Premier Danielle Smith spoke to reporters following her keynote address at the UCP AGM in Red Deer on Saturday at Westerner Park. (Photo by Ian Gustafson/ rdnewsNOW staff)

By Ian Gustafson

Crucial vote

Premier Smith wins 91.5% support from UCP members at AGM in Red Deer

Nov 2, 2024 | 1:47 PM

If there was any doubt that the members of the UCP did not believe Alberta premier Danielle Smith could lead the party, it was erased on Saturday evening.

Just hours after she delivered her keynote speech at the UCP’s Annual General Meeting in Red Deer on Saturday, 6,085 members voted in favour of Smith in her leadership review, achieving 91.5 per cent approval at Westerner Park.

Back in 2022, Smith received only a 54 per cent approval from members and replaced former premier Jason Kenney who had only 51 per cent of the vote.

Speaking to the media following her speech earlier in the day, she said she was hoping for more votes than last time.

“You can’t get 100 per cent of support, 100 per cent of the time so I just hope I’ve managed to gain ground from the last time they had a chance to offer their opinion,” she said.

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During the premier’s speech, she touched on multiple topics over her nearly 20-minute address.

“In this room is the very heartbeat of this strong, free, and independent west, the bedrock on which the Conservative movement in Canada is built,” she said to her supporters.

“When Alberta Conservatives are united, when we are unapologetically governing as freedom loving, free market, law and order Conservatives, the entire centre of political gravity in our country pulls in that direction.”

Among the topics touched on, how the Alberta government is restructuring and decentralizing hospital care, primary care, senior care, and mental health and addictions are delivered.

Smith said this means fewer “paper pushers” and more nurses and doctors.

“There’s still a lot more to do to complete these reforms but day by day we get closer to our goal to deliver an innovative, patient first, and decentralized health care system that’s there for you when you need it,” she said.

In terms of education she said they’ve recently announced construction of the largest amount of new schools in the history of the province. She also explained that parental choice in education will alway be a staple with her in power.

“The more choice we have and the more choice we give parents in how their children are educated, the more accountable, innovative, and effective our entire education system will become,” she added.

Smith’s government recently proposed three bills that focus on transgender people.

One bill introduced requires kids under 16 to have parental consent to change their pronouns or names at school. It also requires parents to opt-in for their children to be taught about sexual orientation and sexual and gender identity at school.

The second bill would prohibit doctors from treating kids under 16 looking for transgender treatments such as puberty blockers.

The final bill would ban transgender athletes from competing in female amateur sports and would require school and sport organizations to report eligibility complaints.

“Some on the left accuse us of doing this for political purposes but that’s not true,” she said.

“We’re doing this because permanently altering ones body and changing ones gender is a serious adult decision. Our children deserve the time and the freedom to mature and understand the consequences of such decisions before they make them. I won’t apologize for that.”

Her government also introduced this week the expansion of the Alberta bill of rights including the right to buy and own firearms and the right for an individual to refuse a vaccine.

“We learned a lot of hard lessons during the pandemic and one of the things learned is this – a person’s right to bodily autonomy is sacred,” she said.

“Governments around the world should never be allowed to circumvent that right and in Alberta they won’t be allowed to do so.”

Smith also touched on censorship in the province and reassured members that they will continue to fight the issue referencing Jordan Peterson’s legal battle against the College of Psychologists of Ontario.

Speaking of freedom, she also reported that her government helped create 100,000 new jobs and workers are earning more on average than any other province. She also explained how they plan to keep taxes low moving into the future.

Smith also promised to build more pipelines, oil and gas facilities, and more.

“Alberta is an energy super power and that’s another thing we won’t apologize for either,” she said.

“Let me be clear, we won’t be phasing out any of our oil and gas industry. In fact, we’re going to double our oil and gas production. We’ll lower the emissions the smart way through technology and sending more of our clean oil and natural gas to Asia and the U.S.”