The Slippery Premier

The week for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith started with her defending the government's decision not to pay for COVID shots and ended with her trying to save face in the media for the government's ill-fated school book ban. On the weekend, even author Margaret Atwood took a run at her. 

Most people it seems don't like her answers, but one thing's for sure and that is she always has an answer.

We Had a Name for That

Years ago, when I was in the news business, we had a name for public figures who were able to dodge questions from reporters with seemingly little effort.

We called them slippery.

Just when you thought you had a politician in a difficult position on an issue, they found a way to slip out with a response you hadn’t thought of. It was like being in a debate and just when you moved in for the kill, your debating opponent turned the tables on you and suddenly had you pinned to the mat.

Premier Danielle Smith is slippery.

Take the controversy after the government announced it will no longer pay for COVID shots for all Albertans. How would the Premier explain that unpopular move, especially since all other provinces are providing the shots for free?

She faced reporters and basically said since the uptake on COVID shots was so low last year she saw no reason why the government should waste money on it again.

What she failed to mention was her government was one of the reasons less than 14% of Albertans got the shot last year. When a government keeps telling you it’s optional and cuts back on COVID promotional campaigns, it’s not hard to understand why such a low percentage of people got the shot. But why let facts stand in the way of a good story? Why let facts stand in the way of appealing to your base that hated nothing more than mandatory COVID shots?

Slippery.

Doubling Down

Last week she again had to defend the government’s decision not pay for COVID shots for everyone and she trotted out another pretty solid argument, at least on the surface.

She basically said if the government paid for COVID shots for everyone it wouldn’t be able to cover knee and hip replacement surgeries.

Whoa, wait a minute said a big group of baby boomers in the province. “We would have to pay for knee and hip replacements? Gosh I hope not. That would be really expensive”.

Again, slippery.

It was a nice way for the Premier to communicate how expensive it would be to give everyone the shot. I’m sure the last thing people of a certain age (around my age) want to hear is they’ll have to pay to get their knees replaced.

I haven’t compared the costs of COVID shots vs. knee and hip replacements, but even if they are in the same ballpark in terms of cost, there’s no way in the world the government would no longer cover the cost for replacement surgeries.

Slippery.

Smith also didn’t mention the government could have done COVID shots a lot cheaper last year if they hadn’t ordered the vaccine in bundles of two or four. Like anything else, we get better by doing and learn how to make any operation more efficient.

Again, why let facts stand in the way of a good argument? It’s called being slippery.

Smith is rarely caught off guard. She always has an answer and most often it sounds pretty good. A reader of my blog put it this way a few months back when she said when she listens to the Premier speak, the reader wonders if she’s the one who had it all wrong and not the Premier or the government.

That’s a great skill for a politician to have.

Apologize?

Sometimes though even Premier Smith can drop the ball.

It happened this summer when she nastily demanded the Municipality of Jasper apologize for one paragraph in a report on the July 2024 wildfire that wiped out a third of the town. The report, done by a third-party company, mentioned firefighting efforts were somewhat hampered by the provincial government wanting information when it wasn’t necessary.

Smith cried foul and demanded an apology. After all she said, the provincial government had done so much to help Jasper in a time of need.

Nobody was saying it hadn’t. The report talked about something else.

I’m surprised there was nobody around Premier Smith who asked her the questions – “Are you really sure this is what you want to do? Are you really sure you want to demand an apology from a town that was partially wiped out by a fire and residents, hampered by government red tape, are still struggling to rebuild?”

What the Premier should have said was “The province will learn from the report and from the experience and, like everyone else, we’ll be better prepared to fight the next wildfire that threatens any mountain community, if our help is requested. I’d like to thank Jasper for helping make all of us better.”

Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland politely said there would be no apology and explained again the offensive comment was made to try to improve the situation for the next time there’s a wildfire threatening the community.

Ireland, by the way, is one of the best-spoken Mayors in Alberta. I’m glad to see he’s running for re-election.

Premier Smith found a way out by saying now that the matter had been explained better there was no reason for Jasper to apologize.

Jasper hadn’t done a better job of explaining. Smith, and the province, just needed a way out. They finally realized how stupid demanding an apology looked.

Slippery.