Western Standard - May 19, 2022


Danielle Smith kicks off her UCP leadership campaign.


Episode Stats

Length

7 minutes

Words per Minute

200.65335

Word Count

1,597

Sentence Count

131


Summary

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

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.
00:07:29.980 Bye.
00:07:30.460 Bye.
00:07:30.540 Bye.
00:07:30.920 Bye.
00:07:31.440 Bye.
00:07:31.600 Bye.
00:07:32.400 Bye.
00:07:32.820 Bye.
00:07:34.320 Bye.
00:07:34.620 Bye.
00:07:35.280 Bye.
00:07:41.640 Bye.
00:07:42.620 Bye.
00:07:45.200 Bye.
00:07:51.500 Bye.
00:07:52.560 Bye.
00:07:53.220 Bye.
00:07:53.460 Bye.
00:07:53.900 Bye.
00:07:54.500 Bye.
00:07:55.380 Bye.
00:07:55.420 Bye.
00:07:55.820 Bye.
00:07:55.980 Bye.
00:07:56.460 Bye.
00:07:56.760 Bye.
00:07:56.800 Bye.
00:07:56.840 Bye.