Dear Readers:
I’m working on a project so there will be no blog this week.
However if you’d like to share your thoughts about the UCP’s latest missteps (there certainly are enough to choose from) feel free.
See you next week.
Susan
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Susan on the Soapbox 
It’s hard to choose. The biggest misstep would have to be American-style pay-as-you-go health care, without American-style insurance. The plot has been exposed and Smith is trying to walk back her words. As soon as they can, the UCP will begin charging Albertans for health services, over and above what we pay via taxes. We’ll get a paltry sum in a spending account and then it’s sink, swim or GoFundYourself.
Also, Smith seems to want to declare Banff part of her sovereign nation, after she runs a train line out to it. Megalomania is running high at the moment.
There’s also the story of stalking at city hall in Calgary, and much ado-ing nothing about it at the provincial level.
So many missteps, so little time. Are we done yet?
MM: as you said “so many missteps, so little time. Are we done yet?” It’s hard to believe Smith could do much worse than she has already but I have a feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg.
There is a new “she said what!!” every day. Would be nice to watch the drama from anywhere else. Regina is looking attractive.
Anita, Scott Moe also came out with his own Saskatchewan First (or whatever) Act which purports to grant Saskatchewan more independence from the feds, especially with respect to its natural resources.
Given that the Constitution Act already lays out federal and provincial jurisdiction it’s all window dressing for the sovereigntists in their parties.
Complete waste of time, but it will backfire when the sovereigntists don’t see any appreciable change from Ottawa.
Susan: It is getting crazier with the UCP, no doubt about it. I’ll just share some more music. Here is a cover of a Joni Mitchell song, Urge For Going, by David Crosby and Graham Nash. This is from 1971. They made up one half of the supergroup, Crosby Stills Nash & Young.
Dwayne. Joni Mitchell is one of my absolute all time favourite performers . Thank you!
Susan: Here is my second song pick. It is Kyrie Eleison from Ringo Starr & His All Star Band. It is a Richard Page composition, from his time in the band Mister Mister. I saw Ringo Starr & His All Star Band live in November of 2015. This is the band lineup I saw.
Can we vote yet? “Nuff said!
Carol, wouldn’t it be great not to have to slog through months and months of UCP/Smith baloney. The only advantage to waiting until May is that that gives Smith even more opportunities to show us how unfit she is to lead. Hopefully by the time Election Day rolls around this failed experiment know as the “united” conservative party will be done and dusted.
I think most people do not realize that the UCP is as far from the Conservatives of old as the earth is from the moon (probably further apart). You make a good point. Perhaps the months ahead will show Smith’s true colors. I just hope people are paying attention. Spring will come and with it new life.
Susan: Here is my final song pick. This is a live performance from 1983, at the Royal Albert Hall, in London, England. It is Jeff Beck doing his composition, from 1967, Hi Ho Silver Lining. Jeff Beck is on guitar and lead vocals. Steve Winwood is on background vocals. Andy Fairweather – Low is on background vocals. Fernando Saunders is on bass guitar and background vocals. Tony Hymas is on keyboards. Simon Phillips is on drums. This was from a charity concert for Ronnie Lane, a British musician, who was suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. He passed away in 1997. This is one of the rare occurrences where Jeff Beck sings. I did see Jeff Beck twice live and met him. He is in my music collection too.
Dwayne, I knew when I got to the end of your comment that you’d say it was in your collection. I assume you have walls and walls of LPs and some amazing equipment?
As others have said, hard to choose though the move to health spending is certainly one to watch. They are trying to slap lipstick on this pig to sell the concept to voters. Reprise of the proposal to have an APP replace CPP – ‘it will cost less & provide more!’. Uh-huh. Got any magic beans for sale in that pocket, Dani?
Linda: I simply can’t trust the UCP, or Danielle Smith. Notice how she’s throwing around large sums of money on the things the UCP made sharp cuts to, right before a provincial election in Alberta. That’s not saving money for Alberta, or helping anything. A provincial pension plan is flawed. The UCP already lost $4 billion on a pension fund boondoogle. Rural municipal leaders in Alberta have made it clear to the UCP that a provincial police force for Alberta will end up costing at least $1 billion. Why isn’t Danielle Smith listening?
Linda, Smith mentioned at one point her plan to introduce deductibles would be just like someone paying the deductible on their car insurance. So here’s the thing I don’t get. NO ONE likes paying the deductible so pretending that the HSA will somehow make this more acceptable to the public is bananas.
Susan good luck on your project.
