The only reason I’m going to mention the Sky Palace scandal in the same post as the deaths of 215 Indigenous children at a former residential school in Kamloops BC is because the Sky Palace scandal pulled our focus away from Jason Kenney’s utterly inappropriate response to the history of Canada’s residential school policy.
Sky Palace Scandal
Let’s get the Sky Palace scandal out of the way first.
Last week Kenney and three of his cabinet ministers enjoyed a lovely dinner with some unidentified guests on the outdoor patio of the Federal Public Building. Dinner was a sit-down affair, complete with white tablecloths, San Pellegrino, wine and Jamison’s whiskey.
It was also a blatant violation of Alberta’s covid restrictions.
Dr Deena Hinshaw said it was a mistake, and that we should acknowledge our mistakes and move on to model the way forward. In essence, she gave Kenney an out—own your mistake and model better behavior in the future—he chose not to take it.
Instead he doubled down alleging:
- His dinner was “expressly permitted” under the outdoor gathering exemption. Tell that to Dr Hinshaw.
- The NDP would want Kenney to move the business meeting inside where there’s a higher risk of viral spread. No, they’d want Kenney to hold the meeting in accordance with the rules.
- The NDP is grousing because they want a hard lock-down. Not true and irrelevant.
- The NDP is hypocritical because they often socialized on the patio. Irrelevant, Covid-19 wasn’t ravaging the world between 2015—2019.
- Kenney et al paid for their own food and drink; besides Jamison’s is a budget whiskey. Who cares, still a violation of the rules.
- It was take-out not catered. Still a violation.
- Next week we could go to Stage 2 and have 20 people at outdoor gathering. That’s nice, this week that many people can’t eat on an outdoor patio.
This inane exchange took up airtime that should have been devoted to Kenney’s response to the discovery of the graves of 215 Indigenous children.
Residential schools
Kenney said the residential school policy was morally evil, wicked, and unjust.
And that’s where his condemnation ended. God forbid he say a bad word against John A Macdonald or the Catholic Church.
An intrepid reporter asked if he supported the Calgary School Board’s decision to rename Langevin school. Hector-Louis Langevin was John A Macdonald’s public works minister and together with Bishop Grandin helped implement Macdonald’s residential school policy.
Kenney said recognizing the evil of residential schools does not require us to remove central figures of Canadian history. That would be “cancel culture.”
He buttressed his cancel culture argument with a round of “whataboutism.”
What about Sir Wilfred Laurier who increased the “head tax” to restrict immigration from China, and Mackenzie King who prevented Jews from entering Canada in the holocaust, and Pierre Trudeau who imposed martial law in Quebec, and Tommy Douglas and members of the Famous Five who supported eugenics. We’d have to erase them too, right?
No, We’re not talking about erasing people.
We’re talking about rejecting the idea that people who used the power of the state or the church to forcibly take Indigenous children from their parents and assimilate them into Euro-Canadian culture should be honoured by putting them up on a pedestal and plastering their names on public buildings and infrastructure.
Yes, we must have a conversation about how to treat historical figures who did reprehensible things or held reprehensible beliefs, but today we’re talking about the 215 Indigenous children buried in unmarked graves at a former residential school in Kamloops and the politicians and clergymen who made it possible.
It’s not enough for Kenney to say he personally believes the residential school system “was unspeakably wicked and unjust” and a “great moral evil.”
Kenney is a political leader. As such he should be among the first to condemn the actions of those who created and implemented the residential school policies of the past and those who allow systemic racism to flourish in Canada today.
Anything less would be (to use Kenney’s words) a great moral evil.
