Danielle Smith: “Hillary Clinton Would Have Been A Terrific President”

UCP influencer and Alberta political commentator Ambrose Ralph recently uncovered an old podcast recording featuring former Wildrose Party leader and current UCP leadership candidate back in 2012 saying Hillary Clinton “would have been a terrific president actually.”

This audio was from an LGBT podcast Smith went on called “I Dig Your Girlfriend” where she was asked by the two female hosts who she would rather have “a weekend girls getaway” with between the choices of Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin, or Ellen Degeneres, of which she chose Clinton.

Smith then justified her answer by saying:

My Republican friends are going to hate me for this, but probably Hillary Clinton. I think she would have been a terrific president, actually. She, having been the first lady for eight years, and just seeing how she has operated in the state department, I think she would be a fascinating person to chat with. 

(For those who are not aware Smith said Clinton “would have been” a good president because she failed to become the Democratic presidential candidate in 2008)

Smith after giving that answer then said she was hoping to meet Hillary Clinton during a three-week trip she was taking down to the United States during the summer of 2012.

Despite this being before the Benghazi scandal in the fall of 2012, and the Clinton email scandal in 2015/2016, there is still no reason for someone who supposedly is a conservative to be looking up to Hillary Clinton. 

Clinton, while serving as a Senator for New York from 2001-2009 had been a typical high-spending Democrat who voted against both of President George W. Bush’s large-scale tax cuts, and later opposed the pro-taxpayer Tea Party movement, with the rest of the Obama administration.

As secretary of state, Clinton assisted in the sloppy withdrawal of troops from Iraq, despite previously supporting military action in Iraq, which led to the ISIS insurgency that President Donald Trump later had to take strong action to defeat. Even back when Hillary Clinton was just the first lady (1992-2001) she helped organize smear campaigns against the women who credibly accused her husband, President Bill Clinton, of sexual assault. 

No conservative should have had a positive impression of Hillary Clinton in 2012, let alone someone leading the Wildrose Party, which was fundamentally socially conservative, pro-small government, and against the sort of political elitism that the Clintons represent. 

But records of Danielle Smith’s praise of Hillary Clinton is just one part of a series of comments she has made in the past and even during the 2022 UCP leadership campaign that undermines the idea that she is a principled conservative.

Back in 2014, Smith had also said it was “highly embarrassing” when plans for a World Economic Forum event were scrapped after then-Premier Alison Redford stepped down.

After Smith and the Wildrose Party lost the provincial election in 2012, Smith partly blamed the loss on the party not embracing climate change policies. 

During the current leadership campaign, Smith has continued to endorse the idea of net-zero emission targets, men competing in some women’s sports, and even recently walked back passing the Sovereignty Act in the form she had been marketing it. 

None of this is to say that Danielle Smith is a bad person, but after Jason Kenney promised to be a strong conservative while running for leader, only to turn once elected, Albertans should be wary of the front runner in this leadership race who is primed to do the same. Red Tories should have a home in the conservative movement, but they sow the seeds of discord when they fundamentally lie about who they are to gain leadership.