“With respect to MLAs who have stated their position, in this province we believe in freedom of speech. We believe in democracy.” – Jason Kenney after 16 UCP MLAs challenged his public health measures.
Does Premier Kenney lie awake at night wondering how he got here?
He should, because “here” is a pretty awful place.
The poll
When it comes to how well Kenney is managing the pandemic a recent Angus Reid survey found 45% of Albertans think his public health rules have gone too far; 42% think they don’t go far enough and 75% think he’s doing a bad job.
And if that’s not enough, 25% of his caucus publicly disagree with his approach and are telling their constituents they will continue to “fight” his public health restrictions.
We all knew Kenney was a divisive politician. The big question is: how did he manage to polarize Alberta to this extreme over a matter of science, not ideology.
Balance
Kenney says the decision to impose public health restrictions is “based on science, data, and expert advice from the chief medical officer.”*
That’s not entirely correct.
Kenney’s so-called evidence-based decision making is warped by his oft-stated desire to find “balance.” He’s only prepared to impose public health restrictions that reach the right level of balance between lives and livelihoods.
Think about that for a moment.
How many lives must be lost or impaired before the government takes actions that impact livelihoods? Two? Two hundred? Two thousand? 42% of Albertans think too many lives have been lost or impaired already. And Covid-19 and the variants are not done with us yet.
Now flip that “balance” around. How much damage to livelihoods is acceptable before the government gives businesses the greenlight to reopen? 45% of Albertans think Kenney has already passed the point of no return.
Basing a public health policy on the belief that lives and livelihoods can be traded off one against the other is immoral. It’s also politically stupid.
Throughout the course of the pandemic Kenney told Albertans his government’s public health restrictions infringed their Charter rights and freedoms. He neglected to mention that Section 1 of the Charter gives his government the power to curtail such rights and freedoms under certain circumstances. If a global pandemic ravaging the population isn’t one such a circumstance, I don’t know what is.
Nevertheless many Albertans use Kenney’s words to justify their refusal to follow the rules.
So it’s not surprising that 16 UCP MLAs signed an open letter to Albertans saying they were defending the livelihoods and freedoms of their constituents by asking their “Government colleagues” to reject the Apr 6 restrictions.
Democracy in action?
Kenney, the man who was quick to denounce a Bigfoot cartoon, refuses to publicly reprimand the errant MLAs. He says their comments are nothing more than “democratic debate on a matter of public policy.”
Ummm, no.
The errant MLAs were actively undermining public health orders passed by their own government pursuant to the Public Health Act to protect the lives and health of Albertans in a global pandemic.
This is like the government issuing an evacuation order to get out of the path of a forest fire and a bunch of MLAs fighting for their constituents’ right to stay at home and fry.
Violating the Public Health Act is serious business; just ask Paster Coates of Grace Life Church who has been charged under the Act and will go to trial in May.
When Kenney downplays the seriousness of the MLAs’ comments, he emboldens Albertans to defy public health restrictions, which supercharges the spread of virus and increases the strain on our overtaxed healthcare system.
Politics
But the upshot of the MLAs’ open letter debacle is this: what Kenney said in the Legislature is not what he said in private.
Behind closed doors he did not laud the MLAs for exercising their right to free speech and fighting for the livelihoods and freedoms of their constituents. Instead, he told them that if they lacked confidence in the government, he’d call a snap election.
This was a bluff but it likely caught them by surprise.
Now that they’ve had time to think about it, they probably realize their open letter wasn’t a vote of nonconfidence in the government that would trigger an election but a vote of nonconfidence in the UCP leader which, in normal times, would cause the leader to resign and be replaced by someone else.
Kenney expects things to get back to normal by the summer. That will give the errant MLAs (who have no future whatsoever in Kenney’s UCP) and their constituents plenty of time to work on replacing him or defecting to an incarnation of the Wildrose.
Which brings us back to where we started.
Does Premier Kenney lie awake at night wondering how he got here?
He should because he won’t be here for long.
