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    • Don Martin: Why Danielle Smith is my political newsmaker of the year

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    Her mouth runs habitually rogue, her policies are often renegade and her connection to Ottawa is all resistance all the time.

    For those reasons and a few more, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is my newsmaker politician of the year.

    This is not to say Smith’s basking in a glowing political honeymoon following her United Conservative Party in May, which had appeared set for an easy win by former NDP premier Rachel Notley a year earlier.

    Her action plan since has wonky elements and not all of it is swooning the electorate, which fits with the political theory that the first half of a four-year mandate is for trial and error while the last half is for damage control.

    Her advocacy for Alberta to leave the , taking half of its assets with it, freaked out Ottawa and her fellow premiers and could be doomed by at home.

    She has ripped up the province’s organization chart and fired the system’s top bureaucrats, a plan to stabilize acute care which could decide her future re-electibility.

    UCP Leader Danielle Smith makes her victory speech in Calgary on Monday May 29, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

    And then there’s Smith’s specialty – declaring multiple-front war on Ottawa with particular wrath reserved for federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, whom she accuses of “.â€

    To fight federal clean electricity regulations, which aim to make the sector net-zero by 2035, she has unleashed the .

    It would order provincial and municipal authorities not to follow the federal regulations. But those regulations haven’t been finalized yet and probably won’t be forthcoming if the Trudeau government loses the 2025 federal election.

    In almost every sense, notwithstanding that the Act itself is likely unconstitutional, the move is mostly symbolic.

    But it’s the comeback that makes her seven months as elected premier such a spectacle.

    After spending much of the pre-election period apologizing for her controversial history of hot-headed words and actions, Smith has set out to bridge the divide between severely normal Albertans and the rebel alliance of anti-COVID mandate types who fly under the Take Back Alberta banner.

    It’s no easy task. She owes her UCP leadership to the rebels and her mandate to the masses.

    To walk that tightrope, Smith has mostly gagged her earlier foot-in-mouth tendencies, given up on the silly stuff like creating a and protecting the under human rights legislation. And she made plenty of hay from a Supreme Court ruling that the feds overstepped their jurisdiction in environmental legislation.

    Her strange mix of pragmatism and shock politics fits with the long, strange trip that’s marked her career. It started with her days as a controversial school trustee without kids to outspoken Calgary Herald columnist to no-holds-barred radio talk show host and into the political mainstream as pro-choice leader of the PC breakaway Wildrose Party.

    Then came her disastrous defection to join the Progressive Conservatives in 2014, a botched effort to reunite the right which ended with the PCs rejecting her as a candidate for the next election.

    At that point, Danielle Smith was finished, a toxic personality without a political future.

    But fate had different ideas as Jason Kenney’s UCP leadership imploded in 2022 and Take Back Alberta members crowned Smith as his (hard) right replacement.

    Now with four years to make or break her reputation in a province with a sizzling-hot economy, Smith’s showing intense zeal for remaking Alberta into her own image, be that good or bad, and making sure she’s imposible to ignore.

    After all, it took considerable gall for her to attend Dubai’s global climate change conference this month to defend oil and gas production, a move akin to hauling a truckload of chainsaws into a national park’s old-growth forest.

    Through it all, this rebel-minded premier has achieved middle-of-the-pack popularity in a recent on voter approval of Canada’s leaders.

    If getting Ottawa’s attention was her mission, consider it accomplished. And fighting the feds is always a winning strategy in Alberta.

    Danielle Smith’s no repeat of Ralph Klein’s famous 1993 Miracle on the Prairie victory, but her resurrection 30 years later is impressive enough to make her the year’s most interesting political personality.

    That’s the bottom line.

    IN DEPTH

    Opinion

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    opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster

    A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?

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    opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike

    When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.

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    • A six-year-old girl who was reported missing in northern B.C. last week has been found safe, police said Sunday evening.

    • There are 'no restrictions' on the right to receive health services in Quebec for English speakers, according to a new clarification document issued by the Quebec Health Ministry on Monday.

    • Toronto police have released video footage of a suspect who allegedly stole a taxi in the city’s downtown core over the weekend.

    • More than a year after the Government of Saskatchewan introduced the pronoun policy, the constitutionality of it continues to be questioned.

