Alberta premier wins leadership review with 91.5% approval
'Our conservative movement is stronger than it's ever been': Danielle Smith
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith received 91.5 per cent support for her leadership from members of her United Conservative Party who voted in Red Deer, Alta., on Saturday.
"I'm truly humbled and honoured by the overwhelming support of our party members in your vote of confidence in my leadership," Smith told the cheering crowd after the result was announced.
"Our conservative movement is stronger than it's ever been. Our party is more united than it has ever been."
The party said 4,633 ballots were cast in the vote. The result solidifies Smith's leadership of Alberta's governing party and confirms party members agree with the direction she has taken the province since she took over the party two years ago.
UCP member Ronda Grenier said she was happy with the result, as she is impressed with Smith's performance as party leader.
"She's articulate. She stands behind what she says," Grenier said. "She's trying. And she will admit her faults."
Grenier said Smith's critics should give her more time.
"Nothing good happens fast," Grenier said.
Rose Huebschwerlen was also pleased with the vote, which she called a "resounding success."
"I absolutely believe in Danielle," she said. "She is the lady who will get it done."
'On the right path'
Earlier Saturday, Smith made her pitch to continue as leader by reminding the roughly 6,000 members at the annual general meeting that the party needs to stay united in order make the province better.
"We are on the right path," Smith told a packed Westerner Centre earlier Saturday morning. "And we've only just begun.
"So let us remain united as a party and as a movement — but let us not sink to the level of our opponents by attacking and vilifying one another, or breaking into factions."
Unity, she said, will help fend off challenges from federal and provincial parties on the other side of the political spectrum.
"Our opponents — whether that be in the NDP in Alberta, or the Liberals in Ottawa — have no chance to defeat us when we as a party are strong, unified and boldly governing our province," she said in her keynote address Saturday morning.
Smith's speech was punctuated by resounding applause from the crowd. However, two groups mounted campaigns to vote against her.
The 1905 Committee and Take Back Alberta believe Smith hasn't gone far enough in her campaign promises from the 2023 election. They say she hasn't done enough to seek accountability for vaccine mandates and COVID-related business closures during the pandemic.
But David Parker of Take Back Alberta said he accepted the result, as it represented the will of party members.
"I think that she should have probably got a little bit of a worse grade," he said. "But at the end of the day, if this is how the party feels about her, this is how the party feels about her."
Parker said Smith helped herself with her blitz of town halls with UCP members all across the province over the last few months.
"I think people want unity right now, they don't want conflict," Parker said. "It's been a very hard five years for the people in this room, and they just want someone who they believe is going to be their champion."
Time to unite, minister says
Jason Nixon, the minister for seniors, community and social services, said Smith's high approval rating didn't surprise him, as he hears similar favourable comments from his constituents.
"This is Danielle Smith's party," he said. "We're strongly united behind our leader."
As for the groups who opposed her leadership, Nixon asked them to heed what Smith said in her victory speech.
"It's time for us to go back to being a united party, focus on what unites us and stop focusing on what divides us," he said.
"Clearly that's where the majority of our membership is at."
The party passed all 35 policy resolutions slated for debate this year by a wide margin — in many cases, with near-unanimous support.
The resolutions included several dealing with transgender Albertans, including restricting "exclusively female spaces" like washrooms and change rooms to "biological females who were female at conception," and designating gender-affirming procedures like top and bottom surgery as "elective cosmetic procedures" that are not covered by Alberta medicare.
Party members also passed a resolution to abandon net-zero targets, and to recognize CO2 as a "foundational nutrient for all life on Earth" and not a pollutant.
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With files from Sam Samson