The year 2022 will be a seminal reference in the history of Alberta. It retired a premier who had forgotten his conservative roots and it gained a leader who embodied those conservative principles. .Danielle Smith is truly becoming the Margaret Thatcher of Alberta and could be the same for Canada. If she wants it. But for now, she is managing a revolution of provincial autonomy that is spreading across this vast land..She is not just the first woman premier of Alberta, but perhaps the first to really believe the policy platform she used to win the support of her party. The late US President Richard Nixon famously, or perhaps infamously, said “run to the right” in the primaries but “run to the center” in a federal election. .Smith has run consistently as a populist conservative and did not seek public office in order to only renounce those ideals for fear of the media backlash. .She has been remarkably courageous in being true to those principles and consistently strong in refusing to apologize for supporting the people of Alberta, and not the mainstream media. .Smith could have conveniently forgotten the Alberta Sovereignty Act, or kicked this controversial can way down the legislative road by talking about implementing it when she had a mandate from the province. By then, it could have been dismissed as just a lot of leadership race hokum that no one expected to see reified. .But she made it her first order of business and shocked the county — especially Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — by showing how serious she was about standing up for Alberta and not becoming another appendage of the federal government. She has become both a beacon and a symbol of provincial rights. .Some say she is trying to break up Canada by demanding her province stand on its Constitutional rights. But as she has said, “I’m not talking about leaving Canada, I’m talking about saving Canada.” Of course she is, and the Alberta Sovereignty Act asks for nothing more than the federal government retroceded to Quebec beginning with the “Quiet Revolution” and continuing through its threats to separate. .The act is startling similar to the Alberta Agenda that was signed by future Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2001 in an open letter to Canada. .This week she pledged that Albertans will not be coerced to buy electric cars because that is the environmental fetish of the moment and some half-wits think we can make gasoline redundant overnight. .She has bigger fights ahead with the federal government’s arbitrary greenhouse gas cap on Alberta’s energy sector. She will need to be comfortable with the word 'no.'.Unfortunately, a lot of Albertan conservatives are still getting over the disappointment of former Premier Jason Kenney. You might call it a hangover from his authoritarian lockdowns and imprisonments during the COVID-19 pandemic. .That’s probably why a recent poll by Abacus Data found that 25% of Albertans are undecided to who to vote for in the upcoming provincial election. .A lot of those people are United Conservative Party voters who are still disenchanted with Kenney and haven’t noticed that there’s a new administration in Edmonton that’s cleaning house and the legislature. I don’t believe for a nanosecond that Alberta wants to bring back the NDP or Rachel Notley – a combination that would have made the pandemic lockdowns even more destructive. .No, Smith needs to keep on doing what’s she’s doing. Don’t forget the lessons learned on the leadership campaign trial. Remember how fed up people were with the government intruding ever more into their lives with vaccine mandates and how governments to continue to encroach on your liberty with green energy plans from hell. .Margaret Thatcher prevailed and rescued Great Britian from decades of welfare statism that was nurtured by both Labour and Conservative governments. This was because she knew she was right and was prepared to stare down the proponents of the status quo. .Smith can and will do the same in 2023.
The year 2022 will be a seminal reference in the history of Alberta. It retired a premier who had forgotten his conservative roots and it gained a leader who embodied those conservative principles. .Danielle Smith is truly becoming the Margaret Thatcher of Alberta and could be the same for Canada. If she wants it. But for now, she is managing a revolution of provincial autonomy that is spreading across this vast land..She is not just the first woman premier of Alberta, but perhaps the first to really believe the policy platform she used to win the support of her party. The late US President Richard Nixon famously, or perhaps infamously, said “run to the right” in the primaries but “run to the center” in a federal election. .Smith has run consistently as a populist conservative and did not seek public office in order to only renounce those ideals for fear of the media backlash. .She has been remarkably courageous in being true to those principles and consistently strong in refusing to apologize for supporting the people of Alberta, and not the mainstream media. .Smith could have conveniently forgotten the Alberta Sovereignty Act, or kicked this controversial can way down the legislative road by talking about implementing it when she had a mandate from the province. By then, it could have been dismissed as just a lot of leadership race hokum that no one expected to see reified. .But she made it her first order of business and shocked the county — especially Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — by showing how serious she was about standing up for Alberta and not becoming another appendage of the federal government. She has become both a beacon and a symbol of provincial rights. .Some say she is trying to break up Canada by demanding her province stand on its Constitutional rights. But as she has said, “I’m not talking about leaving Canada, I’m talking about saving Canada.” Of course she is, and the Alberta Sovereignty Act asks for nothing more than the federal government retroceded to Quebec beginning with the “Quiet Revolution” and continuing through its threats to separate. .The act is startling similar to the Alberta Agenda that was signed by future Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2001 in an open letter to Canada. .This week she pledged that Albertans will not be coerced to buy electric cars because that is the environmental fetish of the moment and some half-wits think we can make gasoline redundant overnight. .She has bigger fights ahead with the federal government’s arbitrary greenhouse gas cap on Alberta’s energy sector. She will need to be comfortable with the word 'no.'.Unfortunately, a lot of Albertan conservatives are still getting over the disappointment of former Premier Jason Kenney. You might call it a hangover from his authoritarian lockdowns and imprisonments during the COVID-19 pandemic. .That’s probably why a recent poll by Abacus Data found that 25% of Albertans are undecided to who to vote for in the upcoming provincial election. .A lot of those people are United Conservative Party voters who are still disenchanted with Kenney and haven’t noticed that there’s a new administration in Edmonton that’s cleaning house and the legislature. I don’t believe for a nanosecond that Alberta wants to bring back the NDP or Rachel Notley – a combination that would have made the pandemic lockdowns even more destructive. .No, Smith needs to keep on doing what’s she’s doing. Don’t forget the lessons learned on the leadership campaign trial. Remember how fed up people were with the government intruding ever more into their lives with vaccine mandates and how governments to continue to encroach on your liberty with green energy plans from hell. .Margaret Thatcher prevailed and rescued Great Britian from decades of welfare statism that was nurtured by both Labour and Conservative governments. This was because she knew she was right and was prepared to stare down the proponents of the status quo. .Smith can and will do the same in 2023.
