The last six months have been hell and the next six months will be worse.
By election day, May 29, 2023, we’ll have transitioned from Jason Kenney, the politician who went to great lengths to convince ‘the people of destiny” that their sense of victimhood was justified to Danielle Smith, the politician and journalist who will add her unique blend of conspiracy theorist thinking to the list of indignities Albertans believe they’ve suffered at Ottawa’s hands.
It will be trickier to hold Smith to account because she offers her own experience as a journalist to reject the role of journalism in democracy.
As Marsha Lederman said in the Globe and Mail, “Her depiction of journalism as a clickbait endeavour was more than a shot at reporters; it demonstrates a dismissal of a fundamental aspect of democracy – and perhaps more concerning, one she should be intimately familiar with.”
This is no trivial matter.
Facts, truth, trust
Maria Ressa is a Filipino-American journalist, together with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, she won the Nobel peace prize for their fight to safeguard freedom of expression.
Ressa says that without facts there is no truth, without truth there is no trust, and without trust there is no shared reality and we can’t work together on the problems that confront us.
Ressa cites the historian Timothy Snyder who said: to abandon facts is to abandon freedom.
If you’re wondering whether Alberta under a Smith government will descend into tyranny, consider this.
Lovefest or Occupation?
Depending on where you get your news, you believe the Freedom Convoy was the biggest lovefest since Woodstock or a lawless band of hooligans who took Ottawa and some border crossings hostage.
How can this be?
We all saw the TV footage, read the newspaper accounts, some of us were there or knew people who were there and experienced it firsthand. And yet our opinions about the Convoy are radically different.
The testimony of convoy organizer James Bauder provides some insight.
Bauder testified that:
- he graduated from high school and became a consultant who traveled the world advising clients on policy, corporate governance, and risk management
- as he passed through international airports, he developed an understanding of how CNN/BBC “distract” the government
- he prayed for an answer to divisiveness in Canada and God said “unity”
- he founded Canada Unity to unify Canada
- the 2019 United We Roll convoy was a response to Rachel Notley and Justin Trudeau “ganging up on us.”
- the 2022 Freedom Convoy was a response to Bauder’s conclusion that vaccines were dangerous and mandates were unlawful
- Bauder, his wife and another trucker drafted a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to be signed by Canada Unity, the Governor General and the Speaker of the Senate.
- if they signed the MOU Bauder would remove the Bearhug (Bauder described the Bearhug as a sign of love so it’s unclear why its removal would be an incentive for the GG and the Speaker to sign the MOU)
- the MOU signatories would order the federal, provincial and municipal government to cease all unconstitutional activity, reinstate all fired employees, and waive all covid fines.
It’s unclear who was going to force Justin Trudeau, the premiers, the mayors, etc to bend to the will of the MOU’s signatories, but Bauder assured the Commission that the Senate was the “root of all law” under the Helsinki Act and the Nuremberg codes (??) and had the power it needed.
Bauder declared the Convoy a success (if it unified Canada I missed it) and went home to prepare a lawsuit against those who he said had harmed him and his family.
I’ve got a law to fix that
Bauder’s testimony is rife with factual errors which underpin his lack of trust in experts and his ignorance of the legal and political processes. Bauder acted on this misinformation and created havoc.
That’s Bauder, what’s Smith’s excuse?
Smith used misinformation to gain power and once elected doubled down on misinformation by using it to enact new laws.
Smith’s Bill #1, the Alberta Sovereignty Act, will strengthen Albertans’ belief that they’ve been abused by Ottawa. It will harden their resolve if Ottawa fails to yield and they’ll become even more entrenched in their fantasy that they’re better off splitting from Canada.
Smith’s legislative changes to make anti-vaxxers a protected class under Alberta’s human rights legislation tells the anti-vaxxers they were right to flout public health safeguards and will increase the risk of illness and death the next time around. It’s also extremely disrespectful of minorities that require protection from discrimination.
