Smith cites rural issues, making a case to Medicine Hat voters; contenders suggest parachute arrival will land flat
Danielle Smith’s march back to the Alberta legislature will be going through the Brooks-Medicine Hat riding as the new United Conservative Party leader tries to gain a seat in the assembly.
Smith announced her intention to run in the recently opened seat during an in-person media event on a coulee bluff strewn with cactus and overlooking a sun-drenched downtown Medicine Hat, two days following her six-ballot victory in the UCP leadership vote on Oct. 6.
Alberta Party leader Barry Morishita was at the byelection announcement which he will also contest. Down the street, the NDP’s pick for the constituency, Gwendoline Dirk, had her team gathered to co-ordinate their door-knocking ground game.
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Whether either opposition parties will represent more than cactus thorn in the side of a campaign that has already cut its teeth through a province-wide UCP leadership contest has yet to be determined.
Smith’s last big campaign appearance in Medicine Hat came during the 2012 general election as leader of the Wildrose Party in support of local candidates Blake Petersen and Drew Barnes.
But by the end of the next election in 2015, both Smith and Petersen left the Wildrose Party to join the Progressive Conservatives. Smith lost the PC nomination for her Highwood riding with Petersen finishing third in the Medicine Hat riding to the NDP’s Bob Wanner.
Barnes was kicked out of the UCP caucus within two years of the party taking power and remains in the political wild as the independent MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat.
A contingent of Medicine Hat’s conservative establishment made up of a former MP and two former MLAs, as well as several others on various constituency boards showed up in force to welcome the new premier.
Her message to the province and the riding was rural Albertan’s need better representation.
“The main reason why I’m so committed to running in a rural riding is I know our rural ridings didn’t feel like they had the strongest voice at the table during the last years of the COVID pandemic,” said Smith during her Medicine Hat appearance. “I hope this sends a signal not only to the residents of Brooks-Medicine Hat but to the residents of all rural Alberta that their voice will be heard, it will be prominent and it will be respected.”
The new premier said she intends to spend a substantial amount of time in the riding, raising local issues such as twinning the Crowsnest Highway running between Medicine Hat and the British Columbia border.
Issues such as mental health and drug addiction, once seen as urban problems, were other initiatives Smith said she’d like to tackle as they’ve become more prevalent in rural areas.
Despite rural politicians objecting to the replacement of RCMP with a provincial police service, Smith there is a need for a new way of policing in Alberta with a focus on mental health and addiction training.
“That’s where we can begin, with an augmentation to our current policing structure, properly trained in how we can deal with those kinds of calls so we can seamlessly connect those who are facing stress or possibly committing crimes to support their addiction,” she said.
Smith added she intends on working with rural communities to pitch the augmentation idea and, “ultimately, cancel the RCMP contract.”
Regarding outstanding oil and gas lease payments and delinquent taxes to rural municipalities, Smith floated the idea of a royalty credit program which would see payments to the provincial coffers instead flow back to companies to pay for remediation work.
“If we could use that as a lever to make sure taxes get paid, to make sure land leases get paid,” said Smith who estimated companies owe half-a-billion dollars split equally between outstanding surface lease payments and municipal taxes.
The NDP’s Medicine Hat-based Dirk and Alberta Party’s Morishita former mayor of Brooks, painted Smith as a political opportunist and tourist whose personal connection to the riding being limited and is something which will continue into the future.
“Danielle Smith thinks she can take this constituency for granted. She thinks she can parachute in from 300 kilometres away and have it handed to her,” said Dirk during her official launch of the NDP’s campaign in the riding. “That’s not going to happen.”
As for Morishita, he was blunt in his assessment of Smith choosing the Brooks-Medicine Hat seat that was vacated just after Smith won the leadership vote while leaving the Calgary-Elbow riding seat unfilled.
“It’s an opportunistic play,” said Morishita. “It’s me first just like the UCP always has been. Do what’s best for us and hopefully everybody will fall in line.”
He highlighted how he was born, raised and worked in the riding his entire life and understands the issues.
Morishita added Smith does not know the constituency and, “her words, at best, are disingenuous.”
Dirk said the number one issue for the riding and the rest of rural Alberta is being able to find a family doctor and to rectify the chaos wrought by the UCP on the provincial healthcare system.
The Brooks-Medicine Hat by-election date is set for Nov. 8.
