By Arthur C. Green

“I’m back!”

With those words Danielle Smith claimed victory in the UCP race Thursday night and will become Alberta’s 19th premier when she is sworn in on Tuesday.

Smith claimed victory winning the UCP leadership contest with 53.77% on the sixth ballot.

More than 84,000 votes were cast by the party’s membership, culminating a three-month race in Calgary’s BMO Centre.

Travis Toews came second with 46.33%.

“It is time for Alberta to take its place as a senior partner in building a strong and unified Canada. 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. We will not have our resources landlocked or our energy phased out of existence by virtue signaling Prime Ministers. Albertans, not Ottawa, will chart our own destiny on our terms, and will work with our fellow Canadians to build the most free and prosperous country on earth,” she told the assembled.

“We also want to share our prosperity with the entire country... So tonight, I invite every Canadian to partner with us... partner with Alberta. Let’s work together to build the strong, prosperous and unified Canada we know we can be.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to Twitter to congratulate Smith.

“I would like to congratulate @ABDanielleSmith on becoming the next Premier of Alberta. Let’s work together to build a better future for Albertans — by delivering concrete results, making life more affordable, creating good jobs, and more,” he tweeted.

Smith praised all her opponents for what they brought to the race.

“I want to thank Travis Toews for his integrity and for leading the charge in bringing our province’s budget back to surplus from the brink of disaster under Rachel Notley’s NDP,” she said.

“My friends, tonight I invite all United Conservative Party supporters — our party, our caucus, fellow leadership candidates — all of us, regardless of who we supported during this leadership race — to come together and unite for the good of our great province.”

One of Smith’s main talking points during her campaign was the proposed Alberta Sovereignty Act, which she says is about defending Alberta from Ottawa’s continuous economic and constitutional attacks against the province.

Smith said the act is a proposed law that would affirm the authority of the provincial legislature to refuse provincial enforcement of specific federal laws or policies that violate the jurisdictional rights of Alberta under Sections 92-95 of the Constitution or that breaches the Charter Rights of Albertans.

Smith said during the last three months that the Alberta Sovereignty Act is not about separation from Canada, despite scrutiny from Alberta’s NDP.

According to Smith, the entire objective of the Alberta Sovereignty Act is to assert Alberta’s Constitutional Rights within Canada to the furthest extent possible by effectively governing itself as a nation within a nation, just as Quebec has done for decades.

In a statement, Smith explained how the act would work despite the negative attention it has received from some.

“Unsurprisingly, many in the ‘woke’ media, entrenched interests, and the political establishment do not support the idea of the Alberta Sovereignty Act and have turned to the tried and tested methods of fear-mongering and disinformation to discredit the idea outright. Some, for example, have falsely equated it to separatism and the 1995 Quebec vote on leaving Canada. Others have resorted to lashing out at the idea as entirely ‘nuts’ or ‘unconstitutional’,” said Smith.

“Prior to being introduced in the Legislature for debate and vote this fall, I will work with Cabinet and caucus to draft the Alberta Sovereignty Act in accordance with sound constitutional language and principles.”

According to Smith, over the last several years the federal government has triggered a constitutional crisis through repeated lawless attacks on provincial constitutional jurisdictional rights and the Charter.

Smith also promised in her campaign she plans on testing children to make sure disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic did not affected youths’ learning.

While at a leadership candidates debate co-hosted by the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP) and Rebel News, Smith suggested firing the AHS board.

After AHS failed to increase ICU capacity, Smith said, AHS then compounded the crisis when it imposed vaccine mandates on hospital staff — losing hundreds of front-line health workers in the middle of a crisis.

“And it means that, as premier, when I direct AHS management to double ICU capacity by a specific date and give them the resources to do so, that direction is followed ... immediately. And if they can’t do that, then we will find those that can to take their place,” she said in her victory speech.

Smith also recently mentioned she would not support an Olympic bid by the province.

During the last three months, Smith received endorsements from several MLA’s, such as UCP MLA Devin Dreeshen (Innisfail-Sylvan Lake)

“I am honoured to have @DevinDVote join my team today! He is passionate about standing up for our agricultural industry & finding solutions on health care. Let’s get to work,” Smith said.

Edmonton’s only UCP MLA, Kaycee Madu, also announced during the race he would endorse Smith to be the next premier of Alberta.

Several other UCP MLA’s also endorsed Smith. That includes MLAs Nate Glubish and Pat Rehn, who previously endorsed UCP leadership candidate Travis Toews.

During Smith’s campaign she made many promises to UCP voters, one being she would say no to the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Justin Trudeau’s agenda.

“In politics, negative attacks are still an unfortunate part of the process. I usually just tune them out,” Smith said.

“However, I did have to do a bit of a double take on the latest attack by my friends, Travis Toews and Brian Jean, who accused me of endorsing … wait for it … Justin Trudeau’s radical green agenda.”

“Justin Trudeau openly adopted the WEF agenda and instituted a wealth of policies meant to drive up the cost of energy and food production so he can meet arbitrary and aggressive WEF CO2 emissions targets.”

“Let me be perfectly clear. As premier, no individual in my government or provincial agency will be permitted to associate with the WEF in any manner,” Smith said.

“Secondly, WEF inspired policies imposed upon us by Ottawa will not be enforced by any provincial agency under authority of the Alberta Sovereignty Act.”

According to Smith, the fact is the federal carbon tax — the recent announcement of a 30% reduction in fertilizer use by farmers — and the proposed arbitrary emissions cap on our energy sector are “scams that do nothing to improve the environment.”

“You don’t improve the environment or reduce emissions by destroying livelihoods and causing food shortages,” Smith said.