*All quotes from Hansard, Apr 8, 2021, starting at p 4386
Susan on the Soapbox 
Susan: Thanks for another great blog. The UCP are in tatters, fractured, broken, and do not even agree with each other. Once more, Alberta leads the country in having the highest per capita rate of people with covid. The UCP are the ones responsible for this, with what messages they are giving to Albertans on covid, and their failure to plan with the covid affair, (like their failure to plan with other things). If the UCP are tanking in the polls, it’s not a surprise. They have the same arrogant, entitled, and undemocratic attitude that the Alberta PCs had for decades, which Albertans finally got them thrown out of office in 2015. (This should have happened in the early 1990s.) I cannot see the UCP lasting beyond 2023, with all the very costly mistakes they keep making. On the other hand, knowing the UCP, they will lie and cheat their way back into power. It will be a rough two years until 2023.
Dwayne, you mention the UCP lying and cheating their way back into power. I agree that is a real concern, particularly since Kenney has adopted Trump’s tactic of saying something and then denying he ever said it.
For example, I read that Kenney tried to deny he ever said covid was “an influenza”.
Well guess what, Hansard and the highlight reel from May 27,2020 records him saying we can’t completely eradicate the spread of an “influenza of this nature.”
He goes on to say the average age of death from covid is 83, he reminds the House that the life expectancy in Alberta is 82 (so look, those who died of covid got a whole extra year).
He says we can’t continue indefinitely to impair the social, economic, mental health and physiological health of the broader population “for a influenza” that doesn’t generally threaten life apart from the most elderly, the immunocompromised and those with comorbidities.
Covid is taking the young and healthy now. I wonder what their lives are worth on Kenney’s scale.
Totally nailed it! Thank you!
Thanks pclipper2015. Much appreciated!
This whole debate is based on a false premise: that you can bargain with a virus — an inanimate, immotile, sub-microscopic particle, consisting of a tiny bundle of genetic material encased in a protein coat, on the cusp between living & non-living. We’re not faced with a choice between a healthy economy & a healthy population; were faced with a choice between life & death, in which there is no economy if all the customers are dead.
We know what we have to do: we’ve seen it in New Zealand, in Australia, in Atlantic Canada. Get the case counts down to near zero, so contact tracing can once again keep up, & so the economy can begin to reopen safely.
When this is over, and Canadians begin to take stock of the death toll, there will be a serious reckoning with those politicians that refused to take this seriously.
Well stated Jerry. When ideology trumps science, the population as a whole will suffer, and yes, there will be a day of reckoning, not only for politicians, but for the anti-mask, anti-vaccine slobs who kept this pandemic going longer than it should. (This would include certain delusional, self-serving “Christian”? leaders…as well.
Well put Jerrymacgp. Your bargaining analogy is perfect. We were two months into covid when Kenney told the House we couldn’t restrict the economy indefinitely (not that anyone was arguing that we should).
Andre Picard summed up the debate very well in today’s Globe. He said the 3 territories and 4 Atlantic provinces did so much better than the rest of Canada because of their “strict, no-nonsense pandemic-control measures” and concluded that “political will and public buy-in matter more than resources ” in controlling the spread of the virus.
Given Kenney’s position that (1) it’s just an influenza, (2) it just affects the frail and elderly and (3) any restrictions are a violation of our Charter rights, it’s no wonder 500 people gathered on the steps of the Legislature chanting Dr HInshaw’s name and demanding she be locked up.
Thank you Susan. Your writing is excellent as usual. I think the pretend premier doesn’t lay awake at night wondering how he got to this point. That would mean that he has a conscience. We have seen, by his actions throughout his life, especially during the last year, that he really doesn’t have one.
Sharon, it’s interesting watching Kenney flop around on this issue. He started by excusing the anti-mask protests as people simply expressing their Charter rights of free speech and assembly. Now he says some of the people protesting his restrictions are “unhinged conspiracy theorists”. I’m not sure what he thinks about the rest of the protesters given that they’re all at the same event chanting “lock her up” like deranged Trumpsters.
Kenney certainly doesn’t appear to be qualified to manage the province and should be replaced.
Kenney couldn’t manage an outhouse.
🙂 🙂 🙂
Even the outhouse would stink
Paul and Carlos: Kenney’s lack of leadership has become painfully obvious, even to his supporters. I wonder what he’ll do after his pitiful stint as Premier is over, go to work with Harper at the International Democratic Union?
Fred, I suspect there are many in his party that are plotting to do that even as we speak. Frankly anything to upset the UCP apple cart is a good thing in my view.
