Op-Ed - Smith Can’t be Trusted

(Photo Courtesy Chris Schwarz/Government of Alberta)

Regardless of Albertans’ stance on provincial independence, it’s tough to for anyone to have confidence  Premier Danielle Smith’s position.

It’s becoming a theme of Smith’s premiership which is becoming increasingly dominated by untrustworthiness.

Smith just can’t be trusted to say what she means nor mean what she says when communicating with Albertans.

Not including the Water Not Coal question on this fall’s referendum is just the latest in a long list of failures of Smith to own up to her own commitments.

Her failure to remove provincial taxes on fuel in accordance with the government’s own Fuel Tax Relief Program is another.

Smith’s setting the parameters of an electoral boundary commission only to countermand its results after finding them not to her liking is one of the worst examples.

But there are so many more instances in the past failures to live up to her word which can only lead one to believe the next 15 months until the general election will result in more 

And the other shoe has yet to drop regarding the hijinks regarding health care procurement.

For Smith’s Medicine Hat constituents, her tenure as our MLA can’t be labeled a success.

The city is under a steep decline economically and socially.

Smith’s regulatory actions regarding the region’s burgeoning renewable sector effectively killed the last energy employer that provided jobs and economic spinoffs while the problems associated with chronic homelessness and addiction only have gotten worse.

But when an MLA doesn’t live in the largest city in her constituency nor visits Medicine Hat more than a handful of times, residents should be forgiven if they think Smith doesn’t give a rat’s ass about this community.

That’s not to say the provincial NDP gives a crap about this city either.

But Smith’s inability to demonstrate integrity in her role as premier or the MLA for Medicine Hat is a double whammy of incompetence.

We’ll see what happens on the July 1 deadline for forward movement on the MOU with the federal government but it’s all but guaranteed that if it fails, it’ll be someone else’s fault and if it succeeds it’ll all be due to Smith.

Either way, the result will be framed to the benefit of Smith regardless if it’s at the detriment of Albertans.