Jeremy Appel

Twice resurrected from political death, Danielle Smith now serves as the friendly face of MAGA-style populism in Canada as Alberta’s premier.

From her short-lived tenure as a Calgary school board trustee to her decision to blow up the Wildrose Party and her most recent re-emergence as the conspiracy-minded, separatist-adjacent premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith has always demonstrated a penchant for following the prevailing winds within the global conservative movement.

With a little help from her friends in the mainstream media and corporate worlds, as well as her undeniable populist charisma and talents as a communicator, Smith successfully used pandemic anxieties and a uniquely Albertan style of grievance politics to mount her seemingly improbable comeback.

In Dark Phoenix, Jeremy Appel charts how Smith has risen from the ashes in alignment with dark, authoritarian forces who are using the spectre of U.S.-aligned Alberta separatism to restructure the state as a corporate entity, with Smith as its CEO.