Four-week byelection campaign in Brooks-MH

By COLLIN GALLANT on October 12, 2022.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Voters in Brooks-Medicine Hat will go to the polls Nov. 8, newly sworn-in premier Danielle Smith announced Tuesday, making it a four-week campaign as she attempts to secure a seat in the legislature via byelection.

She told the News she plans to campaign locally, attend debates and potentially represent the region in a general election set for next spring.

Opponents in the byelection said Smith was a destabilizing force who back-tracking on several key promises in the party race, and local representation was needed to address local issues.

Smith, a resident of the High River area, said the issues of rural Alberta were under represented in government over the last term, and claims she is in tune with the issues.

“When I’ve run before I took part in local debates, because that’s where you hear the local issues,” she said, adding her support for funding for HALO air rescue ambulance and continued twinning of Highway 3.

“Rural policing is a priority, and our members passed a motion to have a provincial police to either augment or replace the RCMP. I’m very much in the mode of augmenting the RCMP, create Alberta Police very quickly to address rural crime … I hope to convince the constituents of Brooks-Medicine Hat (of that).”

She also says she hopes to create new royalty incentives and policy adjustments to favour oilpatch sites and address a growing problem of unpaid property taxes. Some rural municipalities say the issue, combined with proposed linear tax assessment changes, could upend their budgets and force counties to double regular property taxes or face bankruptcy.

Alberta NDP candidate Gwendoline Dirk stressed she is a local candidate and is ready to debate the new premier.

Alberta Party Leader Barry Morishita, the former mayor of Brooks, says rapidly evolving positions from Smith after just winning the United Conservative leadership contest, like the police force and how a “Sovereignty Act” would be implemented, show poorly.

“It’s telling, I think she’s already clawing back on how the Sovereignty Act would work,” Morishita told the News. “You can’t flip flop going from one microphone to the next – it’s a very dangerous way to do politics.

“You can’t unilaterally impose a decision and expect them to work. One person saying things are gonna completely change health care doesn’t change anything. The listening part of the conversation is missing. Collaboration is what I’ve been about my entire political career.”

The NDP have said a provincial police force – pushed by the UCP after the “Fair Deal panel” showed mixed support – would be shelved solely on cost concerns. They say would it greatly increase policing costs in small communities – a position similar to local rural administrators.

Dirk released a statement shortly after Smith’s weekend address in Medicine Hat stating she and her local team have been door knocking in both cities of the riding since she won the party nod in June.

“I’m excited to start our formal campaign,” said Dirk, an educator and member of the Medicine Hat police commission.

She stated the main local issues are a doctors shortage, affordability and low-wage growth, though she has concentrated on health care and educational curriculum reform in the past.

“We’re offering stable, responsible government,” she concluded.

Smith says her leadership platform will be folded into the larger general election party platform for the expected spring vote.

Her strongest positions taken in the leadership contest were a “Sovereignty Act,” substantial changes in AHS management and adding “vaccine choice” to the Alberta Human Rights protections.

She plans to restructure AHS senior management by “end of year” and says she’ll relieve chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw of her duties.

If elected in Brooks-MH, she says the legislature could sit for three weeks starting in late November to implement immediate changes.

The byelection vote will take place Nov. 8, with the UCP’s policy convention and AGM, as well as a caucus retreat scheduled before then.

Smith won the UCP leadership on Oct. 6 and officially announced Oct. 8 she would vie for a seat in Brooks-MH.

That seat was vacated by Michaela Frey the day before, and about three weeks after Frey announced she wouldn’t seek a second term in an expected general election next May.

Smith said Tuesday that under the party’s constitution, the leader is granted four opportunities to name candidates in local ridings, rather than hold a nomination contest.

She also said she wouldn’t call a byelection in the vacant Calgary-Elbow riding or run there, because “three or four” party members are currently planning to seek the seat given up by former jobs minister Doug Schweitzer this summer.

Coming in to claim the seat or impose a candidate “has led to hurt feelings in the past,” she said.