For Premier Danielle Smith and the UCP, winning the forthcoming election depends upon staying with a simple, disciplined message and significantly, not allowing the legacy media to pull them off it..At her campaign launch in SE Calgary Saturday, Danielle Smith laid out exactly such a simple, disciplined message, centred on building a better life for Albertans..The UCP she said, would be ‘relentlessly focused’ on stability and security, building a strong economy to provide good-paying jobs, opportunities for Albertans’ children and low taxes. The police would be funded to keep hard drugs and criminals off the street, addicts would be given the chance to receive treatment..“This election is about moving forward, to a stronger, safer and more affordable Alberta,” she told an enthusiastic campaign-launch crowd in SE Calgary, April 29th..It’s what Alberta needs today. She and her party should stay on it until the polls close..For, if Premier Danielle Smith is re-elected on 29th, life as Albertans know it, goes on. Smith has made her priorities clear: Moving Albertans forward, public safety, keeping taxes low and if the federal government comes calling, meeting them at the border..Thus, no federal firearms confiscators allowed. Any attempt by Prime Minister Trudeau to take over the province’s pipelines and energy industry using Bill C-69, will be strongly resisted using all the available constitutional means available — including the Alberta Sovereignty Act..In other public remarks, Smith has repeatedly promised that a UCP government will support and protect the province’s energy industry both within the province, and in its dealings with Ottawa. And as we have already seen, the UCP under Danielle Smith is disposed to pay off debt when there’s money to do it with and thereby reduce the crippling burden of interest..Smith has drawn the lines and they couldn’t be clearer..For, in contrast to Smith's heart-and-wallet message, electing the Alberta NDP and Rachel Notley would be tantamount to putting Justin Trudeau in charge of the government of Alberta..First, the Alberta NDP is well aware of the deal their party has with the federal Liberals, to maintain Trudeau’s hold on power until the next election in 2025..The Alberta NDP is not a separate entity: It is one with the federal party. That obliges Rachel Notley and the people who ride with her, beholden as they are to these larger national interests of their party, to place the Liberal green agenda ahead of Alberta’s energy industry, assist the Trudeau Liberals in confiscating Albertans’ guns and to quietly acquiesce in the federal takeover of provincial jurisdiction in energy and the environment. (There aren’t many federal Liberal voters in Alberta but of those that are, 99% will be voting NDP.).Depend upon the NDP also to seek control of Alberta’s children through their woke education policies. And they will spend money — borrowing when times are good because they can, and borrowing more when times are bad because they must..This is the real agenda they don’t want to talk about — and for good reason. Meanwhile, their campaign message will simply be that Smith is untrustworthy..Whatever one thinks about the NDP, one can depend upon them in this election campaign to be disciplined in their message — both what they talk about and what they don’t admit. And the legacy media will be their friends, keeping them on message, playing down things that make Albertans uneasy and keeping up the attack on Smith..You could say this election campaign is a referendum on Danielle Smith and Rachel Notley. You could also say that it is a referendum on the condition and direction of the province..In both cases you would be right. And amid the many uncertainties that go with any election, this is for sure: Unlike so many Alberta elections that in the end were just a matter of which PC leader was going to mind the store for four years, this is a genuine fork in the road..Smith has left no doubt which direction she will take. To win in May, let the party only follow it faithfully..Message discipline, all the way.
