Western Standard - April 01, 2022


EXCLUSIVE： Smith returns to Alberta politics seeking UCP nomination in new riding


Episode Stats


Length

21 minutes

Words per minute

199.78653

Word count

4,305

Sentence count

72

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Former Wildrose Party Leader Danielle Smith joins the Western Standard's Dave Naylor to discuss her decision to run for the United Conservative Party nomination in her home riding of Highwood-Livingston-McLeod. She also discusses why she decided to jump back into politics and why she thinks it's a good time to do so.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Good afternoon. My name is Dave Naylor. I'm the news editor of the Western Standard.
00:00:08.280 It's Thursday, March 31st, 2022. And we're joined today by a very special guest.
00:00:15.120 She's a well-known face and a well-known voice to all Albertans. She was the former leader of
00:00:22.500 the initial Wild Rose from 2009 and then left politics and joined QR 77 as a radio talk show
00:00:33.080 host. And she's joining me today. Hello, Danielle Smith. Hello, Dave. Thanks so much for having me.
00:00:39.420 No problems. I understand you've got an announcement perhaps that your politics
00:00:44.420 isn't completely out of your blood yet. Well, I am having a career change and I'm going to be
00:00:50.560 announcing tomorrow that I'll be running for the nomination for the UCP in my home riding of
00:00:56.360 Livingston McLeod. Now, people remember me from being in politics before. That wasn't the riding
00:01:01.040 I represented the first time I was in office. That was Highwood, but they've since changed the riding.
00:01:06.580 So High River is at the north end of it. It stretches all the way down Highway 2 and all
00:01:11.660 the towns along Highway 2 to Waterton and then over to the mountains, including the Crow's Nest
00:01:17.280 past areas so it's a pretty big it's a pretty big riding with a lot of important issues and
00:01:22.320 i'm hoping i can be a very strong local voice for the issues here okay well i guess the first
00:01:28.640 question is why why come back now the you know i i have contemplated a return to politics before
00:01:35.920 and i had a board member ask me if i'd be interested in putting my name forward because i
00:01:40.880 think now's a pretty crucial time we've got so many things that we we that are of issue in this
00:01:46.480 riding in this province and our relationship with the country and i think they felt like i would be
00:01:50.720 able to to add to that so i contacted a number of different business leaders in different parts of
00:01:56.800 the of the constituency and i got some pretty positive feedback so i thought now now is the
00:02:02.080 time to jump in so that that's one of the the main reasons there's a couple of others though
00:02:06.880 one is i was very disappointed with the decision of the party to cancel the special general meeting
00:02:13.120 in red deer it is pretty clear that the the rules around those special general meetings are that it
00:02:18.640 was supposed to be an in-person meeting i've been through a mail-in ballot process and
00:02:24.000 they're a catastrophe it's going to disenfranchise i fear tens of thousands of
00:02:28.560 of rural voters because i i just can't really see a way that how they're going to print off 55 000
00:02:34.080 ballots get them mailed out turned around back to be counted by may the 18th so i'm hoping what they
00:02:40.240 do is return to the plan for an in-person vote just like the constituencies asked for you have
00:02:45.360 a polling station in every constituency they certainly have the money for it if that's going
00:02:50.160 to be too cumbersome then at least do a balloting box in all the major centers you can do one in
00:02:56.320 fort mcmurray grand prairie lloydminster or cold lakes you've got the eastern part of the province
00:03:01.200 covered off edmonton red deer calgary medicine hat lethbridge if you did that then you'd be able
00:03:06.960 to have polling stations so no member had to drive more than about two hours to to get to to to to
00:03:13.600 to the the opportunity to vote and i think that would be a fairer process i think be a truer
00:03:17.840 process to what it is that members have asked for and so i think they made a mistake there and in
00:03:23.280 addition i'm i'm i'm so distressed that the the premier is using such harsh language to to talk
00:03:29.520 about uh our fellow albertans calling calling people extremists and bigots and lunatics because
00:03:36.400 they've got really serious issues about some of the things that have happened over the last couple
00:03:41.440 of years i think we have to remember that we're in a collective trauma there are people who haven't
00:03:47.520 been able to see their loved ones in long-term care or have lost loved ones there are kids who
00:03:52.960 are suffering mental health issues there are people who haven't been able to get surgeries
00:03:57.600 there are those who have natural immunity because they've been exposed to to coven who still aren't
00:04:02.320 able to get that recognized so they can't get a vax passport so they get they're getting fired
