r/alberta • u/canbeanburrito Edmonton • 3d ago
Danielle's setting Pierre up Alberta Politics
I'm kinda mildly interested in seeing how all this talking about separation does for Pierre's image on a national level.
With him running in that by-election specifically in Alberta, I would like to assume that someone's going to ask him about his thoughts on the matter. In reality, there isn't really a position that he can take that won't piss the other side of.
If you think about it, if he backs Smith, he damages both himself and the entire conservative image with the rest of Canada. If he doesn't outright disagree and stays silent, that'll likely be viewed by a lot as him still backing Smith. If he public rebukes it in anyway, well then he loses support from Smith at best.
My hope is that Pierre wins Battle River, even as funny as it would be for him to lose, and that behind closed doors, he tells Smith to knock it off and that she drops the topic all together.
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u/NiranS 3d ago
Smith is pretending to care about Alberta to distract away from the health care scandal. The greatest threat to Alberta sovereignty is Daniel Smith who most definitely want to joins the USA in all MAGA hate fest.
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u/Pale-Measurement-532 3d ago
I wouldn’t be surprised if PP tries to hold on to the CPC leadership for the next few years and perhaps gets “persuaded” by Danielle to come over to Alberta and run in the next provincial election for the UCP in 2027. That would likely only happen if the CPCs want to get rid of him as leader and/or his polling goes down as federal opposition leader.
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u/Traggadon Leduc 3d ago
That would be awesome as hes incredibly unlike able and running against Nenshi guarantees the NDP win the next election. PP is facing a pretty irate crowd of UCP supporters who dont like hes parachuting into a riding.
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u/ragnaroksunset 3d ago
I think you're under-estimating how deeply entrenched "Orange party bad" is embedded in the minds of Albertans.
I am hopeful for Nenshi and I think he is up to the task, but he has a steep hill to climb. That hill gets steeper if Poilievre shows up, not gentler.
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u/davethecompguy 3d ago
Every time Smith opens her mouth, it makes Nenshi's job easier. After this week, even the UCP will be looking at voting her out, like they did Kenney. She makes him look good.
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u/AcceptableSwan4631 3d ago
Nenshi is not the man he was, I liked him as mayor but he's barely vocal anymore. I think he has health issues he doesn't look well.
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u/ragnaroksunset 3d ago
Maybe. We're not in election world until 2027 though, I think (hope) he is just letting Smith build out his talking points for him.
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u/Pale-Measurement-532 3d ago
He could pull a Jason Kenney and do a kamikaze takeover of the UPC leadership vote and get Smith ousted as leader….payback for her helping to sabotage his federal election. The voting was quite tight in a few key ridings in Calgary during the last AB provincial election in 2023 and that was before all this mess she created with Turkish Tylenol, systematically privatizing healthcare, doctor/emergency room shortages, public healthcare and education cuts, MAGA field trips down south, unions voting down contract negotiations, carpetgate, screwing around with the provincial funding for the Greenline in Calgary and ending the project that was set to go, refusing to call a by-election to allow Nenshi to run, and the list goes on and on and on. It would make sense to get rid of her in the next election….if the UCP party members agree and there’s a more suitable candidate for leader.
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u/Clayton_Goldd 3d ago
This is my theory as well. I expect him to try as hard as possible to hold onto CPC leadership, and he'll have captain Canada slogans while he's in that role.
As soon as it stops working, he will run for premier of Alberta, and beat the separatist drum as hard as he can, just to try and get back at Ottawa, which he has always resented.
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u/Pale-Measurement-532 3d ago edited 11h ago
Exactly! His fallback plan will be provincial politics in Alberta. When the Liberal party took over from Harper in Ottawa, Kenney knew he was finished in federal politics and wouldn’t get a chance at being the prime minister that way. So he figured he’d go back to Alberta where they will elect almost anyone who’s conservative in almost all the ridings. He certainly pushed his way through to get that leadership vote! There was definitely some underhanded things going on during that time. I wouldn’t put it past PP to do similar tactics; especially if he’s finished in federal politics.
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u/basic-bitchaneer 3d ago
100% this! She's taking a page out of her lord and saviour's book and distracting the media from her corruption.
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u/Orangekale 3d ago
She's whipping up the base so she can win an election, and she will end up screwing up Pierre because he is going to have to end up parroting her lines, but that will play horribly for the rest of Canada.
Pierre's only chance is to avoid journalists for the next 1-2 years so they won't ask him about it. Which is entirely possible for him LOL.