Susan on the Soapbox 
Susan: Thanks for another great blog. It covers two very important topics. With the covid matter in Alberta, why is the premier of Alberta (if he can even be called that), and his MLAs clearly violating the rules that he expects Albertans to follow? It’s not the first time the UCP has done this. Remember Alohagate? The UCP had closed down the Legislature on claims of covid being a factor, then we see the premier and his MLAs on the Sky Palace (that Alison Redford had controversies over), drinking, not following covid protocols, and claiming to be working. Who is allowed to drink liquor on the job? When the premier tries to defend this, it is pathetic, at best. If we did this type of thing, we’d be given fines. If people drank on the job, wouldn’t they be fired? How do these MLAs get home, after they have been drinking? Now, we see UCP MLAs speaking out against this. Are they trying to redeem themselves and the UCP before the next provincial election? Although, one UCP MLA that spoke out against the Sky Palace incident, said she lost 5 relatives from covid. Dr. Deena Hinshaw has been totally controlled and manipulated by the UCP, that she doesn’t even denounce what just happened, even though she knows it’s clear that what went on was in violation of the UCP’s covid guidelines. It wasn’t a drone that took the photo, (that’s illegal to do in the core of a city), but an eagle eyed observer from a high-rise building in the vicinity. Alberta has had the highest per capita rate of people with covid in Canada, very often, and just last month, Alberta has had the highest per capita rate of people with covid in North America. This is how the UCP choose to behave.
The premier of Alberta, (if he can be even called that) is trying to whitewash history and cover up what happened with the residential school issue in Canada. I saw his speech on this and he seemed out of his depth. Sadly, there are Albertans who want to defend him on this, and the Sky Palace affair. The National Post, even featured him in an article, mentioning this very heartbreaking topic, and it’s horrible to read such drivel. What else is sickening is that people want to blame Pierre Trudeau for the residential school matter in Kamloops, when the issues surrounding that school came before he was in power. However, both federal political parties really should have addressed this situation, for as long as that residential school was in operation, with all the rest of them. John A MacDonald, Canada’s first Prime Minister, and a Conservative, wanted the First Nations and Metis in Canada wiped out. That’s been proven. The premier of Alberta gets indignant when the statue of John A MacDonald gets toppled. In other countries, where there were statues of brutal dictators, such as Josef Stalin, these statues were removed. They remember the atrocities of Josef Stalin, and still do so without the statues being present. Another appalling matter is that the UCP hired Christian Champion and Paul Bunner to help with the UCP’s education redo. They aren’t there anymore. The UCP have got to go.
Dwayne, thank you for your thoughtful comments. I agree, especially with the point that both federal political parties bear responsibility for what former justice minister Irwin Cotler called “the single most harmful, disgraceful and racist act in our history.” It is now 6 years after the TRC published its calls to action. There has been lots of talk but very little meaningful action.
I think I have to disagree with Susan here -.I know, unbelievable.
But “Kenney is a political leader.” is not an accurate statement, IMO. Jason Kenney is a politician who pretends to be a leader, but in truth, politics is the only thing and all he knows, & he has no idea what being a “leader” entails. In fact I think he is even failing at being a politician. A good politician would know when he needs to pretend to be compassionate & empathetic. He missed the boat on this one…..again.
Other than that, great as always, Susan. Thanks!
Well, if ever there was someone who knows about great moral evils, I reckon that person is occupying the premier’s office.
Connie, the thing that struck me about Kenney’s comment’s in the House was how he used words like “evil” and “unjust” and “immoral” to condemn residential schools without tying his condemnation back to the politicians and institutions that created them. It was as if these residential schools created themselves and once they were closed there was no need to hold anyone accountable for what happened in them.
Midge I take your point. Perhaps what I should have said is Kenney is supposed to be a political leader, but for a man who entered politics at age 29 and had the opportunity to observe many many leaders over the years he doesn’t appear to have learned much.
Please change marital to martial. This typo, however unintended, detracts from a fine argument.
Thanks Randy. Fixed it.
Jason Kenney and the United Clown Party just keep on giving and giving and giving. The hypocrisy and ineptitude are amazing! One would hope they might just go on a holiday until 2023 but of course next week you will be writing about some stupid thing they have done, Kenney of course will be blaming on someone else oh oh the HYPOCRISY!!!!
