This column is the opinion of James Johnson, a former researcher at the Wild Rose Party and the United Conservative Party in Alberta. See for more information on the CBC Opinion Sectionplease.FAQ
Daniel Smith has returned a lot Should not be shocking to anyoneAlberta.
Shewhen many went over the floor with fellow MLA as Wild Rose leaders in 2014 and joined Jim Prentice and his Tories. } I believe I have committed an unforgivable sin. To NDP in a few months. After that, many politicians wrote down her, forgot about her, and was banished forever.
But, believe it or not, her conservatives who hated her most are now those who love her most and want her as a UCP leader and premier. ..
This relapse did not begin a few weeks ago. It has been working for years.
A few months after being expelled from politics in 2015, she returned to the saddle and rebranded on her radio show. Did. She talks every morning by hashing the issues of the day, and eventually conservative MPs, MLAs, and even premier Jason Kenney join her as guests.
They helped bring her back from her political wilderness, and Alberta began to remember why she first became popular as a leader in Wild Roses.
I worked for her for five years and then for Brian Jean and Jason Kenny for another five years. She says she's back.
Countryside Rockstar Comeback Tour
Daniel can pack a room in the countryside of Alberta. Probably a place you've never heard of.
In 2011, I ran the road with her for three weeks, touring the villages and towns of Alberta. In Plamondon, 350 settlements in Lac La Biche County, hundreds of people appeared to listen to her on weekday nights in August.
She was a conservative rock star. She has tried to pack hundreds of people into the village hall to talk about politics. In summer. Now she's doing it again
Fifteen years ago, when local property advocates made a fuss about ambiguous land planning legislation on power lines, they almost ignored it. it was done. Daniel distilled their concerns into a simple and devastating message: the government tears you up, robs you of your farmland, and allows their business associates to build power lines.
Between 2010 and 2011, she packaged that type of message into political dynamite. She wonwithin the weekendwhenbecame prime ministerin the 2012 election, and the acquisition of a local seat in the Wild Rose permanently destroyed the progressive conservative dynasty.
Daniel has mastered her brief message. Her delivery is cheerful and smiling. In some anecdotes, she makes her solution to complex problems incredibly compelling.
Her new slogan. Alberta First. You can oppose it, but if Alberta isn't the first, what is it? No. 2.
She promised early on to ignore federal lawthat she didn't like. Among the many things the idea caused, it made everyone talk about her.
COVID-19 was a gift to her, both on the radio and in her political resurrection. Her serious story aboutivermectinandhydroxychloroquineis part of the story, as coronavirus treatment has afflicted a polite society. The outsider again noticed that she was turning their voice. Her clear expression was so clear that I wondered if she was just a spokesperson or a true believer.
And now she is attracting her supporters by saying "never again" about the blockade of COVID.
She also did that, discussing the proposed Alberta police with a competitor who gave a perfectly reasonable answer to its complexity.
Instead, she abandoned the way RCMP confiscated guns after a flood on the High River in 2013. Avoiding details to condemn federal cheating brought intoxicating shots of political whiskey.
Dissatisfaction, anger, and short-lived victory
Daniel Smith never wastes good dissatisfaction.She created a modern wrath machine in Alberta politics.
In an era of anger, an angry machine is a tactic of victory, but a strategy of defeat. Like a grocery shopping cart, an angry machine shuts down if it's too far from the enclosure.
You can win the party with anger. You can't beat the government, as evidenced by the Wild Rose party's failure to win in big cities in 2012 and 2015.
As Daniel stuffed the hall into Plamonton, the population of the settlement Calgary and Edmonton add to the population of Pramondon every week. each.
Fueling an angry machine can also make you think you are in control of it. Daniel learned this in a difficult way, and by the time she abandoned the party at the crossroads of her floor, she had fallen along with the grassroots of Wild Rose.
United Conservatives are currently thirsty, so Smith's political whiskey shots are exactly what members are anxious for. Her rivals may reach out to her bottle as she sees her early success.
However, too many powerful things can make the party worse. Remember 2015. A political hangover is hell.
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