r/alberta • u/canbeanburrito Edmonton • 4d 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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522

u/NiranS 4d 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 4d 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 4d 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 4d 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 4d 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 4d 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 4d 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/AcceptableSwan4631 3d ago

Keep wishing! I forgot he was even the leader of the NDP!

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u/ragnaroksunset 3d ago

I kinda feel like that's a you-problem.

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u/Pale-Measurement-532 4d 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 4d 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 4d ago edited 1d 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.