DANIELLE SMITH’S SUCCESS IN MAINSTREAMING CONSPIRACY THINKING AND VACCINE HESITANCY IS DRIVING DEADLY CONSEQUENCES IN ALBERTA AND BEYOND
Danielle Smith’s government in Alberta has presided over the worst per capita measles outbreak in North America — a direct result of collapsing public trust in vaccines, fueled in no small part by her promotion of fringe ideas, anti-scientific rhetoric, and policies that pander to conspiracy-laced narratives.
Smith Amplified COVID-19 Misinformation and Empowered Anti-Vaccine Movements
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, Smith positioned herself as a champion of the so-called “Freedom” movement — those opposed to mask mandates, lockdowns, and especially vaccine requirements. She repeatedly framed vaccinated Canadians as participants in mass hysteria, compared vaccine mandates to historical atrocities (including the Holocaust), and openly sympathized with the 2022 “Freedom Convoy,” which disrupted Ottawa and symbolized the growing alignment between far-right populism and anti-public health ideology.
These public positions validated and energized conspiracy movements, whose rhetoric has since migrated from COVID-19 vaccines to childhood immunizations like the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) shot.
Her government did not course-correct. Instead, it disbanded scientific advisory panels, removed public health messaging from top communications priority, and let vaccine misinformation flourish particularly in rural and religious communities already suspicious of government.
Alberta's Public Health Strategy Under Smith Is Deliberately Deregulated
Rather than confront the threat of measles head-on with aggressive vaccination campaigns, mobile units, and mandates, Smith’s UCP government has maintained a laissez-faire approach.
Her administration lowered the eligibility age for measles vaccines in response to this year’s outbreak but only after cases skyrocketed.
Messaging has been muted, fragmented, and deeply influenced by her libertarian disdain for centralized public health efforts.
Public health officers in Alberta, like Dr. Vivien Suttorp, have made clear that this measles outbreak is unlike anything they’ve seen in decades.
And yet the UCP’s silence and inaction stand in stark contrast to the proactive campaigns deployed in past public health emergencies.
Smith has not only failed to treat vaccine hesitancy as a crisis she has helped create it.
Smith’s Anti-Expert Bias Undermines Trust in Science
Danielle Smith has cultivated a culture of suspicion toward doctors, scientists, and institutions.
She appointed advisers with no background in epidemiology, publicly questioned the science of COVID-19 transmission, and gave airtime to unproven or dangerous treatments.
In doing so, she helped normalize the idea that government health advice is untrustworthy a message that now endangers children who are too young to be vaccinated or who live in communities where vaccination has been delayed or rejected.
This deliberate erosion of expert authority has consequences.
In southern Alberta, MMR vaccine uptake has dropped nearly 50% since 2019.
Smith’s government has done little to reverse that trend.
Meanwhile, the communities most vulnerable to disinformation rural, religious, and culturally isolated populations — are the ones paying the price.
A Wider Shift: From Political Grievance to Public Health Rebellion
Smith’s government has turned COVID-era grievance politics into a broader, systemic challenge to public health infrastructure.
What began as opposition to vaccine mandates has morphed into suspicion of all vaccines.
Smith’s rhetoric, like that of Trump or RFK Jr. in the U.S., gave permission for vaccine skeptics to distrust measles immunizations, even though the consequences are far more severe for unprotected children.
While Mennonite communities in Ontario were part of the outbreak’s early phase, it is Alberta under Smith’s leadership that is now the epicentre.
Her refusal to confront this crisis with strong science-based leadership signals a dangerous shift: ideology has replaced immunology.
Conclusion: Danielle Smith Has Enabled a Public Health Collapse by Mainstreaming Misinformation and Undermining Vaccine Trust
Smith’s success lies not in sound governance, but in how effectively she has channeled and amplified vaccine hesitancy and anti-scientific beliefs.
Alberta’s current measles crisis is not a random outbreak it is the predictable result of a political ideology that rejects expert consensus, dismantles public health, and coddles conspiratorial thinking in the name of personal freedom. Canadians across the country and especially children are now suffering the consequences.
DANIELLE SMITH BEARS DIRECT POLITICAL AND MORAL ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE VACCINE HESITANCY DRIVING ALBERTA’S MEASLES OUTBREAK
Danielle Smith is not merely a passive figure amid Alberta’s measles crisis she is an active architect of the conditions that allowed it to escalate.
Her government’s dismantling of public health protections, elevation of conspiracy-driven rhetoric, and calculated pandering to anti-vaccine constituencies have created an environment in which vaccine-preventable diseases are resurging.
The consequences are not theoretical: children are suffering because Smith chose ideology over immunology.
She legitimized anti-science views with the power of her office
As premier, Smith used her platform to repeatedly question vaccine safety, criticize mandates, and sympathize with anti-government protestors who view public health policy as tyranny.
Her framing of vaccinated Canadians as “panicked” or “brainwashed” during COVID, and her comparisons of vaccine mandates to Nazi persecution, contributed to a political climate where distrust in medicine was not only acceptable it was valorized.
This rhetoric has lingered and metastasized into broader vaccine refusal, including against childhood immunizations like the MMR.
She gutted Alberta’s public health infrastructure when it was most needed
Smith’s government disbanded or sidelined public health experts, removed vaccine advocacy from the province’s communications strategy, and allowed misinformation to go unchecked all during a period when MMR uptake was in freefall.
Her libertarian hostility toward centralised public health led to deliberate under-resourcing of vaccination efforts, particularly in rural Alberta.
The province’s public health response has been reactive and tepid far too little, far too late.
She gave political cover to vaccine refusal
By aligning herself with the “Freedom Convoy” and making repeated gestures of solidarity with anti-mandate figures, Smith reinforced a narrative that mistrust of vaccines is a valid political stance.
She elevated vaccine hesitancy from private belief to public identity, granting it respectability within her political base.
This has real consequences: measles is one of the most contagious diseases known to science, and it requires over 95% vaccine coverage to prevent outbreaks.
Alberta is well below that threshold and Smith’s policies have deepened the gap.
She failed to launch an emergency campaign when the outbreak began
Despite early warnings from local public health officials and rising case numbers, Smith did not treat the measles outbreak with the urgency it demanded.
Her government delayed lowering the vaccine eligibility age, failed to launch province-wide educational campaigns, and made no serious attempt to counter anti-vaccine misinformation spreading through communities.
Her silence during the outbreak’s rise speaks volumes.
When lives were at risk, she chose not to lead.
Accountability means responsibility for the consequences of one’s choices
Danielle Smith cannot claim ignorance or inevitability.
The data was available.
The solutions were known.
Instead, she nurtured political capital by catering to anti-vaccine sentiment, abandoned Alberta’s tradition of strong public health leadership, and allowed a disease eradicated in 1998 to return and spread.
Her accountability is total because her choices were deliberate.
The measles outbreak is not just a tragedy.
It is a policy outcome.
And Smith owns it.