Another great post, Susan! I’d love to see all the rotten apples in the UCP apple cart crash into the solid NDP wall of sanity in the 2023 election, unless a splinter-group of right-wing extremists turfs Kenney and we go to the polls earlier–in which case, they too will get dumped and AB can, like the USA under Biden, start the healing process. Let’s hope.
Thanks Judy. Like you I’m watching the slo-mo destruction of the UCP. There are 6 conservative governments in Canada’s provinces and territories. Not one of them has experienced the internal strife we’re seeing with Kenney’s UCP. If this is Kenney being “united” I’d hate to see him being “divisive”.
🙂 🙂 🙂
Well I prefer not to see
Mr. Kenney has no competence or mandate making, delaying, interfering or over-riding decisions that directly affect the lives and health of Albertans made by the Chief Medical Officer of Health.
Kenney has absolutely, deliberately, traded the lives of the most vulnerable, or most unfortunate, of Albertans so that small businesses, like tattoo parlors, and like restaurants which are widely considered to be one of the main vectors of virus transmission, can remain open.
Kenney needs to be held accountable for the needless deaths of dozens, if not hundreds, of Albertans.
Mike Priaro: you are absolutely right. The man who “holds the pen” is the man who needs to answer for what he’s unleashed in this province.
I don’t think we know the full extent of Kenney’s mismanagement yet because the numbers we get from the government keep changing.
At yesterday’s press conference a reporter pointed out that Kenney said Alberta has the best vaccination rate in the country, but the data show Alberta has the 4th lowest rate. Kenney replied there was a problem with counting the doses because the pharmacies and Blue Cross weren’t reporting them correctly. If this is true, it’s very concerning because the government website says everyone will get a reminder when its time to get their second shot; how can people get a reminder for their second shot, if the government doesn’t know whether they’ve had their first shot. Also what’s Blue Cross got to do with it. The shots are free.
Susan, thanks yet again, for an enlightening piece. As usual, some great comments above and all I can add is that I loved this analogy: “This is like the government issuing an evacuation order to get out of the path of a forest fire and a bunch of MLAs fighting for their constituents’ right to stay at home and fry.”
Thanks Mare. When we look across Canada, there isn’t one province or territory that’s experienced as much dissension within its ranks as Kenney’s UCP. He’s trying to hold his government (and party) together but it’s just a matter of time before it all goes to hell in a hand basket.
It’s going to be interesting, that’s for sure.
Thanks Susan… bang on !
We should not be surprised when this province elected a person who lacks vision in the bigger picture. Its pathetic
Very true Bota28, very true!!
I said a few months ago that we’d see a new Premier in this Province before we saw tulips. I think I’m right on schedule.
About those dumbass nutjobs out and about at Gracelife yesterday; it’s disgusting! And demoralizing. They should all be severely punished.
Political Ranger what’s interesting about those nutjobs is Grace Life church said not one of them was a member of their congregation. Also these people protesting in support of another church’s freedom of religion did so by trespassing on the Enoch Cree land.
This is a public health issue. Tens of thousands of churches, mosques and synagogues have found a way to worship without violating public health rules. What makes these guys so special?
(a note to Ms. Soapbox and her readers: I have two web links in the following rant, so I’m splitting it into two sections.–MJD)
Whose fault? Kenney’s. No one else (part 1)
This entire mess is largely Kenney’s fault. He’s put himself between a rock (Alberta politics) and a hard place (the Covid-19 pandemic). Now he’s being ground down by the rock that he pulled over on himself. Two problems have collided, and Kenney’s responsible for both.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/road-ahead-alberta-polarization-covid-lisa-young-1.5981824
First, Kenney was dismissive of the severity of the pandemic from Day 1. Calling it a kind of flu, and telling people it wasn’t a big was exactly what Kenney’s most loyal supporters–the infamous “Base”–and his corporate sponsors–like Restaurants Canada–wanted to hear. In a way, the lockdown during the first wave made it easy to dismiss the virus as a non-threat. Instead of learning that strong measures work against the virus, Kenney et al figured, “Hey, that was easy. Why all the doom-saying? We don’t need to worry anymore!”
Mike: I’d forgotten about the Restaurants Canada angle. Very good point. I was just reading the press release offering relief to medium and small businesses. It appears that the Kenney government expects to spend up to $850 million on covid business relief. This is interesting when you consider Kenney gave $1.5 billion (plus god knows how much in loan guarantees) to TC Energy’s for KXL and $408 million to Inter Pipeline, neither of which were in danger of going under.