The Sovereignty Act and the ‘rights’ of anti-vaxxers will be challenged and defeated in the Courts, but the harm Smith will have inflicted on Alberta by passing these ‘laws’ in the first place will live on.
Because, as Maria Ressa said, without facts, there is no truth, without truth, there is no trust, and without trust we cannot work together to solve the real problems we face.
Susan on the Soapbox 
I wonder if prior Covid infection increases the chances of someone voting for an authoritarian regime. We don’t seem to have a CMOH (not that one is needed for “let ‘er rip”). Maybe this is why?
MM what an interesting question. When I watched the organizers testifying at the commission hearing, listened as they gave their self righteous speeches (punctuated at the appropriate moments with anger and tears) I gave up ever hoping to understand what drives them.
The only conclusion I could come to was that politicians who pander to them are dangerous.
Susan: Thanks for another great blog. I think what Danielle Smith is doing is downright dangerous, and undemocratic. She’s also siding with people who she shouldn’t be aligned with. If we had someone like James Bauder in power, in Alberta, let alone in Canada, it would be really bad. It’s bad enough here with Danielle Smith. On the undemocratic front in Alberta, there are different examples of how this is occurring. One is that Danielle Smith still wants to go ahead with a provincial police force, despite rural municipal leaders in Alberta saying they do not want this, and that it will be a billion dollar boondoogle in the making. They want the R.C.M.P retained. A provincial police force would be subservient to premier Danielle Smith and the UCP, and who knows how they would treat people they don’t agree with. In British Columbia, Dr. Bonnie Henry still has to have R.C.M.P officers at any speaking engagements, or other events that she is part of, for her safety. That is very concerning. She has to limit what functions she can attend, because of death threats against her. Had Dr. Deena Hinshaw still been around in Alberta, who knows how Danielle Smith would react if the safety of Dr. Deena Hinshaw was put at risk by people who didn’t agree with her. I’ll play some more fitting music. This is a Walter Becker and Donald Fagen composition, and it is from Steely Dan, and is off of their 1972 album, Can’t Buy A Thrill. It is Do It Again. This is also in my music collection.
On the subject of the RCMP versus a provincial police force, here’s an excerpt from the infamous 2001 “Firewall Letter”:
‘We have no doubt that Alberta can run a more efficient and effective police force than Ottawa can – one that will not be misused as a laboratory for experiments in social engineering.’ (Source: https://albertapolitics.ca/wp-content/uploads/firewall.pdf).
This is clearly a call for policing that does not reflect the need for diversity, equity and inclusion in its recruitment, training, and operations.
‘This is clearly a call for policing that does not reflect the need for diversity, equity and inclusion in its recruitment, training, and operations.’
Of course it is why bother with any of that. They prefer a police force that they can call in and get rid of their tickets because they are as corrupt as they can be.
Also they have already launched a private clinic for orthopedic surgery in Edmonton. There is no money to do them in the public system but hey there is all the money in the world to pay for private for profit surgeries.
I guess the profit side of it is the solution.
Carlos, I too marvel at how there’s not enough money to properly fund public health care but more than enough to fund private health care. Years ago the Alberta Consumer’s Association did a study (colloquially known as The Canary Report) which showed that privatizing cataract surgery did not significantly reduce wait times. I would love to see the government conduct a similar study with orthopedic surgeries in the province. Specifically I’d like an explanation of why privatization won’t increase the cost of such surgeries given that the doctors going into private clinics do so with the expectation they’ll be making a profit.
jerrymacgp: thanks for the Firewall Letter. In addition to the ridiculous notion that the RCMP results in Alberta bcoming a lab for experiments in social engineering, I was struck by the fact that the ideas proposed in 2001 continued to be dragged out, reheated, and offered to the public as the vision for the future. It would appear that there is no one in the conservative camp who can come up with a fresh idea and they’ll be stuck with the likes of Stephen Harper, Ted Morton and Preston Manning until the old guys croak.
