Danielle Smith launches charm offensive in the Alberta United Conservative Party leadership race
CBC
This column is an opinion from Graham Thomson, an award-winning journalist who has covered Alberta politics for more than 30 years. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.
After weeks of heated rhetoric in the United Conservative Party leadership race, the perceived front runner, Danielle Smith, is trying to cool things down in Alberta.
Smith is employing a charm offensive specifically geared toward winning the party's complicated preferential balloting system.
It's a strategy based on math and human nature as well as lessons learned from previous leadership races.
Smith is not so much attempting to poach supporters from the other camps as she is trying to plant seeds in their minds, hoping they bear fruit later.
On Thursday, she issued a statement calling for party unity and posted a video segment where she praised each of her competitors, including her nemesis in the race, former finance minister Travis Toews.
"People look at him as a person of integrity," said Smith, who not so long ago accused Toews of using "smear" tactics against her.
"He's given some good thought as to how we could have an Alberta Provincial Police and an Albertan pension plan and I would look forward to working with him on implementing those."
She applauded Brian Jean's plan to reduce the price of gasoline, pronounced Rebecca Schulz a "young talent," supported Rajan Sawhney's call for a public inquiry into the COVID-19 response, described Leela Aheer as "lovely," and called Todd Loewen "one of my favourite people."
Smith sounded very much like a premier-in-waiting announcing her picks for a new cabinet.
(Smith even said nice things about former Liberal leader Raj Sherman, indicating her video was recorded before Sherman was denied permission to enter the race last month).
Smith is doing all of this because she wants to be seen, of course, as a party unifier but also, more strategically, because of the vagaries of the UCP's preferential balloting system.
On the ballot, party members rank the candidates numerically by preference.
The ballots will be counted on Oct. 6. If one candidate wins a majority on the first count, the race is over. However, with seven people in the race, a first-ballot victory is unlikely.
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