7 Times Alberta Premier Danielle Smith Embraced Extreme, Inflammatory or Dangerous Rhetoric

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is calling on her critics to dial down criticisms of conservatives, despite her well-documented history of embracing inflammatory and extreme rhetoric.

Smith was responding to the attempted assassination of US presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania over the weekend.

US authorities currently have no information about the motives of the gunman, though public records indicate the gunman was a registered Republican and old classmates recall him as someone with “conservative” or “right-leaning” beliefs.

Despite this, Smith claimed it underlines how the lives of conservatives in Canada are at “risk” by the “dangerous” rhetoric of “progressive politicians.”

“The way in which conservative politicians have been characterized is outrageous,” Smith told reporters. “I certainly hope some of the progressive politicians here are careful of their language because they’ve been talking about conservative politicians the same way and they need to dial it down.”

“Have you not looked at the headlines about how Pierre Poilievre is described as dangerous? How the leader of the opposition in Alberta has described me as dangerous? When you start using that kind of rhetoric, that ends up creating an elevated risk for all of us.”

Yet Smith has herself embraced inflammatory  political rhetoric that appeal to extreme right-wing elements and pose risks to vulnerable communities.

Here are a few examples:

1. Endorsing the Coutts border blockade

Months before becoming Premier of Alberta, Smith supported the convoy occupation of Ottawa and the blockade of the Canada-US border in Coutts, Alberta.

The blockade, which called for an end to all Covid restrictions, led to the arrest of four heavily-armed individuals on charges they were conspiring to murder police.

Two weeks after then-Premier Jason Kenney asked for for blockaders to dial it down, Smith expressed her support for the Coutts blockade during a Western Standard livestream.

“We want to see it win,” Smith said. “We want to see it win in Coutts so that Jason Kenney, Scott Moe together become the first premiers to turn it around at the provincial level.”

“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.”

“That’s not, in my view, what it should mean.”

2. Comparing vaccinated Albertans to Nazis

During the 2021 provincial election, Smith apologized for comments she made comparing vaccinated Albertans to Nazis followers on a wealth management podcast.

Smith drew parallels between a Netflix series about Adolf Hitler and the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting public health measures and vaccines have made life in Canada comparable to life under Nazi rule.

“We have 75% of the public who say not only ‘hit me but hit me harder and keep me away from those dirty unvaxxed,” Smith said.

During the same podcast, Smith said she was boycotting Remembrance Day poppies in protest of public health measures, a statement that later drew a rebuke from the Royal Canadian Legion.

Danielle Smith apologizes for 2021 video showing her comparing vaccinated to Nazi followers #ableg #abpoli #abvotehttps://t.co/f1GC9Zw95u

— Calgary Herald (@calgaryherald) May 8, 2023

3. Suggesting Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer could be sent to jail

In a 2021 Western Standard podcast, Smith floated the idea that Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw could face up to two years in jail for imposing public health orders.

Smith was referencing an argument put forward by the far-right Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms and anti-lockdown religious extremists. Two weeks after making her comments, an angry mob of anti-lockdown activists protesting Hinshaw chanted “lock her up” at the Alberta legislature.

In another Facebook livestream with social conservative activist Vincent Byfield, Smith suggested individual police officers could also face criminal charges for enforcing public health orders.

In another livestream, Smith echoed the same pseudolegal argument to suggest Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer could face “two years in jail”:

“Why isn’t someone taking a Criminal Code violation against Dr. Deena Hinshaw for authorizing this?”https://t.co/pCG4UwKGeO #ableg pic.twitter.com/9FiV9b0gjO

— PressProgress (@pressprogress) May 15, 2023

4. Telling Tucker Carlson to place Canada’s environment minister in his “crosshairs”

Smith was criticized as “reckless” and “irresponsible” after telling American right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson to put federal Environment Minister Stephen Guilbeault in his “crosshairs.”

The two met in January this year, when Carlson, who commands a large following of right wing conspiracy theorists, spoke to at the Telus Convention Centre in Calgary.

Four of Justin Trudeau’s cabinet ministers appeared before reporters Thursday to condemn Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s decision to meet with former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson. https://t.co/C9Db0vcqsX.

— CBC News (@CBCNews) January 25, 2024

5. Posing for photos with convoy leaders that wanted to oust Canada’s elected government

In April 2023, Danielle Smith posed with Freedom Convoy leader James Bauder during a fundraiser for UCP MLA Eric Bochard.

Bauder is an original organizer of the Freedom Convoy and the author of the convoy’s controversial “Memorandum of Understanding” that called for replacing Canada’s democratically elected government.

Although Smith claimed she didn’t know who Bauder was, the Premier did not explicitly disavow Bauder or the Freedom Convoy.

Bauder, for his part, didn’t buy Smith’s explanation: “How can a politician not know who James Bauder is in this country?” Bauder told PressProgress. “She was playing politics.”

Danielle Smith photo with protesters charged in ‘Freedom Convoy’ raises eyebrows https://t.co/8kL2nAiOu4 pic.twitter.com/eHgszkaORX

— Global National (@GlobalNational) April 28, 2023

6. Standing with Take Back Alberta

Smith was silent when David Parker, a close political ally and friend whose wedding she attended, declared war on Alberta’s election agency.

When Elections Alberta began investigating the finances of Parker’s Take Back Alberta, Parker decided to pick a fight to the province’s election watchdog.

“Corruption at Elections Alberta must end,” Parker said, in reference to his belief that the organization is controlled by his political enemies. “I have zero obligation to report to them under law.”

Elections Alberta is probing TBA to disclose who is funding the group that credits itself for Smith’s rise to power, as is required under Alberta law. “I wouldn’t want to be naming those donors if I was Elections Alberta,” Parker told PressProgress. “It’s a dangerous game messing with the powerful.”

Parker staged a demonstration outside Elections Alberta’s headquarters with protesters displaying conspiratorial signs.

David Parker (Facebook)

7. Flirting with far-right conspiracies

During her time in the Premier’s Office, Smith has repeatedly pandered to segments of her base of supporters steeped in far-right conspiracies.

In 2022, Smith pulled the Alberta Health Services out of a health consulting agreement connecting AHS with a network of health researchers at Harvard University and the Mayo Clinic due to the involvement of the World Economic Forum – an organization at the centre of far-right conspiracies.

Smith claimed she was cutting ties because the WEF was attempting to control governments.

In another move aimed at the social conservative wing of Alberta’s UCP, Smith responded to groups pushing conspiracies about “gender ideology” by accusing the “extreme left” of “undermining the role of parents” with regards to 2SLGBTQ+ issues.

Speaking at her party AGM in November of last year, during which TBA had a massive presence, Smith said, “regardless of how often the extreme left undermines the role of parents, I want you to know that parental rights and choice in your child’s education is and will continue to be a fundamental core principle of this party and this government.”

Upon coming to office, Smith also ordered a $250,000 review of the province’s pandemic response chaired by former Reform Party leader Preston Manning.

Manning released a work of speculative fiction where the leaders of the Freedom Convoy haul doctors, academics and the media before kangaroo courts to prove they were part of a vast conspiracy that has parallels to COVID conspiracy revenge fantasies circulating around the far-right about a so-called “Nuremberg 2.0.”

Here are the strangest quotes from a report written by the man tapped to lead Danielle Smith’s pandemic response review.

Preston Manning fantasized about doctors, academics and the media being grilled by outcast lawyers and “cancelled” doctors.https://t.co/PkYT5XoweQ #ableg

— PressProgress (@pressprogress) January 26, 2023