From the October 2023 issue of Maclean’s
The Unsteady Reign of
Danielle Smith
Alberta’s premier rode into office declaring war on the federal government—and won by a tiny margin. Can she keep her rebellious rural base happy, without sparking a national crisis?
On a sunny Saturday morning this past April, one month before Alberta’s provincial election, about 200 boisterous supporters of the governing United Conservative Party descended on a parking lot in suburban Calgary. The throng—seniors, families, bearded guys in cowboy hats, bearded guys in UCP-blue turbans—were there for a campaign-launch rally, steeling themselves for a long day of door-to-door canvassing. The atmosphere was electric: polls showed a dead heat between the UCP and the NDP. The former was expected to handily win rural ridings, the latter to sweep Edmonton. It was here, in Calgary’s too-close-to-call suburbs, that the election would be won or lost. The fate of the race depended on these placard-peddling canvassers.
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