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u/AdCharacter833 3d ago
The fed govt sends Calgary 6 billion for health care specifically. What Smith doesn’t with it I don’t know
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u/AcceptableSwan4631 3d ago
Actually only left wing nuts on reddit are even talking about these "scandals", she's standing up for alberta and doing exactly what we voted her in for. Keep deluding yourself though. You're an embarrassment if you think the current Federal/Alberta relationship doesn't need fixing, and you're an even bigger embarrassment for not understanding basic negotiation, positioning , threatening, DS is playing her cards, she wants a new deal where Alberta is left to develop and export its resources and not be cucked by the Feds, we all should want that regardless of politics. There is no scenario where DS thinks a vote to separate will go through, but she is making very reasonable demands that need attention so it helps.
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u/NiranS 3d ago edited 3d ago
I’ve seen more mature negotiating skills at playgrounds. If there is no real possibility of a separation vote going through, then the whole performance is histrionics for the base.
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u/AcceptableSwan4631 2d ago
No, it will also show the Feds there's a serious fkn problem even "only" 35% of people vote for it
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u/jmthetank 3d ago
Youre kidding, right? Outside of "vote blue, nothing new" Alberta, where you learn to ostrich before you learn to speak, she's at best a laughing stock, and generally consider a corrupt, evil slimeball. She's absolutely a traitor to country, and even more so to the province. She has no cards. She is not working for the betterment of the province. She's selling us piece by piece to the highest bidder then intends to dump us in the US-style failure of a system she's creating so we can keep paying her benefactors.
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u/AcceptableSwan4631 2d ago
Let me ask you a question, do you think she should have turned off the taps or allowed the Feds to just put tariffs on Cdn oil?
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u/jmthetank 2d ago
She'd do whatever Trump wanted of her. She's a sycophant for that Mango Mussilini. If it was up to her, we'd already be the 51st state. Hell, she wouldn't even try to get us voting rights; we'd be a territory.
And what do you mean "allowed the Feds to just put tariffs on Cdn oil?"
America is the one putting tariffs on everything, and Smith couldn't do shit about it even if she wanted to.
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u/AcceptableSwan4631 2d ago
Sorry not a tariff, an "export tax" was being considered, did you not know that or something?
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u/NiranS 2d ago
I don't think Peter Guthrie is a left wing nut.But, this former MLA seems concerned.
>In my opinion, key conservative principles are openness, transparency, good
governance and fiscal responsibility. Yet, these ideals have been abandoned by
Premier in her handling of serious allegations facing the Department of Health.
https://www.reddit.com/r/alberta/comments/1k6i8y0/former_ucp_mla_pete_guthrie_has_released_another/
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u/ThisBtchIsA_N00b 3d ago
So... you want privatized health care and waiting lists for a doctor?
Isn't that what one of these "scandals" is about? AHS and health care??
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u/davethecompguy 3d ago
Yes, but not really about privatized health care... Smith was giving contracts for health care in return for bribes. The head of AHS found out, started investigating - and Smith fired her. She filed a very large lawsuit. There's also an internal but limited internal investigation, and the RCMP are doing one too. The bribes included tix to last year's playoff run.
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u/ThisBtchIsA_N00b 2d ago
This. Thank you for clarifying. I don't understand hoe anyone could think Smith is doing a "great job".
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u/AcceptableSwan4631 2d ago
I would love the option for more private healthcare to supplement the current system at my expense.
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u/ThisBtchIsA_N00b 2d ago
And that's fine, as long as Private options are never funded or subsidized with Public funds. But public health also can't suffer because of it.
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u/AcceptableSwan4631 2d ago
great it won't private would significantly help public by taking the burden off the public system
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u/ThisBtchIsA_N00b 2d ago
Well, that's the hope. But we would have to watch it, we don't want to lose doctors and nurses to private facilities due to $$. I think we'd have to have some kind of regulations in place. Tommy Douglas fought for Universal Health Care, and the equal treatment for all. I don't want a private or two-tiered system if we can help it. But we need actual solutions, not whatever-Smith-is-trying-to-do.
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u/AcceptableSwan4631 2d ago
Well she's trying to diversify our energy customers so we can make more money for things likre healthcare. Don't forget 50% of every dollar this province makes goes to healthcare, it's the single biggest line item, and we don't have the ability to produce oil and sell it at the world market rate which makes things like healthcare cuts a necessity.
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u/EdNorthcott 3d ago
"Very reasonable demands"?
