EDMONTON, AB
In a recently resurfaced music video from the mid-90s, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was caught on camera saying that “75% of Albertans are all crazy Mennonites living in an Amish paradise.”
“Hitchin’ up the buggy, churnin’ lots of butter,” said Smith, who went by ‘Weird Danielle’ in those days, “raised a barn on Monday, soon they’ll raise another.”
The words were part of an hour-long tyrade against plain folks who just do whatever the elders tell them to do and problematically equated Mennonites to the Amish.
“They think they’re really righteous. They think they’re pure at heart,” said Weird Danielle. “But I know I’m a million times as humble as thou art.”
The video features Smith appropriating Amish attire and shockingly, as the video was filmed just days before Remembrance Day, not wearing a poppy.
“I never wear buttons, but I got a cool hat,” said Weird Danielle. “And my homies all I agree, I really look good in black.”
Smith has apologized for the offensive video saying she should have chosen her words more carefully.
“I used to think it would probably bite,” said Weird Danielle, “living in an Amish paradise. But now I know we don’t fight, we just play nice … We’re all crazy Mennonites living an Amish paradise.”
Albertans will decide this May 29 whether Weird Danielle will stay on as Premier or go back to her old career of making parody music videos.
(original lyrics from “Amish Paradise” by ‘Weird’ Al Yankovic)
(photo credit: Dave Cournoyer/CC)