Braid: Smith wins Brooks-Medicine Hat, pledges to ease inflation

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Having won the by-election, Prime Minister Daniel Smith can get to work on the hard part of governing the state and winning the election.

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It’s challenging. Even in the friendly Brooks-Medicine Hat, the NDP won 26.7% of the vote and the Alberta Party won her 16.5%.

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If the Chancellor himself is a UCP candidate in a conservative area of ​​bedrock, a 54.5% win is clear, but not ground-shaking. Backventure’s Mikaela Frey won his 60.6% in his 2019 UCP.

NDP contender Gwendolyn Dark was strong on the north side of the ‘Hutt’ which is part of the city in contested riding. Also, former Brooks Mayor Barry Morishita, leader of the Alberta Party, has found success in his city.

But Smith won. Now it’s down to business.

Ministers will receive powers of attorney within a few days. These show the prime minister’s expectations for each minister. Taken together, these give a good sense of the broader intentions of the government.

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Smith hasn’t made many announcements so far for no particular reason. Former Prime Minister Jason Kenny has rolled out all pending actions before resigning.

In effect, Kenny smashed and depleted the new prime minister’s political piggy bank.

On Oct. 5, a day before Smith assumed UCP leadership, the government made 16 announcements on everything from diversifying the aerospace industry to renewing its relationship with the Mexican state of Jalisco.

Smith found an exposed cupboard. She then had to run a by-election. Announcement of money during the campaign is illegal.

Now she can move freely. The first big move is action to mitigate inflation across the sector, especially fuel and utility costs. This definitely comes before Christmas.

In his victory speech, Smith said, “Over the coming months, we will take unprecedented and substantial action to support Alberta and its families.” She promised “more money in the wallet” for the elderly and the most vulnerable.

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Urgent action will also be taken on EMS and emergency rooms, which will significantly change the management of AHS.

Too much time, effort and money is being spent on healthcare consultants and layers of bureaucracy, says Smith.

(Some of the MLA and Cabinet members don’t want her to pay too much attention to peripheral figures like Dr. Paul Alexander, a Trump adviser and convoy advocate who advocated herd immunity as an answer to COVID-19.) I do not want.)

The big one is the Sovereignty Act, which will be introduced on the first day parliament meets at the end of the month.

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This includes the Prime Minister’s entire political identity. It would be her moment of greatest danger.

Five of her leadership rivals opposed the plan. Four are now in the Cabinet, along with Environment Minister Sonya Savage, who has been fiercely outspoken about the potential harm to Alberta.

The worst outcome for Smith would be another UCP caucus eruption with devastating consequences. More likely is the creation of a sovereignty bill that opponents can support for the sake of unity and their fine cabinet work.

Smith wants general agreement on a bill that doesn’t run counter to the Supreme Court’s ruling. In her official view, this was part of the Free Alberta Strategy, but it is by no means her view.

The bill would continue to allow Congress to override or simply not cooperate with federal laws deemed to violate Alberta’s constitutional rights.

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However, if the dispute goes to the Supreme Court and Alberta loses, it will follow the court.

However, this does not mean that the state will ignore Ottawa and not take other parallel actions.

“The laws of sovereignty will become constitutional,” Smith declared.

The real fireworks begin in the month before the spring election. It is a time when legislatures debate and pass resolutions to take specific actions against federal policies and laws.

These resolutions will give Albertans an accurate picture of their government’s plans. Smith clearly believes this will win his UCP election.

Meanwhile, she works on more mundane tasks. Brooks Medicine Hat house hunting.

“I have a kind of residence here,” she says. “You must exist here.”

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She travels regularly between Parliament in Edmonton, the McDougall Center in Calgary, her personal base in High River, and a new excavation site 300 kilometers southeast. Geographically, it’s the widest spread ever faced by a prime minister.

You might want to buy her a plane. However, it is better to forget about it for now.

The last PC Prime Minister, Jim Prentice, announced the sale of four government aircraft on the same day he took office in 2014.

The Allison Redford-era scandal has turned the fleet toxic. Who can forget “Ghost Rider in the Sky”, an indelible name for filling the manifesto with ghostly passengers?

Since then, the prime minister and ministers have relied on commercial flights, occasional charter flights and plenty of time in transit.

The future of this premiere has a lot of it.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

twitter: @Donblade