City Notebook: Will underwhelming byelection end with a big bang, or a big thud?

By COLLIN GALLANT on November 5, 2022.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Come Tuesday it will all be over but the votin’ in Brooks-Medicine Hat’s surprise byelection that came among many surprises.

United Conservative leader Danielle Smith set off a sort of earthquake in her own party’s efforts to renew itself after the surprise resignation of Jason Kenney after a surprise leadership review.

Then, surprise, she picked Medicine Hat as a route to win a seat in the legislature.

Whether there will be greater surprises Tuesday night in the traditionally Conservative riding is up for discussion.

It’s been an underwhelming local campaign, considering her prominence and the dear wish of the New Democrats to hand their chief opponent a defeat.

In a way it hasn’t been that far out of step for a traditional Medicine Hat campaign, where not much is said and then the conservative candidate makes an victory speech.

Objectively, though, anything less than a clearcut blowout for Smith will likely be dissected endlessly by pundits and politicos here and abroad.

Smith has a big agenda and hasn’t stopped adding to it in a month since becoming premier.

“I have a mandate from my party and now I’m seeking a mandate from you,” she told a forum in Brooks on Wednesday. If things go as planned she’ll be join the legislature when it resumes at the end of the month.

The NDP have put a lot of resources into the campaign, as much to campaign against Smith and the UCP brand across the province as for local candidate Gwendoline Dirk.

Dirk objectively is a stronger candidate than the party has typically ran in in the past. The NDP planks are well-known, and a lot of Albertans are listening.

But, Dirk probably wasn’t expecting to run against or debate Smith, a political animal who followed a former term as political party leader by hosting hours each day of talk radio.

Are there more NDP supporters in Brooks-Medicine Hat than UCP voters, minus those potentially worried about Smith’s plans? What’s the difference between the Never NDP and the Anybody But Conservatives?

That’s all to the frustration of Alberta Party head Barry Morishita – who more than held his own debating with Smith this week.

He was probably hoping to bring his message challenging partisanship of the two major parties.

How does a popular mayor of Brooks offering something other the straight-up conservative party campaign factor in?

We’ll find out on Tuesday.

Home riding

Smith told the News last month that, if successful in the byelection, she would consider running again in the riding during a planned general election in May 2023.

Her office reiterated that stance to the Globe and Mail this week after the current UCP MLA for her hometown of High River, Roger Reid, announced he wouldn’t seek to run again under the party banner.

Reid is reportedly opting to not run against nomination challenger Nadine Wellwood, a former People’s Party of Canada candidate in the federal riding of Banff-Airdrie in 2019.

A look ahead

Tuesday is the big day in the Brooks-Medicine Hat byelection with general voting. The draft city budget plan for 2023 and 2024 will be unveiled at council’s meeting on Monday evening. Wednesday is the annual Leadership Breakfast with local mayors, reeves, MLAs and member of parliament.

100 years ago

About 200,000 poppies – a newly adopted symbol of observance – had been ordered for distribution across Alberta by the Great War Veterans Association, the News reported this week in 1922.

The husband of a woman found dead along with a preacher in Havre, Mont. issued a statement from Los Angeles stating the pair had been separated for sometime and he sought a divorce after she expressed love of a now-deceased churchman.

An inquiry in New Brunswick was created to determine if a hangman was drunk while performing his duties after witnesses to an execution lodged a formal complaint.

In the Hat, a Thanksgiving message from Chamber of Commerce president A.F. Andrews on Sat. Nov. 4 filled the News’s front-page.

“Remember, we can make our city just what we wish it to be if all will give a strong pull, a long pull and a pull all together,” it concluded.

The Mormon Temple in Cardston would be complete by July 1923, church officials announced.

In England, Lloyd George became British prime minister after a breakdown of coalition left over from the war. Meanwhile, in Empress, Alta. a baseball team named “Lloyd George” in his honour by area farmers won their league pennant.

Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com