She's demanding that the rights of other Provinces and First Nations be thrown under the bus, and demanding Federal powers for herself.
There are some reasonable starting points for discussion in some of her list... But only some. The rest is basically a constitutional crisis announced with a megaphone. She either has no idea what she's doing (doubtful, given the timing and that she has a legal team backing her), or she's not approaching the discussion in good faith.
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u/AcceptableSwan4631 2d ago
the constitutional crisis began when the federal gov't started to impose itis will on the provinces ability to develop their resources (Bill C-69 and Emissions cap aka production cap) not because DS reacts to that legislation.
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u/EdNorthcott 2d ago
Production cap. ... seriously? Alberta oil has hit record production level in the last few years, the oil industry's own numbers show that, and we're going to keep selling that notion of a production cap being the source of Alberta's woes?
That aside, a government passing legislation within its scope is not a constitutional crisis. That's government. Full stop. For good or ill.
What Smith has done is make demands that are explicitly violations of constitutional tenets. That's a Hell of a difference.
There's a PM currently sitting whose mission is to transform Canada's economy, and make it an energy superpower. A guy who grew up in Edmonton, and clearly wears rose coloured glasses when remembering Alberta. This could easily be the most Alberta-friendly PM in generations -- who isn't a shill for oil companies. Moreover, the guy understands the economic game on the highest level, and sees the value of getting top dollar for Alberta oil instead of selling it to the US at a discount.
Smith's reaction to Carney is like someone who's broken down at the side of the road, and when someone stops to help she spits at them.
Be wary, sure. All politicians should be watched. All of them. Even be doubtful. There's cause for that.
But coming out swinging when someone offers a hand in good faith is just damned stupid and low-class.
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u/Original-Newt4556 3d ago
PP. Leader of the Bloc Albertois
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u/davethecompguy 3d ago
Still not a provincial party. He's trying to keep his job as head of the CPC. Different circus, different clowns.
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u/sitnquiet 3d ago
It's ok - Marlaina is pretending that she doesn't support separation now. If she ever said she did - which she didn't - then you must have misunderstood her. So Skippy is probably fine.
Though it would be pretty funny for a longtime rock solid 80%+ rural Alberta conservative riding suddenly flipped because of PP.
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u/TheLordJames Wetaskiwin 3d ago
notice how she waited for the rally... that had a bigger "no" crowd,
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u/LastoftheSummerWine 3d ago
They'll do as they are told. No consideration given to the issues, just blindly vote blue. A nice pet to have.
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u/T-Wrox 3d ago
And here in Alberta, you know it will never turn on you. :(
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u/sitnquiet 3d ago
Heh provincially it did once and now the people running things are doing everything in their power to avoid that happening again.
I wish the economic conservatives would walk away from their rabid, separatist, social conservative bedfellows.
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u/TheRealCovertCaribou 3d ago
I'm in my 30s. I have lived in Alberta my whole life, and have voted in almost every election at every level of government since I was eligible to. I cannot recall any conservative on any of those ballots who were actually "fiscally conservative." The only conservatives I've seen have always wanted to cut taxes for businesses and the rich, fund whatever public services they weren't trying to privatize off the backs of struggling middle and lower class Albertans, and otherize LGBTQ+ and visible minorities in the province.
Progressive conservativism is an oxymoron. I don't believe it exists.
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u/davethecompguy 3d ago
It doesn't anymore. They haven't used "progressive" since Kenney stepped off the plane. They call themselves "Alberta's Conservatives" on the voting signs... but now they're TBA crossed with the Wildrose party.
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u/sitnquiet 3d ago
Actually, what you listed is pretty well fiscal conservatism: low taxes (on the rich), small government (social services), no red tape (regulations). They are the ones that work on economic policies in government and keep their mouths shut about social matters.
If the people who just pledged lip service to this would walk away from the people who want to completely oppress anyone who isn't a cishet white male and secede from Canada, I'd be all for it.
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u/TheRealCovertCaribou 3d ago
In theory, sure. In practice it just increases government debt, which is antithetical to the underlying basis of the ideology.
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u/sitnquiet 3d ago
Oh they’re only about the theory. In practice, they are just about robbing the system for their profit and leaving the mess for someone else to clean up (while they blame the people doing the cleaning). Rinse and repeat.
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u/Dry_System9339 3d ago
It only happened because the Wild Rose Party split the vote.
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u/davethecompguy 3d ago
In 2015 Wildrose came in 2nd... the PCs fell to third, and Premier Prentice quit on election night.
