Tag: Edmonton Southeast

Danielle Smith’s charm offensive in Trump’s America

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 13, 2024

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith with South Dakota Governor and Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

More MAGA, Less Ottawa

With the impending electoral defeat of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau growing more likely by the day, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has embarked on her own Team Alberta diplomatic charm offensive in the United States.

Just days after American President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods imported into his country, Smith jetted off to the Western Governors conference in Las Vegas. Smith held a handful of one-on-one meetings with Republican and Democratic governors as part of her pitch to US law-makers to exclude Canadian oil and gas from Trump’s tariff war.

“I am a fan of our biggest trading partner” Smith’s told a Fox News host when she was asked on-air if she was a fan of Trump. In response to Trump’s now frequently repeated threats that Canada should become America’s 51st state if Canadians don’t like the tariffs, Smith said he was “hilarious.”

Long list of COVID-19 grievances could head to UCP AGM policy debate

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date September 16, 2024

Premier Danielle Smith and Innisfail-Sylvan Lake UCP MLA Devin Dreeshen at a UCP member only town hall meeting (source: United Conservative Party / Facebook)

It’s hard to imagine the old PC Party getting bogged down by this debate

If I had walked into the Alberta Legislature ten years ago and told an MLA, staffer, or journalist that in 2024 the province’s political landscape would be a competitive two-party system, I probably would have been laughed out of the Rotunda. They might have even alerted a security guard if I’d been so out of my mind to predict that the New Democratic Party would be competing with the conservatives to form Alberta’s government.

Until that point ten years ago, only twice in the Progressive Conservative Party’s four decades of uninterrupted majority governments had the dynasty been seriously challenged in an election. The PC Party was unquestionably Alberta’s Natural Governing Party.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Airdrie-Cochrane, Alberta Bill of Rights, Alberta Federal Candidate Nomination Update, Alberta NDP, An Injection of Truth, Banff-Kananaskis, Black Hat Gang, Blake Desjarlais, Bridget Mearns, Calgary-Buffalo, Calgary-Edgemont, Calgary-Fish Creek, Calgary-Lougheed, Calgary-Peigan, Calgary-Shaw, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, COVID-19 grievances, COVID-19 Pandemic, Danielle Smith, Dave Hancock, Dave Quest, Daveberta Substack, David Egan, Devin Dreeshen, Edmonton Southeast, Edmonton-Griesbach, Edmonton-Whitemud, Eric Bouchard, Highwood, Innisfail-Sylvan Lake, Jason Kenney, Jason Stephan, Jim Prentice, Kerry Diotte, Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland, Lethbridge-West, Lethbridge-West by-election, Louisiana State Legislature, Morinville-St. Albert, Naheed Nenshi, Nixan Patel, Policy Making, Rachel Notley, Red Deer-South, Rob Miyashiro, Robin Campbell, Rufus Awharitoma, Shannon Phillips, Sherwood Park, Stockwell Day, Taber-Warner, Ted Morton, Tyler Shandro, UCP AGM 2024, United Conservative Party, United Conservative Party Policy Document, William Aberhart, World Health Organization

Alberta Politics

Controlling Everything Everywhere All At Once

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 14, 2024

Sherwood Park MLA Kyle Kasawski (source: Kyle Kasawski / Facebook)

NDP’s Oscar-winning film inspired catch phrase captures the UCP moment in Alberta politics

“Danielle Smith wants to control everything, everywhere, all at once…”

In the middle of the weekly chaos of Alberta politics, a catch phrase inspired by an Academy Award winning film has captured one of the driving themes of Alberta politics today.

“Danielle Smith wants to control everything. Pensions, police, health care, schools, local councils. Any dollar spent anywhere in the province, and any decision made by anyone. Everything,” NDP MLA Kyle Kasawski first said in an April 29 press release.

Kasawski is the rookie MLA from Sherwood Park who became the opposition’s sole Municipal Affairs critic when co-critic Sarah Hoffman joined the NDP leadership race earlier this year.

While Municipal Affairs can sometimes be a sleepy file, on both the ministerial and critic side, it has been front and centre over the past month as Premier Danielle Smith and Minister Ric McIver rein in municipal and university funding agreements with the federal government and expand the provincial cabinet’s power to fire locally elected officials and overturn municipal bylaws.

