Danielle Smith spreading hope

Maybe I am just overly jaded, but when I hear Prime Minister Stephen Harper or Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff talk, I get this overwhelming feeling that neither enjoys his job. When Canada’s top two politicians speak, they seem to put most people to sleep (especially when they switch to their monotonous and unnatural French).

Don’t get me wrong: we don’t need political leaders who sound like Dr. Phil or some motivational speaker, and we certainly don’t want some infomercial guy flogging tomorrow’s policies for this country who tells us we have two minutes left to avail ourselves of his limited offer. What matters is that we get the right policies in place, no matter how they are delivered during official announcements. But shouldn’t Canadians get a sense, at least, that the person leading them actually enjoys his job?

Harper clearly does not mind being prime minister, and he seems determined to hang on to his job for as long as he can. But there is nothing in his voice or body language that would indicate he truly enjoys his job. The same is true of Ignatieff, who has a dark cloud hanging over his head that follows him wherever he goes.

It is for this reason, and the stark contrast to the aforementioned examples of gloom and joylessness, that I thoroughly enjoyed my interview with Wildrose Alliance leadership candidate Danielle Smith. When she speaks about the multi-billion-dollar deficit that the Alberta Tories have created – a sad fact that makes most of us Albertans simply cry into our security blankets – she comes across as serene and poised to tackle the problems with all the energy (and she’s packing mega-giga-watts of the stuff) she can muster. One cannot help but think that she would really relish the chance to throw herself into the thick of the financial mess, whistling a happy tune as she goes about eliminating Ed Stelmach’s deficit and fixing his mistakes.

Smith is as frustrated with and incensed by the incompetent mismanagement of the Stelmach government with respect to the provincial budget, health care and the oil and gas sector. But there are no overtones of negativity when she speaks about these problems. Instead, there is an aura of positive thinking around her, the kind of vibe that tells you that she has given a lot of thought to Alberta’s current problems and that she is convinced that her solutions will, indeed, result in the best Alberta we have ever seen.

Her enthusiasm is infectious. She, or more accurately, the prospect of seeing her at the helm of the Wildrose Alliance party, may well have been the main driving force behind the fledgling party’s magnetism: between June and early October of this year, the Wildrose Alliance added close to 12,000 new members.

The only time that she sounded a tad sombre during our interview was when I asked her about the relationship between Alberta and Ottawa and what she would do should she become premier in the future. When she said that Albertans send $16 billion more to Ottawa each year than they receive back and that the equalization payment system is a corrupt system, it was clear that she, a born and life-long Albertan, would not put up with anti-Alberta nonsense originating in Ottawa or Toronto – or anywhere for that matter. I could almost hear the entire province stand up and shout “Hear, hear!” when Smith talked about how Albertans, despite the money they have sent to Ottawa and the rest of Canada, where it has been used to fund government programs Albertans don’t get to enjoy at home (like $7-a-day daycare), never hear even a simple thank-you from Canadians, but plenty of vilification instead.

The other remaining leadership candidate, Mark Dyrholm, refused to be interviewed, because, according to him, I have “praised” Smith too much and have been too supportive of her in the past. It is probably just as well. Unlike Smith, Dyrholm has spread very little enthusiasm or optimism of the infectious kind. Instead, he appears to have wasted most of his opportunities for connecting with the public (e.g., in op-ed space made available to him by newspapers) complaining about the unfair treatment he supposedly keeps receiving from columnists, newspapers, bloggers, etc. who all seem to have conspired against him to promote and sing the praises of Danielle Smith. (The Calgary Herald, apparently, has been a particularly nasty thorn in his side, as he kept arguing that the newspaper had come out in full support of Smith, who used to write columns for the paper, and therefore failed to give him a fair and fighting chance.)

You can go up against some nasty challenges without losing your positive outlook, and Smith is living proof of that. While Dyrholm has just about 900 Twitter followers, Smith has close to 1,500. When people listen to Smith, they learn about the serious nature of Alberta’s problems – caused by Stelmach and his Tories – but they also come away filled with hope for the future. No doubt, her approach should serve as a role model for Messrs. Dyrholm, Harper and Ignatieff, who could do worse than taking pointers from Smith on political leadership.

Comments

[Kez]

thanks for posting this! I have been reading a lot of negativity about Smith and it was refreshing to find something like this. It's nice to see someone talking about how much money Alberta sends to Ottawa compared to how much we get back because it's just not talked about often enough.

[Leigh Patrick Sullivan]

Well stated, Werner. Most telling is that Dyrholm (Chandler?) runs away from media he considers 'unfriendly'. Most certainly not an example of leadership.