Danielle Smith tries to turn tables on critics with diatribe defending plan to meet far-right Florida bloviator today

Under fierce attack for asking Trump Administration officials pause their tariff war on Canada until a friendlier Conservative government could be elected in Ottawa and anticipating more of the same when she waltzes off to Florida today to sit down with an unsavoury far-right bloviator, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith responded with a diatribe in the Legislature yesterday targeting her many critics. 

Quoting Winston Churchill and channelling Margaret Thatcher (the lady who was not for turning), John Diefenbaker, Ralph Klein and the Bible, Premier Smith trowelled it on pretty thickly – thickly enough, indeed, methought the lady did protest too much. 

Her foes, including “eastern media pundits and politicians who favour political grandstanding to effective diplomacy” – not to mention “Team Carney,” at which she seemed particularly incensed – want her to “abandon my post, remain in Alberta, and do absolutely nothing to defend our province,” she complained. 

Her post, as she sees it, is at the side of Internet “influencer” Ben Shapiro – presumably a hero from her days as a far-right talk radio host – and she’s not about to be denied either the pleasure of the visit or the expenses she’ll need to get there.

Accordingly, she has recast today’s taxpayer-funded junket as an act of heroism. “I’m fiercely criticized for going into the lion’s den to change the hearts and minds of the very Americans that we need on Canada’s side to avoid a trade war with the most powerful economy on earth,” she averred. (Some lion’s den. Those Republican lions are likely to be as tame as the ones that failed to confront the prophet Daniel in their Old Testament den.) 

“They want this lady, and Alberta, to just sit down and shut up!” (Yes, please, please sit down and shut up, one can imagine Mr. Poilievre mumbling prayerfully.) 

“Well, here is my response to that: I will not be silent. Alberta will not be silent. We will not be pushed around and called traitors for merely having the courage to actually do something about our nation’s and province’s predicament other than merely indulging in self-righteous tantrums.” (Some tantrum projection here, perhaps?)

“And I for one will never be silenced by the party in Ottawa that has sold out our beloved province for the last 10 years, with the help of their NDP collaborators,” she continued, jabbing a finger at the Opposition benches with a sneer worthy of prime minister Diefenbaker staring down Jack Pickersgill in 1958. 

“They’re going to have to roll me off on a stretcher before I will stop fighting for our province and our people!”

Well, props whoever came up with this florid stuff. It’s pretty rich, in both the best and worse senses of that turn of phrase. And those eastern bastards on Team Carney, as premier Klein might have put it, and the premier’s western foes on Team Nenshi, will be rubbing their hands with glee. 

Ms. Smith’s kind of bombast and defensive determination to keep doing the wrong thing is God’s gift to the makers of campaign attack ads, and the Liberals under Mr. Carney appear, for once, to be prepared to use such tactics.

So allow me to close with a possibly unpopular opinion: This is a positive development because Canadians and citizens of the declining number of other democracies actually like negative political advertising and respond to it positively.

The use of negative political ads – I think that they think – indicates an actual commitment to a political party’s cause, a belief that a party’s leaders actually believe their fight is worth fighting. 

Conservative politicians figured this out long ago, and it has manifestly worked for them. Progressive politicians, not so much. 

That seems to be changing, though, and Ms. Smith is a rich vein of excellent material for anyone looking for ways to undercut Mr. Poilievre. 

Transcript of Ms. Smith’s statement in the Legislature

Just to be fair, and avoid accusations I am quoting the premier out of context, here is my transcript of what she had to say, taken from a news clip of today’s session. You can check its accuracy against Alberta Hansard when it appears, better late than never, sometime today. 

“I am now off to the U.S., yet again, to try and speak to Americans, this time, through the second largest podcaster, in the world, whose audience is made up exactly of the people we need to persuade, to convince their president to change course on tariffs against Canada. And what does Team Carney want me to do? They want me to abandon my post, remain in Alberta, and do absolutely nothing to defend our province. They want me to cower in the face of eastern media pundits and politicians who favour political grandstanding to effective diplomacy. I’m fiercely criticized for going into the lion’s den to change the hearts and minds of the very Americans that we need on Canada’s side to avoid a trade war with the most powerful economy on earth. They want this lady, and Alberta, to just sit down and shut up. Well, here is my response to that. I will not be silent. Alberta will not be silent. We will not be pushed around and called traitors for merely having the courage to actually do something about our nation’s and province’s predicament other than merely indulging in self-righteous tantrums. And I for one will never be silenced by the party in Ottawa that has sold out our beloved province for the last 10 years, with the help of their NDP collaborators. I have and I always will put Albertans first, and until this danger to Alberta and our economy is past, they’re going to have to roll me off on a stretcher before I will stop fighting for our province and our people. So, they can call me, and my caucus, whatever name in the dictionary they want, as long as Albertans know that we are fighting for them and their families, we could care less what the members opposite or Liberal politicians in Ottawa have to say about us. Because Albertans expect their premier, and government to always put Albertans first and lead them through this storm with fearless determination. As Winston Churchill once said, fear is a reaction, courage is a decision. …”