Paul, as you said, it’s a never ending deluge. I’m amazed Albertans have the stomach for it. Many of us are hanging on until 2023. If the UCP is re-elected, our family will seriously consider moving elsewhere. Interestingly, that “elsewhere” will have a PST and higher corporate taxes and a whole bunch of things which at the end of the day are not as important as living in a province where the government changes every 10 years or so. Forty plus years of conservative rule have turned Alberta into a very strange place.
Jason Kenney is not and never was or will be a leader because he simply does not understand reality or common sense. He very likely agrees with the goal of Residential Schools defined on your article but just does not have the courage to admit it. He is not alone in this and the responsibility of what has been happening for decades is not just with the Catholic Church. They were the executioners, but it has been conveniently ignored not just by many governments but also by the population in general. With few exceptions not many have talked against what has been known for a long time. I think this article clarifies a bit what I mean
https://rabble.ca/news/2021/06/why-did-it-take-kamloops-discovery-accept-what-weve-known-decades
Carlos, you’re right. The article at the link quotes Murray Sinclair as saying, “We know there are lots of sites similar to Kamloops that are going to come to light in the future. We need to begin to prepare ourselves for that.” I heard Justice Sinclair and Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, Aki-Kwe, a UBC law prof and director of the Indian Residential School History & Dialogue Centre on CBC radio. They said they know of at least 28 more mass grave sites on the grounds of former residential schools and expect that’s just the tip of the ice berg.
Your last comment mentioned morals and Jason Kenney. I recently had a conversation with a distinguished retired professor of Law at Osgoode School. Jason Kenney had invited himself to speak to one of the professor’s law classes. The professor told me that he sat listening to Jason talk to the class for a while, then stood up and told Jason Kenney MP to leave as he was lying to the students and he was unwelcome to return. And the remark that followed to me is J K does not have a moral fibre anywhere in his body. Thank you for your blog to help get the message out.
papajaxn: Thank you for sharing this story. And kudos to the law prof who had the courage to stop Kenney in his tracks when Kenney started spouting lies to his class.
Scholars who write about tyranny say it’s important that people in professions like law call out deceitful politicians, but too many are afraid to do so, they’re afraid there will be blow back. Tyranny flourishes when those who know better choose to let it happen.
Thanks Susan – great blog Linda McFarlane
You’re very welcome Linda.
One of the few people that cared about this issue is one of my favorite Canadian intellectuals John Ralston Saul and he wrote a great book in 2014 titled ‘The Comeback’.
I suggest this book to anyone truly interested in Canada and in those who were here before the Europeans brought in their survival of the fittest and infinite growth theories that are now destroying our planet and our chances of continuity.
Thanks for the suggestion Carlos. I had the opportunity to hear John Ralston Saul speak and was blown away by the man. Intelligent and humble. Everything Kenney is not.
I double dare Kenney to travel to any pub’ in Cork and loudly proclaim Jameson a “budget” whisky.
“We’re not talking about erasing people. We’re talking about rejecting the idea that people who used the power of the state or the church to forcibly take Indigenous children from their parents and assimilate them into Euro-Canadian culture should be honoured by putting them up on a pedestal and plastering their names on public buildings and infrastructure. ”
Righteous words, Susan. And they explain the Used Car Partiers’ resistance to taking down or amending these memorials to reflect historical facts: Used Car Partiers WANT to honour these people, because they somehow consider what they did honourable.
GoinFawr: you stopped me in my tracks with your last sentence, but you’re probably right.
You have got to be kidding me! Jameson’s is ditch water and everybody knows it is!
Another great read. Thank you for your analysis and opinion. Onwards!
Thank you Esme! From what I’ve read the NDP had a great convention this weekend. That gives me hope for 2023. Onwards!!!
I doubt very much they paid for the food and drink. It was the equivalent of a business meeting which expenses are claimable either from an employer or the taxpayer or the taxman. They may have paid, but I’ll bet they then claimed reimbursement for the expense.
I agree with you Mike…someone else pointed out that even if they “paid” for it, it would have fallen into their per diem and covered by the taxpayer in any event.
