So it seems the argument for a snap election is that things will only get worse for Smith and the UCP. This may well be true if Albertans are tiring of Smiths divisiveness and pandering to separatists.
However, I suspect they are are too arrogant and overconfident to realize what may happen at the point and are hopeful they can turn it around. If not, I suspect the UCP will do what they did last time and change leaders before the next election, put on a big under new management sign and pretend all the problems over the last few years were caused by someone else and had nothing to do with them. Heck, it worked last time.