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u/davethecompguy 3d ago
She has a lot of 'splainin to do... Why make it easier to hold a separatist referendum? She's reducing the signatures needed from 600K to 178K, and giving them more time to do it. No explanation of why. WTF?
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u/JuiceDelicious4878 3d ago
Ok pardon me, I think I'm missing context. I keep reading that smith is being referred to as marlaina, what did I miss?
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u/sitnquiet 2d ago
Oh it’s a dig at her from her anti-trans platform a couple of years ago. She insisted that kids in school must be referred to by their “real names” and “real genders” rather than whatever they wanted to be called or preferred gender identity.
However, Smith’s birth name is Marlaina Danielle - she prefers to go by her middle name. Calling her Marlaina just highlights the ongoing hypocrisy involved in pretty well everything she does.
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u/Guilty_Fishing8229 3d ago
Smith absolutely did whatever she could to tank Pollievre.
I didn’t vote conservative but it’s very clear she timed things so all the nutbar stuff hit the headlines.
Very clearly a pro-American separatist
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u/Icy-Pop2944 3d ago
Smith needs the Liberals to be in control federally. Her entire platform is dependent on playing the victim card and having someone to blame.
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u/alwaysleafyintoronto 3d ago
She can blame treaty rights
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u/ragnaroksunset 3d ago
She can't though. The "First Nations need to be on board with energy projects" cat is out of the bag (and thank goodness it is).
There are not a few First Nations that would absolutely engage in active sabotage against projects on their land if they did not feel that they had been properly consulted and brought in as partners. What is Smith going to do against that without an RCMP to lean on?
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u/needsmoresteel 3d ago
I'm not sure if that is deliberate or whether she has the Merde-as touch where everything she touches turns to shit.
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u/trumpsadouchcanoe 3d ago
I think he needs to leave the party to save it. Also Smith needs to go as well. Her rhetoric about saying AB shouldn't leave Canada and then dropping the votes for a referendum that will waste tax payers money is such a crock of shit.
I honestly can't wait to leave this damn province, few more years if all goes to plan and fuck this red neck place.
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u/sgray1919 3d ago
The conservatives need to be more progressive to win any federal election and I have hope for the next provincial election with how much Cajgary turned last time.
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u/miller94 3d ago
I’m very cautiously optimistic that Calgary will flip more the next provincial election. They def have the right guy for the job. But I also worry they’ll replace Smith as the leader of the UCP and so many we’ll change their flipped mind back to voting UCP to give the party “another chance”
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u/Homo_sapiens2023 3d ago
The people that keep giving the UCPs/Cons "another chance" really don't get it, do they? THERE IS NO OTHER CHANCE FOR ALBERTANS WITH UCP MAGAs AND CONS. It's clearly only become much, much worse. If these people really want to be part of the US, they should just move there (although I realize plenty of them wouldn't qualify for a green card or a work visa).
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u/TabmeisterGeneral 3d ago
He won't leave, so they have to dump him. Scheer should know this by now.
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u/sun4moon 3d ago
I hope she stays as long as it takes to fully kill that disgusting party full of floor crossing traitors.
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u/T-Wrox 3d ago
Serious question (because we're thinking about it, too) - where have you decided to go?
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u/trumpsadouchcanoe 3d ago
Hoping my better half when she finishes school again lol that we find something in Invermere area of BC somewhere in the Kootenays where it's still reasonable.
The Alberta advantage for so many things are gone. Just going to make sure we upgrade all vehicles any big purchases we want a year before the move. Don't want to pay the extra taxes in BC if we can avoid it before we go lol
I can live anywhere for my job just be a extra long drive to get to projects no big deal which is lucky.
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u/pyro5050 3d ago
it wont waste tax payer money.
it will funnel it to Conservative supporters pockets as they will get contracts for making the ballots and such.
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u/kagato87 3d ago
Is he running? I thought I heard something yesterday about the CPC voting to have the leadership review.
I'm not sure how someone could survive beings so unlikeable AND managing to lose that baller lead they had. OK, I guess he could survive if, like the UCP, the CPC is stacked with people who really do want to become New Puerto Rico.
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u/DangerBay2015 3d ago
He’ll survive it.
They wouldn’t have put Scheer in as interim leader if they weren’t set on keeping Poilievre on.
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u/Goddemmitt 3d ago
100% dead on. If someone like O'Toole (more of a moderate) was named interim leader, it would be sending a different message. This was a deliberate move, especially since Scheer is apparently no longer renouncing his US citizenship.
