MaY 1st, 2024 | Grant Johnson

Danielle Smith Is A Real CHampion For Albertans

She is doing great and her enemies hate her for it.

I was skeptical about Danielle Smith leading the party. I thought her past actions of crossing the floor and consequently destroying the Wildrose Party were appalling. Stories I’ve heard about Danielle from political insiders called her a flake. She seemed like someone who had all the right ideological trappings but didn’t have any sense of organizational or executive leadership abilities. Basically, she was a good-looking salesperson for centre-right politics, but without gravitas and accomplishment.

For this reason, I supported Travis Toews. He seemed like the opposite of everything Danielle was, but in a good way. I thought Alberta would have our own Scott Moe and that a safe victory over Rachel Notley would be ensured.

Albertans being Albertans, however, had other plans. The people decided to roll the dice with a “fool me once” vulnerability and selected her to come back and do what she should have done back in 2012.

Win.

And she did and is.

Big time.

Whether it’s her appearance with Tucker Carlson or her whirlwind charm-offensive throughout the power centres of the United States, she has been a relentless cheerleader for Alberta. Her constant defensive plays at home against a malevolent and Woke federal government have been a great to watch. Her policies ranging from renewable halts, to gender warfare, to the latest proposed Stay Out Of Our Backyard federal/municipal legislation have been wonderful. The UCP fundraising numbers show that I’m not alone in thinking this!

Alberta is booming again and we have yet to even get the foot off the throat of our natural resource sectors! Imagine what will be possible after the 2025 federal election?! With Wokeness receiving pushback around the world and Canada’s dire financial situation necessitating a back-to-basics approach, we could be unleashing a new roaring twenties in the 21st century!

Now for the storm clouds…

1. Nenshi is obviously going to destroy the competition and win the leadership of the NDP.

The North-East of Calgary alone will sign up tens of thousands of “new members” and Nenshi will breeze into the leadership. He will easily keep every seat Notley won in 2023, which is a problem for Smith going forward into 2027.

Twenty years ago, Canada’s source countries for immigrants were usually China, India and The Philippines coming in together closely as the first, second and third source countries from which Canada drew new blood.

Today, with Trudeau’s insane “Century Initiative” mass-immigration scheme, the number one source country is India, by far. How far? In 2022, India sent over 118,095 immigrants to Canada. China came in at number two with 31,815 immigrants. Afghanistan was number three with 23,735 immigrants.

Most immigrants head to the big cities (Toronto) and then disperse from there once they hear about better opportunities in other parts of the country.

The problem for Danielle is that these new arrivals are going to be voting Nenshi, because he’s their guy. There’s nothing she can do to convince them otherwise because they’ll just vote tribally. This is distinctly different from the ideological problem of people voting Liberal or NDP and then suffering the consequences and leaving their home province in search of one that functions properly (Alberta), only to maintain their Liberal/NDP voting habits upon arrival.

Nenshi is a huge threat for a wide variety of reasons, but the Indian diaspora is probably the biggest electoral problem. The last election could have turned out differently with only a few thousand votes in a few key ridings. With thousands of new arrivals from India pouring into Calgary over the next few years, Nenshi is going to have a much larger head start than Notley could have dreamed of.

2. The Alberta Pension Plan is going to be talked about a lot this month.

The report is going to be issued and we’ll get an update about what Albertan’s are thinking.

Problem is, most Albertan’s don’t think.

The left is going apoplectic with the APP issue and will consume an enormous amount of political capital from Smith and the UCP in the process. Danielle is harkening back to her grassroots-era of democratic consultation with these consultations regarding whether or not to adopt the pension plan.

Obviously, we should adopt an Alberta Pension Plan. Obviously, this is a slam dunk. Obviously, the left is going to weaponize this thing for as long as it carries on. They will use their mastery of narrative shilling and media bullhorns and union money to demonize the plan and scare the seniors to death. Too many people will mindlessly defer to the status-quo.

Smith needs to just take the report in May and declare that it makes enough sense for Alberta to pursue the option of a “made-in-Alberta” approach and then… RAM IT THROUGH. Get it going as fast as possible and don’t bother with a politicized referendum.

If Alberta is to have a pension plan it needs to happen before the next election in 2027. In fact, it needs to happen before the next federal election in 2025, because sticking the knife into Trudeau and leaving the CPP will play much better than sticking the knife into Poilievre thereafter.

Danielle needs to make the APP happen, and fast.

3. Taxes have not budged since Rachel Notley was in power.

Danielle is playing the old “fiscal conservative” card of being responsible and prudent. This is a dead-end, however, as nobody in a democracy cares about governments being fiscally responsible and prudent.

I’ve argued before that Ralph Klein paying off the debt, only enabled his leftist successors to rack it all up again, culminating with Rachel Notley’s orgy of spending from 2015-2019.

Why should Danielle and the UCP be misers for four years only to hand over the reins of power to a big spending Nenshi in 2027? (Remember when Nenshi’s nickname as Calgary mayor was “Spendshi”?)

Danielle also wants to expand the Heritage Fund in order to get Alberta off the resource boom/bust model of government financing.

This would be a great idea if we didn’t also live in a democracy.

The Heritage Fund would be in jeopardy of being liquidated as soon as someone without Smith’s long-term view got their hands on it. I’m frankly surprized Notley didn’t liquate it all in the name of “the people” and give to AISH folks, or climate change organizations.

If Danielle wants people to feel the change she’s bringing, she should slash income taxes and then use the bigger deficits that arrive later as an excuse to make cuts to government fat. Her Danni-dollar scheme back in 2023 under the auspices of “fighting inflation” helped her win that election after all.

In conclusion, Smith is doing great. Her haters hate her so much it makes me smile. It’s so nice to have one of our own in power, leading the way. Her strengths and weaknesses are all still there, but the future is looking bright, and the skies are looking clear. Albertans are lucky to have a champion on their side and we can only hope that success keeps building. Unlike Jason Kenney, Smith needs to actually accomplish stuff in order to win hearts and minds. So far she’s making the right moves, but we need to see a lot more fruit in order to prevent an NDP catastrophe in 2027.

Related: Danielle Smith Taught Us Four Important Lessons | Alberta Can Be Canada's Last Bastion Of Hope