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Address to the 2010 Wildrose AGMDanielle SmithThank you. What a crowd! I am so excited to be here with you tonight.First, I¶d like to acknowledge our friends in southern Alberta who are unable to be here as theystruggle to save their homes and crops from water damage. I had planned to be in Picture Buttelast Saturday with our members in Little Bow, but we had to postpone the event that day due toflooding and I will visit as soon as I can. Our thoughts are with them as they work to clean upand get through this challenge. We know they are tough, they are resilient, and I am sure youagree we are here to support them in any way we can.And thanks to all of you our party continues to gain momentum and attract support right acrossour great province. Change is in the air and it is truly an amazing time in Alberta¶s history.And thank you to Guy Boutilier± the newest member of the Wildrose Alliance. (Applause)Guy said some very kind words about leadership. And let me take a moment to return thecompliment. Guy is a former cabinet minister and represents a riding which is one of the Crown jewels of Alberta ± the dynamic and growing region of Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo. Guy¶senthusiasm for his hometown is infectious. I can¶t wait to be working with him to celebrate allthe things that are going so well up in Fort McMurray, so Albertans, Canadians and NorthAmericans will understand just how vital the oilsands are, not only to us, but to the entire world.Guy took a great personal political risk when he stood up for his constituents and asked thePremier why a long-term care facility promised to his city had been taken off the priority list.That¶s why he got kicked out of caucus± for standing up for the people who elected him. In our party we don¶t think that representing the needs of your constituents should get you kicked out of caucus. We think that¶s exactly what MLAs are supposed to do. (Applause)I am delighted that Guy will now be joining us in Question Period to keep on asking thosequestions on behalf of the voters in his riding.Let me also for a moment talk about two of our other MLAs, Rob Anderson and Heather Forsyth. (Applause)Heather and Rob are two courageous MLAs. When they first told me they wanted to join our party, I called riding president Blaine Maller in Calgary Fish-Creek and Derrick Jacobsen inAirdrie-Chestermere to see what they thought. I was delighted to hear they had both been tryingto convince Rob and Heather to join our Party for some time. Rob and Heather both believestrongly in the values of our party. Rob was actually an original Alberta Alliance member whowas convinced to run for the PCs to try to help change that party from within.

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Heather was a cabinet minister under Ralph Klein, when we had the Alberta Advantage, whenwe weren¶t afraid to call our province proudly conservative, and when we still acted like it. Theycould have chosen to stay on the Tory backbenches, held their noses and voted the way theywere told. Instead they decided to take a risk and join us to build something bigger.But let me now thank the person who won our first battle - the first leader of the WildroseAlliance ± and our first elected MLA from Calgary Glenmore ± Paul Hinman. (Applause)I have been overwhelmed by Paul¶s commitment to this province and our party. Paul will oftendownplay his talents, but make no mistake ± Paul is a visionary. He also changed the game. Iknow there were a lot of people who thought that we wouldn¶t be able to win that byelection inSeptember, but the skeptics were wrong. Paul scored that critical touchdown and the people of Calgary Glenmore sent a very clear message.That victory convinced everyone in this province that we are a player - and it hasn¶t stoppedsince. We are polling first or second in every poll and there is no sign of it letting up.As of tonight, because of Guy joining our caucus, when we return to the legislature with four members in the fall we will be an official party.Provided of course the Speaker doesn¶t try to find some way to change the rules to prevent it.So far he¶s interfered with us every step of the way. He prevented us from getting a fair number of questions in question period. He blocked us in trying to get fair caucus funding. He¶s evennitpicked over whether my picture is allowed to be on our caucus website. This is how ridiculousthe fight is ± because they hope that their pettiness will take our focus off of the issues that areimportant to Albertans ± energy, the environment, health care, education and balancing the books. Well, guess what ± it won¶t.The Wildrose Caucus will not forget that our job is to fight for Albertans ± every day.And the Speaker needs to remember that his job is to serve the interests of all Albertans andensure fair representation and fair debate in the Legislature. Time and again he has failed in thatrole and failed Albertans. And make no mistake; it is Ed Stelmach who has given the Speaker permission to run roughshod over Alberta¶s democracy.Ed Stelmach and the PCs do not respect democracy. That is why so many people are joining our party. The examples abound.MLAs kicked out of caucus or threatened with punishment for speaking out for their constituents.Alberta¶s leadership role on holding Senate elections abandoned for no good reason.All the thinly veiled threats to city councils, school boards and county councils that they won¶tget money for their municipalities and school divisions if they don¶t support the PCs.

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All the people and business owners who have said they are joining us despite their fear thegovernment might retaliate against them.Who among us ever expected to see a time when Albertans would be afraid of their owngovernment?It is wrong and it must stop ± and we¶re going to see to it that it does stop! But do you knowwhat this behaviour does show? It shows that the government is afraid of us ± afraid of the risingtide of support for the Wildrose. (Applause)The only reason this government has moved 2 inches to the right is because of you in this room.When a party that didn¶t exist until 2 1/2 years ago can collect 1000 people in this room - 1000 people hungry for change- when it now has 4 MLAs, official party status, is polling neck andneck or even ahead of the government, there is something happening in this province.I think Albertans are as shocked as we are by the behaviour of this government, having seen thegames they play, having seen how they treat Albertans, having seen how they push around political leaders, and bully their own caucus. I know I don¶t recognize them as the party I oncesupported. They are no longer motivated by doing what is right. They don¶t know who they are.They don¶t know what they are doing. They have no vision at all. All they are interested in isretaining power at any cost.We know that the PCs are running around the province ± on Albertans¶ tax dollars ± trying tofigure out how to defeat us. They will use every lever of power to try to trip us up. They will notthink twice before they misrepresent our policies and what we stand for. And they will continueto try and spend their way back into government.We will have to fight for everything. We will have to fight for what is good for Albertans. Wewill have to fight for what is right for Alberta. And we will have to prepare ourselves for a political battle ± the likes of which this province has not seen in a generation.I¶m ready for that battle. Our elected MLAs are ready for that battle. Our party executive andstaff are ready for that battle. Are you ready? Are you ready? I can hardly hear you? (Applause)What we are seeing in Alberta is an historic political realignment. This is why we are receivingnational coverage and attention. This is why the Economist magazine ± in far-off Britain ± wrotea story about our party. People everywhere are asking: what is going on in wild rose country?We in the Wildrose party know the answer. As I have been travelling our great province duringthe past year, Albertans are telling me loud and clear. Average Albertans from all over the province ± many who have never been involved in politics before ± are standing up and saying:we¶ve had enough.We¶ve had enough of incompetent leadership.