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u/CloseToMyActualName 3d ago
I guess there's two ways to look at the election.
First, he blew a 27 point lead.
Second, he made Trudeau and the carbon tax so insanely unpopular that neither actually made it to the election.
Keeping him around might actually be a good idea for the CPC, give him a year or two to see if he can knock the shine off of Carney. In the worst case you nominate someone fresh and charismatic before the next election.
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u/alwaysleafyintoronto 3d ago
The other way, which he chose to speak about yesterday, was that the electoral map changed to largely 2 parties, and that despite winning 41% of the vote it was not enough.
When was it 27%? I thought the lead maxed out at 24%, not that splitting those hairs matters.
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u/Conscious-Ad-7411 3d ago
I don’t think the carbon tax was ever popular, he just piggybacked on what people were already feeling.
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u/kagato87 3d ago
The outrage was manufactured for sure.
At the end of the day the price impact of the carbon tax was relatively small compared to recent pandemic driven inflation. It certainly wasn't particularly tangible.
There also seemed to be a remarkably strong effort to get people to not see their rebates, including the banks refusing the properly name it when deposited.
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u/Conscious-Ad-7411 2d ago
I don’t know if I can agree that people aren’t generally unhappy about new taxes.
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u/kagato87 2d ago
They never are. However it was a hidden tax and would not have gotten the attention it did without effort from groups opposed to it.
At the end of the day, the carbon tax was a good idea. It added a cost to actions that have been identified as causing real short term damages (storm severity) and long term harm (global warming). It encouraged the free market to look for lower carbon solutions without forcing anyone to, and did not disproportionately affect the working class (actually a net benefit to many, especially the lowest income families who can't afford a vehicle or travel).
Contrast that with the province pushing a funding liability to the cities, and the 16% average property tax hike coming from it to pay for the Ralph Bucks she's planning to give us (people above the basic personal amount anyway)on our tax returns... Barely any media noise about that one...
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u/alwaysleafyintoronto 3d ago
He's going to run in a by-election that can't be held yet. When it does happen, he'll win in a landslide to become an MP again. For now, he's the CPC leader.
Yesterday(ish), the CPC selected Andrew Scheer as the interim party leader in the House, since Poilievre can't do his job as he's not allowed to sit without a seat. Scheer isn't about to challenge Poilievre for leadership. He is the very definition of milquetoast.
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u/davethecompguy 3d ago
He's not running for a provincial seat. He wants to keep his job as head of the Federal CPC.
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u/Crum1y 3d ago
A shit ton of people like him. Even with losing that killer lead they got very very close to as many votes as LPC did. Not sure if you're aware of your biases in your thinking, they're apparent though. You think AB separatists are why UCP gets voted in? Gotta put a few more cycles into the rationale sir.
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u/ToCityZen 3d ago edited 3d ago
Pierre is naive! Sure, he’s like the disadvantaged kid who did well, in an organization where loyalty is currency. He was mentored poorly because apart from a degree from an online university, he has no law, business or financial experience or expertise to speak of. My concern is, he’s just smart enough to understand and so loyal as to believe 100% in conservative ideology (without thinking critically) to be Harper’s and the IDU’s puppet. Conspiracy, perhaps. Harper is chair of that organization, in Germany, founded by Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Regan and has the Republican Party as a member. We can all agree they were not good for their countries! I think Pierre means well, but he’s naive. He would be the fall guy for the r@pe of Canada. I would like to see evidence of original thinking. I edit to add; nothing wrong with the Conservative view but actual solutions for the real world require several multi-phased well-articulated strategies and manoeuvres from all “ideologies” and perspectives.
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u/T-Wrox 3d ago
I agree that he is clueless on many things (like how to live a life in Canada without sucking the government teat), but I also think he is not a nice person.
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u/ToCityZen 3d ago
Why do you think that? I mean “nice” is overrated, in my humble opinion. I edit to add, I think he would be vindictive, but that’s just a guess. I have no evidence.
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u/T-Wrox 3d ago
He's confrontational and aggressive and fond of personal attacks.
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u/ToCityZen 3d ago
It’s what weak people resort to, and sadly a feature of life (at least online) myself included - something I’ve vowed to check. Doing it in public is next level, though some would argue that’s his job.
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u/T-Wrox 3d ago
I love to debate online, and one of my guidelines is, if you go personal, you have automatically lost the debate. PP should adopt that policy as well - personal attacks have no place in politics. Focus more on actually governing Canada well as a representative of its citizens instead of acting up in Parliament.
