Danielle Smith’s role as premier of Alberta allowed her to turn her paranoid political vision into reality.

Danielle Smith has a penchant for political reinvention, from her short-lived tenure as a Calgary school board trustee to her decision to blow up the Wildrose Party, and from the Opposition benches to her most recent re-emergence as the conspiracy-minded, separatist-adjacent premier of Alberta.

With a little help from her friends in the mainstream media and corporate world, as well as her undeniable talents as a communicator and populist charm, Smith successfully used pandemic anxieties and a uniquely Albertan style of grievance politics to mount her seemingly improbable comeback, again and again.

Rising like a phoenix from the ashes, Smith’s brand of libertarian politics has empowered dark, authoritarian forces and set about attempting to ensure conservative dominance of the province for the foreseeable future. The endurance of this project, however, remains to be seen.