With 75 of 76 polls reporting, Premier Danielle Smith has won the by-election in Brooks-Medicine Hat.
Here are the results at the time this post was published:
- Danielle Smith UCP – 5,768 (55.5%)
- Gwendoline Dirk NDP – 2,512 (24.2%)
- Barry Morishita AP – 1,871 (18%)
- Bob Blayone IPA – 200 (1.9%)
- Jeevan Mangat WRIP – 49 (0.5%)
I’ll share some more in-depth analysis on the Daveberta Substack on Thursday, but it’s worth noting that, while a win is win, Smith finished with only 55 per cent support in one of the most conservative parts of the province.
The NDP’s Gwendoline Dirk finished a distant second overall but appears to have won the vote in the City of Medicine Hat, a sign of the growing urban-rural divide in Alberta politics.
Third place is not where Alberta Party leader and former Brooks mayor Barry Morishita wanted to end the night, but 18 per cent in the leader’s riding is not the worst result for a party that is polling at around 3 per cent in province-wide polls.
But more soon on the Daveberta Substack (so subscribe!)
5 replies on “Danielle Smith wins Brooks-Medicine Hat by-election with 55%”
Well I suppose Smith did slightly better percentage wise here than in the UCP leadership race. However, I am not sure the support is as overwhelming as she would have wanted. After all the previous low profile MLA got a higher percentage in the last election than Smith got in this by election and I suspect a better turn out too. So perhaps the best word to describe the outcome is tepid.
I guess we’ll see now how much Smith sticks with her rural strategy or not. Not all parts of rural, or what might be more properly called the rest of, Alberta are as much conservative strong holds as this riding.
Also, this race might be unique in that it was more than a two party race, with a second party leader also running here. My guess is if there was only one other clear main candidate against her, Smith might have been in more trouble. So perhaps that was also a reason she chose this particular riding to run in.
I have to laugh at how biased the media is against the UCP and Smith!
Instead of congratulating her, they tar her with the comments that she didn`t really win by enough or it wasn`t really a victory.
What ever happened to reporting the news, without the leftist opinion?
Mr Cornoyer is not the “[mainstream] media”, he’s a well-known & acknowledgedly progressive blogger. And IMHO he’s generally not “leftist”, but mostly centrist with progressive leanings on some issues.
*it’s called analysis. This is a political analysis blog wondering why the leader of the Conservative Party barely won a majority victory in a traditionally very conservative riding.
Its was a fine result, but I guess it was only 2 x the NDP vote so I think she should do better once she shows her metal.
13 days in, wonder what vote she would get now?