RED DEER — The Danielle Smith loyalist has a wider grin at day’s end than when his team won the Super Bowl.
“It’s a squeaker,” he says, knowing before the rest of us how the premier’s support from UCP members was even higher than the high number he saw in his crystal ball.
What does all it mean? What does 91.5 per cent support for Premier Danielle Smith from her party mean?
“Give me a little time to think about it,” he adds, still digesting the enormity of the arithmetic.
So where were the critics, the naysayers in the party, the folks who pumped out pamphlets sliming Smith, who said she was promoting sharia law or she was actually somehow helping NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi win the next election?
Where were those who said Smith was not doing enough or not doing it exactly the way they would like it done?
You know, those who always have something to say and always can find someone in the press to say it.
If there were still telephone booths they could hold their convention in one.
While we’re at it, where was the press or at least those newshounds who said Smith might be in trouble with the UCP members, the folks sketching out possible doomsday scenarios?
Example. What would happen if Smith scored some low percentage of support where the premier could survive but her days would be numbered?
Did they actually believe what they were saying or were they just hoping for a story that was too bad to be true?
They obviously weren’t cruising the same hallways and the same rooms as some of us this weekend.
Loyal readers, and many went to the UCP leadership vote shindig, recall reading 24 hours ago in this piece of newspaper real estate how there was little evidence of backroom intrigue against Smith.
How there weren’t the same signs of rebellion in the ranks we saw when former premier Jason Kenney was on his way out the door and how people in the know believed Smith was safe.
Smith herself was looking upbeat.
Guess we’re not going to have to endure those news conference questions about Take Back Alberta or some other group and how they could sabotage Smith.
The questions they really like in other parts of Canada to prove Alberta is one unhinged province.
Lookee here, David Parker from Take Back Alberta on social media.
“The people have decided Danielle Smith is the leader they want by an overwhelming margin. I will not fight them.”
Game, set and match.
Guess the crazy conservatives knifing another leader story will have to sit on the shelf for the time being.
Then we can never forget the lefties.
They never liked Kenney. They despise Smith and, let’s tell it like it is, thinks those who do like her are knuckle-dragging neanderthals.
Remember the little double dog dare.
Nenshi won the Alberta NDP leadership by 86 per cent, try to top that, Danielle.
She did with a few points to spare.
Do I see crow on the menu this week?
It is quite a shindig to witness.
Before the vote on Saturday, Smith is given a boisterous reception.
Smith’s speech is tailor-made for the party faithful.
Smith takes on left-wing pundits and socialism, censorship, eco-extremism and big government.
The premier vows “to double and triple-down on acting and governing like true conservatives.”
Slamming Alberta Health Services as it was before Smith is a crowd-pleaser.
Transgender policy brings forth enthusiastic applause.
Gun rights. Yahoo! Property rights. Even a bigger yahoo!
“In Alberta, we don’t seize someone’s bank account or other property because they are protesting unjust laws.”
COVID!
Speaking of COVID, a lot of people here are still choked about what happened during the pandemic.
Say there will never again be vaccine mandates here and you have 6,085 friends in the room.
Mention Dr. Jordan Peterson and how his free speech wouldn’t be muzzled in Alberta and everyone knows what you’re talking about.
If you don’t know who Jordan Peterson is perhaps you shouldn’t come to the kind of shindig.
Someone says: “Taxation is theft.” Someone yells out: “Hell ya!”
A group wearing black hats wins the debate pushing for a much tougher Alberta Bill of Rights.
No Smith speech is complete unless there’s a stomping of the prime minister and/or Steven Guilbeault, his green guru.
A dude on stage does a comedy routine where, in Trudeau’s Canada, the Edmonton Oilers could become the politically-correct Edmonton Solar Panels or the Edmonton Wind Farms.
“We’re a raucous family that has a lot of robust discussions,” admits Smith.
Now the premier is smart enough to know she has to keep her party close. She spoke about it right after she won the UCP leadership.
In her Saturday speech, Smith asks UCP members not to break into factions and “bring down the movement.”
And they give her 91.5 per cent.