Danielle Smith on why Albertans chose her over Rachel Notley

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This is just an excerpt from The Ezra Levant Show. To see new, ad-free episodes, which air Monday - Friday @ 8 p.m. ET | 6 p.m. MT, become a subscriber to RebelNews+. This episode originally aired on July 6, 2023.

On last night’s episode of The Ezra Levant Show, Ezra was joined by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith for a special long-form interview.

Ezra asked Danielle what she thought the key ballot question was when people chose to vote for her over NDP’s Rachel Notley. She answered:

I think that what the NDP wanted to make it about was, a series of lies, saying that we were going to make people pay for a family doctor and that we were going to steal their pension. And, we were able to say, 'well, you're gonna vote for that, which is clearly not going to happen, or you can vote for us and make sure that your job is protected, the economy is protected.' And I think that the NDP made a major blunder when they promised that they were going to increase corporate income taxes.

“People from other provinces are coming to Alberta. Are you getting the freedom-oriented, entrepreneurial class or are you getting sort of refugees from socialism who are bringing some of those socialist ideas with them?” Ezra asked.

Danielle replied:

I would say that it's probably a mix. But I think that what we're putting out there is what Alberta has always put out there, that we are a place where you can be free to start a business, employ people, keep more of what you earn, raise a family, practice your faith in your own way and we try to take to just 'we'll leave you alone.' We want to be able to get out of your business but make sure that we create an environment for you to prosper. And I think people are responding to that. It also helps that we have a relatively low cost of housing as well.

Ezra told Danielle about his theory that when people saw an unfiltered version of her for an hour or so, without the filter of the CBC, they liked her.

She agreed with this line of thought:

One of the things that I get told all the time is ‘You're not at all the way the media depicts you.’ And I think that's an indictment of the media. The media's job is to depict a person fairly and accurately and with balance. And I would say that the mainstream media has failed in that. And I encourage them to go back to journalistic principles and maybe they'll actually manage to attract back some viewers and audience if they did so.