CTV News reports:
In her address to Albertans on Tuesday, Premier Danielle Smith admitted she is “far from perfect” and said she can “make mistakes” – though she hasn’t yet said which mistakes or positions she was referring to. “Having spent decades in media and hosting talk shows I discussed hundreds of different topics and sometimes took controversial positions, many of which have evolved or changed as I’ve grown and learn from listening to you,” Smith said in her address.
“But I know I’m not a talk show host or a media commentator any longer. That’s not my job today. My job today is to serve each and every Albertan with everything I have, and to the best of my ability, however imperfect that may be at times.” From saying cancer patients can do more to prevent their disease from progressing to Stage 4, to referring to unvaccinated people as the “most discriminated group” she’s witnessed in her lifetime, to justifying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – Smith has upset many Albertans.
The CBC reports:
It’s not just the scattered thoughts of her past. This is who Danielle Smith is, or at least has been up until this moment— a Margaret Thatcher-worshipping libertarian who absorbs ideas from all manner of different corners, who likes to cast doubt on “mainstream narrative” and what’s established as the consensus.
Meanwhile, the premier brings up constantly that federal environment minister Steven Guilbeault used to be a tower-scaling Greenpeace activist. That was in 2001. Smith would have us believe that this Liberal leopard cannot change his spots, while Albertans need not to pay heed to her words from last summer.
But is she asking Albertans to do the opposite, to blanket disregard everything she’s said or written before? Does the slate get wiped clean as of her swearing-in on Oct. 6, and do we render null and void all the positions she took before and the controversial voices she championed that helped persuade United Conservative activists and vaccine skeptics to vote for her?
#Analysis: The Alberta premier’s past utterances have caused her grief.
Recent ones, too.
She can’t evade them all. https://t.co/P44rgYqakG— CBC News (@CBCNews) November 24, 2022
A leader in Alberta’s health system who was fired by Premier Danielle Smith said, in an open letter, that Smith’s abusive, divisive rhetoric blended with her “warped” anti-science beliefs make her a poor excuse for a leader. https://t.co/ZoSwR5UrlV
— CityNews Calgary (@citynewscalgary) November 18, 2022
Danielle Smith’s theory that cancer survivors need to be “taught a lesson” about the cost of healthcare, with deductibles (user fees) so they don’t “do it again,” is just plain crazy. #AbLeg
— Kathleen Ganley (@KathleenGanley) November 21, 2022
Danielle Smith wants you to “get used” to paying for public healthcare.
Do not accept this.
It’s never been clearer: public healthcare is under attack by the UCP.
Get loud, Alberta.#ableg
— Janis Irwin (@JanisIrwin) November 20, 2022
Alberta Public School Boards sent a strong message to Danielle Smith that Albertans will not stand for the UCP’s continued undermining of public education when they voted overwhelmingly (99.05%) against her American-style school voucher system this week. #AbLeg #AbEd
— Sarah Hoffman (she/her) (@shoffmanAB) November 24, 2022