Western Canada: Danielle Smith wins by-election, setting stage for sovereignty act

Good morning. It’s James Keller in Calgary.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith now has a seat in the legislature and a clear timeline for introducing her proposed sovereignty act.

Ms. Smith won a by-election Tuesday night in the riding of Brooks-Medicine Hat, a conservative stronghold where the previous MLA stepped down to allow her to run. She was the only candidate in the race to succeed Jason Kenney as United Conservative Party Leader and Premier who was not already an MLA.

It’s not unheard of for a Premier to take office without a spot in the legislature, but they are expected to run in a by-election at the earliest opportunity. For Ms. Smith, that took on greater urgency because she had pledged to be in the assembly to introduce her marque piece of legislation herself, which she said would be her government’s first bill. The legislature is set to sit Nov. 29.

Ms. Smith claims her sovereignty act would give the province the right to disregard federal laws that the legislature believes intrude on Alberta’s jurisdiction. It was the centrepiece of her UCP leadership campaign and also its biggest lightning rod for critics, including rivals who dismissed it as illegal and dangerous but who now sit in her cabinet.

The by-election was also seen as an early test of Ms. Smith’s popularity beyond her party base. Her first weeks in office were rocky as she was repeatedly forced to clean up her own comments, including her assertion that people unvaccinated for COVID-19 are the most discriminated-against group in her lifetime. She has also faced opinion polls that suggested she is unpopular and badly trailing the Opposition NDP under former premier Rachel Notley, including in the rural areas that the UCP will need to hold onto to win next spring’s election.

Ms. Smith won about 56 per cent of the votes cast. Gwendoline Dirk of the NDP was second while Barry Morishita of the Alberta Party was third.

Long before formally entering the leadership race, Ms. Smith said she planned to run in Livingstone-Macleod, which includes her home in High River. But by the time she won the UCP leadership, Roger Reid had indicated he planned to run again, and Michaela Frey had already announced plans to leave her post in Brooks-Medicine Hat after the next election.

The day after Ms. Smith won the leadership, Ms. Frey speeded up her exit and encouraged Ms. Smith to run to replace her. Ms. Smith then announced her candidacy in the riding and subsequently called the by-election.

Another riding, Calgary-Elbow, has been sitting vacant since late summer after Doug Schweitzer stepped down as MLA. Ms. Smith said she preferred to run in a rural riding rather than in central Calgary. She also decided against calling a separate by-election for Calgary-Elbow, arguing that the next election is too close to justify the cost of another vote. Critics have suggested that Ms. Smith likely realized she might not win in Calgary-Elbow and avoided running there to avoid an embarrassing defeat.

The situation has also changed in Livingstone-Macleod. Mr. Reid abruptly announced last week that he had withdrawn his nomination, leaving Nadine Wellwood, a former federal contender for the People’s Party of Canada, as the lone candidate. Mr. Reid said he couldn’t support her.

Ms. Wellwood has a long history of social-media posts spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines, as well as echoing Russian propaganda related to the war in Ukraine. In a video last year, she compared vaccine passports to Nazi Germany and said that the seven in 10 Canadians who supported the policy, according to a poll released at the time, “would support Hitler.”

She revealed this week that the party had blocked her candidacy and explained in a statement that the decision was based on her social-media activity.

Ms. Wellwood said she will appeal the party’s decision through an internal process that sends the matter to the board of directors. She has also defended her social-media activity, insisting that she was promoting “discussion and debate that reflects other viewpoints.” Ms. Wellwood says the riding-level vetting committee endorsed her candidacy.

She had the support of a populist group called Take Back Alberta, which endorsed a slate of candidates at the party’s recent convention who now make up half the party’s board. Ms. Wellwood – and other potential candidates like her – could be a source of contention among those new board members and the party establishment, particularly if constituency associations are vocal about the party overruling them.

Ms. Smith has already criticized the party for disqualifying previous candidates, such as a rancher named Tim Hoven, who was challenging then-environment minister Jason Nixon for the nomination in Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre until the party stepped in and ended his campaign, citing social-media posts.

This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox and Alberta Bureau Chief James Keller. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.