Premier Danielle Smith, next to Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Justin Wright, takes questions from the audience at a town hall on Oct. 10, 2024. Eli J. Ridder/CHAT News

By Eli J. Ridder

POLITICS

Premier Smith holding Medicine Hat town hall Tuesday amid fresh pressures

Mar 1, 2025 | 1:36 PM

Medicine Hat’s two local provincial representatives are holding a town hall on Tuesday.

Brooks-Medicine Hat MLA Danielle Smith, who also serves as premier, and Cypress-Medicine Hat’s Justin Wright will take a mixture of pre-submitted and on-the-spot questions at the forum.

It’s the third such town hall the two United Conservative MLAs have held in the last 13 months.

Smith was praised for her takes on the economy and local issues during the February 2024 forum at the Medicine Hat Public Library.

But her and Wright also faced criticism over her proposed transgender policies and Alberta pension plan idea.

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The parent of a transgender child in Medicine Hat shouted at Smith during the town hall before he and others left the event.

The parent, Ashley Large, and his wife Kim went on to become public opponents of policies included in a trio of government bills that critics consider harmful to transgender youth.

At another town hall dominated by the topic of health care in October, Smith revealed a long-awaited pay structure for Alberta family doctors was coming soon.

During that visit to the riding, she also attended a roundtable of business leaders. After the meeting, she said preliminary work on a consequential provincial audit of Medicine Hat’s city hall had begun.

She also said placing solar panels on rooftops is the best approach the renewable energy source when asked about a city effort to purchase the rights to a solar farm project in Medicine Hat’s north end.

Smith’s visit Tuesday comes amid fresh pressures for the United Conservative Party leader.

Smith’s handling of the AHS procurement scandal; her government’s deregulation of mountain coal mining; and the province’s approach to health care, education and affordability are all but certain to be part of the discussion.

There could also be support or criticism over the provincial government’s 2025 budget revealed on Thursday amid the threat of tariffs from the United States.

Protestors have for two Saturdays in a row rallied in front of Smith’s constituency office calling for her to resign, saying she is not fit to lead the province.

At least one of those protesting, Medicine Hat’s NDP constituency president Adam Benn, said Saturday he will be in attendance to ask questions of the premier.

Tuesday’s town hall gets underway at 6 p.m. in Eresman College Theatre at Medicine Hat College.

Questions can be submitted in advance to the constituency email addresses — Brooks.MedicineHat@Assembly.ab.ca and Cypress.MedicineHat@Assembly.ab.ca — but there will also be an open microphone portion.

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