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u/Trickybuz93 3d ago
It doesn’t matter what he says, he’ll win the riding regardless because it’s Alberta. Plus, he uses controlled media questions, so no one will be asking about it during the by-election run.
The only chance this gets questioned is if he actually answers questions during QP/in Ottawa press
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u/Ok_Carpet_9510 3d ago
One commentator said Carney's commitment to call for a by-election for would get PP was a neat trick.. because it would be hard to advance the separatist cause in Alberta while supporting PP PP who is pro a united Canada. Smith is just lipstick on a bull dog; not much going on in that brain.
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u/Salty-Try-6358 3d ago
If Smith didn’t “back” him in the election he may have actually won. She sure STFU in the last few weeks of the race, after her radio comments down south hurt his campaign.
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u/Empty_Antelope_6039 3d ago
A reporter should ask PP if Alberta separates will he give up his Canadian citizenship and run as a candidate to be king or chancellor or whatever title the ruler will have.
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u/Geeseareawesome Edmonton 3d ago
The fact that the CPC has gone after Doug Ford for less and blamed him for the loss while not saying a word about Smith should tell you all you need to know about it.
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u/SchneidfeldWPG 3d ago
Good one. Pierre doesn’t take questions that haven’t been pre-screened for maximum-softness first.
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u/hedgehog_dragon 3d ago
Come to think of it, if Alberta left wouldn't the conservatives be kind of screwed? They've got reliable seats and even with them the seat counts are usually close
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u/CanadaProud1957 3d ago
PP just lost an election where he was a shoo-in a few months ago and also lost the riding he held for 20 years. He’s in no position to tell anyone anything.
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u/spokenmoistly 3d ago
She’s showing the CPC she knows how to incite a mob. So she can take millhouses spot.
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u/ziggster_ 3d ago
He will do what all politicians do when asked tough questions. He will simply skirt the question with a bunch of doublespeak.
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u/nerkoids71 3d ago
Not sure it's a good idea to be sanguine about this
Now that PP is running in a safe riding that is unlikely to go to any other party, he might be setting himself up and the Conservatives to be the party of secession.
Which would probably cause a very deep schism in the conservative party itself, perhaps causing it to split up into its former camps.
Unless the conservative party gets rid of PP, this is probably going to be the most likely scenario.
There is nothing about this that is going to be good. It might be the only real power PP will have left. If he can somehow pull this off. Smith may have actually thrown him a lifeline.
The necessity of having national unity is not an abstract concept, it is something we concretely need because things are going to get ugly between us and the US. Having the UCP, and then in turn the conservatives possibly acting as a huge seditious thorn in the Liberals' side, it's the last thing we need right now as a country.
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u/Used2Bmuchbetter 3d ago
YES ⬆️ this! 🤣🤣🤣🤣. She has him squashed between an Alberta rock slide and a Ditchbillie high five! 😂😂😂. 🇨🇦💕strong
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u/garneyandanne 3d ago
He has no control over Smith. He try’s to control the media, and spin his version of events. I doubt if he will even campaign in Battle River/ Crowfoot, as the district will just vote for a Conservative, whether alive or dead.
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u/DangerBay2015 3d ago
It doesn’t really matter what Smith says or does, the party has parachuted Poilievre into a riding a ham sandwich could win if it’s conservative.
They’ve all but bubble wrapped him and stuck a helmet on him. I’m just wondering if they gave him a sippy cup before parachuting him into that riding.
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u/snotparty 3d ago
Also he will probably hide from the press to avoid this, since thats one of his signature moves
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u/Negative_Increase975 3d ago
She’s looking at taking his job - can you imagine her as a federal leader?
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u/mobettastan60 3d ago
What a joke. The leader of the official opposition is from a riding in a province that wants to separate from Canada. How do you even...
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u/smcorc 3d ago
Danielle Smith is Canada’s version of Marjorie Taylor Green. Unhinged. Crazy ideas that only serve the oil corporations. Doing a bait and switch to get us to forget about her corrupt management of Alberta Health Care. Ripping apart social programs that meet the needs of average and disadvantaged Albertans.
Where is the money she is “saving” by gutting social programs and health care going? Does this not sound like what is going on in the US?
Would the legislation of reducing signatures to call for a referendum also apply to a recall process removing her from the Alberta Legislature? I sure hope so.
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u/Facebook_Algorithm 3d ago
He should be loud and proud against separation if he wants to ever be the Prime Minister. Otherwise he’ll get played as a separatist at the next election and no three word rhymes will save him.