Dwayne, you make an excellent point. Much of what Smith is proposing (no more public health restrictions (ever) no mandates, protecting the unvaxxed by amending our human rights legislation, waiving/pardoning people fined for violating public health restrictions), came straight out of James Bauder’s mouth. Add to that the other changes you listed for which she has no mandate, and democracy in Alberta is in serious trouble.
I suspect the anti-Danielle/UCP crowd will be out in full force come May 2023.
PS thanks for the music. As I’ve said before, your collection is massive!
Susan: What Danielle Smith is doing, isn’t good at all.
https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/smith-hints-at-health-leadership-overhaul-reiterates-no-mask-mandates-for-alberta-schools-1.6152596
Susan: Here is my second song pick. This is a Jeff Lynne composition, and is from the Midlands, United Kingdom progressive rock band, Electric Light Orchestra. It is Evil Woman, and was released in 1975. Electric Light Orchestra are also in my music collection. I think this is also fitting.
Susan: Here is my final song pick. This is another Jeff Lynne composition, from the Electric Light Orchestra, from their 1979 album, Discovery. It is Don’t Bring Me Down. I think this is also very fitting.
Another inspirational post; thank you, Susan.
Yeah, a bear hug from a self-described “alpha male” might be a sign of love, but from a real bear it more likely signifies an intent to break your back.
It’s also a dominant position in wrestling (says wiki), but given Bauder’s business history, the business definition is even more interesting:
“A bear hug counts on the company’s shareholders to pressure the board into accepting the proposed terms or entering negotiations with the maker of the offer.”
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bearhug.asp
Bypassing the board of directors to go directly to the shareholders?
Like bypassing an elected government to go directly to “the people” as represented by the convoy and the millions of Canadians they think support them?
Apparently the TV show “Succession” has a bear hug arc, described here as a form of hostile takeover:
https://lucca.substack.com/p/succession-bear-hugs-and-poison-pills
I wonder if the POEC is aware of all the meanings?
Valerie, this is brilliant! The convoy organizers were, shall we say, less than credible as they described deploying the bear hug (apparently there was Bearhug #1 and Bearhug #2, but the cross examination (or at least the part I watched) didn’t get into what Bearhug #2 was going to be. Anyway, in Bauder’s opinion all those air horns, idling truck, street blockades, it was the biggest display of unity he’d seen.
But on the day Bauder was arrested–the police were going to let him go if he moved his 30 foot van and got out of there–he complained he’d been blindsided, he hadn’t even had his coffee yet, and how was he supposed to move his truck when the city snow clearing crews hadn’t plowed the snow off the streets yet (kind of hard to do that with a bunch of trucks in the way). Made me wonder what he would have done if Ottawa residents pulled up outside of his house in Alberta, blocked his driveway and leaned on the horn for almost 3 weeks straight.
It reminds me of John Ralston Saul’s book Voltaire’s Bastards where he describes how Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette attempted to escape but failed because they were so gormless and unserious about it.
I would have to listen to Bauder more carefully to see if he described what he meant by bearhug, I seem to recall the Commissioner asking something about it.
There’s also a Fifth Estate show from last spring which had interviews with Pat King and the Bauders. I was struck by how Mrs. Bauder would keep her hand on her husband’s arm to remind him not to get too worked up on camera. She couldn’t do that at POEC.
Well that is powerful Susan. And it is frightening. Do you think our education curriculum should contain more civics courses ? Probably unlikely in the new curriculum. I wonder if Mr Bauder approves of Fox”news”. I fear too many Canadians think Fox relates to Canada and Canadian politics and constitution. There seems to be a large gap in some peoples understanding of how our government works.
Avalon, there should definitely be more taught about civics and politics in schools. I had “social studies” courses in high school; I barely remember what was in them. Maybe I absorbed more from adult life, but I can’t honestly say.