We are certainly not having much fun in our Alberta project. I of course did not bother watching Danielle Smith but here is a good description of it.
From this description I think we have a new Mother Theresa in Alberta.
We are now a rich province again thanks to the Ukraine suffering and so lets us spend again and once again waste the mini boom. The rest of Canada continues to applaud this circus that seems to be the story of a black hole.
https://albertapolitics.ca/2022/11/danielle-smiths-tv-message-to-albertans-was-brief-often-uninformative-and-not-very-persuasive/
Carlos: Oil prices are slumping again, and will continue to do so. How will Danielle Smith pay for all her prestigious vote buying?
Well Dwayne these are the same person that when Rachel Notley correctly increased the minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour said that the province would go under, so not much to expect from them.
We have to realize that this government has many mental limitations indeed.
Thanks Carlos, my project went very well. It’s too bad we can’t say the same thing about Alberta. I must admit I too did not watch Smith’s TV interview. It was only 10 minutes long but I couldn’t bear the thought of listening to this libertarian free market capitalism tripe.
One thing I’ve been reading iin the press is Albertans are more wary now. We may be in an oil price boom, but we’ haven’t seen a significant uptick in energy jobs as a result. People are finally starting to smarten up. Which means they’ll be looking for more than $600 from Smith.
2.4 billion could build a lot of decent homes that we so lack now but of course winning the election is way more important.
Giving a subsidy to families making 175 thousand a year? Really ?
No doubts Danielle Smith is a scary person but to be honest she is unintelligent.
I am sorry I know this is not acceptable but I am tired of this garbage and as a citizen I am done with this party and with these mentally challenged leaders.
Let us throw this crap out as soon as possible before we become a banana republic
Good news, bad news. Good news – apparently now there will be $600 cheques for people with children under 18 or seniors to help offset inflation. However the bad news is for many others, no $600 cheques. Many of the rest of Albertans will just have to suck it up even if they make considerably less than the $180,000 income limit for this temporary program.
I’m not sure Smith realizes just how many people that is, she seems clueless, but her limited cash giveaway excluding many has just annoyed and alienated a lot of people. I am sure there are a lot of people in their 40’s to early 60’s on modest incomes who won’t qualify because they don’t have kids under 18, but are still struggling with inflation.
However, I suspect now they may remember to vote and remember they have been overlooked by Smith.
The Western Canadian Select discount to Western Texas Intermediate has to drop below 15USD/bbl before those folk get their votes bought, I guess.
Dave and GoinFawr: why people vote UCP is beyond me. In order to support a far-right ideology they appear to be willing to vote against their own self-interest. The wealthy who just want tax cuts and no “red tape” are prepared to see the rest of society sink under the burden of inequality (a stupid move because in the end it will bring them down too). Women who would fare better under the NDP continue to support the UCP (although not in as great a number as their male counterparts). It’s only when an issue like coal mining in the Rockies seizes the imagination that all of these disparate groups come together.
Tyler Shandro wants RCMP Chief Brenda Lucki fired, stating she must be held to the highest standards and has failed to meet the most meagre of standards. Meanwhile The Law Society of Alberta has adjourned a hearing to decide if then Labour and Immigration Minister Tyler Shandro had breached its code of conduct for Shandro and his wife standing in a neighbour’s driveway screaming at the neighbour in front of his children. There appears to be a double standard in Shandro’s idea of being held to the highest standard. Am I the only person to think that Shandro’s boss told him to ask for Lucki’s firing as part of the plan to replace the RCMP in Alberta with a very compliant provincial police force?
Jaundiced Eye – Shandro is the one who needs to be removed but he is so entitled he does not even realize he is the one who has no standards.
What else is coming in this province which is looking more and more like a failed state.
He’s probably mad because the RCMP did not let the UCP in on the undercover operation that discovered the guns at Coutts and zealots ready to die for the cause.
Speaking of being held to the highest standards, how about that ex-premier and his “screw the pooch” comment. Really? Is locker room talk appropriate in intergovernmental relations now? It was very wise of the RCMP not to let any hotheads and mouthy-mouths in on the secret.
Yes MM as if anyone was going to trust Jason Kenney with any police operation when he was never clear on what side he was.
Sometimes I wonder what these people have in their heads, a brain or oat meal.
Danielle’s team grievance gotta grieve. The Shameless Shandro Show apparently has been given its dog whistle to blow, and blow he shall.
