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“Oh, my gosh, it’s night and day,” says former Wildrose leader Danielle Smith, when she compares the Progressive Conservative handling of the 2013 flood with the NDP’s fire response today.

As the MLA for devastated High River, she says, “I wasn’t told anything by the government.

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“I had to chase around to their press conferences and then try to tell my people what was going on. They didn’t tell the residents anything either — just that they couldn’t go home.”

Smith says today’s fire communication is “brilliant” by comparison. She praises the detailed public briefings and releases, the extended telephone town halls with evacuated residents, and release of satellite maps and other data.

By almost cosmic coincidence, today’s Wildrose leader, Brian Jean, also represents the area at the heart of the disaster, Fort McMurray.

Smith is impressed by the trust Premier Rachel Notley shows in Jean, especially after her own shunning at the hands of Alison Redford’s PCs.