UCP leadership hopeful Danielle Smith speaks during a town hall at the Lloyd Ex this past Saturday afternoon. Taylor Weaver Meridian Source
With the UCP leadership race heating up in Alberta, leadership hopeful Danielle Smith made her way to the Border City on Saturday to host a town hall to discuss her plan to put Alberta first and stand up to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The UCP leadership race kicked off on May 19 just after then-UCP leader and Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced his resignation. The election is being held on Oct. 6.
Smith spoke to a crowd of roughly 60 Lloydminster and area residents in the Bexson Construction Prairie Room at 3 p.m. on Saturday before taking questions from the audience.
“We’re here today because we had lockdowns of different degrees over the last two years that have left people feeling disconnected and really damaged,” she said.
Smith touched on a number of negatives that came about due to lockdowns, one of which was the mental health crisis the country is currently facing.
“I’ve talked to doctors about this, but I think we might be on the cusp of a generational mental health crisis with our kids,” she said.
“Now that we’re back to being opened, we have a second whammy that’s hit us, which is inflation. Supply chains being broken has caused all of our products to skyrocket, particularly in energy. We’re seeing an escalation on electricity and natural gas prices, a lot of it being driven by all those carbon taxes the federal government has levied on us.”
For Smith, enough is enough when it comes to her take on Ottawa’s treatment of hard-working Albertans.
“I say enough of the economic sanctions, enough of robbing us blind, and they have, they have taken $600B out of our province since the ‘60s and they’re not going to stop; they’re going to keep on going, and it’s probably going to accelerate,” she said.
Voting in the UCP leadership election can only be done at one of five polling stations throughout the province. Locations for polling stations have not been announced yet, but they will likely be in the Calgary and Edmonton area. Locations will be published when they become available.