Date of publication: 31 Mar 2022 • 6 minutes ago • 3 minutes reading • 32 Comments File archive. Danielle Smith. Photo by David Bloom / Postmedia Archive
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Former opposition and Wildrose leader Danielle Smith is re-entering county politics with a look at the leadership of the United Conservative Party.
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Smith told Postmedia on Thursday that she would submit her name to run for UCP for Livingstone-Macleod in next year’s general election, with an official announcement scheduled for Friday. If Prime Minister Jason Kenney loses an upcoming leadership vote, she said she would throw her hat in the ring in the next race for the party’s top spot. “I had a lot of people approach me saying when you would be back in politics, and they specifically asked me if I would put my name here, and so I talked to my husband and we agreed, I’ll give him another try,” Smith said. She said she was returning to politics because she was upset that the UCP canceled the April 9 general assembly and moved the leadership vote to ballot papers by mail. He called on the party to reverse the decision and either vote in person at Red Deer or set up ballot boxes in all major population centers to give people easy access.
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She also noted that she is angry at how Kenney described people in the county as “crazy” or bigoted based on their views on COVID-19 and public health orders. “If my announcement allows people to believe that I can be a candidate for leadership, then quite rightly so, I’m in,” Smith said. “I will also put my name for leadership. “But this is really a decision for the members, and if the members choose to keep the current leader, then I am very happy that my voice will be heard from the bench.” He would take part in a battle that has been widely regarded as Kenney against another former Wildrose Party leader, Brian Jean, who recently won a run-off election as UCP candidate at Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche. Newly elected UCP MLA Brian Jean speaks to his supporters at his campaign office in Fort McMurray as early unofficial results from the Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche election are announced on Tuesday, March 15, 2022. Photo by VINCENT MCDERMOTT / Postmedia Archive Smith has a long history in Alberta politics, beginning with an almost one-year stint as director of the Calgary Board of Education in the 1990s.
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Her time with the Wildrose ended in 2014 when she crossed the floor and joined the Progressive Conservative Party, then led by Jim Predis. She would lose her PC nomination in 2015 before the district finally elects a Wildrose member back into the legislature. After pursuing a career in politics, Smith appeared on a daily radio show on Corus Radio for six years and has regularly written columns for Postmedia newspapers, including the Calgary Herald. He left Corus last year, denouncing what he saw as restrictions on freedom of speech, saying there were issues that were “unquestionable”. Since then he has been the president of the Alberta Enterprise Group. While on the radio, he regularly criticized Kenney for handling COVID-19. He also apologized early in the pandemic after posting false claims on Twitter about treatments for COVID-19.
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If she succeeds in running for Livingstone-Macleod, she said she will try to join the party base and work to ensure that MLAs have a voice in the parliamentary group and the ability to voice voters’ concerns. “The kind of approach we have taken in Alberta is not the way Alberta politics is usually done. “It’s really more of an Ottawa style,” Smith said. “Individual MPs have been almost completely removed from the picture and that does not provide good governance for the people in my constituency.” After officially announcing her intention to run on Friday, she said she would start meeting people and stakeholders in riding to find out what their concerns are as she launches the campaign. Smith said she informed current Livingstone-Macleod MLA Roger Reid of her decision to run for office earlier this week. Reid could not be reached for comment on Thursday. [email protected]
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