00:04:06.000 from their jobs are not able to to travel there are solutions to these things and these are
00:04:10.720 legitimate grievances what i would like to see is the the province recognize natural immunity
00:04:16.720 we're the ones who issue the qr code then recognized if somebody is able to demonstrate
00:04:21.200 that they have a high level of antibodies in their blood because they had delta or they had
00:04:24.800 omicron or both then issue them a vaccine passport so that they can have a normal life let's let's
00:04:30.000 stop the division stop the name calling identify the real solutions and start implementing them so
00:04:34.960 so that is another reason why i felt i needed to jump in is that that we need to we need to make
00:04:41.040 sure that we're respectful of the the pain and hurt that albertans are going through and i'm
00:04:45.760 not seeing that right now you have uh you have said should uh premier kenny's job become available
00:04:52.240 you might consider uh running for it uh how are you going to handle the time between now and
00:04:58.400 when the leadership results are known are you going to actively campaign against the premier
00:05:04.000 are you just going to stick to the sidelines what do you propose to handle that i think it's got to
00:05:08.320 be up to members to decide and that's why i hope if we have a proper process that the the will of
00:05:13.360 the membership will will be seen and that that's why i think we've got to go back to some kind of
00:05:17.920 in-person voting because i i don't know i don't think it benefits anyone to have a process that
00:05:22.720 people feel wasn't fair or their vote wasn't counted or that is suspect in some way that's
00:05:27.440 not that's not going to be benefit anyone i think there needs to be a clear result from a clear voice
00:05:32.960 of the membership and i i would leave it to them to decide for as for me i what i've been told is
00:05:38.560 people keep saying why don't you why don't you jump into the race why don't you get your name
00:05:42.160 on that ballot so i don't think people really know quite how a leadership vote works they they think
00:05:46.400 that there's going to be two names on the ballot brian gene and jason kenney so if me announcing
00:05:50.720 today makes people think that my name is on the ballot too because it would be in this in phase
00:05:54.480 two if we get to it fair enough i'm in but in the meantime the the i want people to know that
00:05:59.520 I'm seeking a nomination in the local constituency because I'm running regardless. To me, the
00:06:05.200 leadership question is not as important as giving good local representation in Livingston McLeod.
00:06:13.440 We've got a huge number of issues. A large number of our truckers in our riding, for instance,
00:06:19.840 aren't vaccinated. And so that's disrupted their ability to go across the border. We have a number
00:06:26.000 of of people who are in different industries who are facing major supply chain issues but mass
00:06:32.320 escalation in input costs and fuel costs the the the coal policy rollout which which created division
00:06:40.560 in uh in the in the riding between those who want to protect the landscapes and those down in in the
00:06:45.680 crow's nest pass area who who want to be able to develop their resource so these are are really
00:06:51.040 important issues that that need to be brought forward in addition i think now is the time for
00:06:57.040 us to be to be talking about how are we going to act on the mandate that was given to to the
00:07:02.960 province or to the to the government on the equalization referendum that that to me says
00:07:08.400 that we should start moving forward on issues of autonomy quebec has all kinds of areas that that
00:07:15.600 they take care of that we don't so why don't we collect our own income tax why don't we have our
00:07:21.360 own alberta provincial police why don't we take over employment insurance which has always been
00:07:25.840 unfair to our workers and so if i can be a voice saying the that the equalization vote is a mandate
00:07:32.720 to start moving on some of those things then i will because the the federal government especially
00:07:37.440 with this alliance with the ndp are going to keep on pummeling us so they want to have the long term
00:07:43.120 they want to have long-term care uh be be a national issue they've already interfered in
00:07:48.560 child care they want to have a pharmaceutical program they want to have dental care every
00:07:52.560 single time the federal government announces they want to do something it means they want to pay
00:07:56.640 alberta to pay disproportionately for that program because that is the case of what happens more
00:08:02.080 dollars go to ottawa so that it can be used to subsidize programs in places where they can win
00:08:06.560 votes and then they continue to pummel us when it comes to our energy sector and to me that's
00:08:12.000 unacceptable you've got to draw a hard line you've got to say no we stay secure knitting there's lots
00:08:16.800 that the federal government needs to do they need to focus on making sure that we have a strong
00:08:20.800 national defense and that we can meet our commitments to our nato partners we need to
