Braid: Danielle Smith’s campaign sticks a stick in the extremist bonfire

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A month ago, the PCU had a dream of unity and harmony.

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The leadership candidates would set a cool tone. They would not fight each other.

After a worthy debate, they would wrap around their new leader like a warm blanket, offering comfort and support.

say oh

The party is now in as much danger of falling apart as it was before the vote on Prime Minister Jason Kenney’s leadership.

Danielle Smith is playing on the verge of extremism. The others didn’t see it coming. They’re looking for ways to be somewhat moderate without losing touch with the people Ella Smith attracts.

His path is proving effective. Anger is more powerful than reason or commitment these days. Before another rally in Calgary on Thursday night, his activists were trying to add more space due to demand.

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There has been talk that the central party could disqualify Smith for not reflecting party values. The president of the party, Cynthia Moore, denies any such intention.

Expelling Smith would instantly split the party. A new one could form very quickly, perhaps with Smith as the leading loser. There’s not much that seems impossible with this party.

Emboldened by growing support, the Smith campaign puts a stick in the extremists’ fire.

Theo Fleury was invited to speak at the rally in northeast Calgary.

A former Calgary Flames star, a survivor of horrific sexual abuse at the hands of monstrous trainer Graham James, Fleury now has a massive megaphone for her beliefs: 226,000 followers on Twitter and more than 150,000 on other social media platforms.

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Fleury deserves all due respect for her incredible hockey career, her successful battle with addiction, her advocacy for victims of juvenile abuse, trauma treatment, overall mental health, and her searing honesty in revealing the horrific abuse she suffered. .

But his political views are extreme. Fleury’s world is full of plots, conspiracies and oppression. He feels that being controlled and manipulated by an evil person in his youth attunes him to dangers that others cannot see until it is too late.

He says Rogers’ failure last week was “planned.” UCP candidate Travis Toews, who opposed Smith’s plan to overturn the federal law, “is the new World Economic Forum appointee.”

In the US media, including Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show, it paints Canada as a land under a rigid dictatorship.

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He told Americans that Canada “needs help” from the US to end this danger. The only alternative to liberation from communism is “death,” in Fleury’s view.

But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, while appearing to run this regime, is not actually in charge because he is controlled and blackmailed by “five entities.”

Even Canadians horrified by Trudeau’s dismal performance will reject this twisted image of Canada. Fleury painted it without opposition from Carlson, who began the interview with a reference to “authoritarian Canada.”

Fleury agrees with the theory that COVID-19 is a hoax. When asked by Carlson what she felt when she first heard about the virus, she said she knew right away it was “complete nonsense.”

Fleury and Carlson agreed that neither of them knew anyone who had died of COVID, but they both knew of at least 10 people who had died from the vaccine.

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As for the World Health Organization, Fleury tweeted last week: “Hey WHO, take your masks and shove them up your ass!”

Just before that, he retweeted Smith, who said, “We’re excited to announce a special guest for tomorrow night… Alberta legend @TheoFluery14!”

Rob Anderson, chairman of the Smith campaign, says Fleury was invited to honor her admirable work on youth trauma and addiction, as well as her stance on vaccination. “This doesn’t mean we agree with him on other issues,” Anderson said.

But Fleury is now so influential that it’s virtually impossible to separate her personal record from the conspiratorial worldview that thrives in the corners of the UCP.

Smith and his activists surely know this. He was useful as a legend and as an imam.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Calgary Herald.

Twitter: @DonBraid