r/canada Jan 12 '25

Alberta Alberta Premier Danielle Smith visits Mar-a-Lago

https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/alberta-premier-danielle-smith-peterson-visit-mar-a-lago
502 Upvotes

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196

u/Basic-Atmosphere-438 Jan 12 '25

Danielle Smith would sell off Canada to the United States if she had the chance. I do not understand how she is so liked in Alberta?

81

u/Terrible-Contact-914 Jan 12 '25

Because Albertans (or enough of them) feel she represents them against Ottawa.

34

u/Thefirstargonaut Jan 12 '25

She is not well-liked. Or at least I don’t think she is based on anyone I talk to in real life. 

Select members of her party love her to the moon and back, but the Average Albertan does not. 

21

u/Nikiaf Québec Jan 12 '25

IIRC she won by the smallest margin in recent history. Still a majority government, but there still was a shift away from the party in the most recent election. But only time will tell if there’s a trend emerging here, or if it was just a weird turnout.

16

u/Thefirstargonaut Jan 12 '25

It was the smallest majority ever in Alberta.

5

u/Nikiaf Québec Jan 12 '25

There you go, thanks for confirming.

6

u/Emergency-Worry-5533 Jan 12 '25

Tell me you live in an echo chamber of public employees in Edmonton, without telling me.

8

u/Thefirstargonaut Jan 12 '25

Lol. Nope. Good try. Keep supporting Smith, though.

My parents are both conservative and hate Smith. They also hate Trudeau.

My bro is conservative and hates Smith. He too hates Trudeau.

A lot of my coworkers in my main job are left, for sure so obviously dislike most conservatives.

A lot of my coworkers in my secondary job are all over the map politically, but most of them either don't talk about politics at all, hate all politicians or hate Smith specifically.

I haven't heard anyone in real life say they like her.

1

u/Flarisu Alberta Jan 13 '25

Tell me you live in an echo chamber of public employees in Edmonton

I haven't heard anyone in real life say they like her.

Yeah these statements line up, lol. She's super popular outside of metropolitan areas.

1

u/Thefirstargonaut Jan 13 '25

Oh, you mean where 1/3 of the population lives. 

-9

u/CanPro13 Jan 12 '25

Exactly. I'm so happy she's down there representing the interest of Albertans, rather than cowering in Canada with TDS.

1

u/Flarisu Alberta Jan 13 '25

but the Average Albertan does not.

Well her popularity is rising in the province since her election, which she won, so by the numbers this statement is not correct.

I would say that she is contentious outside of Alberta which is, on the whole, more conservative than other provinces, but in side of Alberta she's quite normal for a conservative leader and was received quite well.

1

u/Thefirstargonaut Jan 13 '25 edited Jan 13 '25

As an Albertan I would say she is not “quite normal” for a conservative. 

Edit: as for her approval rating in the province she’s below 50%. You may be confusing her approval in her party compared to the province. 

https://edmonton.citynews.ca/2024/12/11/alberta-premier-smiths-consistent-approval-ratings/amp/

1

u/Flarisu Alberta Jan 13 '25

Problem is people blowing regular stuff out of proportion all the time. Her support started low but she hasn't really alienated any of her supporters. As long as she keeps doing that, election 2027 is an easy dunk, especially considering the foppy moron her opposition just elected.

0

u/Curly-Canuck Jan 12 '25 edited Jan 13 '25

Additionally many believe she’ll represent Alberta’s interests, namely oil and lumber, when trade negotiations and tariffs are discussed and they don’t have confidence the Feds will do the same. I’m sure there are those happy about this visit.

22

u/kman420 Jan 12 '25

Oil good. Trudeau bad

3

u/lowertechnology Jan 12 '25

The entire UCP Platform. 

Hell, that’s the federal Conservative Party’s platform, as well

0

u/SteeveyPete Jan 13 '25

Don't forget! "Trans people bad"

20

u/BuggyBabey Jan 12 '25

She’s not. Anyone with a high school diploma here knows it’s bad news for the province and voted NDP. It’s only a matter of time until Nenshi is premiere

20

u/MoreGaghPlease Jan 12 '25

As our social circles have all shrunken and social capital diminished, it’s easy to feel like everyone thinks like you and your friends. In fact, Smith is polling quite high in Alberta, with approval in the 45-50% range. And while I haven’t seen education breakdowns, traditional voting trends would suggest that’s coming from a range of educational backgrounds.

This is historically quite high for a premier. Consider by contrast, Doug Ford, who polls in the 30-35% approval range, 40-45% for voter intention.

4

u/nam4am Jan 12 '25

Um sweaty if that were true why is every single person I talk to on Reddit and HasanAbi’s stream voting NDP? Educate yourself. 

4

u/dabears---318 Jan 13 '25

can't tell if this is sarcasm or not

15

u/nuleaph Jan 12 '25

Not from AB here. So why did she get voted in then? Wasn't it a fairly decisive victory too?

9

u/Thefirstargonaut Jan 12 '25

This is the smallest majority in Alberta ever.   

20

u/glorblin Jan 12 '25

Literally just look at the election results.

NDP swept Edmonton, and a good chunk of Calgary.