00:08:24.800 be supportive of foreign aid there's going to be a large number of of ukraine referee refugees we
00:08:30.160 we need to be able to have systems in place to be able to to naturalize and support them we we also
00:08:35.440 need to make sure that we've got free trade agreements there's plenty of work for the federal
00:08:38.800 government to do without trying to interfere and metal and micromanage in our areas of jurisdiction
00:08:43.840 so let's start drawing the line especially since they have been so hostile to our energy sector
00:08:50.240 i've spent the last year promoting all the incredible work that our oil and gas companies
00:08:56.320 have been doing in the race to net zero and i'm going to put it to you we can be net zero and we
00:09:01.840 can be there faster than anyone else because we have got the ability to capture to use carbon
00:09:06.880 technology to capture emissions and store them underground or turn them into useful products
00:09:11.680 like carbon nanofiber industrial minerals plastics alcohols we can we can win this race but we need
00:09:18.080 to have a federal government that respects the fact that we are doing it through innovation and
00:09:22.720 we have got the very best innovators and entrepreneurs in the entire country so the
00:09:27.200 fact that they're coming through with aggressive targets that could potentially kill the industry
00:09:31.760 just at a time when we're on the cusp of a major breakthrough on innovation that too is unacceptable
00:09:36.880 And we need voices who can push back against that as well.
00:09:39.540 And I hope to be one of them.
00:09:41.160 Okay.
00:09:41.620 I think I heard in that answer that yes, you would be a candidate if Jason Kenney is ousted
00:09:47.280 as leader, correct?
00:09:48.400 I would definitely.
00:09:50.240 But I would stay also if he ends up, if the members decide to endorse him on May the 18th,
00:09:56.860 I'm in for the long haul because I think that the issues that I've raised for you are so
00:10:00.160 important that I want to be able to provide some meaningful ability to push them forward.
00:10:05.500 And I think I can do that.
00:10:06.680 as a as the MLA for Livingston McLeod okay a lot of the stuff you talked about ideas for is it was
00:10:14.440 exactly what was recommended by the fair deal panel has the premier not moved quickly enough
00:10:20.660 for your liking on those recommendations I haven't seen any movement on on any of them and it wouldn't
00:10:26.120 be that difficult to do really I mean you just announced and sent a letter to the federal
00:10:30.300 government we're going to start implementing our personal income tax collection starting
00:10:34.700 x date we're going to opt out of the rcmp contract and we're going to have an alberta provincial
00:10:39.900 police i think we have to give two years notice on that one we're going to establish our own
00:10:44.140 employment insurance program and give a date if you're going you're not going to to do any of
00:10:48.620 these things until you get started on them and to me the case for each of them is is is so clear on
00:10:54.860 the issue of personal income tax i want people to see exactly how much money goes to the federal
00:10:59.500 government and how much stays here and and once we start seeing that split then we can say hey look
00:11:04.300 we don't want federal transfers anymore just let us keep more of our own dollars and we can transfer
00:11:08.460 tax points that what that's what quebec does so anytime there's a new federal scheme they're able
00:11:13.740 to say no no we uh we don't we don't need the federal transfer we'll take the money but we'll
00:11:18.220 take it in in the form of our own our own taxation system that's the reason we need to collect our
00:11:22.460 own personal income taxes on the issue of an alberta provincial police the rcmp i mean keep in
00:11:28.220 in mind, as an MLA who represented High River, I was pretty unimpressed when they started bashing
00:11:35.480 down doors and taking people's guns. And I think it's left a sour taste for the RCMP in our
00:11:41.860 community. And then since we've seen there have been lawsuits for the bullying environment,
00:11:46.660 whether it's for women officers, male officers, civilian officers, they've got a lot of problems
00:11:52.340 in the rcmp we and also the missing and murdered indigenous women file we we can create a new
00:11:59.220 provincial police force that addresses all of those issues that addresses the concerns
00:12:03.620 of minority communities that they are being targeted for unfair enforcement that addresses
00:12:08.180 the issues that our first nations communities uh feel about their their issues not being taken
00:12:13.460 seriously that can help in our rural areas making sure that people don't feel they have to
00:12:18.900 arm themselves because they can't rely on the officers to show up we can create a new culture
00:12:25.060 in our alberta provincial police force and that's what i would like to see
00:12:28.820 and then of course employment insurance that is just such a no-brainer it to be able to
00:12:34.500 when you look at how employment insurance has been conducted over the years we disproportionately pay
