{"id":29984,"date":"2014-10-29T17:49:35","date_gmt":"2014-10-29T09:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=29984"},"modified":"2014-10-29T17:49:35","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T09:49:35","slug":"wildroses-smith-wants-leadership-review-in-light-of-alberta-byelection-defeats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/10\/29\/wildroses-smith-wants-leadership-review-in-light-of-alberta-byelection-defeats\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildrose\u2019s Smith wants leadership review in light of Alberta byelection defeats"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Danielle<\/a>
Danielle Smith, leader of Alberta’s Wildrose party. WIKIMEDIA COMMONS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CALGARY\u2014Alberta Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith is putting her leadership on the line in the light of four byelection losses.<\/p>\n

Smith said Tuesday she has asked to have a leadership review put on the agenda when the party holds its annual general meeting in Red Deer in mid-November.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to take responsibility in the result,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have to face another leadership review until after the next election, but I think it\u2019s important for me to know that going forward as leader of this party that I\u2019ve got my members behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Opposition Wildrose was beaten in three byelections in Calgary and one in Edmonton this past Monday night. All the seats were won by the governing Progressive Conservatives. The Wildrose finished third in two of the races.<\/p>\n

The party under Smith was seen by many as a contender to form government in the 2012 general election, but came up well short against the Tories.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis just seems to be the right way to go about it,\u201d she said of the review.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had two opportunities now to contest elections, both of them having not gone the way we planned. It seems to me this is a good opportunity for my members to make that choice once again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith received 90 per cent support at her last leadership review in 2013. On Tuesday, she said she would require more than the 77 per cent the PCs gave to former premier Alison Redford before she resigned earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cA 77 per cent seems to be the kiss of death, so I would say you probably need more than 77 per cent to stay on as party leader,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

Her decision to seek a review is a good pre-emptive strike, said a Calgary political scientist.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s getting ahead of the curve,\u201d said David Taras from Mount Royal University.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would be really surprised if she lost a leadership review and she has good political instincts. Part of her good political instincts is probably to call a leadership review. I\u2019m sure she will get over the high-jump bar quite easily, unless there\u2019s something going on in the party that most people aren\u2019t seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taras said the Wildrose needs to make the transition from being a \u201cfierce opposition\u201d party to a \u201cgovernment in waiting\u201d in the eyes of voters.<\/p>\n

PC Premier Jim Prentice has lived up to his billing in helping to restart that party, Taras said, and Wildrose has been underestimating its opponent.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not dealing with a stumblebum. She\u2019s dealing with people who are tacticians, major political chess players, who are aware of what the next move is and the next move after that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a much higher-level game than was the case previously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this last Tuesday, Prentice was in Cochrane to announce new funding to assist farmers, cattle feeders and business people in rural Alberta.<\/p>\n

Rural areas, particularly in southern Alberta, represent the Wildrose party\u2019s bedrock support<\/p>\n

Prentice dismissed a suggestion that he was taking the political fight to the Wildrose back yard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next election is a long way away (in 2016),\u201d said Prentice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat this is about is the rural economic action plan that matters across this province.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re now moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith said her party needs to re-examine its messaging to earn the support of urban voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very clear from what I\u2019ve heard from my members already that they feel we don\u2019t have the right balance in talking about what the other guys are doing and what we would do right,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure that our members have the opportunity to give that full feedback to me and the party leadership about what it is we need to do on a go forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CALGARY\u2014Alberta Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith is putting her leadership on the line in the light of four byelection losses. Smith …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":29985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1145],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-headline","mauthors-bill-graveland","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}