A few random musings:
-the Sky Palace no longer exisits. The intended space of Alison Redford’s residence in Edmonton is now office space and meeting rooms. Should the space remain forever unused as a monument to Redford’s abbreviated term as Premier? Maybe a statue of Redford should be erected on the balcony
-if the meal and alcohol expenses meet the well defined standards as to what can be expensed, no scandal exists. Virtually any corporate expense policy would allow such items to be expensed provided they were under the maximums and the employees provided itemized receipts. I suspect an evening meeting between Heather Smith, Gil McGowan, Jason Schilling and Guy Smith could also be expenses as long as it met the pre-established guidelines of their employers
-employees frequently consume alcohol outside business hours, even at a working meeting. This is not an outrage
-while the Cabinet member’s didn’t obey the letter of the Covid restrictions, they were outdoors where risk is low. I’d be suprised if the vast majority of Albertans haven’t run afoul of the confusing, frequently chaning and often contradictory guidelines
-Deena Hinshaw is not Jason Kenney’s mother
-Canada has more than enough problems on its plate. It doesn’t need to import Facebook outrage from the US (ex. calls to vandalize statues)
-Kenney is absolutely right that few historical figures would conform to today’s standards
-Kenney is absolutely right that if histrorical figures are to be judged by today’s standards, that judgement should be consistent (i.e. implicating MacDonald, but ignoring supposed heros of the Left like the Famous 5, Tommy Douglas or PET)
-Kenney has more than enough on his plate (ex. re-opening the econony, austerity measures required to move towards budget balance) that he shouldn’t be inserting himself into contentious issues that do not fall under Provincial jurisdiction
-the Legislature’s security team failed to identify the risk of unauthorized monitoring of the patio at the Federal Building
Doug, it appears that you and I have differing views and also different experiences in the workplace. If I may:
– Sky Palace is a term that most Albertans will recognize. If there is a newer, more formal, name for it I don’t know what it is and I suspect that many others wouldn’t either. Sky Palace identifies the location for most of us so it serves its purpose.
– for me the biggest issue here isn’t whether or not the meal was expensed. I just assume that these people are bleeding us dry every day anyway. However, I have never worked for an employer that would reimburse me for a meal with a handful of co-workers and as much alcohol as was evident in the photograph. If you have, well, lucky you I guess, but from my experience it doesn’t happen.
– yes, people frequently consume alcohol after hours. Again in my experience that never happens at a working meeting no matter how long the meeting runs. The last place I worked advised employees not to consume any alcohol at lunch time and, if they did, not to return to the office afterwards. The message was clear: alcohol does not belong in the workplace. Also, I’ll point out that there were no papers, documents, laptops or other items that you might expect to see at a business meeting in the photograph so I don’t know what kind of business meeting this was. Given that alcohol isn’t widely recognized as a tool for enhancing decision-making, I’d prefer it if this was described as a social gathering rather than a business meeting anyway.
– your defense of Kenney and the others is that the risk is low? Really? As in, yes officer I know I was speeding but not by that much so the risk of an accident is low. Or, yes officer I know I’m over the legal limit to drive, but not by much so the risk of killing someone is low. We either follow the rules that are in place or we don’t, but there should be consequences for those who don’t and place others in jeopardy because of it. In this case, the hypocrisy of Kenney regularly imploring Albertans to follow the health restrictions and then blatantly ignoring them himself is too much.
– agreed, Dr. Hinshaw is not Kenney’s mother. I can only assume that that is a fact for which she is abundantly grateful. However, I believe it’s her duty, whether part of her job description or as a moral obligation, to speak out loudly and definitively against all those that flout the public health restrictions whether they are rodeo attendees in Bowden, those who attend anti-mask/vax rallies when restrictions are in place, or the Premier and other senior politicians. She has failed to do this, to the detriment of all Albertans.
– I don’t agree that the destruction of public statues is something imported from the US. I see it as the reaction of a group of people that were shocked and appalled by what was discovered in Kamloops. Yes, there may be other, maybe even better ways to express those feelings but all said, it is a relatively benign way of expressing disgust for those who committed such atrocities.