00:12:39.620 among the highest premiums because we've got high paid workers so we're paying the max we have more
00:12:44.980 workforce participation than any other province so we're continuing to contribute more money
00:12:51.940 and then when our workers are in a position where they need support we get fewer weeks than other
00:12:56.340 provinces so and then when there's a surplus left over it gets taken into general revenues so why
00:13:01.780 would we continue bashing your head against the wall and why would we continue to be abused this
00:13:05.780 way that's a very very simple win for us to bring that program back because i understand how it works
00:13:11.140 if you can bring the program back so that it offers equivalent benefits at roughly equivalent
00:13:17.620 tax rates then then you can you can take it over and i would tell you i would put it to you that
00:13:22.100 we would be able to offer better benefits at lower tax rates if we weren't subsidizing the program
00:13:27.060 for the rest of the country so let's just get started and let's move on these things and show
00:13:31.380 that the federal government that we're serious about wanting to establish a new relationship
00:13:36.020 it may well be that in the past we didn't have the capacity to do that we do now and so now we've
00:13:41.380 got to start moving on them rather than just talking about it there was a new angus reed poll
00:13:46.500 out today showing uh jason kenny still the lowest ranked premier in the country and i think more
00:13:51.700 importantly the ucp got failing grades on 13 different uh 13 different items uh from health
00:13:59.940 care to to covet yeah and your ucp continuing to to trail badly in the polls to the ndp you know
00:14:06.980 a year out from an election how can the ucp make up the ground uh uh to avoid uh another ndp
00:14:13.620 government well a couple of things we've got to make sure that the that the vote doesn't split
00:14:17.460 that's that's number one we've seen that in the past and if we see another conservative party
00:14:23.220 emerging that can hive votes off the ucp that will result in an ndp win in calgary and edmonton
00:14:29.140 and even in rural. In rural Alberta, the last poll I saw, the NDP were at 32%. So a vote split
00:14:35.380 opens up opportunities for them to win there as well. So we've got to keep the movement together.
00:14:40.520 The second thing is that we've got to move on some of those Alberta agenda items that I talked
00:14:44.380 about. That to me, I know that the issues of COVID were almost at the finish line in dealing
00:14:50.780 with those in a way that is constructive. So I hope I can help create a bridge so that we can
00:14:57.020 get that one in the rear view mirror because we know that we're going to have to deal with COVID
00:15:01.140 in the long run, just like influenza. It's going to be endemic. The solution is to make sure that
00:15:06.600 we've got therapeutics widely available. And to the government's credit, I saw that Health
00:15:11.040 Minister Jason Copping just announced that yesterday, that the Paxlovid is going to be
00:15:15.060 more available. That absolutely is going to be the path forward because whether you're vaxxed or
00:15:19.760 unvaxxed, we have an equal chance of getting COVID and we need to treat. We have to do something
00:15:24.660 about healthcare capacity. $3 billion more for healthcare and all the administration is promising
00:15:31.060 is an additional 50 ICU beds. That's just unacceptable. You can give any Albertan $3
00:15:37.540 billion and they would be able to create more than 50 ICU beds. We can't allow the incompetence 0.99
00:15:42.620 of the management at Alberta Health Services to create constant rolling shutdowns and lockdowns
00:15:48.780 for Albertans. We can't allow that to happen. So we need to be starting to make some moves
00:15:53.840 to see some serious increases in our health care capacity.
00:15:58.360 And in addition to that,
00:16:00.640 we have to make sure that we're addressing
00:16:04.000 the long-term issues of how we manage our surpluses.
00:16:07.180 Look, if we're going to spend every last penny
00:16:09.820 of resource revenue, Rachel Notley could do that too.
00:16:12.780 The conservatives have been known as the party of savings.
00:16:15.820 Under Peter Lougheed,
00:16:17.160 he saved 30% of the resource revenues that came in.
00:16:20.540 We were the party of being debt free under Ralph Klein when he tightened the belt to make sure that we could generate surpluses so that we could pay off the debt.
00:16:30.620 Where's the debt repayment plan? Where's the savings plan?
00:16:33.200 Those are the kind of things that I think are going to continue to create a divide in the conservative movement if we don't start seeing some action on that.
00:16:40.120 So as you know, I've never been shy about letting my voice be heard.
00:16:44.460 I've been making public statements on issues like this all the way back to when I was a writer on
00:16:50.140 the editorial board at the Calgary Herald. And I think now's the time for us to see the MLAs
00:16:56.060 say what everyone is telling me and say it publicly so that we can push the government
00:17:01.500 in the right direction. And if we start seeing some action on that, then I think you're going
