David Staples: Danielle Smith is her own greatest asset, but also her own worst enemy
Danielle Smith #DanielleSmith
Expect some stirring moments with Alberta’s new Premier Danielle Smith but also some dramatic crashes.
Expect an admirable degree of open debate and free-thinking from a political leader, but also a higher rate of uproar and meltdowns on social media than during the controversial Jason Kenney era.
Smith is a brilliant politician in many respects. She’s a hardcore policy wonk, a gracious debater, a persuasive and charming orator, and a steadfast supporter of policies that should bring about increased freedom and prosperity.
But she’s also her own worst enemy, with a BS detector that can be wonky at times.
At her first press conference as Alberta premier, for example, Smith’s comment that the specific restrictions against the unvaccinated represented the worst example of discrimination she’d ever witnessed in her lifetime had many folks questioning her judgement. On other issues, she presented a more moderate and conciliatory side, including her response to Jason Kenney so far refusing to meet with her to talk about transition.
Just a few days ago Kenney was on Global TV bashing Smith and her base. Asked if he thinks Smith’s UCP can win an election, he said, “I think a conservative party focused on the regular concerns of ordinary people, a mainstream conservative party, will defeat the NDP. I think a conservative party or government that is focused on a campaign of recrimination over COVID, politicizing science, entertaining conspiracy theories, campaigning with QAnon, is a party that can’t form government and shouldn’t.”
That had to hurt. But calmly facing this kind of attack is something, so far at least, that Smith has handled well. At her news conference she brushed off Kenney’s snub with a smile and an understanding tone, saying she still admires Kenney greatly but that he supported another candidate in the race so she’ll give him time to accept the result. “I just want to be respectful as he processes everything that he is going through.”
Smith struck another calming note, saying that even though she’s bringing in the sovereignty act, she’ll support Supreme Court of Canada rulings.
“When the Supreme Court makes a decision we have to abide by that,” she said, but added her plan is to exploit every legal and political option available.
Another calming message came for health-care workers. While she said she was bringing in new leadership at AHS, Smith stressed she’s looking to hire more nurses and medical staff. “I want our frontline workers to know, reinforcements are coming.”
Perhaps Smith reassured a few people with such words, but not everyone will be convinced, not with her past record of stirring things up, which flows, in part, out of her love of debate and openness to new and different ideas, a matter she discussed at length with free speech activist Angelo Isidorou in May 2021 on his Cancel This podcast when talking about her departure from her radio hosting job.
“When I was in politics, my staff said, ‘Danielle, you have no crazy radar,’” Smith said. “Because I couldn’t really tell when somebody wanted to approach me to talk about an issue if they might have been a little unhinged or a little conspiratorial. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt and that can be dangerous in the media world … You’re talking to someone who says something that is truly out there and you can be tarnished with that.”
But Smith said it’s important to listen to unconventional voices outside the mainstream, noting, “Albert Einstein had views that were outside the conventional mainstream at one point … It’s really those disruptors that have changed the world … It’s odd to me that we have a society that wants conformity, a society that wants to keep things exactly as they are … You never know someone who seems like they are a lunatic might end up turning out to be a genius.”
Smith has a point here. Progress in business is often driven by mavericks and innovators. Outside academics may have much sounder ideas than the academic establishment. Rogue doctors can be right.
But for every rogue and maverick who is right, 50 of them are wrong, correct?
Will Smith and her people be able to tell the difference? Or will they get carried away by wishful thinking and back the wrong thinkers?
Again, at her first news conference as premier, she generally did well with her a more moderate tone and message, but her comment on the unvaccinated has rankled many. This is the kind of judgement, of perception, that Smith will have to be sensitive to, and it’s no doubt a proclivity the public and her critics will be following with an eagle eye. dstaples@postmedia.com