    • Police responded to the area of Beverly Street and Dundas Street North around 6 a.m. Monday for a report of a missing two-year-old boy.

    • The Royal Canadian Mint has introduced its latest Gold Maple Leaf bullion coin – made entirely from gold sourced from a single mine in northern Ontario

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    • There are 'no restrictions' on the right to receive health services in Quebec for English speakers, according to a new clarification document issued by the Quebec Health Ministry on Monday.

    • A new charter challenge set to get underway on Monday will test the constitutionality of a controversial Ontario law that allows hospitals to place discharged patients into long-term care homes not of their choosing or face a $400-per-day charge if they refuse.

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    Before influencers on social media, Canada’s Jeanne Beker was bringing the world of high fashion down to earth and as Calgary’s Glenbow Museum gets a major make-over, it will include a new exhibition showcasing the pop culture icon.

    A sea lion swam free after a rescue team disentangled it near Vancouver Island earlier this week.

    A Nova Scotian YouTuber has launched a mini-truck bookmobile.

    Cole Haas is more than just an avid fan of the F.W. Johnson Wildcats football team. He's a fixture on the sidelines, a source of encouragement, and a beloved member of the team.

    Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.

    An anonymous business owner paid off the mortgage for a New Brunswick not-for-profit.

    They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

    A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

    Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

    • The leader of the BC NDP announced several election promises around health-care reform at a literal kitchen table discussion with Burnaby residents, sending voters a clear message about how he wants them to see him.

    • More than 800 BC Hydro customers were without electricity Monday morning after a car struck a utility pole in Ladner, B.C., and rolled over into a farm field.

    • Crime and street disorder have become a key political issue in British Columbia amid a series of violent stranger attacks and other public safety incidents. Here are some of events that have made the issue prominent with the public.

    • A new charter challenge set to get underway on Monday will test the constitutionality of a controversial Ontario law that allows hospitals to place discharged patients into long-term care homes not of their choosing or face a $400-per-day charge if they refuse.

    • Toronto police have released video footage of a suspect who allegedly stole a taxi in the city’s downtown core over the weekend.

    • Some wet weather is in the forecast this week for Toronto after an extended bout of dry conditions in the city.

    • Before influencers on social media, Canada’s Jeanne Beker was bringing the world of high fashion down to earth and as Calgary’s Glenbow Museum gets a major make-over, it will include a new exhibition showcasing the pop culture icon.

    • Premier Danielle Smith on Monday is expected to make an address at the Future of Energy Summit in Banff, a meeting of energy industry leaders from around the world.

    • After winning two gold medals at the Paralympic Games in Paris, a Canadian swimmer is on top of the podium again.

    • Ottawa Police are investigating a Sunday late night shooting which sent one person to hospital.

    • Health officials across Ontario are warning of a significant spike in cases of pertussis, also known as whooping cough.

    • Ottawa paramedics say one man is in critical condition after a stabbing in the village of Metcalfe.

    • There are 'no restrictions' on the right to receive health services in Quebec for English speakers, according to a new clarification document issued by the Quebec Health Ministry on Monday.

    • The family of a Quebec man killed by police in 2017 is calling on the province's justice minister to order an independent investigation after the Crown declined to charge the officers involved.

    • Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt will lay off 1,600 employees in Sweden, a fifth of its workforce, as it seeks to 'concentrate all energy and investment on (its) core business' amid financial difficulties.

    • Charges are pending against a driver who was headed the wrong way before a crash on Anthony Henday Drive early Monday morning, police say.

    • Police are investigating a shooting in central Edmonton on Sunday.

    • WEATHER

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      Summer's over, but we're not done with heat just yet.

    • Two people from Charlottetown are dead and a third person is injured after a minivan collided with a truck in Melrose, N.B., Sunday afternoon.

    • A woman is dead and a man is injured after they were hit by a truck in Glace Bay, N.S., Saturday night.

    • The autumnal equinox occurred at 9:43 a.m. Sunday for the Maritimes, which was appropriate as a more typical “fall feel†returned to the air in contrast to the late summer heat of much of last week.

    • A six-year-old boy from northeastern Manitoba who had been missing since last Wednesday has been found dead.

    • A 26-year-old man wanted by police for two months in connection with the homicide of a woman found in a downtown Winnipeg apartment building has been arrested.

    • A commercial area just outside of Winnipeg near McGillivray Boulevard will be under a boil water advisory starting late Tuesday.