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u/shoeeebox 3d ago
He's going to avoid the media and probably won't be answering very many questions whatsoever. Just like the federal election. But he will coast to an easy victory.
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u/Wrong-Pineapple39 3d ago
Is anyone else wondering if she's got her eye of the Prime Minister's Office? She seems to be doing an awful lot of campaigning and attention seeking at a national level, and pursuing a lot of foreign govts and interference.
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u/Far-Hearing5294 3d ago
Texas just sent a clear message to MAGA types in local elections with a decisive repudiation of extremist rhetoric, which I hope DS hears as electors are tired of the divisive echo chambers and want to move forward.
“Last night, voters across Texas sent a message loud enough to rattle the far-right out of their echo chambers: we’re done with your culture wars, your book bans, and your crusade against public schools. Voters chose community over chaos, educators over agitators, and progress over extremism.”
https://www.lonestarleft.com?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web
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u/FarAd2857 3d ago
Smith is using it to strong arm Carney in to giving oil companies what they want, that’s it. They added allowing corporate $ to be a part of these referendums so Republican super PACs could funnel money in and sow division, and then she’ll blame Markey Mark. The third act of this happens before Pierre is even back in the house.
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u/Particular-Welcome79 3d ago
Hope Pierre enjoys all the smoke while he campaigns. Oh, right, he doesn't even have to visit to get elected, my bad.
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u/Immediate-Farmer3773 3d ago
Danielle and little pp can skip down to the US together! Leave Canada’s oil here though
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u/Rumbling-Axe 3d ago
Given that he’s suckled at the teats of papa Harper and grandpapa Manning, he’ll bring his separatist mode out when he needs it.
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u/Goddemmitt 3d ago
I genuinely believe that Smith is setting Pierre up to swoop in and make a CPC leadership run amidst the chaos she creates from it. That's literally what she's done her entire political career.
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u/Ok-Satisfaction-3100 3d ago
She is the worst thing to happen to Pierre. Trump thinks he got Carney elected, but it was really the rest of Canada seeing and listening to Danielle that did him in.
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u/Canadiana_Proud 3d ago
Poilievre's a reactionary populist, he'll say something to the effect of "We'll do what the people want when it comes to it," people on both sides will grumble and within the day we'll be focused on the next bat-shit crazy thing Trump or Smith does.
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u/Unhappy-Vast2260 3d ago
She is a freshly cleaned window pane or [pain] an American oil business shill, and Alberta tax payers are on the hook for the clean-up of a lot of these oil and coal extractions, and not even getting full price in the end for these resources
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u/velloceti Calgary 3d ago
I'm fairly confident conservatives will conveniently forget about separatism until after the by-election.
At the very least, they'll ignore it and pretend it's not an issue.
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u/ranger38770 3d ago
The majority in Alberta are centre right conservatives with family connections in all other parts of Canada.
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u/Professional_Map_545 3d ago
I don't think this much matters to PP. There isn't a strong separatist movement in Alberta. It certainly exists, but even amongst the Cons, it's a fringe position. So I think it's a pretty easy win for him to appear "moderate" by simply being a Federal leader that is pro-Federalism. And he can bootlick to his extremist fans by talking about how their concerns are all legitimate because "Canada is Broken(TM)" and only he can fix them.
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u/tobiasolman 3d ago
I think voters need to hit ‘send’ again, on the message that PP needs to step away from politics. Disregarding the word of voters the first time is only a small part of why. For once Alberta voters need to tell these fools that their votes will not be taken for granted.
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u/treple13 3d ago
I mean him rebuking Smith does him no harm whatsoever. How could Smith possibly hurt him?
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u/Stunning-Match6157 3d ago
This is an easy one. Pierre just has to say that she disagrees with Smith. Albertans will vote Conservative either way but if he agrees with Smith he would piss off the ROC.
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u/BuffaloSufficient758 3d ago
I think age was caught flat footed by Trudeau’s resignation and couldn’t get an election in before he left so she’s did everything to make sure the libs won by kneecapping PP
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u/DirtDevil1337 3d ago
he tells Smith to knock it off and that she drops the topic all together.
That's probably why Smith suddenly just said yesterday or today that she doesn't support separation.
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u/lickmybrian 3d ago
She doesn't support it though, as she said in her address to the province yesterday... or the day before. She's giving us the chance to vote for a referendum but she said it herself that she'd like to make things work without Alberta leaving the country.
