The Chatty Premier

Premier Danielle Smith has never met a microphone she didn't like.

Sometimes though, she says things she shouldn't that come back to haunt her and at other times she avoids talking about the moose on the table.

Smith and the News Media

I’ll start with what I’m sure what will be an unpopular opinion, but hear me out.

I think Premier Danielle Smith performs well in her appearances in front of the news media.

There I said it.

When you analyze how she handles questions from reporters, what she says and what her body language looks like, she’s excellent. She looks informed, communicates well and does it with confidence. She’s polished, prepared and professional. Talking is her thing. 

That’s the good part. Her problems are she has a habit of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and she often doesn’t seem to understand, or doesn’t want to talk about what the real issue is. She often speaks to the people who elected her, ignoring Albertans who didn't.

When it comes to saying the wrong thing, I wrote about that almost exactly two years ago today in The Imprecise Danielle Smith. Two years later, many of my points still stand.

Then there’s the other thing. The part about not addressing the real issues. A great example came a few weeks ago when she first explained why the government fired the CEO of Alberta Health Services Athana Mentzelopoulos.  She told reporters all her government did was ask Mentzelopoulos and others when they would be done reviewing contracts related to private surgical facilities. Her “Have you reached the finish line yet” was a really crafty way of making it look like the government was doing some simple due diligence. Of course, that wasn’t the story. It wasn’t about asking about reaching the finish line. It was allegedly about her government trying to force Mentzelopoulos into selecting their favourite private surgical provider for a contract that would cost Alberta taxpayers millions of dollars more than it should have.

Last week in the Alberta legislature, Smith went on the offensive when the Opposition prodded her about her planned appearance with the controversial Ben Shapiro at a PragerU fundraiser in Florida. She went to great lengths to exclaim why she wouldn’t be silenced and would continue to speak out on behalf of Albertans. Again, that wasn’t the story. The story was about her speaking at a controversial right-wing political event in the US on the dime of Alberta taxpayers, as  President Trump wants to take over Canada.

This may be too cynical, but if storylines and facts don’t matter, she’s great with the media.

Mainstream Media Miss

I found it interesting that mainstream media outlets had previewed Smith’s appearance in Florida for several days, but when it actually came to reporting on what she said, there was nothing on Thursday night or even the next morning.

It wasn’t until online publications like the National Observer and DeSmog reported on the story that we got to find out what she actually said.

To me, that’s a big whiff for traditional media outlets. They should have been all over her appearance and found a way to cover it. Florida isn’t on the other side of the moon.

In early March, Smith made controversial comments to Breitbart in the US. when she basically said she had asked officials in the US administration to see if they could put tariffs on hold until after the election because all the tariff talk was helping the Liberals. The Liberals jumped on Smith’s comments and produced an attack ad on that topic almost overnight. That’s why Smith’s remarks in Florida last week needed more media coverage.

She Loves to Talk

Premier Smith is a smart politician. She knew she had two distinctly different audiences listening to what she had to say last Thursday night. There were Albertans and Canadians waiting for her to step in it again and say something that would get her in trouble. She also knew she had some people here, and certainly those in the audience, who wanted her to talk about why Canada joining the US would be a good thing. They wanted her to say positive things about Trump and how Canada would act differently after the April 28 election if the right people were elected.

For Smith, it must have been like walking a tightrope between two office towers. Reading what she said, she avoided saying something controversial, but got her messages across. Mission accomplished.

On her radio show on Saturday morning, Smith noted how Shapiro spent several minutes on his podcast after the Thursday night discussion talking about why tariffs  are a bad thing. She claimed victory.

Here’s the problem though. Flying down to Florida and speaking at a right-wing fundraiser is a stupid thing to do politically in the minds of most Albertans, regardless of what's said. People were right in asking if Alberta got value out of the Premier and four aides flying down there at taxpayers’ expense. It's nice that Shapiro apparently agrees with Smith, but will it change anything?

I'm also pretty sure Prime MInister Carney is only too happy watching Smith chatting to right-wing media in the US and pumping the tires of Pierre Poilievre. Every time she does it connects the Conservative leader to Trump at a time he's trying to win an election.

With friends like Smith, Pierre Poilievre doesn’t need enemies.

Premier Smith has proven time after time that when she’s asked to talk and she likes the audience, she’s only too eager to please. Most often that works, but sometimes she says things she regrets.

Like I say, she never met a microphone she didn’t like.