More important, I’d love to see a crash course for politician-wannabes in “Governance in Canada: rules, responsibilities and limitations.” I envision four weeks of intense training in political & constitutional law; processes and procedures; ethics; lobbying and how to resist it; and recognizing BS. (How about 1-week elective in public speaking for extra credit?) Minimum 70% on the final exam to pass.
As for how Fox News applies to Canada: Tamara Lich’s husband showed up in court to post bail. He started talking about the 5th Amendment. The judge had to tell him it doesn’t work that way in Canada. (I guess I didn’t bookmark the article. Oops….)
Mike, good suggestions.
I can’t recall ever taking a civics course, but I do believe that politics affects everyone every day of their lives, so if for no reason other than self-interest it behooves us to put in a little time to understand what’s going on and to vote.
Avalon, I think civics courses would help, but I also think we have to teach people to think critically. I don’t know if it’s laziness or what, but too many people are content to grab their news off of social media and not question what they’re reading.
I agree with Mike that Canadians need to learn that their system of government and law is very different from the American system…or some cockamamie drivel dreamed up by Pat King.
Someone told the truckers the cops could not tow their trucks if they displayed a card in the window saying “private property.” They popped the cards in their windows and their trucks were towed, which isn’t surprising given that people’s vehicles (private property) are towed every day if they’re illegally parked. I mean how stupid do you have to be to believe this nonsense.
In the ongoing debate regarding public health, as I recall there were lawsuits regarding exposure to smoke & second hand smoke that (eventually) saw settlements to the tune of millions for those whose health was affected, or who lost loved ones as a result of smoking. So, precedent to file a lawsuit should one become infected, suffer long term health consequences or expire because the government decided the rights of anti-vaxxers trumped the rights of the general public? Seems only ‘fair’ to me!
Linda, you raise an interesting point. The issue I see here is that in the exposure to smoke and second hand smoke litigation the defendants were the tobacco companies whereas here the defendant would be the Alberta government and I’m pretty sure they would have immunity and/or limited liability. So the way to make the UCP and particularly Danielle Smith “pay” for the harm they’ve caused is to boot them out of office in May 2023.
Hi Susan. Agreed. Voting out the UCP would be the easiest way to make them pay, though I’ve my doubts those doing the damage will feel much regret. Regarding health (smoking) lawsuits, I did a check to see what settlements were like in Canada. As it happens, there are at least 3 tobacco companies who were supposed to hand over something like 13 billion – yes, with a ‘B’ – in damages to some 100,000 litigants in Quebec. However, those self same companies promptly put themselves into receivership status which has allowed them to postpone any payouts since 2014. The companies keep petitioning the courts for extensions of the receivership status & keep on being granted it. Meanwhile, they keep on operating & making profits – though apparently they are barred from sending those profits through to their international headquarters. And were forced to put at least one million or so into a fund so they can’t just shut down without losing some $. Still, not exactly the “win” one might hope for.
As for Ms. Smith & company, as much as I’d like to see them getting starring roles in ‘Orange is the New Black’ I’ll settle for seeing them being booted out of office asap.
Smith’s endorsement of uber-rightwing Nadine Wellwood as a UCP candidate in Livingston-MacLeod (Smith’s real riding that punted her in 2015) is indicative of her affirmation that she is right about Covid and the CONvoy protestors and her anti-Ottawa take. Wellwood has subsequently been removed and Smith will be removed by both the voters and the UCP brass in the Spring election. Smith’s divisive policy decisions on issues like policing, the curriculum and removing the entire AHS board alone, will bring her tyrannical reign to a befitting end. The NDP under Rachel Notley are ready to govern and have live policy in place and have worked diligently to have high quality candidates in place. Alberta will be so much better off for electing the NDP.
Yes. Let’s work our butts off to that end.
Hear, hear James and Ingamarie!
James, what I’m wondering is whether Danielle Smith will make it all the way to May before the UCP brass dumps her.
