really good chance of winning another majority in 2023.
00:01:20.960 And I hope I can contribute to that discussion
00:01:23.720 and hope I can contribute to keeping the party and the movement unified.
00:01:29.120 Well, that's it.
00:01:30.080 And it's kind of, again, I had my opening monologue,
00:01:32.000 was the difficulty we always have as conservatives
00:01:33.940 to try and stay in the same room and not be at each other's throats.
00:01:37.800 I could look at your experiences as being good and bad in a sense.
00:01:41.880 I mean, a lot of people are saying,
00:01:43.060 well, that was a negative outcome.
00:01:44.260 But if a person learned from it,
00:01:46.080 then you're bringing more experience in dealing with disunity
00:01:49.360 than most people would have had to experience.
00:01:51.720 You've dealt with a raucous caucus and members being upset
00:01:56.460 and things such as that.
00:01:58.100 So I imagine you're going to intend to apply that experience
00:02:02.500 to try to keep things unified going forward.
00:02:04.580 Yeah, unlike the premier,
00:02:05.580 who's got now a perfectly unblemished record of winning.
00:02:08.420 I mean, must remember, he won his last vote there too.
00:02:10.800 He just made the decision to step aside.
00:02:12.820 I have both won and lost.
00:02:14.840 And you learn just as much from your losses as your wins.
00:02:18.780 And it was a pretty bruising experience,
00:02:21.580 I think, for the entire province and the conservative movement.
00:02:25.000 And I'm hoping I can make amends with people
00:02:27.940 because I know that there's still a lot of people
00:02:29.720 who are hurt and angry by that.
00:02:31.820 But to me, one of the things that I certainly learned
00:02:35.880 was how vitally important it is to let the grassroots decide.
00:02:40.280 I made an error because I'd done so much work
00:02:43.560 to help build up the movement
00:02:44.660 and thinking that the movement would follow me.
00:02:46.840 And that's not how it works.
00:02:48.180 In politics, the leader sits at the pleasure of their membership
00:02:52.520 and they sit at the pleasure of their caucus.
00:02:54.580 And if they lose caucus support
00:02:55.900 because caucus members don't think
00:02:57.340 that they can get elected under that leader,
00:02:59.040 or if they lose the grassroots support
00:03:01.440 because the grassroots don't feel
00:03:03.400 that the leader is reflecting what it is
00:03:06.160 that they want them to do,
00:03:07.140 you don't survive very long.
00:03:08.860 So I allowed a little bit of hubris, I think,
00:03:11.940 to get in my way back in 2015.
00:03:14.140 Certainly learned a lot from that
00:03:15.800 over the last number of years.
00:03:17.160 And the nice part about having been on talk radio
00:03:18.980 over the last six years
00:03:20.860 was, boy, people just give you their opinion full-throated.
00:03:25.420 So I had to monitor my own text line
00:03:27.560 and do my own emails
00:03:28.780 and talk to people at events.
00:03:31.720 And so I really feel like I understand grassroots politics
00:03:36.240 better than I ever did before.
00:03:38.780 And the respect I have for grassroots members is very high.
00:03:43.860 I think we've done a really terrific job
00:03:45.940 in the United Conservative Party at the AGM
00:03:48.820 in marrying the two cultures from the legacy parties.
00:03:52.020 It's just a matter that we've got to give our MLAs
00:03:55.380 a little bit more profile,
00:03:57.080 a little bit more ability
00:03:58.160 to represent their constituents.
00:03:59.740 And I think we'll have the perfect balance.
00:04:01.660 And so my love of grassroots politics
00:04:04.280 and the love of the role of the individual MLA
00:04:06.460 has not dissipated at all.
00:04:08.380 And I hope that I can bring some of that
00:04:10.500 into the party if I become leader.
00:04:12.940 Great. Well, and you've jumped back in
00:04:14.600 and something, you know, you've said is
00:04:16.860 if you become leader.
00:04:17.980 So a question I'm going to be asking
00:04:19.020 is the candidates come forth.
00:04:20.160 And this is something people ask a lot all the time.
00:04:22.680 Are you in for the long game?
00:04:23.760 Like you were already pursuing a nomination
00:04:26.160 down in Livingston-McLeod
00:04:28.140 and you're looking for a seat.
00:04:29.380 But I know it's hard to speculate.
00:04:31.260 Your goal is to win.