Kenney talks a good line as far as supporting Alberta businesses but his preference seems to be for big business not medium/small business.
Whose fault? Kenney’s. No one else. (Part 2)
Kenney’s dismissal of the pandemic get even worse with the political fallout. Remember how, in the 2019 election campaign, Kenney riled up the looney-right separatist fringe? That bunch includes more than its share of “I-know-my-rights” types, who just hate being told what to do–especially by a government. They also managed to conflate religious freedom with “don’t tell me what to do.”
Now Kenney’s trying to back-track and claim the pandemic is a real threat, after all. he’s trying to straddle the fence he built himself; and if he’s careless or just unlucky he’ll be impaled on it.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/not-so-united-conservatives-kenney-being-punished-politically-for-doing-the-right-thing-1.5980772
Now the damfools inside and outside Kenney’s cabinet are howling that it’s unfair that they have do to more than (the very little) they did before. They blame Kenney because they think he “betrayed” them–and that’s Kenney’s fault, and his alone.
Mike: I enjoyed your links which paint an interesting picture of a leader who continues to be blind to the problems he’s creating.
I will be interested to see how the vaccination program rolls out. We started with the head of the covid emergency committee (Tracy Allard) flying to Hawaii for the Christmas break and Kenney relying on “personal responsibility” to keep us safe. Then when that didn’t work he yo-yoed back and forth with minimal restrictions all the while complaining that Trudeau was too slow or too fast on delivering the vaccines. He told Albertans they could pick and choose which vaccine they wanted. He said pharmacies were offering walk-in appointments (this was news to pharmacies). He’s been promising appointments at doctors’ offices for weeks.
Alberta’s reopening plan was based on the number of hospitalizations, then at his press conference he said the benchmark would be the percentage of the population who’ve been vaccinated (I think he means one dose) or has “natural immunity” (god only knows what that means).
So we’re in a mess.
I heard a doctor on CBC radio say that uncertainty makes the stress of covid worse and one thing governments can do is be clear in their communications to the public.
Well, that’s not happening here. And as you said, much of this is Kenney’s fault and his alone.
Thanks Susan. You give a good summary of the Kenney gov’t response to the evolving pandemic situation. There’s a difference between responding to changing conditions, and blindly flailing because you don’t have a clue what to do. Guess which best describes Kenney & Co. I’m convinced the only planned responses have come from Dr. Hinshaw–when she was allowed to.
Well this is a reply to Political Range but somehow today is WordPress stuck day and it is refusing to accept it as a reply so I post it as a normal post
Political Ranger I am 100% with you
It is about time that Jason Kenney supporters realize that there are consequences when they break the law. He was very fast on creating laws to control activists but it seems his evangelical friends have different treatment. It took breaking the law constantly for something to happen.
Not surprising really when Jason Kenney can do whatever he wants and not being punished either. Where is the RCMP investigation? Waiting for him to lose the election and then tell us he was guilty? The usual and than people get surprised Canadians in general are sick and tired of politics and the political class that seems to believe they can do whatever they feel like and get away with it.
I have a solution for this lack of respect for the citizens of this province and hopefully it will be way before the tulips show up. Enough of this total pile of crap.
Like you say it is not just embarrassing what is happening in this province. It is demoralizing, frustrating and sometimes feels like a Fellini movie.
Carlos, you raise a very good point, namely that breaking the law has consequences. As we know the UCP is the law and order party, so why is it permissible for AHS to say they’ll enforce the rules “as a last resort”?
Businesses, pubs, churches, gyms, etc continue to violate public health regulations. These regulations have been enacted to keep us safe. Consequently violation of these regulations are subject to fines: $1,000 per for each violation and with more serious violations between $100,000 to $500,000.
If an anti-mask nutbar or a “freedom loving” business is hit with the appropriate fine, continuing violations would stop and we’d all be safer for it.
As far as I can tell, our Mr. Kenney does not seem much inclined towards self reflection, so my answer to your question of whether he lies awake a night wondering how he got here, would be no. Although, he may lie awake at night for other reasons, like trying to figure out how to get out of this self created mess or trying to figure out who of his supposed supporters might try undermine him next.
If he actually is inclined to self reflection, he should start with focusing on the two dismal figures you mentioned – 75% of Albertans who think he doing a bad job and the 25% of his caucus that disagrees with him. If he has any hope of a political recovery, he will have to deal with both head on.
