Alberta Premier Smith gets 91 per cent support in leadership review

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith received a dominating 91.5 per cent vote of support from her United Conservative Party members in a scheduled leadership review vote on Saturday.

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That number is far higher than the 54 per cent Smith got when she won the party leadership in 2022. That same year, her predecessor, Jason Kenney, received 51 per cent and soon after resigned.

“I’m truly humbled and honoured by the overwhelming support of our party members in my leadership,” Smith said as thousands roared their approval and gave her a standing ovation almost a minute long.

"I want to thank all of you for everything that you've done to grow our movement and to make it stronger.

"Our party is more united than it has ever been."

About 6,000 members signed up for the meeting, and the party said 4,663 voted to approve to Smith.

While there is no mandated minimum level needed in such a vote, Smith said earlier Saturday she was hoping to beat 54 per cent.

Past conservative Alberta premiers Ed Stelmach and Alison Redford received 77 per cent in their leadership votes before being ousted later in caucus controversies.

The party’s bylaws require one leadership review every three years, meaning Smith likely won’t face such a review again until after the next provincial election in 2027, if she seeks a second term.

Earlier Saturday, in a speech to party members as voting began, Smith said everyone is not going to agree on everything all the time but they need to avoid destructive infighting and stay true to their conservative principles.

While there were concerns that some party members were making a concerted effort to oust Smith over perceived broken campaign promises, many members and Smith’s own cabinet donned buttons and T-shirts urging the rank and file to back her.

Political scientists had said they didn't expect Smith’s leadership would be in jeopardy and said the question moving forward is whether or not Smith and her cabinet would stick to party members' policy wishes.

Smith told the cheering crowd she will stay the course.

"Together we will vigorously protect the rights and freedoms of Albertans and Alberta parents and children. Together we will build health and education systems that are among the best in the world," she said.

In recent months, Smith has toured the province speaking to party faithful while introducing policies that critics said were aimed at keeping the party’s restless social-conservative flank from voting against her in the review.

This week, her government introduced bills aimed at putting in rules around youth using preferred pronouns or names at school, along with restrictions on transgender surgery and transgender athletes competing in female amateur sports.

She also announced a renewed legal fight against the federal carbon levy and introduced a bill to revamp Alberta’s Bill of Rights to give residents the right to refuse medical treatments, including vaccines.

Alongside the leadership vote, party members voted Saturday on a number of policy resolutions put forward by constituency associations.

The first policy party members approved Saturday was actually a drafted re-write of the Alberta Bill of Rights amendments Smith's government put forward.

The party-approved draft was advanced by a group of UCP members from southern Alberta who say the amendments put forward by Smith don't go far enough.

Darrell Komick, a party member from Calgary, told the audience that rights should be collected like hockey cards.

"I'd encourage everyone who's a conservative to accumulate as many rights as possible by voting yes," he said.

"Because you never really know the value of the hockey card until that moment in time which you need it."

One policy, approved handily by the membership, is to have the Alberta government do away with diversity, equity and inclusion hiring practices, professional development programs and “other training” for provincial employees.

One party member speaking in favour of the resolution said the hiring practice leads to a toxic workplace. “Use of public funds for (diversity, equity and inclusion) must stop,” he said.

Members also overwhelmingly approved a motion asking the government to ban transgender women from using women’s washrooms, change rooms and shelters. Michelle Bataluk, a party member from Edmonton, said the policy “shouldn’t be a controversial belief at all.”

“The inclusion of non-biological females in these spaces and categories is both a violation to our privacy ... and it poses several safety risks,” said Bataluk.

Members also overwhelmingly approved a motion to limit all government forms and documents to two gender options.

Another policy that received support from most of the room was to have the Alberta government abandon net-zero greenhouse gas emission targets, while also removing carbon dioxide's designation as a pollutant and have it instead recognized as "a foundational nutrient for all life on Earth."

Party member Christopher Bell from the Chestermere-Strathmore constituency association said he supported the policy, because if carbon dioxide is considered a "foundational nutrient" there would be no need for net-zero goals.

The policies are non-binding, so Smith's UCP government is not required to act on every successful motion.  

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 2, 2024