Danielle Smith, focus of rivals' debate criticism, deemed UCP leadership front-runner
CTV
Political observers say the United Conservative leadership debate demonstrated that former Wildrose leader Danielle Smith is the pacesetter of a party defining itself not by what it stands for but by what it rails against.
Political observers say the United Conservative leadership debate demonstrated that former Wildrose leader Danielle Smith is the pacesetter of a party defining itself not by what it stands for but by what it rails against.
“I don't know who the front-runner is, but clearly everyone on that stage thought Danielle Smith was the front-runner. That was my big takeaway,” Calgary-based pollster Janet Brown said Thursday in an interview.
“Regardless of what the polls say, she is the one that everyone is focused on.”
On Wednesday, Smith and six other candidates debated issues ranging from health care to unity at an airport hangar in Medicine Hat, Alta.
Smith was the focus of criticism from opponents for recent cancer comments and for past musings on an Alberta sales tax, but mainly for her proposed Alberta sovereignty act.
The act, which Smith promises to bring in this fall if she wins the Oct. 6 vote, would grant the province the power to ignore federal laws and court rulings deemed not in its interests.
Candidates Travis Toews, Rebecca Schulz, Rajan Sawhney and Brian Jean dismissed the proposal as illegal, unenforceable and a lightning rod for division and economic uncertainty.