    • Moose Jaw police say an investigation is underway after a body was found in a burned-out vehicle Sunday night.

    • More than a year after the Government of Saskatchewan introduced the pronoun policy, the constitutionality of it continues to be questioned.

    • A total of five rural municipalities (RM) will receive an extended hunting season for the first 10 days of November as part of a pilot project aimed at helping producers who are dealing with abnormally high wildlife damage to their crops.

    • Police responded to the area of Beverly Street and Dundas Street North around 6 a.m. Monday for a report of a missing two-year-old boy.

    • Emergency services are in the area of Hessen Strasse and Greenwood Hill Road for the investigation.

    • Wage increases, new paid holidays and a big signing bonus are part of the new contract for CAMI employees in Ingersoll, Ont.

    • Fire crews are battling a blaze at the Candle Lake Golf Course clubhouse on Monday morning.

    • More than a year after the Government of Saskatchewan introduced the pronoun policy, the constitutionality of it continues to be questioned.

    • A 14-year-old girl from Flying Dust First Nation was killed after a high-speed ATV struck a ditch near Meadow Lake.

    • The sexual assault trial for Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard, the former frontman for the band Hedley, is expected to begin in northern Ontario this week, following a jury selection process.

    • Sudbury police are investigating after two men required medical attention for stab wounds following an altercation with a group in the downtown area.

    • A family dispute related to a property matter turned ugly over the weekend when a 71-year-old hit their head on the pavement after being pushed.

    • There's been no shortage of reaction to last week's announcement by Budweiser Gardens that it's going completely cashless as of Sept. 27. But one tech expert says whether we like it or not, this is a sign of the times.

    • Police have laid charges against a Woodstock man after he allegedly head-butted an officer during an arrest.

    • Two people have been arrested following a suspicious death investigation in London. As previously reported, it was around 6 p.m. on Friday when first responders were called to Kathleen avenue for a "check welfare investigation."

    • A Brampton man faces charges after police say a dispute over an unpaid bill at Blue Mountain Resort turned into a confrontation.

    • Police in Barrie are investigating an alleged armed robbery at a convenience store over the weekend that resulted in significant damage.

    • Illegal dumping has become an issue in the small township south of Shelburne.

    • Windsor police arrested two suspects after seizing numerous illegal firearms and recovered three stolen motorcycles.

    • Windsor city councillors have voted to send a second letter to the federal government — including input from city police and fire officials, the University of Windsor, the local health unit and Canada Border Services Agency — raising serious concerns about the transportation of hazardous materials across the Ambassador Bridge.

    • University of Windsor president Robert Gordon is retiring at the end of the academic year.

    • The leader of the BC NDP announced several election promises around health-care reform at a literal kitchen table discussion with Burnaby residents, sending voters a clear message about how he wants them to see him.

    • Work crews have been busy in the British Columbia legislature over the summer, prying apart desks in the historic chamber and piling them up in hallways as they tried to work out how to fit in six more seats.

    • The two top contenders in British Columbia's provincial election dove deep into the various issues plaguing the Metro Vancouver area on Sunday, in some cases hearing directly from those most affected.

    • A pair of runaway pigs are in the custody of an animal sanctuary in the Okanagan after evading police and volunteers for hours earlier this week.

    • The Red Bridge, a historic landmark in Kamloops, B.C., was completely destroyed by fire early Thursday morning.

    • Animal protection officers in British Columbia have rescued three pit bulls – including one that gave birth to 10 puppies – from a rat-infested home in Kelowna.

    • A Medicine Hat man faces charges after police say they found him in possession of drugs and a .22-calibre pen gun.

    • Despite the heavy rain, plenty of muscle turned up for United Way’s annual Pull the Bus fundraiser in Lethbridge Friday.

    • Lethbridge County has rescinded its fire restriction as a result of the recent cool, wet weathr.

    • A family dispute related to a property matter turned ugly over the weekend when a 71-year-old hit their head on the pavement after being pushed.

    • Police in Sault Ste. Marie charged a 36-year-old suspect with drug trafficking and other charges following a weekend raid of a residence on Robin Street.

    • The sexual assault trial for Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard, the former frontman for the band Hedley, is expected to begin in northern Ontario this week, following a jury selection process.

    N.L.

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