She’s softened her position on the Alberta Sovereignty Act. The mandate letter she gave Shandro directs him “to work with the premier to develop and enact the ASA to establish a legislative framework through which measures can be taken in response to unconstitutional federal encroachments on provincial jurisdiction.” Such measures exist today, they’re called the courts.
If the ASA is anything like the Saskatchewan First Act it will be what the ABLawg profs called “surplusage” (eg useless verbiage), unconstitutional overreach (which will be struck down by the courts) and a process to examine the economic impact of a federal initiative (something the government can do now without passing legislation).
The question is: how long will it take for the UCP brass, Take Back Alberta, Alberta First, Project Confederation, et al to discover Smith has let them down?
Here’s the link to the ABLawg post https://ablawg.ca/2022/11/09/playing-games-with-the-constitution-the-saskatchewan-first-act/
Today’s ABLawg post explained why Danielle’s attempt to make the unvaccinated a protected class under the Alberta human rights legislation will fail https://ablawg.ca/2022/11/14/grounding-the-alberta-human-rights-act-and-the-proposal-to-protect-vaccination-status/
Two key campaign promises will bite the dust. Many more will follow.
Wasn’t Smith, perhaps sometime in between her time as a failed school board trustee and failed opposition leader, a journalist for a while – sort of? Or at least someone who occasionally wrote articles in a supposedly respectable national newspaper. Of course she was also a talk radio show host more recently, which is part of the mainstream media, although I think it would probably be a stretch to call her job there journalism.
Perhaps Smith will become an Alberta imitation of Saskatchewan’s Pamela Wallin, or even worse PEI’s (?) Mike Duffy, or how about former PC cabinet minister/Edmonton TV anchor Doug Main, even further back. However, all people with experience in journalism, who went on to an underwhelming career in politics.
The history of journalists who dabble in politics in Canada has been rather sad, although arguably Smith was a politician who dabbled in journalism, or perhaps even more accurately just someone who dabbled in both. A jack of all trades and a self proclaimed expert in all – perhaps that’s that problem here.
If memory serves — that is, my memory of something I read, written by someone who was there (DJC, in fact) — she was a scab reporter during the infamous Calgary Herald strike in the 80s.
jerrymacgp: Smith was a scab reporter during the Herald strike? Why am I not surprised. Thanks.
So that likely means Danielle Smith’s Special UCP Forces Units won’t be unionized. Who will they contract the work out to on the public dime then, \/\/agner, AKedm1, Saudi Arabia? TBA?!
You know, like the UCP (along with their ‘vital partners’) do with Albertans’ healthcare tax dollars.
Here’s a link to a podcast transcript that goes into this story in some detail …
https://albertaadvantagepod.com/2020/01/12/the-1999-2000-herald-strike-20-years-later/
And let’s not forget what our beloved Ralph Klein did before he jumped to politics. Teaching in Alberta schools while he was at the helm was no picnic….but in that case, journalism’s gain was our loss.
Ingamarie and Mike: I like Dave’s prediction that Smith like her fellow journalists turned politicians will have an underwhelming career in politics.
Yes, thanks that is a good reminder – lets not forget. Ralph was certainly more successful in politics, the ones since then not so much. However, he was from a time when news organizations took their role a bit more seriously and arguably many of the people working for them did too.
I would argue working or dabbling in journalism allows some to hone their communications skills, but not necessarily management or other skills. There is a lot more to running a government than PR, but Ralph was good at that part.
Ralph Klein was not a conspiracy theory politician because at the time the Internet was just starting. Furthermore he was protected by the fact that journalists did not have as much access to information as they have today. To me Ralph Klein had the fortune of having so much money available he just had to write checks. If one takes away the fact that he was that lucky, his administration was to say the least mediocre. He was also an alcoholic protected by the fact that at the time drinking was accepted and protected as a private issue. Even at public events I witness and talked to him when he was slurring his words. He was a true neoliberal and started the privatization process in the Government of Alberta with catastrophic consequences for many employees which were never that documented. Some of his ministers were not much better than the Shandros and Lagranges in the current government. I have a very negative opinion of his governing skills that were masked by the availability of billions at the time. He also abused the system as much as Redford did but again not reported because most journalists were of his kind and because at the time that was still not acceptable.