– taking your next two points together, Kenney is only offering up those arguments as a smoke screen to allow him to maintain his support for and apparent admiration of John A. Macdonald. It’s like ‘If you attack my guy then you have to attack your own guy the same way so let’s just all keep supporting the guys we like.’ It’s a way of maintaining the status quo when people suddenly and loudly begin to demand change.
– Kenney appears to be able to clean up everything on his plate and, apparently, wash it down with a few beverages as well. But since you mentioned austerity measures I’ll just say that’s a bunch of crap. Alberta would not be in such a financial mess if the governments after Peter Lougheed’s government hadn’t mismanaged everything so pathetically. Royalties were kept to a minimum. Corporate taxes reduced to laughably low rates. The oil industry was pandered to at every opportunity and then companies were allowed to leave the province and stick the citizens with the bill for the cleanup of their mess. The Heritage Trust Fund, the purpose of which was to help us through a situation like the one we’re in now, has been squandered. Kenney is only here to put the final nail in our coffin by privatizing everything he can get his hands on and making himself and his cronies rich in the process. And I agree that he should stick to Provincial matters, but just today he announced a referendum on the Federal Equalization program which is nothing but a waste of time and money since he can’t change it anyway.
– I don’t know what unauthorized monitoring is but it implies that there is such a thing as authorized monitoring. If Kenney had everything his way, we’d never know anything that he was doing until it’s too late to change it so there’s no way he would authorize any type of monitoring. And if any adult these days hasn’t figured out by now that they need to be careful what they say or do in public because everyone else around them has a super-computer in their pocket capable of taking pictures and recording audio and video, then that person is too stupid to be the leader of a province.
Thanks Guy. Very well said!
Doug: Try as certain people want to, it’s hard to defend what happened. The Social Credit Party in Alberta favoured eugenics, and was allowing it, until Peter Lougheed reversed that. Another sad bit of Alberta history, is that both Social Credit premiers in Alberta were also anti-Semitic.
Well Kenney really need voters like you to survive – thank you for the musings.
Doug I forgot to add a new Musing
JK just apologized for the dinner when he did no have to because he is too busy with opening the economy the austerity to move forward and after all he is above us so totally unnecessary. Yesterday he said that he was within the rules but I guess losing more voters is more important than what he believes and so he apologized.
What a principled man he is. Astonishing
Carlos, you touch on something I wondered about. Kenney strenuously dismissed any criticism of his actions for week. Then today he apologised. The only thing that changed between June 1 and June 7 was the number and caliber of the MLAs calling him out on it. It’s all politics.
Doug: agreed, Dr HInshaw is not Kenney’s mother, she’s the province’s CMOH. She worked with Kenney to create the restrictions. She said Kenney’s behavior was a mistake and that people who make mistakes need to acknowledge their mistakes and model the appropriate behavior in the future. Today Kenney did that.
With respect to judging yesterday’s leaders by today’s standards; I don’t know if it’s true that “few” historical figures would conform to today’s standards (for example, there were many political leaders who thought Abraham Lincoln did not go far enough with his anti-slavery policies).
Also there are many on the so-called Left who deplore the eugenics philosophies espoused by the Famous 5/Tommy Douglas and PET’s invocation of martial law. One major distinction between Macdonald and the Famous 5/Tommy Douglas is the latter did not implement laws to make their views a reality.
It’s difficult to compare PET’s response to the October Crisis at the behest of Premier Bourassa with Macdonald’s cultural assimilation policy and determine whether they were equally heinous, but it is worth noting that PET’s action lasted just over 2 months and did not irrevocably change the country while Macdonald’s residential school policy lasted almost 100 years and its horrendous effects are still being felt today.
Thomas Douglas’ paper or eugenics earned him a trip to Germany in 1935, where they showed him exactly where they were going with it; naturally, Mr.Douglas was utterly horrified.
