Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith pitched her party as agents of ìhonest-to-goodness changeî at a fundraising dinner for candidate Bruce Rowe in Olds last Tuesday.But while the crowd of about 120 was responsive to Smith's and Rowe's message of ìsmaller, smarter government,î the leader was not always on the same page as audience members ñ or her candidate ñ on issues raised during a brief Q&A after the speeches.When longtime Wildrose constituency president Alex Pratt asked why the government let Greyhound reduce service to smaller communities, saying it was a hardship for seniors and youth especially, Smith took a position in support of the change. She argued that while ìmoving from a monopoly to a competitive environmentî was difficult, it was a positive step and would be short-lived.ìRed Arrow has already set up a line to Medicine Hat and Lethbridge and have a plan to go to other parts of Alberta,î Smith said. ìIf we fast-forward two or three years I have confidence that other companies, and municipalities, will step in and try to get buses on all these major routes.îShe added, ì I don't know if there's an easy way to get out of that transition issue. I think going forward we're going to have much, much better service and better access.îRowe, mayor for the Village of Beiseker, did not echo Smith's position on Greyhound service reductions, saying as a director in the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association he had fought to keep the government's $7-million subsidy, but the lobbying ìfell on deaf ears.îìIt's certainly worth looking at,î he added, ìbecause it was a huge impact on small communities.îWhen asked about energy deregulation, which Rowe had dubbed a failure during his speech, Smith said, ìWhat I find interesting is the part of the system that is most broken is the part that has never been deregulated.î She went on to attack the proposed transmission-line project, calling that sector ìcompletely dominated by two companies with deep ties to the PC Party.îOn the Keystone pipeline, asked why the province can't create more jobs by upgrading its oil before exporting it south, Smith said the two were separate issues.ìWe need pipelines regardless of whether we upgrade or refine Ö whether it's raw bitumen, upgraded product or refined product,î she said.ìOn the issue of upgrading, if we can get a stable investment climate back, if we can restore the trust of industry Ö we can attract those dollars back. The second thing, though, is fixing our regulatory framework,î she added, describing how a Fort McMurray company had to wait nine years to obtain all of the required permits and licences for an upgrader project.ìThe regulatory environment is onerous and burdensome,î she said.One thing both leader and candidate agreed on was the importance of the PC government's four property bills to voters in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills.Rowe said the bills ñ 50, 36, 24 and 19 ñ are the No. 1 provincial issue in the constituency.ìFrom travelling around the constituency and talking to people, those bills that you mentioned are probably of the most concern,î Rowe told an audience member, who asked Rowe to identify the biggest challenge representing the area. ìWe've got some highway issues (also) Ö but I think the priority concern in this area is what I would term offensive land bills.îSmith said constituents are concerned about the government ìnot being able to balance the budgetî and the cost and accessibility of the health-care system ñ but added the property bills are also a major concern.ìI think it all comes down to one thing ñ the role of the individual elected member,î Smith said. ìIn that other party an elected representative is not allowed to advocate on behalf of his constituents if he goes against the party line.îDuring her speech, Smith bashed the PC government for giving millions of dollars to a consultants firm to replace the ìAlberta Advantageî slogan with ìthe impossible to remember and hopelessly lame Freedom to Create, Spirit to Achieve.îPremier Alison Redford's ìsolution to this stinker of a slogan,î Smith said, ìis to start this whole process all over again.îSaying the word that sums up Alberta best to her is ìfreedom,î Smith accused the Tories of having ìsystematically torn down and subvertedî Albertans' freedoms.ìWe've gone from a place of mavericks Ö to a group in power that say they know better,î she said.ìAfter 40 years in power, changing one person, the person at the top, is not real change. It's cosmetic change.îRowe, who introduced Smith as the party's ìdynamic asset,î also said the Tories had stopped listening to Albertans and promised that Wildrose would repeal the four unpopular land bills.Held at the Fine Arts and Multimedia Centre on the Olds College campus, the event drew former cabinet minister Connie Osterman, Wildrose MLA Rob Anderson (Airdrie-Chestermere), and former Rural Roots directors including Mountain View County councillors Paddy Munro and Kevin Good.Due to her tight schedule, Smith left the function immediately after the Q&A.