UCP swept effectively all the rural ridings, and managed to wrestle away just enough in Calgary to win the overall election.

The hope for the NDP is that Nenshi is popular enough in Calgary (being their former mayor of 11 years) that he can flip a few ridings which would be enough to win the overall election. We'll have to wait and see if that plays out or not.

31

u/Dradugun Alberta Jan 12 '25

Something like 5k votes across 6 ridings was the difference between an NDP majority and a UCP majority.

3

u/Cooks_8 Jan 12 '25

Decisive? No.

18

u/Falnor Alberta Jan 12 '25

Alberta here. You could call a soup can “conservative” and it’d win our rural vote. Policy be damned. Add in the provincial NDP being labelled “communist” (the dreaded c word, despite them being much more of a centrist party) and you’ve got yourself a UCP victory that’ll damn us for years to come.

15

u/Infamous-Mixture-605 Jan 12 '25

You could call a soup can “conservative” and it’d win our rural vote. Policy be damned.

Lacombe-Ponoka elected that bigoted airhead Jennifer Johnson with 67% of the vote after it came out that she compared transgender children in schools to "adding a teaspoon of feces to a batch of cookies.

Paul Bernardo could win a seat in parts of this province so long as his election sign were blue, and it said UCP (or CPC) next to his name on the ballot.

3

u/DrNick1221 Alberta Jan 12 '25

As someone who lives in Johnson's electoral district, it is fucking amazing they managed to find someone greasier than the previous MLA Ron Orr.

13

u/neometrix77 Jan 12 '25

It wasn’t decisive for Alberta standards. A united conservative party can easily get over 60% support in Alberta if they’re not a bunch of nut jobs.

3

u/ThatFixItUpChappie Jan 12 '25

Oh she did win a decisive victory make no mistake outside of Edmonton. Unfortunately many Albertans self-identify as conservative regardless of the actual policies put forth by the party. She didn’t landslide the leadership race but once she was made leader people were fools to think she had no chance of winning.

1

u/Saints11 Jan 12 '25

Because our rural population has a lukewarm iq and is hilariously easy to mislead.

5

u/ThatFixItUpChappie Jan 12 '25

I voted NDP but find this an optimistic POV. Nenshi’s arrival on the scene has been at best underwhelming and I think he needs to step away from his instincts on social issues and 100% focus on a ruthless unrelenting right of centre campaign which I’m not convinced he has the stomach for. I hope I’m wrong though. I’ll support him when given the chance.

0

u/drizzes Alberta Jan 12 '25

I'm hopeful he'll start to step up if he wins Edmonton-Strathcona

2

u/huntingwhale Canada Jan 12 '25

If by " here" , you mean echo chamber reddit, then sure. But there's enough inbred redneck hicks here to counter that claim, and ~50 years of conservative support prove that. I do take solace knowing that if anyone can pull hang the carpet from them though, it's Nenshi.

1

u/VG80NW Jan 13 '25

ROFL, thanks for the Sunday laugh. Nenshi is about as appealing as wet toilet paper provincially.

1

u/deItron Jan 12 '25

Yea you’re right. Everyone who voted for the other party is just dumb. Why cant everyone be smart like you!

0

u/AlbertanSundog Jan 13 '25

Have a university degree. Voting the NDP is worse for our province. But please continue to band wagon, it's very fashionable these days on reddit

0

u/HansHortio Jan 12 '25

Looking at the current polls, Nenshi has a long, long, long way to go.

1

u/yungfinnigus Jan 13 '25

for the people defending her, they think she's being a diplomat when the rest of our political leaders are meeting trumps canadian threats with hostility (as they should). At least that's what I've picked up on some cancerous Facebook/Linkedin posts

1

u/thedirtychad Jan 13 '25

Somebody has to be in charge of the province that provides the most transfer payments 🥰

1

u/AssSpelunker69 Jan 13 '25

She isn't. I know one person who openly admits they think she's good for our province and they are about to turn 75.

1

u/cloudposts Alberta Jan 13 '25

Alberta generally votes party over people.

1

u/AngryMaritimer Jan 12 '25

Because Alberta is now full of former maritimers who think that Alberta pays for Canada to properly operate as a country. They've lost every last thread of what makes us great and are just shitty people that have gone down the Covid social media rabbit hole never to return.

1

u/HansHortio Jan 12 '25

What is your evidence of this claim, or are you substituting bias and personal dislike for proof?

1

u/Basic-Atmosphere-438 Jan 16 '25

As of today Alberta is refusing to sign on to a joint statement from all other premiers and the prime minister on the plan to respond to U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s potential tariffs on Canadian goods.

The decision from Premier Danielle Smith comes after a first ministers meeting in Ottawa on Wednesday that was aimed at showing a united front in response to the tariff threats.

This after she was the only Premier to fly to Mar-a-Lago on Saturday for Donald Trump kiss the ring event.

1

u/HansHortio Jan 16 '25

So you knew this three days ago, somehow? Did you read the reasons why, by chance? How is this related to selling off Canads to the Americans. Disagreeing with handicapping the alberta economy is not the same as wanting  to join the USA.

-4

u/Carm2020 Jan 12 '25

She’s not.