All in all a terrible administration described well as a rotten cake covered with icing sugar. I was sorry at the time that Lawrence Decore did not have a chance to be premier because I sure he would have done a much better job.
Klein was dirty in how he operated as well. I was teaching at the time and it became popular to talk of his approach to education as ‘deklein’, teacher’s enjoying puns that some conservatives don’t get. The one thing I remember is he declared that school boards couldn’t deficit spend, and then gave the big city boards less than they needed to run the specialized programs that country people often moved to the cities to get for the children with special needs.
Putting elected officials into a Catch 22, meant programs had to be cut that benefitted the most needy. Come to think of it, that is a conservative modes operandi…and why I have to work hard not to hate them. This current government has been at it as well, privatizing support workers at our hospitals, so that private companies can whittle into the 17-20 bucks an hour these mostly women of colour made…and jettisoning in the process their union membership. Few people picketed with us outside Foothills on that occasion.
And then there’s the fund of a little over a million they cut, a fund used to help kindergarten kids who were showing signs of being language delayed. What kind of scum cut off 5 year olds who are already feeling behind??? Conservative money worshipping scum…that’s who. And they do it largely because they know we the majority won’t notice the loss of a small program that benefitted someone other than ourselves.
So when we vote for government cuts, lets not pretend most conservatives know that it isn’t them who’s going to lose services….its the most vulnerable.
The funny/sad thing is that going forward, that may no longer be the case.
Hmm…I thought Danielle was a news reader at a Calgary TV station when she was tapped to lead the Wildrose Party. Moderate recognition, and more telegenic than Ralph Klein. Hey, it worked for Ralph….
Dave, I loved your take on Smith, a dabbler, and I would add destroyer, of all she touches.
I’ve been thinking about her decision to stay out of the UCP’s decision to ban Nadine Wellwood from running. Wellwood said she was simply expressing views shared by many of her constituents. Wellwood compared public health protections to Nazi policies, spread covid misinformation and suggested Ukraine should negotiate a settlement with Russia. Weren’t Wellwood’s views similar to those expressed by Smith before she officially entered the UCP leadership race?
I’m not quite as worried as this post seems to be…..but thanks for the details of the Bauder saga. A memorandum of ‘understanding’ indeed….its the same ignorance of reality that led a bunch of right wingers to march on Edmonton after the 2015 election believing that a rally was enough to force Notley to resign so they could take over. This crew wasn’t even tuning in to rallies for peace, or better deals for education or health that took place in the years preceding our 2015 NDP win.
They likely never had a clue about politics…or the constitution. The extent of their political activity was burning a few ndp signs in rural areas, and going in to vote for the conservative du jour.
But Danielle doesn’t scare me. And if it has to go to the Supreme Court that’s fine as well. If Albertans’ desire to remain advantaged and ill informed is great enough….Albertans will bear the price of that privatized mindset. Sometimes “experience is a hard lesson, but fools know no other”, as my mom used to say.
At the door, what we are finding is a whole new civility. Conservatives tell us they aren’t ndp, but they’re polite and they thank us for what we’re doing. Others express confusion…one man last night said he was uncertain…and followed that with this comment; “It’s not as easy as it used to be”. There’s a sea change out there. If enough confused and uncertain idealogues get up the courage to try something different….and I’m quick to tell them the ndp is the only alternative, since wasting your vote is a vote for Danielle….the ndp could form a majority government.
And then…….if enough Albertans refuse to go home and bury themselves in trivia for the next 4 years……..perhaps we’ll lose our entitlement, and our victim fantasies and revert to the good citizens we should be.
