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Voters in Brooks-Medicine Hat will decide today if Alberta’s premier will get a seat in the legislature.
Premier Danielle Smith is running as a candidate in the byelection in that riding because she was not a sitting MLA when she was elected leader of the United Conservative Party last month.
Smith had initially announced she wanted to run in her home constituency of Livingstone-Macleod. Ultimately, a UCP MLA who wasn’t planning to reoffer stepped down early so the premier could run sooner in the vacant Medicine Hat seat.
The 28-day race started the day Smith was sworn into office. So less than a week after 124,000 UCP members elected her leader, she turned to convincing 34,060 residents of southeastern Alberta to vote for her.
During advance polls in Brooks-Medicine Hat, 4,231 people voted — 12.4 per cent of eligible voters.
Smith told a candidates’ forum in the riding last week that residents are talking to her about jobs and economic growth, affordability, health care and pushing back against Ottawa. Smith said those will be her focus areas for the riding if elected.
She is running against NDP candidate Gwendoline Dirk; Barry Morishita, who leads the centrist Alberta Party; and two other candidates from further right parties — Bob Blayone for the Independence Party of Alberta and Jeevan Mangat of the Wildrose Independence Party.
“I don’t think it’s likely that anybody but Danielle Smith will win,” said Lori Williams, an associate professor of political science and policy studies at Mount Royal University.
“But that’s not the whole story. I think the margin of victory makes a difference, and a lukewarm win could again raise questions about the viability of Danielle Smith’s leadership.”
Morishita, who is a former mayor of Brooks, says there’s a misconception that the riding is completely rural, and people don’t understand it has urban components and deals with problems from health care to agriculture.
“I don’t think Danielle does, with all due respect, know the area,” Morishita said.
“She talks about rural, but I don’t think she understands the dynamics and the uniqueness of this riding.”
The NDP candidate also questioned Smith’s understanding of the constituents. Dirk says the UCP government cut funding to the post-secondary institution where she taught and she eventually decided to get involved with the NDP.
“It doesn’t scare me,” she said of campaigning against the premier. “I actually know what our community needs.”
The byelection was called for this riding only, despite Calgary-Elbow having no sitting MLA.
Polls close at 8 p.m., with results expected shortly after.