Despite quibbles with Conservative pipeline motion, Danielle Smith endorses Poilievre ahead of leadership review

OTTAWA — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she still supports Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre ahead of his high-stakes leadership review, despite her quibbles about his recent motion endorsing an oil pipeline to the West Coast.

“Yes and yes,” said Smith when asked if she thought Poilievre should stay on as Conservative leader and whether she’d be around for the party’s upcoming national convention in Calgary, which is scheduled for Jan. 29 to 31.

The convention will culminate with a confidence vote on Poilievre’s performance as party leader.

Despite her continued backing of Poilievre, she admitted to being somewhat baffled by the recent motion he put forward targeting her memorandum of understanding (MOU) on energy issues with Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“We were hopeful that, if Pierre was going to do that, he would have put the whole MOU forward,” said Smith, in a year-end interview with National Post.

The motion, clipping language from the 2,000-word MOU relating to the construction of a new West Coast pipeline and reversal of the federal oil tanker ban, was voted down on party lines.

Smith said the defeat doesn’t at all undermine the MOU’s credibility.

“Look, if (Green party leader) Elizabeth May had cherry-picked only the things in the agreement that she agreed with and put those into a motion, I would have expected the prime minister to vote against that too, because it was a package,” said Smith.

The MOU also included concessions on the industrial carbon tax and GHG emissions reduction.

Smith said she doesn’t expect much trouble for Poilievre from the party faithful.

“From what I’ve seen, he continues to have incredibly strong support,” said Smith.

Smith called Poilievre a “consistent voice in favour of the Alberta energy industry” and said that her province would be on stronger footing if he had won April’s federal election.

“(Poilievre) would not have put any concessions on us, he would have not (made) unreasonable demands, he would have repealed the nine bad laws and we’d probably be well underway in planning a pipeline,” said Smith.

“Unfortunately, he didn’t win in April (but I’m) delighted for his continued advocacy,” she added.

Smith endorsed Poilievre ahead of the election, returning the favour after he publicly backed her in Alberta’s last provincial vote in May 2023.

Her comments to National Post came just hours before Toronto-area Conservative MP Michael Ma announced he was crossing the floor to join the governing Liberals. He is the party’s second MP, after Nova Scotia’s Chris d’Entremont, to defect in the past month, and he put the Liberals within one seat of a majority.

Smith didn’t elaborate on whether she’d be at the Calgary convention in person but said she was looking forward to it.

“It’s going to be a fantastic convention,” said Smith.

Smith’s enthusiastic backing notwithstanding, polls show that Poilievre has some work ahead of him to convince the party rank-and-file that he’s still their guy.

A just-released Angus Reid study found that as many as two-in-five Conservative voters may be having second thoughts about Poilievre’s leadership ahead of next month’s review.

National Post rmohamed@postmedia.com

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