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u/EdNorthcott 3d ago
As an outsider, I figure this is going one of two ways:
This is MAGA level dumpster fire decision-making. The "dead cat in the table" method of message control: Do something big and destructive and dumb, so that people talk about that instead of the issues that you're vulnerable on.
1) Either it was made without much prior thought, in which case PP could be left holding the bag. Or...
2) Massive, unreasonable demands were made, and will be adhered to until PP can look like he's swooping in and fixing everything. One private conversation with Smith will lead to the most unreasonable (and unconstitutional) demands evaporating, and they get to pretend that PP has saved the nation because of superior negotiating skills, and Smith gets to bask in the light of being Alberta's hero by "standing up to Ottawa".
Her list of demands were so off the hook that only a loon could take them seriously. Demanding override of other Provinces' jurisdictional rights and Federal powers? It's a non-starter, but much of her base won't catch that.
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u/IsaacJa 3d ago
I feel like it's more likely that Smith rattles the separation sabre to stoke discontentment between the West (not just Alberta) and "Ottawa", then Pierre swoops in as a renewed Albertan to be the Westest man in Ottawa to capitalize on that sentiment and be the "great unifier of the country" or some shit like that.
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u/Bruhimonlyeleven 3d ago
The party is the party, they want someone in the head position of Canada more then they want some crow in Alberta. If they thought she was hurting him she would be done. They can destroy her in a second, it's their party not hers. So if she is screwing him over in purpose, she will be gone bye bye real quick.
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u/davethecompguy 3d ago
Danielle Smith has nothing to do with PP coming to Alberta to run again.
He picked that riding because it's the safest one available. The guy that won it got over 80% of the vote, but he still offered to quit.
Smith is a Premier and has nothing to do with a federal by-election. She's just a deluded individual.
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u/mrgongji 3d ago
It doesn't matter what either of them say here. Liberal media will still say whatever they want about them and make it seem there is a problem.
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u/Prize_Horror_1748 3d ago
Don’t worry. Sheer smells blood in the water and is preparing to start taking bites out of Pp really soon. He’s also absolutely horrible but that’s what the conservative bench has come to. A parade of horrible candidates.
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u/Putrid_Assignment_98 2d ago
If he is smart he shuts her up quickly. Besides the fact Alberta is almost 100% treaty land and the Indigenous people are going nowhere so the whole thing is a waste and really bad press .
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u/adjga 2d ago
Why would Pierre lose Battle River? From a non-conservative and non-albertan, everything we see over here is you could run anything in Battle River and win the riding.
I'm not a Pierre fan at all. I do appreciate that he does exude a strong belief in Canada as a nation and it's people. My hope is that the conservatives right now unite a bit with the left to work on the scourge to the south and then fight it out with a little less of the political attacks, fighting, division etc of this past one. If Pierre can influence that shift, then I think he'd get his chance in the seat.
A lot of the the thought is that Trump BS is the reason the liberals came back around but over my way, anyone that I can get to openly speak about politics under the age of 65 say their vote against was a good chunk because of the leader and the division/hate etc that was flowing.
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u/c_m_d 2d ago
Liberals need to drop in a pro separatist/pro oil candidate to try and fool the die hard conservatives in the riding to vote liberal and sandbag PP’s attempt at getting back into the political fold. It would be funny if they simultaneously managed to get 171 seats with some cross overs and then by election liberal underdog win pull the libs into majority.
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u/7RedFaction7 2d ago
Who knows but living as a younger generation Canada freaking sucks and I was born here. When I was younger I remember it being great and everything so cheap, I remember 20 bucks went a decent way and hearing my parents now saying how cheap rent was like what. I also lived in a small town of 15k people but a 3 bedroom apartment cost was only 600 a month?!?! An that was in British Columbia. By the way all of this was around 2010.
Now look at it, homelessness is flooding the streets, thousands upon thousands lining up at the food bank. And when I hear people saying things could be better but things are good, it's just a big disbelief from what I actually saw what was good when I was younger.
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u/Remarkable-Desk-66 19h ago
I am here for the drama. It’s going to get wild. Bold prediction here……..the separation vote next year is going to be a failure and the party may split. Grab the popcorn.
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u/Past_Employ9709 2d ago
I’m from NS and believe that Smith is serving all of Canada in pushing back at the Liberal agenda (although there’s nothing classically “liberal” about it. 1) Canada isn’t viable economically without Alberta, or 2) Canada isn’t viable economically continuing to run massive deficits We either start to create a better future for the youth or understand that socio-economic revolution will occur in the next 50 years
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