The leader of the official opposition in Alberta believes the premier is being hypocritical about her reasoning for not holding a by-election in Lethbridge-West saying “Hypocrisy thy name is Danielle.”
In a statement NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi says those living in the Lethbridge-West riding need representation and candidates from both parties are in place and ready, so he does not believe her reasoning of waiting for him to declare a seat to run for is acceptable.
“Danielle Smith delayed the byelection in Calgary-Elbow for nine months when she became premier because she didn’t feel the need to get a seat in the legislature,” Nenshi says.
On Monday, Smith told reporters for the interest of taxpayers she was hoping to hold both by-elections at the same time and with Nenshi having been elected leader of the party back in June she thought by now one of his caucus members would have stepped down for him.
“It is one of two things; either he doesn’t want to get into the legislature which means he doesn’t take the job of leader of the opposition seriously, he has an obligation to get into the legislature to debate policy. So that is one, or he has a caucus that doesn’t want to make room for him and no one is stepping aside,” Smith said.
However, the NDP leader says he is working hard on issues, including health care, education and affordability.
“When the opportunity presents itself, I will jump in, but I am not going to bribe an MLA to step aside from what is their life’s dream to serve as a member of the legislature just so that I can get a seat and be in Question Period.”
He adds if the premier would like to create a vacancy for him to run for in Calgary he would “be thrilled.”
“She’s got a whole bunch of super underperforming ministers, so she should really take the opportunity to get rid of one of them and I’d be happy to run against whoever she puts up.”
Smith has until January 1st to call for the by-election in Lethbridge-West to fill the vacant seat that was left open when Shannon Phillips resigned in the summer.