00:17:05.420 to start seeing the poll results go up. But as long as we say one thing and do another,
00:17:10.700 as long as we're just trying to be um if we spend as much as the ndp and there's no difference
00:17:15.740 between the kind of policy you'd get between the ndp and the conservatives that's going to alienate
00:17:20.140 people and it does pose a real risk they might win again so we've got to stop that some of your
00:17:25.340 critics say that your crossing of the floor in 2014 to join the jim prentice's tory party was
00:17:32.860 one of the reasons we had the accidental ndp government uh do you still get questions about
00:17:37.980 that and how do you handle it yeah people were mad at me and rightly so i mean one of the things 1.00
00:17:44.060 that i i learned from the experience um is that just because you build a party or you're the
00:17:50.860 leader as a party is being built it doesn't mean that you are the party and it doesn't mean that
00:17:55.420 you have the right to make the decisions on behalf of members a party belongs to its members and i
00:18:01.260 misread that situation my our members and i think the general public had seen me be a very strong
00:18:07.340 voice of opposition holding at stalmec to account holding uh holding allison redford to account
00:18:13.180 they wanted me to hold jim prentis to account as well and i loved sort of a personal admiration
00:18:18.460 that i had for jim because i'd known him for for 25 years i allowed that to cloud the job i was i
00:18:24.460 was hired to do i needed to hold him to account so that he could prove to us that he was going
00:18:28.940 to be different and i think we might have had a different outcome if i had done that and so
00:18:33.180 yeah i that was a a big a big mistake and if you know you always think what would i have done
00:18:39.580 differently if i could do it again the the good news is that i think conservatives have all come
00:18:44.300 to realize that we're a very different province now than we might have been 10 or 20 years ago
00:18:50.060 we have a much much stronger opposition in the ndp that is capable of winning government
00:18:56.140 and if we do not continue to find ways to stay united and we see those divisions that's only
00:19:02.700 going to benefit the ndp so i'm hoping that my entry into the race for the ucp can help to to
00:19:09.580 bring uh people back together because i i think that's what we need to do i hope i i hope it's
00:19:14.220 seen that way because i'm trying to be constructive about it ultimately it'll be up to members to
00:19:18.300 decide whether or not they they forgive me i i i believe in redemption i believe that when you make
00:19:24.300 mistakes you you shouldn't be ostracized and cast out of the community forever i think especially
00:19:30.140 in this age of cancel culture where where people are finding themselves fired or publicly humiliated
00:19:37.180 or reputationally damaged because of you know years old tweets that they put on twitter i think
00:19:42.460 we need to understand that yeah people make mistakes and all of us have made mistakes especially
00:19:47.340 on twitter um some some are so egregious you that it's going to take a longer time in the penalty
00:19:52.620 box but there should be a way to make amends say sorry and be able to come back so that you can
00:19:57.820 have a meaningful role that that's what i'm hoping but we'll uh we'll ultimately leave it up to
00:20:02.060 members to decide and when is nomination day good question uh i the reason i'm announcing now is
00:20:08.220 that they were going to announce the nomination after the april 9th vote now of course since
00:20:13.660 that's been um officially delayed i think they want to get going sooner and so as i understand
00:20:18.860 it it could it could happen anytime so i want to be ready i want people to know that i'm in so that
00:20:24.060 i can start meeting people going to coffee parties talking to business leaders and and selling some
00:20:29.340 membership so i as far as i'm concerned it starts today and will likely be sometime within the next
00:20:34.460 month or two and so i'll be ready when it comes okay i understand you may have a brand new website
00:20:39.900 under construction is there anywhere for people to go and read your policies and stuff you bet
00:20:45.340 danielle smith ucp.com and danielle smith ucp.ca for now it's just a landing page or will be
00:20:51.660 tomorrow. It's not live yet. And people can sign up to get campaign updates. People can
00:20:56.220 also sign up to donate because I'll be needing to raise the money to make sure that I can travel
00:21:01.780 around the provinces as well. And I'm looking forward to meeting more constituents and hopefully
00:21:07.600 playing a constructive role once again in elected office when it comes to that next year.
00:21:12.380 Well, Danielle, we wish you much luck and thank you for joining us today.
00:21:16.560 My pleasure. Thanks, Dave.
00:21:17.400 That was Danielle Smith, former leader of the Wild Rose, announcing she's returning to politics and running for the UCP nomination in Livingston-McLeod, excuse me.
00:21:29.360 For the Western Standard, I'm Dave Naylor. Good afternoon.