Premier Smith visits rural Alberta to lend voice to local byelection candidate

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith seen in Calgary on Friday, May 16, 2025. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is winning applause but also facing pointed questions from party members ahead of three byelections.

Smith, in her role as United Conservative leader, appeared at a town hall meeting attended by about 300 in Three Hills Monday.

She came with Tara Sawyer, who is running under the party banner in the June 23 byelection in the area.

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Smith was applauded for policies including a demanding a better deal from the federal government, her government’s income tax cut, her vow to protect unvaccinated Albertans from discrimination, and new rules including a ban on transgender athletes in women’s sport.

“Ten years of (federal) Liberal policies have gotten us nowhere,” Smith told the crowd.

“Alberta will move forward with confidence and clarity. We will develop our economy. We will exercise our constitutional rights, we will forge the future that Alberta deserves.”

Sawyer is running in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills against Bev Toews of the NDP, Cameron Davies of the Republican Party of Alberta, and Bill Tufts of the Wildrose Loyalty Coalition.

Davies has criticized the UCP for failing to agree to a byelection debate while the UCP said it wasn’t possible due to a scheduling conflict. Davies said the UCP was dodging accountability and democracy and avoiding the elephant in the room: talk of Alberta independence.

Sawyer disagreed, telling the crowd, “Some forces are trying to divide us and split the vote. We cannot let that happen.”

Not everyone was on side.

Jon Sedore, a longtime UCP member who lives in the nearby town of Trochu, said that argument doesn’t hold water.

“We’re in the most conservative riding of Alberta and of Canada, so I’m not concerned about the NDP here,” he said in an interview.

He said he doesn’t think Sawyer and the UCP have been clear about where they stand on separation, and he doesn’t like Smith appointing Sawyer rather than holding a candidate race.

“I don’t like the top-down approach,” he said, while also expressing strong support for Smith and her efforts to exercise more constitutional rights for the province.

Sedore said questions about Alberta’s independence should be answered by all candidates so voters know where they each stand.

Smith has long held that she wants to see Alberta remain in Canada, but recently passed legislation to lower the threshold for citizens to spark a referendum on leaving Confederation.

She’s also noted that her party wanted to move quickly to have a candidate in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills in place in order to save taxpayers’ money by holding the vote in conjunction with byelections in Edmonton Strathcona and Edmonton Ellerslie.

NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi is running in Edmonton Strathcona to gain a seat in the legislature about a year after winning the party’s top job.

The Edmonton-Ellerslie byelection is to replace NDP member Rod Loyola. He stepped down earlier this year to run in the federal election.

Sawyer, speaking with The Canadian Press, echoed Smith’s stance, saying she’s fighting for a strong, sovereign Alberta within Canada, but it’s up to the people to decide whether a referendum is held.

“I understand we’re in a pressure cooker situation. I think it’s important for (Albertans) to know that they are being heard,” she said.

Sawyer, a farmer and former chair of the Grain Growers of Canada, said Davies’ suggestion that she is the UCP’s hand-picked “Ottawa-first” candidate is “hogwash.”

“I have raised my family here. I grew up here, and my entire life has been to be a voice to improve my community,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 10, 2025.

Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press