In fact, as an immediate result of that experience he spent the entirety of his eminently successful political career disavowing the theory, and the practice.
That and 17 (count ’em SEVENTEEN) consecutive surplus budgets, all while introducing single-payer, ‘universal’ health care coverage, places Mr.Douglas and the CCF in a responsible political class head and shoulders above anything since.
Alberta, on the other hand, ran with it for over four decades.
ie ‘actions speak louder than words’ is a simple enough truth to understand, right Doug?
I think a number of UCP MLA’s have figured out that whatever strategy Kenney has these days, it is not helping here. The Sky Palace dinner was just a bad idea. I assume the the diners either did not care or did not think it through. Perhaps they thought no one would notice. Unfortunately for Kenney and crew, there are taller buildings than the Sky Palace nearby in downtown Edmonton and someone with a camera noticed this odd spectacle.
Once he was caught, a quick apology with all the contrition he could muster would have been a the best idea politically. However, perhaps out of stubbornness and pride, political miscalculation or some combination of both, Kenney decided he would just try to bs his way through this and deny anything wrong happened. Well that didn’t go over so well and I suspect he was grudgingly forced into a half hearted apology under threat of more MLA and Minister resignations.
So, you might think he would then try to lay low and at least avoid controversy for a while, but no he then had to go on needlessly about cancel culture. Perhaps he thought those provocative remarks would distract from his earlier dining in problems. Unfortunately for him, I think they just reinforced to almost everyone that both his judgment and character are suspect.
I think even most in the UCP have now figured out Kenney is not the political golden boy his supporters tried so hard to portray him as when he first arrived on the provincial political scene. At this point he has a reverse Midas touch – everything he touches now seems to turn to crap. Accordingly, I don’t think it will be long before the UCP figures out they might be better off without him. I suspect a number already have.
Dave, I liked your comment about Kenney’s reverse Midas touch. It got me thinking about all the things Kenney has tried to do and failed at. He started by abolishing Notley’s carbon tax and now he’s paying the Trudeau carbon tax. And it goes straight downhill from there. I’d like to find out whether there’s anything he’s done that’s worked out well for Alberta, because off the top of my head I can’t think of anything.
What Jason Kenney said regarding the discovery of the mass grave of bodies of young Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc children outside the Kamloops residential school who were forcibly taken to this place is beyond appalling, particularly for a man in his position of leadership. This is an incredible tragedy, an affront to humanity and our indigenous people, and it needs to be acknowledged and reckoned with full-on. What the heck is this statement he made? “It is a country that people all around the world seek to join as new Canadians. It is an imperfect country, but it is still a great country, just as John A Macdonald was an imperfect man, but was still a great leader.” You can’t follow up on a revelation of an event like this with “buts”. There are no “buts” here. There is such cowardice in his stance even his most slavish followers must be cringing.
As a citizen of this province I offer my sincere apologies and sympathies to the First Nations people who are, through the abysmal leadership in our province, being subjected again by our Premier to this defence of racism and bigotry. I cannot blame our First Nations leaders for taking offence to it, on behalf of all the little children robbed of their lives through these “residential schools” and their families and communities robbed of them for generations. What is the damage Jason Kenney is continuing to inflict on them through these racist and bigoted statements?
Kenney’s cancel culture remarks didn’t sit well with Treaty 6 Grand Chief Vernon Watchmaker or Treaty 8 Grand Chief Arthur Noskey.
“The Premier’s diatribe was particularly insensitive especially on the heels of the mass grave discovery in Kamloops, BC, and one day after a vigil was held at the Alberta legislature to show honour, respect and unity to the loss of innocent lives of First Nation children,” said Watchmaker in a press statement June 2.
“Jason Kenney perpetuates a narrative that is laced in racism, domination, denial and manipulation of the true history, a colonial system that has implemented such horrific actions into policy that still exists today,” said Noskey in a press statement June 3.
