Speaking to reporters for the first time after Alberta’s referendum, Premier Danielle Smith showed some cracks in her rule that she’s been attempting to mend for months, one critic says. During the media availability in Calgary, Smith was asked directly about members of her own party who may harbour feelings of separation, despite the outcome of Monday’s vote. “I think it’s time for everyone to recalibrate, that the whole process of our party membership supporting things like citizen-initiated referenda, when it gets put to the people in a democratic vote, you respect the results,” she said. “I know there are a lot of hurt feelings today. I know there are a lot of people who might have voted for Option 2 expecting a different result, but this gives them a little bit of time to recalibrate.” Smith said she also expected her fellow United Conservative Party (UCP) members to abide by the result. “I’m asking them, that if they want to be a position of representing our party in an official role, there has to be a commitment that they also accept the result of the mandate that Albertans gave us.” The premier stopped short of saying if she would take any action against any UCP members who would not accept the result. Smith ‘struggling’ Smith’s comments on the issue of separatists within her own party has exposed a vulnerability in the UCP and her role as leader, experts say. “I think she just put on public display how much harder it was to be premier of Alberta after this referendum that it was before she initiated this referendum,” political advisor Scott Reid told CTV News Channel on Wednesday. “You can really see her struggling there. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Danielle Smith so uneven in a press conference — speaking in a fast, clipped manner. “She’s walking a political tightrope with rubber boots on.” Reid said Smith spoke of a mandate from Albertans to demand change in Confederation while, on the other hand, she’s “trying to draw a hard line, but not the hardest line, with separatists.” “She’s being pressed on all sides,” he said. “She’s being pressed for details on what her new policies in respect to immigration will be. “But she’s also being pressed with respect to if she will boot separatists straight out of her party.” No matter what her members currently believe, Smith insisted the UCP was and is a federalist party. “It was affirmed by the membership of the Wild Rose as well as the full membership of the PCs by over 90 per cent,” she said. “It said we remain committed to loyalty to Canada but would work to Constitutional sovereignty within that framework. “The question that took place on Monday was whether that should change and the answer was ‘no’.” Smith said her televised address on Tuesday night and a social media post on Wednesday morning should have all the information her party members should know about the path forward. “I think we’ll just allow people to digest and think about what that means and I’ll have more to say as people go through that process,” she said.