No one is safe unless we all are; the good life is impossible while there are people homeless, and children not getting the attention they need. Public service and care work is essential work; ripping the guts out of mother earth is an end game. If we care for our children, perhaps they can come up with better alternatives.
Though for sure, they’ll need to be able to distinguish between fact and fiction, reality and fantasy, realism and the peculiar blindness of rose coloured glasses.
Working on the ground for a better world and a more engaged society…I’m beginning to be a bit hopeful.
Ingamarie: I like your mom’s saying. and I love what you’re seeing at the doors. It mirrors Gwendolyn Dirk’s experience in Brooks-Medicine Hat. The NDP came up empty handed in 2015 and she captured what was it 17 polls in the by election? And you’re absolutely right, the NDP are the only alternative. It would be insanity to vote for the Alberta Party now (well, ever).
Thanks Susan….I just hope all of us who know a better world is possible, get out on the doorsteps and talk to our fellow Albertans….we need to think of our children, all our children….and begin to build a more free and equitable world for all of them. I’m hopeful because many Albertans are already new democrats in their values…..they’ve just been taught to demonize anything that puts the collective before the individual….or the good of the society above the good of private wealth.
How to deal with politicians like Premier Smith … for my part, vote. Get informed. Which means doing the homework to find honest opinions, analysis & journalism.
My definition of honest?
1) Non-partisan. Read the info about author if present. Look them up on a search engine. If they have partisan affliation, take what they have to say with grain of salt.
2) Balanced. Someone who is intellectually honest will make a real attempt to show all sides.
3) Rhetorically neutral. If it smells like something Trump/Pollivier/Bernier might say, you’re probably reading a demagogue with an agenda. And not all demagogues are right wing, so beware. If someone cannot bother to be polite & civil when writing or speaking, warning flag.
Considering we just passed Remberance Day, pay attention to history. Adolf Hitler won his general election.
Friends, for those who missed it, here’s an op-ed piece by Duane Bratt. He discusses an opinion poll re the Freedom Convoy, and how Danielle Smith’s opinions apparently differ from most of Albertans’.
Bratt’s conclusion is sobering. Danielle Smith believes what she’s saying about Covid-19 and the Freedom Convoy. The amount of damage we’ll suffer in the next six months will depend on how often Smith believes the words, “No, you can’t do that.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/opinion-poll-danielle-smith-covid-1.6646784
Bauder, Lich et al are mountebanks – their coy disingenuous testimonies fooled no one. Least of all the administrators running the inquiry. The truth will win out. Reality will be most unwelcome outcome for them all.
The new leader of the UCP is going to continue on a self-annihilating alternate facts blitz – so brace yourselves for at least 7 months of bozo-eruptions, about-faces, walk-backs and foot-shootings given she’s being wound up by David Parker and his uber-libertarian “Take Back Alberta” junta. It will be a miracle she’s the UCP leader going into the next provincial election – I predict she will be so radioactively toxic to the UCP election prospects, they’ll dump her on the eve of the writ being dropped.
The big assumption here is that adults will regain control of the UCP – I for one, am sick and tired of waiting for that to happen….
What Albertans need to watch is what’s happening off-stage – Danielle is just the distraction. She and her rubby crew are not your grand-pappies Loughheed-era PCs – these are wild-eyed libertarian ideologues utterly committed to giving public goods to their donor’s private hands for fraction of the pennies on the dollar. Her advocacy of the Alberta RStar program is proof-of-the-pudding that she’s going to grotesquely reward her O&G donors as soon as she can.
The UCP are not fiscal conservatives – that would mean they actually believe in competent administration of public services – folks, they don’t believe in public institutions at all! Their genius will be to so badly screw it up, so quickly, they will come back to the electorate and say “See? It doesn’t work!” – and it won’t matter they broke it.
