Calgary, October 6: Danielle Smith will be Alberta’s next premier, after narrowly winning the United Conservative Party leadership on the sixth and final ballot.
The former head of the Wildrose Party won the UCP leadership contest with 53.8 per cent of the vote before a raucous crowd of party supporters in Calgary on Thursday evening. Former cabinet minister Travis Toews finished as runner-up, with a 46.2 per cent vote share.
Smith’s campaign for the leader’s seat centred on grievances of UCP members that had simmered over the past several years during Jason Kenney’s premiership.
That message of unrest was at the core of Smith’s victory speech to members following the vote, which she began by declaring: “I’m back.”
“No longer will Alberta ask permission from Ottawa to be prosperous and free. We will not have our voices silenced or censored. We will not be told what we must put in our bodies in order that we may work or travel,” Smith said.