“[Then] Labour and Immigration Minister Tyler Shandro had breached its code of conduct for Shandro and his wife standing in a neighbour’s driveway screaming at the neighbour in front of his children.” Actually, he was Minister of Health at the time – which makes his behaviour in that physician neighbour’s driveway even more reprehensible.
… thinking of people who should be removed, I can come up with a few names of Provincial Officials too. The Federal government has shown some restraint in not coming back with and saying exactly this.
Perhaps its due to Federal restraint, the idea of “staying in their own lane”, or just trying maintain a constructive working relationship, which is not helped by these sort of petty attacks.
I believe Smith and her minion are determined to undermine and destroy the relationship between the Federal government and the Province just to prove it isn’t working.
Danielle Smith is not just trying to destroy the relationship between our province and the Federal Government – she is a separatist.
She is trying to destroy the RCMP in Alberta
She is trying to destroy Alberta Health Care
She is trying to destroy Education
She is destroying our reputation as reasonable people
She is destroying our culture of reason and facts
She is making conspiracy theories acceptable
She is a disgrace and the faster she goes the better.
Her message propaganda boy Shandro is again on the attack this time against the RCMP commissioner
https://albertapolitics.ca/2022/11/tyler-shandros-performative-complaint-about-rcmp-commissioner-is-all-part-of-the-ucps-provincial-police-campaign/
Her ideas on provincial vs federal government jurisdiction boil down to this: “what’s mine is mine, & what’s yours is also mine”.
With respect to the newly rebranded “Alberta Sovereignty in a United Canada Act”, even if — as she is now saying — this legislation respects the constitutional division of powers & court decisions, there’s still room for plenty of mischief in its provisions. For example, picking & choosing which offences in the Criminal Code of Canada will be investigated & prosecuted in Alberta — like, maybe, unlawful possession of a prohibited firearm — puts all of us in a very dangerous position.
One more good one for those that like politics
https://albertapolitics.ca/2022/11/how-long-before-albertas-united-conservative-party-government-tries-to-ban-mask-wearing-in-schools/
Convoy Occupation of the nation’s Capital, ‘Not violent’?
Occupying tanks, spewing poisonous fumes into peoples’ homes for weeks on end, how is that
not violent?
Deliberate sleep deprivation is a known torture technique, and the occupiers of Ottawa were flat out revelling in employing it for weeks on end, how was that
not violent?
Coutts, from start to finish, and being realistic, ongoing
not violent?
Go on foreign funded Jericho Marchers, pull the other one.
Links:
https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/chemicals/diesel_exhaust.html
https://www.optalert.com/sleep-deprivation-as-a-form-of-torture/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/coutts-protest-blockade-arrests-rcmp-monday-1.6351112
GoinFawr
you forgot arson and person assault in Ottawa and weapons and personal threats in Coutts.
For Conservatives that is not violence !!!
I was looking for a hat tip to the ‘Ram Ranch’ counter protesters from the city of Windsor, or the Windsor Police
Hot off testifying at the federal Emergencies Act inquiry, certain convoyeurs want to do it again in the spring, when the final report is published. Some people never learn. I don’t think they’ll receive the warm welcome they’re expecting. It’s some kind of obsession.
Speaking of pandemics, the final bit of bad news this week is a trailer dropped off in the parking lot near the ER at the Alberta Children’s hospital. It’ll be a waiting room, opening in December. There’s much wrong with this. I’ll leave it at that. What a way to cap off the week.
In order to maintain consistency, and to avoid giving the hypocritical impression that
‘it’s about the message, not the lawlessness’ (h/t Brendan Miller) the UCP better damn well be ready willing and able to spend money on a public inquiry looking into any foreign funding of the Coutts Border Blockade.
Speaking of which, the lawyer(s) representing Alberta squandered one hell of an opportunity at the POEC hearings when they could have asked convoy participants Canada had there giving testimony that very question… or ANY questions, for that matter.
Not only was there foreign funding of what I prefer to call the “coup attempt”, Americans crossed the border into Canada to take part.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/02/freedom-convoy-alberta-blockade-vaccine-mandate-protests/
There are many more unanswered questions beyond the scope of this inquiry. Another question I’d like answered is what local, provincial and federal politicians who made appearances at the blockades and occupations did beyond showing up and bringing doughnuts. A local politician/organizer in Alberta testified at the EA inquiry. I’m certain that there is more to the Alberta part of the story. What’s beneath the plausible deniability?
It being Sunday, I think it is safe for even me to say this: Thank God Alberta women have the right to vote.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/opinion-rachel-notley-danielle-smith-gender-gap-poll-1.6664568