The Kenney UCP government has been heavy on symbolic distractions – Bigfoot, Provincial Police vs. RCMP, the War Room, Provincial CPP, etc.. In these he has excessively catered to the right wing of his own party, which perhaps he does not quite fully realize is not the mainstream of Alberta public views. Yes, a clever, but struggling politician can make use good use of an occasional, well timed distraction. However, this can be a double edged strategy. First the distraction should not take the government’s focus away from dealing with real problems people care about. Second, the distraction should help them gain support, not make things worse. Things like the big footing war room do neither, as do most of Kenney’s distractions which only really resonate with core supporters and also take his focus away from more relevant problems.
Dave, I was intrigued by your comments relating to Kenney’s over reliance on symbolic distractions, particularly your point that the “occasional, well timed distraction” can be effective but being in a chronic state of distraction does not make for good government.
This made me wonder whether the distractions (Fair Deal Panel, Anti-Alberta Energy Inquiry, War Room, etc) were intended to buy Kenney time to figure out how to lead, or whether they’re all he’s got because he’s lacking in vision. In any event government-by-distraction will not end well for the man or his party.
The knives are out, I hope they are sharp.
I agree.
My MLA (a normally compliant back-bencher) is one of these signers. I can’t help but wonder if the old outcast Wildrosers are smelling blood…
Brian Jean has been making some political noises again, I think. I mean either it’s him or it’s the guy who starred in the movie “Fargo”. I’ve always had a hard time telling those two apart, physically and morally… and then there is Danielle Steele, who is still in Alberta and, to my understanding, agrees with many southern FUBARS who have decided covid is just a flu; that ought to play well with the 45% of Alberta’s population who feel they should just ‘give ‘er!’
The Used Car Partiers’ motto:
“And don’t we have all the idiots on our side? And ain’t that a big enough majority in any town?” – Samuel Clemens
Kim Epp and Comment: it does feel like a blood in the water moment, doesn’t it.
Drew Barnes has been all over the media after the publication of the open letter. He never mentioned Kenney by name, but he does an incredible job of tearing apart Kenney’s restrictions and demanding they be replaced by “common sense” measures which (surprise) do not include “non-pharmaceutical solutions”. This is Barnes-speak for forget social distancing and mask-wearing, open things up and hopefully the vaccine or herd immunity will save us.
Sadly people are ignoring the restrictions and more and more of them are falling sick.
GoinFawr Loved the Samuel Clemens quote. Here’s another that’s equally appropriate: ‘Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.’
In yet another addition to the Jason Kenney To-Deny List, the UCP government announced they will repeal parts of Bill 10, the Public Health Emergency Powers Amendment Act (passed in April 2020). Specifically, the parts that gave the Minister of Health (y’all know who) the power to unilaterally amend legislation by Ministerial order. (The bill was challenged by the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms, the “I-know-my-rights” group founded by John Carpay, a [former?] friend of Jason Kenney.)
(https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-bill-removes-mandatory-vaccinations-repeals-bill-10-powers-1.5984531
The Public Health Act was “more than 100 years old” when it was amended by the UCP. Why am I not surprised they over-reached?
Mike Danysh (a.k.a. “Mike in Edmonton”
Mike: remember that old commercial “When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen”.
For the longest time John Carpay was Kenney’s E.F. Hutton, supporting Kenney when he attacked Notley’s legislation that blocked schools from barring gay-straight alliances, etc. But things have changed. As you point out Carpay went after Kenney’s legislation giving Shandro and other ministers sweeping powers to pass laws by Order in Council under the guise of being a necessary expansion of power due to covid. And now Carpay is suing the Kenney government for shutting down GraceLife Church.
I would love to be a fly on the wall when the two of the bump into each other at a fundraiser.
“Does Mr Kenney Lie Awake at Night?”
Nighttime/daytime, if Kenney’s awake, he’s lying to us.
🙂 🙂 🙂
Good one
I cannot notice the difference
GoinFawr and Carlos: yes, there’s a reason I chose the word “lie” in the title of this post. 🙂
Poll “…found 45% of Albertans think his public health rules have gone too far”
Dollars to doughnuts that of that 45% exactly 0% have ever worked in an ICU dealing with this disease, and 100% of the health care professionals that do will look at that 45% and think sadly to themselves,
“See you soon.”