“Watchmaker went on to say that Kenney’s remarks confirm the decision made by Treaty 6 to dissolve the protocol agreement signed with the province last December.” (The Star)
Well said Irene. And thank you for the quotes from Treat 6 Grand Chief Vernon Watchmaker and Treat 8 Grand Chief Arthur Noskey. We have to be accountable for this policy of genocide and cultural extinction. Then we must make amends.
Well a new Musing for Doug’s list
Jason Kenney’s approval rating went from 39% to 30%
Although this is good news to people like me, it still surprises me that he can get 30%
Only in Alberta can a liar and cheater of this caliber get 30% support
Susan: Another piece of fitting music. I remember Garden Party from the 1970s. Rick Nelson was a great musician.
Well Dwayne I have something better than your song – this is what the conservatives and Jason Kenney in special case consider their paradise already happening in the US
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/10/when-americas-richest-men-pay-0-in-income-tax-this-is-wealth-supremacy
Cowards – they spend more money on lobbyists and lawyers that many people make in income just to escape paying their fair share. These are the people they idolize – great character obviously and such nice friendly people !!!! Now the fad is spending billions on rockets to find new homes in the Universe while the earth burns with the garbage they create. Talk about absurd. Lets take care of our planet and our people. Pay your fair share you useless pimps.
Carlos: True.
It is absurd, which makes me wonder why any rational voter would elect a party that continues to preach that taxes are evil as opposed to the price we pay to live in a caring society.
Susan: The Alberta PCs gave us so many different taxes. The UCP increased a certain number of taxes the Alberta PCs instituted, and the UCP also placed on Albertans large taxes of their own.
Carlos: This is the only way I can respond to you. The biggest concern for the planet will not be oil, but water. We all need it to survive.
Things get even better by the day Here is a liar calling out another liar – nice battle – let’s have some bets as to who is the biggest liar?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-premier-jason-kenney-western-standard-1.6060820
I will say JK had more dinners with his buddies
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/06/10/news/alberta-finance-minister-defends-13b-loss-keystone-xl-calculated-decision
CALCULATED DECISION? Seriously? The UCP were the only people on the planet that thought that was a calculated decision – what a bunch of baloney.
You wasted our money, you gambled and you lost big, so just resign immediately. If that was a calculated decision we do not need anymore of those. You are not competent enough to manage what is OUR money not yours to take to a casino.
One wonders how much Jamesons was included in the calculation.
One? Two? Three? Floor?
Yes it is unbelievable what we are being exposed to in this province. It is almost as if suddenly we stopped having any idea of what respect, dignity, competency, honesty and ethics actually mean. I have this feeling of living in a place where a handful of self proclaimed semi-gods think and act as if we are all stupid and deserve their total incompetency whether we like it or not because they know better.
Well now we are having a referendum on whether or not we want the equalization formula that Jason Kenney and his buddy Harper helped to formulate. Well obviously the formula is as smart as the creators themselves. We cannot change it regardless unless we talk to other provinces and so first this bunch has to develop ways to be able to talk to everyone else without insulting or being condescending. That would be the very first step.
What about asking the people of Alberta if they still want the UCP? What about asking if we want to privatize our health care system? What about asking if we want them to meddle with our Education curriculum? and on and on.
Just do like the cicadas please go underground but extend the period to at least a century and let others de something positive for this province.
Carlos, good comment. Just wanted to mention that the first summer we lived in Pittsburgh the 17 year cicadas came up out of the ground. They were so noisy you couldn’t hear yourself think and so stupid they tried to mate with hats and water fountains. They also sucked the life out of the trees all around us. So your analogy is fitting.
The Globe & Mail quoted Kenney as saying investing in KXL was Plan A and suing Biden under NAFTA was Plan B. Talk about nuts. If Plan A was getting KXL built, then Plan B should have been getting KXL built in a different way, not filing a lawsuit because he couldn’t get KXL built. Plan B is never the antithesis of Plan A.
Carlos: Don’t forget about the $6 billion in loan guarantees. Where did that money go to?
we have to ask them after all that should be immediately clarified but it never is.
Jason Kenney is a machine boss.
