Danielle Smith's past keeps coming back to hurt her. Luke LeBrun writes:
A newly resurfaced video shows Alberta UCP leader Danielle Smith endorsed the Ottawa convoy occupation and Coutts border blockade as a means to force an end to public health measures across Canada.
Last week, Smith faced heavy criticism after posing for photos with James Bauder, a prominent convoy organizer who is now facing extensive criminal charges. Smith denies knowing who Bauder is, though Bauder himself doesn’t buy her story.
But the UCP leader’s recent attempt to distance herself from the convoy stand in clear contrast with her own past statements.
Several months before her whirlwind rise to Premier of Alberta, Smith endorsed the convoy occupation of Ottawa and illegal blockade at the Canada-US border in Coutts, Alberta during an appearance on a right-wing website.
Jason Kenney tried to calm the storm:
Two weeks earlier, former Premier Jason Kenney pleaded with convoy supporters to dial down the temperature and deescalate a potentially dangerous situation:
“I call for calm amongst anybody who feels sympathetic for those engaged in this blockade. Please stay away from the area. Please do not further intensify an already difficult situation.”
Not so Ms. Smith:
A week after Kenney’s “call for calm,” Smith went beyond expressing sympathy with the grievances of those in Ottawa and Coutts and endorsed the actions by stating that she wanted to see the convoy “win.”
Smith was asked about her views on Coutts in a February 2022 livestream broadcast by the Western Standard.
“This whole phrase of ‘peace, order and good government’, I think it’s become a shorthand to the federal government can do whatever the heck it wants and we just have to be peaceful and orderly about it,” Smith says when asked about Coutts.
That’s not, in my view, what it should mean.”
We know who Smith is. Let's hope Albertans do, too.
Just a brief note. I'll be writing less frequently. The news these days is unremittingly bad. And I'm getting repetitive. My readers need a break. And so do I.
Image: Press Progress