I for one surely hope so because they deserve to see what is like to be on the other side taking care of idiots.
GoinFawr and Carlos: I wish the 45% could see what their resistance to restrictions has wrought. I’m aware of cases where a groups of people who think they’ll never get covid because they’re young and healthy suddenly understand the purpose of restrictions when one of them becomes seriously ill as a result of their cavalier attitude. And it’s never just one of them that gets sick, the virus is passed on into families, through kids to teachers, and to the doctors and nurses they expect to save them at the end of the day. Very selfish. Very stupid.
“When Kenney downplays the seriousness of the MLAs’ comments, he emboldens Albertans to defy public health restrictions”
Combined with Kenney’s comments regarding Charter rights, I would say it flat out CERTIFIES the defiance. I mean if anyone actually ends up in court couldn’t the defence actually quote the Premier directly?
So good luck getting any convictions, prosecutors.
Heh, the only ‘balance’ I can see is how hard Kenney and his UCP work at balancing talking out of both sides of their collective mouths.
Well businesses in the rural areas are challenging Jason Kenney’s authority. I do not blame them because a man that believes we are dealing with the flu cannot real see the big picture. So some are not closing. Furthermore inside his own party 18 are also openly challenging him. So what kind of government is this?
It is a new form of innovative government created in Alberta defined as ‘No one gives a crap about what the premier says or tries to say’.
The have a new title UCP ‘United Crippled Party’
That is a fitting popular moniker for the UCP. Unfortunately, politically they have been dealt a pat hand for this term. So Albertans had better prepare themselves for two more years of onerous legislation being rammed down their throats.
I am grateful that there are folk like Susan and yourself who possess the wherewithal to take notes, and make them known.
Carlos, as we said above. There’s no point in implementing restrictions if you’re not going to enforce them. Once again Kenney is trying to find a balance, this time between being seen to be doing something about the spread of the virus and not upsetting his political base. Like so many half-hearted measures, it’s not working.
GoinFawr: I’ve been waiting for a lawyer to chime in on whether Kenney’s actions would be actionable in a court of law. I can envision a case where a dope exercising his right to go drinking with his buddies in a pub that’s illegally open gets sick and infects someone’s dad. The dad dies, leaving the family with no financial or familial support. The family sues the dope for negligence and the dope pleads that he was only acting in accordance with Kenney’s guidance. Then Kenney has to say, no that’s not my guidance, I told the cheif medial officer to implement restrictions, and the family says, yes, and then you disregarded and downplayed the restrictions. Could be an interesting case.
I also wonder whether given how pandemics–once rare, but likely to become more common–could open up a whole new field of tort law.
Reading the news this afternoon makes me wonder the state of politics in our country.
We never have money for decent housing for everyone, no water for indigenous people or decent education and health care for their kids but when it comes to war we find all the money needed.
After 20 years since Canada spent 30 billion dollars in Afghanistan building schools and protecting people from violence, the Taliban is about to take over and destroy it all.
Next time think twice about getting our noses in someone else issues and always try to portray to be what we are not at home with our own people.
30 billion dollars would have resolved all the issues we are still battling to get some money for.
Stop false charity. Here at home we can make a difference to those who need our help.
You may say this is short sighted but as a Canadian I am tired of us putting other people first as if we do not have any needs at home just so politicians can drool their egos out in international meetings. .
One of these days reality will prevail in the meantime we all hold our breaths that somehow it will be way before 2023 – we all dream with the 18 Jacobite to grow to 30 and force an election
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/04/15/opinion/jason-kenneys-fantasy-island
Just Imagine what could be done with this money.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/fossil-fuel-subsidy-canada-1.5987392
This is what happens when people are so delusional that they grab whatever is available to try to win at any cost. Not one pilot project of this type of nuclear energy has ever been built but man is it splashy news for a premier that has not scored a goal in 2 years!
Wind, solar and geothermal are all proven and now even cheaper than oil but our genius premier now is on the band wagon of small nuclear reactors.
Coping with this lack of common sense and stupidity is worse than Covid-19
https://albertapolitics.ca/2021/04/more-flimflam-than-usual-in-yesterdays-four-province-news-conference-touting-small-nuclear-reactors/
“… a premier that has not scored a goal in 2 years.” Good one Carlos. Maybe we could trade him before the trade deadline. Even if we only got a sturdy equipment bag in return at least we’d have something useful.
