Alberta Premier Smith Faces Crucial Leadership Vote at Party Convention

Around 6,000 members have registered to attend this year’s two-day event in Red Deer, which started on Nov. 1. Party organizers say the number of attendees is a record not only for the UCP, but for any party in the country holding a convention of this kind.
“Nobody has held a paid political convention this big,” says Dave Prisco, a spokesperson for the party.
The bigger turnout this year could be related to the leadership vote, as some groups who want to see Smith gone have mobilized supporters to get a larger representation, while many have also registered to counter those votes.
“I think that there’s a lot of excitement here in support of Premier Smith,” Mike Ellis, deputy premier and minister of public safety and emergency services, told The Epoch Times.
“Premier Smith is in the category of a leader who listens to the membership and does what is right for the people of Alberta. And the other thing too is this is a premier and a leader that’s going to stand up for Albertans.”
Among those posing opposition to her leadership are former Smith ally and Take Back Alberta founder David Parker, and 1905 Committee organizer Nadine Wellwood.
“We have created a movement that forces accountability.”
The rules specify that getting less than 50 percent of the vote would automatically trigger a leadership election. However, former leader and Premier Jason Kenney resigned in 2022 after getting 51.4 percent of the vote, saying it’s “not adequate support to continue on as leader.”
Shortly after becoming leader and premier in October 2022, she brought in her promised Sovereignty Act which she said would be used to stand up to any jurisdictional infringement attempts by the federal government, and pushed back on Ottawa’s gun control legislation and other initiatives such as a net-zero electricity grid.
She led her party to a majority election win in 2023 against the NDP, with the voting mostly divided along urban-rural lines.
“I support her because no one’s perfect, but she is doing the best she can. I think she’s doing a good job,” Brenda Ans, director of the Red Deer UCP Constituency Association, said in an interview.
Ans says she supports Smith because of the work she’s done to oppose COVID-19 mandates, her treatment-focused approach to drug addiction and homelessness and opposition to government-supplied drugs for injection sites, and for her support of parental rights.
“If we don’t have her, then who do they want? There’s nobody else.”
Party members also reviewed and voted on governance resolutions.
The leadership vote and review of policy resolutions will take place on Nov. 2.
Policy resolutions serve as a representation of the wish of the party grassroots, and are not binding for cabinet to adopt.