It won’t be hard work to convince a naive, immature and historically politically lazy Alberta electorate that they don’t need government delivering services at all – and then you’re mostly there to a corporately-selected ruler of Alberta, the Western Canadian Petro-state.
Chairman Danielle anyone?
The convoy crowd live in an alternate reality as does Dangerous Danielle. Everything that comes out of her mouth needs to be fact checked and the results of the fact checking need to be made public. Yes she supported Wellwood, but Wellwood is gone. And in short order Dangerous Danielle will be too…No one who marginalizes people with critical thinking skills lasts long…look what’s happening to the orange scourge to the south of us. It’s up to us to inform and educate and vote in the NDP.
I apologize in advance if this message repeats but as usual I was not able to post it first time around
I have simply run out of words as far as politics in Alberta are concerned.
It is an embarrassment and a disgrace for all of us.
We now have reached the ultimate idiotic experience of an unelected conspiracy theory premier that does not believe in facts or science running the asylum composed of other mental midgets.
Privatization of medical services continue with the opening of a new for profit Orthopedic clinic without any consultation with the public or anyone else for that matter. Does Danielle Smith really believe that after what she has said on the radio and in interviews about vaccines, using horse medication for Covid and of course the use of masks, that she has any authority at all to make any kind of serious decision on our medical system? Privatizing AHS is not a minor issue and should not be changed without a full referendum never mind by someone who became premier through the back door. At least call an lection for that mandate if you have a brain and courage.
To me what is most worrisome is that despite her idiot performance, she just marches on and we the ones paying the bills just take it all in as if we have no choice.
We do have choices and one of them is to show these demented leaders that enough is enough and just push them out for good. They should have never been allowed where they are in the first place. Hopefully what is happening in the US will translate to us here as it always seems to do. We have to abandon this monkey see monkey do attitude with the US. We are smart enough to run our affairs on our own, at least I would like to believe so. We have copied them with the convoy and this Maga conservatism and it is time to look at ourselves and go back to a realistic path to the future. The US is not really an example we should follow.
Carlos: This is the only way I can respond to your post about Ralph Klein. During Ralph Klein’s time as premier of Alberta, he did so many very costly boondoggles, and he lied and said that he never did any, like the Liberals did in Ottawa. Billions of dollars are gone because of what Ralph Klein did. He did so many bad cuts, laid of thousands of nurses and school teachers, deregulated utilities, made a mess of insurance, left an orphan well mess, that is at least $260 billion to contend with, didn’t look after infrastructure, and much more. He also acted like a jerk in public, and while in the Legislature, due to his love of alcohol. I don’t remember his time as premier with any fondness, and I certainly don’t miss him at all. I’m just telling it like it is.
Dwayne thank you for your comment.
You are not the only one that has that opinion about Ralph Klein. Many of us do and I particularly disliked the fact that he was so admired by Conservatives always using the stories that he paid the debt blah blah blah. Well in a time when the province was having 10 billion dollars or more every year in excess revenues I am not sure what the big deal was – just write the cheques.
Conservatives seem to only be able to evaluate anything in life based on money, everything else is useless or unimportant. That is why they love the Trumps and the Elon Musks of the world. I wonder why Poilievre is not talking about Canada becoming the bitcoin center of the Universe anymore?
Time to stop clutching pearls. We know who the actors are and we know what they are going to do. Get busy. Donate money to the NDP and GET ACTIVE AND INVOLVED. Contact your local NDP constituency office or whoever won the NDP nomination in your riding and volunteer. Don’t wait for someone else to do something. Get out there and make a difference.
Interesting and valuable article from David Climenhaga
https://albertapolitics.ca/2022/11/ucp-fires-ahs-board-names-sole-administrator-promises-big-changes-fast-no-such-thing-will-happen/
Just for those that are younger to know that this is Cowell’s second coming but hey this time it will work!!!!
I remember Einstein that defined that trying the same event many times and expect different results is the definition of being an IDIOT – just saying