(Red Deer) Alberta Premier Danielle Smith received overwhelming support from 91.5 per cent of her party members in a leadership review vote scheduled for Saturday.
Published yesterday at 8:35 p.m.
Jack Farrell
The Canadian Press
That figure is much higher than the 54% Smith received when she won the party leadership in 2022. That same year, her predecessor, Jason Kenney, received 51% of the vote and resigned shortly after.
“I am truly moved and honored by the overwhelming support of our party members for my leadership,” said Ms.me Smith as thousands roared their approval and gave him a nearly minute-long standing ovation.
“I want to thank you all for everything you have done to make our movement grow and stronger. Our party is more united than it has ever been,” she added.
About 6,000 members registered for the meeting and the party said 4,663 of them voted to approve Danielle Smith’s candidacy.
Former Alberta Conservative premiers Ed Stelmach and Alison Redford received 77 per cent of the vote in their leadership votes before later being ousted in controversies within the caucus.
The party’s statutes require a leadership review every three years, meaning Mme Smith likely won’t face such scrutiny until the next provincial election in 2027, if she seeks a second term.
Earlier on Saturday, in a speech to party members at the start of voting, the prime minister said not everyone would agree on everything all the time, but they needed to avoid destructive infighting and remain loyal to their conservative principles.
While concerns have been raised about the concerted desire of some party members to remove Mme Smith due to broken election promises. Many members and the cabinet of Mme Smith himself donned buttons and t-shirts urging the base to support her.
Political scientists said they did not expect Danielle Smith’s leadership to be threatened and said the question going forward was whether or not she and her cabinet would stick to the wishes policies of party members.
Mme Smith assured the cheering crowd that she would stay the course.
“Together, we will vigorously protect the rights and freedoms of Albertans and Albertan parents and children. Together, we will build health and education systems that are among the best in the world,” she said.
Over the past few months, Danielle Smith has toured the province speaking to party faithful while laying out policies that critics say were aimed at preventing the party’s restive social-conservative wing from voting against her in elections. the exam.
This week, his government introduced bills to impose rules on young people’s use of preferred pronouns or names in school, as well as restrictions on transgender surgery and on transgender athletes participating in competitions. women’s amateur sports.
She also announced a new legal battle against the federal carbon tax and introduced a bill to revamp the Alberta Bill of Rights to give residents the right to refuse medical treatment, including vaccines .
Members also overwhelmingly approved a motion calling on the government to ban transgender women from using women’s toilets, changing rooms and shelters. Edmonton party member Michelle Bataluk said politics “should not be a controversial belief at all. The inclusion of non-biological women in these spaces and categories is both a violation of our privacy…and poses several security risks. »
Members also overwhelmingly approved a motion to limit all government forms and documents to two gender options.
Another policy that received support from most in the room was for the Alberta government to drop net-zero greenhouse gas emissions targets, while removing the carbon dioxide designation of carbon as a pollutant and instead having it recognized as “a fundamental nutrient for all life on Earth”.
Party member Christopher Bell, of the Chestermere-Strathmore constituency association, said he supported the policy because, if carbon dioxide was considered a “fundamental nutrient”, there would be no need carbon neutral objectives.
