Alberta needs to regain the freedoms that made it great and the only way to achieve that is with a change in government, Wildrose leader Danielle Smith told a packed house at a fundraising breakfast in St. Albert Tuesday morning.
Smith's appearance was a fundraiser for local candidates James Burrows, who is running in the St. Albert riding, and Travis Hughes, who is running in Spruce-Grove St. Albert.
About 100 people filled a St. Albert Inn ballroom at the $35-per-plate breakfast. Introducing Smith, Hughes argued the Progressive Conservative government is well past its expiration date.
"They have broken promise after promise and now have the audacity to say, 'I delivered on my commitments,' " he said. "They are not listening and they are not going to listen so they have to go."
Smith began by applauding both local candidates. On Monday she announced the party had candidates in place in all 87 ridings, ready for this spring's election.
The candidates have a broad array of backgrounds, but Smith said they have a common commitment to public service.
"We are not career politicians, we are not here because we want to turn this job into a career. We truly believe in public service," she said. "They do not work for me as the leader of the party they work principally and foremost for the people who elected them."
The party's candidate announcement at the legislature on Monday was overshadowed when the party's new bus was also revealed. The bus, which the party says will now be re-painted, featured a large picture of Smith with the two rear wheels centred in her chest.
Pictures of the bus were spread far and wide on social media sites Monday and Smith laughed off the incident at the beginning of her speech.
"You may have heard we revealed our campaign bus yesterday, some people think we revealed a bit too much."
Alberta freedoms
Smith's speech focused on the freedoms Albertans have enjoyed in the past, which she believes the current government in infringing upon.
"The mavericks who built this province all had one thing in common, what they achieved they achieved because of our freedoms."
She said in place of those freedoms, the current government has taken a they-know-best approach.
"We have gone from a place of mavericks, a place of free men and women shaping the province, to a group in power that says they know better, better than me and better than you."
With an election call expected soon, Smith said she expects the Progressive Conservative party will try to paint the Wildrose as extreme, dangerous and risky, but she said they have no radical agenda.
"We don't want to do away with public health care, we want to save it. We don't want to privatize education, we want to improve it. We don't want to eradicate social services for those most in need, just the opposite we want to afford it all."
