Danielle Smith met the moment

This wasn't even a "glow up"; it was an absolute transformation.

Screenshot from Smith’s speech: Your Alberta YouTube channel

This was a political masterclass; I’m still reeling.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been gifted a horse and she dressed it up in the finest tack to show off to her friends.

If you’ve been reading for a while, you know I’m not a fan of Danielle Smith’s politics, partisanship, or pandering. With that being said, I know plenty of people who are, and she spoke to them with her statement yesterday and her speech today.

Smith’s popularity in Alberta is still high, much to the chagrin of partisans of another flavour.

It was high during her many excursions to the U.S. to play like-minded Canadian to their batshit Republican and it’s not even a space that she really fits into well. She’s generally on the fringes of Canadian conservatism, but that is nothing compared to the Republican Party.

Ironically, merely because she is Canadian, her attempt to sway Republicans was always doomed to fail for the same reason libertarians fail to acknowledge a system that contributed to their success; they don’t want to admit they benefitted from anything other than their own determination.

This is where republicans are now in their support of Donald Trump’s ill-conceived tariffs against the United States’ main trading partners. They don’t want to admit they need anyone else; oh, but if Canada wants to become the 51st state and lose their national identity, single-payor healthcare, and sovereignty, that’ll take them off for good.

It’s also where Danielle Smith, upon being afforded an opportunity to change the channel from the weeks of attacks on herself and her government over the AHS fraud scandal was afforded an opportunity to join the stampede toward Canadian unity — and, against all odds, she saddled up.

The AHS scandal isn’t even a “scandal” — it’s alleged that Albertans have been defrauded by someone who has ties to the United Conservative Party, and their political staff, and in response, Danielle Smith and Adriana LaGrange are accused of actively trying to cover it up.

On March 3, the Deputy Minister of Jobs, Economy and Trade named the third-party who will be investigating those allegations, the Honorable Raymond E. Wyant, former Chief Judge of the Provincial Court of Manitoba.

And get this: it’s “Fraud Prevention Month”. Dale Nally, Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction actually made the following quote:

For 20 years, Alberta has participated in Fraud Prevention Month.

This year, we are taking an additional step by formally recognizing March as Fraud Prevention Month in Alberta through a Ministerial Order.

This reinforces our commitment to consumer protection and ensuring Albertans have the awareness, tools, and resources they need to protect themselves from fraud.

By making this designation official, we are strengthening our efforts to educate and empower Albertans in the fight against fraud.

It’s actual gold.

Unusable, unnewsworthy, not getting any play at all, gold.

Because the story isn’t about that now, it’s about Trump tariffs.

And in this moment, Danielle Smith could have continued with her humming and hawing over Donald Trump’s actions. She could have opened herself up to the criticism I and others have lobbed at her, deservedly, in my opinion.

But she was high up on that horse.

It wasn’t even a “slight” shift in her approach — she was out of the gate first, tight on her turns, and was clearly ahead of the challengers.

It was stunning; and she stunned me.

We’re talking about a person who rejected a Team Canada approach as recently as December. A person who could hardly manage to say she was “disappointed” in Donald’s initial decision to put tariffs on Canadian exports in January.

A person who rode Alberta malcontent, not just to win the United Conservative Party leadership in 2022, but through the 2023 election, and almost every other day since.

For that person to suddenly talk about a future where Alberta is not just a partner in, but a legitimate part of Canadian unity was mind-blowing to me.

Opposition leaders failed to read the room

“The room” was an 80-20 split on Canada vs Trump (and that could even be 85-15 under current circumstances).

Luckily for me, there’s a conservative opposition federally, and an NDP opposition provincially, and they both made the same mistake — they made their addresses about partisanship.

Each of them made fine points about a response to the Trump tariffs but wading through the attacks on leadership turned me off — and I forced myself to sit through them; I don’t see someone who didn’t have to write about them later bothering if they felt the same.

Maybe they’re both right and the fault lies with the Prime Minister and the provincial Premier, but I don’t think there was an appetite to hear it, or at least be particularly motivated by it.

We all have a common enemy in this moment: Donald Trump.

I think a strong majority of Canadians, and Albertans, were more moved by what the Prime Minister said, and what the Alberta Premier said, even though that might not make me all that popular today.

I’m not suggesting that partisanship be abandoned forever more (though you know I’d love it) but when there is a simple, straightforward story that you can be part of, why would you try to change it?

The headlines were all about Trump tariffs, Canadians were looking for information on Trump tariffs — no one was looking for Pierre Poilievre or Naheed Nenshi.

And if they were talking about how Justin Trudeau or Danielle Smith failed, then they missed their opportunity to be part of it.

Everyone probably heard what they wanted to hear

Between Danielle Smith and Naheed Nenshi, I think they both shored up the support they needed to with their responses to Trump’s terrible tariffs.

People who already like the ABNDP wanted to hear Naheed Nenshi put the blame on Danielle Smith.

Conservatives who are committed to Pierre Poilievre wanted him to blame Justin Trudeau.

Regular people who don’t hate Danielle Smith or Justin Trudeau likely saw them each rise to the moment against a threat we are all facing.

I say the opposition took the bait and their contribution will be forgotten.

And the impasse continues.

The real tragedy is that the funniest thing I’ve seen today is only worth a brief mention in an unrelated post because that’s not the story right now.

Everyone is talking about something else.

And we all want to be part of the story.

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