DANIELLE SMITH
A self-described “proud Albertan,” Danielle Smith has reinvented herself throughout her career, working in media, business and politics, then cycling back again. Born and raised in Calgary, Smith’s parents (both commerce graduates who worked in the oil sands) named her Marlaina Danielle after the B-side song Marlena by The Four Seasons — but she has always gone by Danielle.
Smith has bachelor’s degrees in English and economics from the University of Calgary. After a research internship at the Fraser Institute, she was director of the Canadian Property Rights Research Institute. Smith then transitioned to media, hosting a national current affairs talk show on Global TV and joining the Calgary Herald as an editorial writer and columnist.
From 2006 to 2009, Smith was the director of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business before becoming the leader of the Wildrose Party, a position she held until December 2014, when she crossed the floor to join then premier Jim Prentice’s Progressive Conservatives.
After losing her bid for a Progressive Conservative nomination in Highwood in 2015, which many considered fallout for her floor-crossing, Smith returned to radio as a talk show host for Corus Entertainment.
When Smith left her nearly six-year talk show in February 2021, she explained her departure in a commentary piece: “Unfortunately over the last few years far too many topics have become unchallengeable.”
Smith then moved back to business advocacy as a lobbyist and president of the Alberta Enterprise Group while hosting video interviews online with people she said had been off limits on her radio show.
After her predecessor, Jason Kenney resigned as United Conservative Party party leader in 2022, Smith announced she was launching a leadership campaign. “The membership of the United Conservative Party is hungry for a leader that will be responsive and fight for the interests of Alberta,” she wrote in a statement at the time. Now the UCP leader, Smith was sworn in as Alberta’s 19th premier in October 2022.