Thank you Guy you made me laugh out loud
Yours is a good one
Beautiful day in Edmonton and it makes it so much easier to take these dreadful days of lies, deceit, mediocrity and scandal. I cannot even bear the news anymore and it makes me think if I even wanted his equipment bag at all.
I just want him gone preferably to a place that like him believe Covid-19 is just a flu like assistant to president Bolsonaro in Brazil where 3400 people are now dying a day and where the next variant that makes our vaccines useless is going to come from.
Then maybe this idiot will change his mind
Enjoy the spring weather Carlos. It will help to take your mind off of the current situation.
One of my mantras is “Nothing Lasts Forever” and you’re welcome to use it. I’d share more mantras with you but unfortunately all of the rest are filled with expletives. Still, Nothing Lasts Forever.
Got it – thank you – i agree
Hey Carlos. I just reread my post above and I realize that my hasty attempt at humour may have come across as being snarky or condescending. I assure you that was not my intent and I apologize if my words gave offense. I will be more careful in future posts.
For the record, I think your passion and concern for the topics here are admirable and I find myself in agreement with you on most, if not all, of the issues that we are all facing. Stay strong and be well.
No not at all Guy I understand fully what you meant
Thank you for your concern but rest assured I never took it that way.
You also stay strong and well and enjoy the summer. Hopefully we all will have a bit more freedom then last year.
Susan, this is an excellent post. Thanks so much for your clear insight into issues that can be complicated and also emotionally draining at times to deal with. I particularly liked that you pointed out the ongoing policy of trading off lives and livelihoods against one another. What Kenney refers to as ‘striking a balance’ is, just as you say, both stupid and immoral and, as we see in Alberta on a daily basis, also magnificently ineffective at curbing the spread of the virus.
It seems to me now that, having worked so long and hard at stoking the polarization that exists in this province, Kenny has determined himself that the situation is now unmanageable and is playing what surely must be one of the last cards in his deck. He is putting out the only message that both ends of the spectrum want to hear, that being that we’re nearly through this and we only need to hang on a little longer. Here’s an article where he displays his optimism for the future. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/deena-hinshaw-covid-vaccines-1.5976506
The contradiction, of course, is that he has also said recently something to the effect that “in the race between vaccines and variants, the variants are winning.” This was his justification for the latest round of increased restrictions. So which is it? With the daily surges in both active COVID cases and hospitalizations it appears that the variants are still winning and that any talk of a speedy return to normalcy is merely a political attempt to pacify the masses and bridge some of the polarization that exists. As of today, Alberta has administered just over 69% of the vaccines that it has received which, I believe, puts us in 8th place on a list of 10 provinces and 3 territories so I don’t share Jason’s enthusiasm for our vaccine delivery either. It’s almost as though Kenney’s newfound optimism for the future isn’t really based in reality at all. A more cynical person than myself might even conclude that it’s more an act of political desperation than a demonstration of leadership, but who can say for sure. Maybe he thinks that channeling Mr. Roarke will lead Albertans out of this mess. “Smiles everyone. Smiles!”
Very well said Guy
Thank you
Guy, thanks for this excellent comment and the link. It is very concerning to hear Kenney say: “Even at the height of the second…wave, back in December, we topped out at just under 1,900 cases a day. Now. we’re well on our way to exceeding that.”
Surely Kenney could have seen this coming based on his modeling and past experience with the first and second wave. This should come as no surprise.
And yet here we are with Kenney continuing to impose half measures, failing to push enforcement if people break the rules, and prattling on about us having the best summer yet.
He should have just one message: “We will do everything in our power to save lives and if that means going into full lock down, complete with stay at home orders, then so be it.”
One more thought, Susan, Kenney lies awake at night, lies awake in the morning, and lies all day long!
Susan: Here are two more interesting things I found in the conservative world in Canada. It is unreal.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/18/ontario-covid-lockdown-doug-ford-canada/
https://globalnews.ca/news/7767335/japanese-canadians-in-calgary-voice-concerns-about-alberta-draft-curriculum/amp/
Thanks Dwayne. The article about Japanese-Canadians’ concern about the curriculum redraft was deeply troubling. I was unable to get the other article to come up…hit a paywall or something.