Even as late as 1912…the great mass of the people still persisted in the belief that they ruled the country by virtue of their ballots. In reality, the country was ruled by what were called political machines. At first the machine bosses charged the master capitalists extortionate tolls for legislation; but in a short time the master capitalists found it cheaper to own the political machines themselves and to hire the machine bosses.
– Jack London, “The Iron Heel”, 1908
PS
The NDP started to squelch this:
https://globalnews.ca/news/3093728/ndp-introduces-legislation-to-tackle-big-money-and-special-interests-in-alberta-politics/
The UCP repealed that, no?
“When someone shows you who they are, watch it.”
GoinFawr I agree with you that the NDP did something to change that part of the political process but frankly I doubt the NDP has the courage or the intention of doing much more than that. When asked about implementing Proportional Representation voting process, which is way more democratic that the one we have, they are never interested because like the Conservatives they want to perpetuate the current ‘give the masses a bit to entertain them and let us continue with the majorities and the process that we know how to manipulate’. I want to see real changes to enrich our democratic process and give citizens more power before I can trust them.
No doubts they are a better choice than the UCP. That is not even necessary to discuss but that is because the UCP is just a bunch of lunatics trying to force Alberta into a place of no return where they can implement their fascist/ evangelical ideology. They use shock and awe which is their preferable way to get what they want without any possibility of reply from us. That is old school and in vogue when Ralph Klein was premier. It is at least 20 years old from the time of Second George Bush but that is no surprise because Jason Kenney and gang are at least a century behind reality.
I like Rachel Notley and I appreciate what she tried to do but I think that we are passed this unevolved and neo-liberalized social democratic process. We need way more than just that. We need to reevaluate the whole process and a full blown investment in a more sustainable world right now, and not just lip service to wind and solar. These technologies are now cheaper than coal and gas and we need the creation of a full government
Investment in it whether or not the private sector is interested. We need to do what was done after the second world war if we want to create a new world and a much less polluted place and with new opportunities. This is summarized of course, we need to consider developing Geothermal and not just rely on what exists in Germany or the US or China – we need to create our own innovations and stop just selling coal and tar and wheat. We have more than what we need here to do it we just do not have courage or political will. Those who do are frustrated and discouraged by the existing political process. We are attracting only incompetents like what we have now because the process is archaic. It was only through cheating and bullying that Jason Kenney got in and people are not interested in that kind of process and they stay away. We are in 2021 not 1960 when cell phones were a thing of science fiction but our political/ social process is still there.
Carlos: The UCP have another thorn in their side. Here it is.
https://www.mining.com/investors-with-41-trillion-urge-g7-to-end-support-for-coal/
Thanks Dwayne I had not seen that one – good for them and for all of us
I think we are over the tipping point and that makes me very happy indeed – it no longer makes any sense to invest on fossil fuels and within the next 10 years many places on Earth will have at least much cleaner air to breathe.
Replies are not working but this is the reply to what Dwayne said about water
Yes that has been known for decades, there is no economy without it and many dedicated people have been telling that for at least 30 years that I remember but the Neo-Liberals insult then, call them terrorists and whatever else bad in the vocabulary but it is inevitable and we now have lakes and rivers that can get on fire and where we can no longer swim or even touch the water. The oceans are littered with plastic and sewage from half the planet including us. Victoria only stopped throwing who knows what in the ocean in the last 2 years. Imagine that. We do not have money to built a decent plant in the capital of BC. We spent 30 billion in the war in Afghanistan that will soon be lost but not a penny to infrastructure that should have existed for at least 50 years. Many cities are still doing that and of course it does not interest the private companies because they would charge impossible rates to make a profit and governments are no longer in the business of running businesses. We live in an absurd and we do very little to change that.
Another 20 years of this and everything will be toxic including us, if we are not already. Babies are now born already with synthetic hormones and heavy metals in their blood and we continue to dream about more production and more growth. This year the Liberal government wants to bring in another 400 thousand people to support the economy and growth. The rest of the consequences are not even in the picture. Very sad.