To survive a leadership review at this weekend’s United Conservative Party convention, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is relying on two old adages: “dance with the one that brung you”; and “those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

That’s why Smith is pandering to the same social conservatives who helped topple Jason Kenney as UCP leader (and premier) in 2022 and who subsequently helped make her UCP leader (and thus premier) later that year.