00:04:32.080 But in the eventuality that if you squeak by
00:04:34.280 and come in second,
00:04:35.160 would you still remain as a member of the legislature
00:04:37.320 and carry on in that capacity?
00:04:39.420 A hundred percent.
00:04:40.100 I mean, I launched my campaign April the 1st
00:04:42.880 in Livingston-McLeod
00:04:44.420 so I could seek the local nomination here.
00:04:48.120 And sorry about that.
00:04:49.720 I'd be prepared to serve under any of the leaders who win.
00:04:52.320 Oh, the mute button's handy for those things.
00:04:58.180 Yeah, we all, and I know I'm almost,
00:04:59.940 I think yesterday I was five hours on the air
00:05:02.100 when it combined all the shows together.
00:05:04.200 I've been talking for almost two hours straight.
00:05:06.260 Yeah, you'll be at it for quite some time yet.
00:05:08.640 So you get your vocal cords back in order.
00:05:11.100 Well, before I let you go then,
00:05:12.920 and I appreciate you doing the shows
00:05:14.480 and it's understandable.
00:05:15.340 That's part of why I want to get you on
00:05:16.440 because we've got a shared audience quite often
00:05:18.500 and I understand that it's quite a conflict now.
00:05:20.860 At this point, you have to step away from doing the shows,
00:05:23.080 but it was great having you for that short period that we did.
00:05:26.680 Have you got an events planned then already or slated?
00:05:29.620 Where can people follow up on the campaign
00:05:31.160 and keep up with what you're doing?
00:05:32.700 Best way to follow me is daniellesmith.ca.
00:05:35.380 I've kind of added a campaign,
00:05:38.180 leadership campaign webpage to that landing page.
00:05:41.100 And my regular website is underneath my personal website.
00:05:43.780 Plus I've got a link to the UCP Livingston McLeod
00:05:47.020 nomination page as well.
00:05:48.800 And so people can sign up to the campaign.
00:05:51.780 And every week I do a newsletter.
00:05:53.640 I'll continue doing that weekly newsletter,
00:05:55.540 just commenting on the issues of the day.
00:05:57.460 I may end up doing a weekly podcast as well,
00:06:00.600 just for the fun of it, to stay in the swing of things.
00:06:04.040 There's always something to learn.
00:06:05.380 And I love having those long form interviews.
00:06:08.420 Those are something I really got into in the last year.
00:06:11.400 But that would be the best way to keep in touch with me.
00:06:13.100 And I always make sure that I let people know
00:06:15.220 what my upcoming events are.
00:06:16.720 So I've got a number of events already today.
00:06:18.680 I'm delighted to be moderating the event
00:06:20.820 for the Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre tonight.
00:06:23.340 As we know, mental health and addiction
00:06:25.620 is probably an even more urgent and pressing issue
00:06:29.000 after these last two years.
00:06:30.640 And so we haven't been able to have an in-person event
00:06:33.060 with ARC for a couple of years.
00:06:35.180 I've moderated their event for, I think, three years running now.
00:06:37.720 This will be the first time we get together in person again.
00:06:39.840 And they always have such uplifting success stories.
00:06:42.680 So those are the kind of things that I'll keep on doing.
00:06:45.240 But I also have an events plan coming up
00:06:48.880 and planning on going to the Visaki Parade in Edmonton on Sunday.
00:06:54.600 So hopefully I'll see some of our Edmonton friends there
00:06:56.480 and then down to Pincher Creek next week on the 24th.
00:06:59.080 So there'll be lots of opportunity to meet.
00:07:01.080 And I'm looking forward to traveling the province again.
00:07:03.320 Great.
00:07:03.660 Well, we're in campaign mode.
00:07:04.880 As I was kind of saying just before you got on,
00:07:06.380 let's hope we can have a good positive leadership race out of this
00:07:09.420 as the federal one's starting to get a little off the rails.
00:07:12.560 I hope that gets back on track for everybody's sake.
00:07:15.060 So kick things off on the right note.
00:07:17.040 You're one of the first out of the gate there.
00:07:19.020 Looking forward to watching your campaign develop.
00:07:21.140 Thanks for coming in to talk with us.
00:07:23.120 Corey, anytime you want to chat, be happy to come back on.
00:07:25.600 Right on.
00:07:26.240 Thanks, Danielle.
00:07:26.920 You bet.
00:07:27.200 Talk to you again.
00:07:27.560 We'll see you next week.
00:07:28.900 Bye.
00:07:29.380 Bye.
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