Barrhead residents, as well as other residents of the Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock riding, had the chance to meet and mingle with Wildrose Alliance leader Danielle Smith at the Seniors Drop In Centre Feb. 21.
The “Dinner with Danielle Smith” evening drew close to 200 people, and was a party fundraiser and provided an opportunity for people to meet with Smith and candidate Link Byfield. It also served as a means to let the party know what issues were important to its voters.
Highlighting the evening was a speech by Smith, who outlined what the Wildrose Alliance stands for and what she and her party would do to change the culture at the Legislature should they form the next Alberta government.
Counter claims she’s heard that label the Wildrose as “extreme” or far right, Smith instead characterized the party along more positive lines.
“The Wildrose is not extreme,” she said. “The Wildrose is the party of Albertans who care.”
In the early going of her speech, Smith devoted a lot of time to the concept of ‘freedom,’ and how it captures the essence of Alberta. Where once Alberta was the place of freedom – borne of its frontier roots – it’s now become a place where the people apparently don’t know what’s best for them.
“We’ve gone from the place of mavericks to a group of people who all say they know better,” she said, referring to the ruling Progressive Conservatives. In all aspects of governance – balancing the books, education, healthcare, etc. – the Tories say they know better, but they’re wrong, Smith declared.
When the Wildrose speaks of change, it’s not a change to something different. Rather, it’s a change back to a province with freedoms that the Tories seem to be against, she said.
Smith also took some time to harangue the sitting government on its colossal mismanagement of the Heritage Fund. She said it pretty much boggles her mind that in the 36 years since it was created in 1976, it’s amassed $15 billion. While that is a fairly substantial amount, she contrasted it to an equivalent program in Norway that has amassed $500 billion since 1991.
As her speech made its way into its second half, Smith began to outline the Wildrose’s platform in more explicit terms.
On the topic of health care, she said a Wildrose government would work to reduce wait times by giving control of hospitals back to the local level and reduce unnecessary middlemen.
For municipalities, she said she would implement a permanent and stable tax sharing plan, and turn municipalities from the lowest level of government into the first level of government.
The party would also set fixed election dates and introduce free votes into the Legislature on most topics except for confidence motions.
During a question and answer session that followed her speech, a member of the audience asked Smith to elaborate on a comment she made about rural schools and how they are the lifeblood of their communities.
She explained that the schools are the heart of their communities, but that other amenities need to be in place to help entice the kids to return to their communities once they have completed their secondary and post-secondary education.
She also said former premier Peter Lougheed had a vision of decentralized education that would allow rural schools their autonomy, but the Tories had since turned away from that vision.
When asked about a comment she had made in the media about being satisfied with coming in second in an election, Smith was quick to point out how context matters. In truth, she said her statement had been to the effect that success comes in many different forms — winning a majority in the next election, winning a minority, or forming a strong opposition. Either way, the result would be good for the province, she said.
