Stick a fork in Danielle Smith…

She’s done… With two more of her legislative caucus leaving, this is only the latest hit to the Wildrose party under her leadership in recent months .

To recap, it all started back at the end of October when the Wildrose Party failed to pick up even one seat in four provincial by-elections, coming in third in one of the Calgary ridings. This was followed by loss of one of the parties MLAs when he left the party to sit as an independent. Next was the parties policy convention where the enshrinement of LGBT rights which had been mentioned in previous policy statements were retracted, despite the support of Smith and her caucus for the retention of the policy. This caused the rather public resignation of a riding vice-president. Finally we have two additional Wildrose MLAs leaving the caucus, this time to sit as Progressive Conservatives.

One has to wonder at this time how much longer the membership will support Smith. She avoided a leadership review at the policy convention which given events since the convention was probably a good thing for Smith personally. Her party’s fortunes with her at the helm however may be another thing. Smith was elected as leader because she gave a veneer of moderation to a party perceived to be full of hard-line social conservatives, which even in Alberta would have a difficult time winning seats. With the results of the policy convention it would seem that the membership is tiring of moderation (such as Smith is a moderate) and Smith is unable to convince them otherwise. When this starts happening, how long can she maintain the confidence of those she leads? How long until she takes a walk in the snow?