Tags 2024 Alberta NDP Leadership Race, Airdrie-East, Alberta Federal Candidate Nomination Update, Alberta Health Services, Alberta NDP, Alberta Pension Plan, An Injection of Truth, Angela Pitt, Bill 18: Provincial Priorities Act, Bill 20: Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, Calgary-Bhullar-McCall, Calgary-Lougheed, Calgary-Mountain View, Canada Pension Plan, Conservative Party of Canada, COVID-19 Pandemic, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, David Bhatti, Don Braid, Edmonton Centre, Edmonton Gateway, Edmonton Southeast, Edmonton-Manning, Edmonton-Mill Woods, Edmonton-Riverview, Eric Bouchard, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Foothills, Gil McGowan, Hotel Pacifico Podcast, Irfan Sabir, J.S. Mahal, Jason Copping, Jason Kenney, Jason Nixon, Jaspreet Saggu, Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse, John Barlow, Kathleen Ganley, Kyle Kasawski, Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland, Marshall Smith, Naheed Nenshi, Pamela Rath, Rachel Notley, Recovery Alberta, Ric McIver, Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre, Rob Smith, Sarah Hoffman, Shane Getson, Shawn McLeod, Sherwood Park, Steve Overguard, Take Back Alberta, Tim Hoven, Tim Uppal, Trisha Estabrooks, Tyler Gandam, United Conservative Party, Zane Novak, Ziad Aboultaif

Alberta Politics

Danielle Smith’s Fundraising Machine

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date April 20, 2024

Premier Danielle Smith at the United Conservative Party's leader's dinner in Edmonton (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

A special weekend episode of the Daveberta Podcast

It’s rare that I send out a newsletter on the weekend but I thought subscribers would enjoy listening to a new episode of the Daveberta Podcast we recorded this week.

We cover a lot of ground in this episode of the Daveberta Podcast, including:

Premier Danielle Smith’s recent packed leader’s dinner fundraisers in Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer and Bonnyville.
how the Alberta NDP leadership candidates are leaning into digital advertising on the Meta platform and what this might say about their campaigns.
how federal boundary changes are impacting the electoral map in south east Edmonton (I’m calling it the Mill Woods Shuffle) and former Progressive Conservative MLA Naresh Bhardwaj’s campaign for the Conservative nomination in the new Edmonton-Southeast riding (I’ve updated the list).
how electoral boundary commissions work in Alberta (one of my favourite topics).

The full episode of this Daveberta Podcast is available to paid subscribers of the Daveberta Substack.

Alberta Politics

What Danielle Smith said she wouldn’t campaign for in the 2023 election

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date March 26, 2024

Minister of Energy and Minerals Brian Jean and Premier Danielle Smith during their trip to Texas last week. (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

Smith said she wouldn’t campaign on an Alberta Pension Plan and police force, but it looks like that’s what we’re getting.

I want to focus on the lede from this widely shared Canadian Press story published on March 5, 2023:

United Conservative Leader Danielle Smith says she won’t be campaigning on some of her party’s more contentious ideas — sovereignty legislation, a provincial police force and an Alberta pension plan — ahead of the May 29 election.

The reason why this story is notable is because of how much of the re-elected UCP’s political agenda today focuses on those three things Smith specifically didn’t want to talk about during the campaign.

Daveberta is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

It’s not unusual for parties that form government to back away from campaign promises or even implement policies they didn’t campaign on at all. But it feels a little more unusual for a party leader to implement policies she said she didn’t want to talk about during a 28-day election campaign that happened less than a year ago.

It was a shameless and cynical move, because despite Smith saying she didn’t want to campaign on those issues during the election, it was clear the UCP was going to move forward on pensions, police and sovereignty if they were re-elected.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

If you want full access to all Daveberta columns and episodes of the Daveberta Podcast, please consider signing up for a paid subscription

Alberta Politics

Alberta NDP name change pushed by group led by former MLA

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 28, 2023

Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley during the 2023 election (source: Alberta NDP / Facebook)

Alberta’s Progressive Future calls for Alberta NDP to distance itself from the Ottawa NDP

When I worked for the Alberta Liberal Party back in the 2000s, we had an inside joke that the Liberals could run Jesus Christ as a candidate in Wainwright and still lose. It was funny because it was probably true (the last time voters in Wainwright elected a Liberal MLA was in 1909) and was a reflection of how cynical we were that the party had any chance of actually winning any seats in rural Alberta.

I imagine more than a few Alberta NDP supporters felt the same when the results of the 2023 election started rolling in on May 29, 2023. Despite making big gains in Calgary and winning 38 seats province-wide, the party’s hopes of forming government were dashed at the city limits.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

Sign up for a paid subscription to get access to the Daveberta Podcast and special Alberta politics extras