(LifeSiteNews) –– Alberta’s United Conservative Party (UCP) under its anti-COVID lockdown leader Danielle Smith won a majority government last night, in a decisive victory over the socialist Alberta New Democratic Party (NDP) under former premier Rachel Notley.
The unofficial results show the UCP winning 49 seats to the NDP’s 38, as of press time, with the popular vote being 44 percent for the NDP, and 53 percent for the UCP.
Smith will now lead Alberta as its premier for the next four years. Of note is that there will be recounts in some ridings, as two in Calgary have the NDP with a lead with only a handful of votes.
Most of rural Alberta voted for the UCP, while all of Edmonton voted NDP, with Calgary having a mixed bag, but losing some seats to the NDP.
Smith’s campaign focused on lower taxes, less government, and pushing back against radical federal legislation targeting Alberta’s oil and gas industry.
In her victory speech last night, Smith wasted no time in going after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, warning him not to mess with Alberta’s energy sector.
“We need to come together no matter how we have voted to stand shoulder-to-shoulder against soon-to-be-announced Ottawa policies that would significantly harm our provincial economy,” said Smith to loud cheers.
“Now, we’ve been made aware that in the coming weeks, Justin Trudeau was planning on bringing forward new restrictions on electricity generation from natural gas that will not only massively increase your power bills but will also endanger the integrity and reliability of our entire power grid which we rely on during our cold and dark Alberta winters,” said Smith.
Smith then said “Well, hopefully, the prime minister and his caucus are watching tonight.”
“Let me be clear, this is not a road we can afford to go down. And if [Trudeau] persists, he will be hurting Canadians from coast to coast and he will strain the patience and goodwill of Albertans in an unprecedented fashion. And as premier, I cannot under any circumstances allow these contemplated federal policies to be inflicted upon Albertans. I simply can’t and I won’t.”
Late last week, former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave his endorsement to Alberta’s UCP under Smith, urging everyone to vote for her as premier for the sake of Alberta’s economy.
Last fall, Smith and the UCP passed into law the Sovereignty Act, which asserts Alberta’s control over federal government overreach.
When Smith met with Trudeau earlier this year, she gave him a frosty reception, telling him bluntly that oil and gas are here to stay and that her province will not allow attacks on its energy industry to continue through his “just transition” green energy agenda.
While Smith herself, as previously reported by LifeSiteNews, has a track-record of being pro-gay “marriage” and pro-abortion, a fact that has made her a target of the province’s largest pro-life organization, many of her now-elected members do hold solid pro-life views, as noted by Campaign Life Coalition in an email to members on Monday.
Unlike her UCP predecessor, Jason Kenney, Smith has taken a pro-freedom approach to COVID, even once noting that the “unvaccinated” were the “most discriminated against” group she has seen in her lifetime.
As for now-defeated Notley, she served as Alberta’s premier from 2015 to 2019, and while in power her government targeted faith-based institutions, including publicly funded Catholic and Christian schools.
in 2018, David Eggen, Notley’s then-education minister, went as far as demanding that faith-based schools purge religious content from their policies.
More recently, during the COVID-19 so-called pandemic, Notley had suggested that the province enact a door-to-door COVID vaccine campaign. She was also a vocal proponent of lockdowns as a means to control the virus.