Rebel News has never made a formal election endorsement before.

Not for Stephen Harper, not for Maxime Bernier, not for Pierre Poilievre.

But the circumstances in Alberta are so unusual, and the possibility of an NDP win is so dangerous, that I feel compelled to weigh in, to encourage anyone who values our opinion at Rebel News to consider our case for Danielle Smith in tomorrow’s Alberta election.

Part of the reason I feel obligated to weigh in is because Rebel News had a role in causing this election, and Danielle Smith’s leadership, to happen. We led the charge against Jason Kenney’s authoritarian lockdowns. We crowdfunded civil liberties lawyers to challenge the abusive arrest and jailing of pastors and small businessmen. Our reporters were embedded in the trucker convoy at the border crossing in Coutts, Alberta. We put up billboards. We championed working class Canadians as they rebelled against unscientific and punitive vaccine mandates.

In part, it was our principled, conservative criticisms that motivated the United Conservative Party to vote non-confidence in Kenney last year. And of all the candidates who ran to succeed Kenney as party leader, we believed Danielle Smith was the one most likely to fight for freedom and undo the civil liberties fiasco of the lockdowns. Obviously there were many factors, but Rebel News was definitely one of them.

So now, tomorrow is judgment day. Rachel Notley’s NDP can hardly wait to commandeer Canada’s freest province and turn it into a socialist backwater. I don’t think Alberta will be able to survive a second term of NDP socialism — it will become the Detroit of Canada. And I have never seen the media party more abusive and outrageously partisan, especially Trudeau’s CBC state broadcaster, which has been indistinguishable from the NDP’s campaign war room.

And there are still Kenney loyalists in the party — even in the cabinet — who would rather lose the election and get rid of Smith than win the election and have her be premier. Kenney himself refused to even meet with Smith when she became premier.

And there are even some people on the freedom side of the debate who think that Smith has not done enough to undo the brutality of Kenney’s lockdowns. And that is where I hope I can have some influence. Because in fact the opposite is true. It’s precisely Smith’s commitment to civil liberties, and her rejection of the unscientific, authoritarian lockdowns, that has been the political target of her many enemies, both from the media party and even within her own party. Her perfectly legal request of the Justice Minister to reconsider whether it’s still in the public interest to chase down peaceful pastors and businesspeople has been the obsession of her enemies.

And here’s my point. It’s easy for freedom-oriented pundits and critics to point out Smith’s imperfections. I can point out a few myself. But the choice tomorrow is not Smith versus some perfect alternative. It’s Smith vs. Notley. And whether you’re a Kenney loyalist, an anti-lockdown activist, or simply an Albertan who relies on the oil and gas industry and the spirit of individual responsibility that is in Alberta’s character, Smith simply must win.

And to those on the right who quibble with Smith, let me quote Theodore Roosevelt, from his famous speech to the Sorbonne:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

When Jason Kenney dropped the ball, Danielle Smith picked it up. And tomorrow it’s either her or Rachel Notley.

Every Canadian who believes in freedom must support her. Every Albertan must vote for her as if the province’s future depends on it.Because it does.

P.S. Tune in Monday night for our live Rebel News coverage of the election, starting at 6:45pm MT (8:45pm ET).

COMMENTS

Be the first to comment

Please check your e-mail for a link to activate your account.