Welcome to “Life in a Conservative Province” also known as “they say the wackiest things.”
“They” being conservative premiers who say idiotic things when asked: how do you reconcile your government’s policies with the impact of climate change on the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires?
Before we get into the politics of wildfires, let’s consider the facts.
The magnitude of problem
Right now there are over 400 wildfires burning across 3.8 million hectares in Canada. Over half of them are out of control. More than 30,000 people have been displaced and the health of millions more has been negatively impacted by smoke carrying toxic particulates into their homes and workplaces.
To put that into perspective, Armel Castellan, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, says in the late 1990s the number of smoke hours experienced at the Calgary airport averaged 10 hours/year. Today, the average is 100 hours/year. That’s a ten-fold increase.
These fires are bigger and move faster than ever before. They’re so intense they create their own weather systems.
It’s June. We’re not yet in the hottest months of the year.
Politicians say what we’re experiencing is “unprecedented” however these fires have been the norm since the Fort McMurray fire chief christened the Fort Mac fire “The Beast” in 2016.
The politicians
It’s not surprising that the public wants to know whether their political leaders see a connection between climate change and these terrifying wildfires. But when asked the question, their feckless leaders run for cover.
Doug Ford accused the NDP opposition of “politicizing” the issue by asking the question. (A common diversionary tactic when a politician’s ideology takes him down a rabbit hole).
Similarly, when talk show host Ryan Jespersen asked Danielle Smith to comment on whether climate change played a role in the increase in frequency and intensity of wildfires, Smith suggested arsonists could be responsible, thereby giving credence to the theory circulating on social media that arsonists armed with nefarious political agendas were setting the province on fire.
But here’s the thing. Experts like fire research scientist, Xianli Wang, say climate change is a significant factor no matter how these fires start (about half are caused by lightning and the other half by humans) because the hot dry conditions we are now experiencing make the fuel (plants, logs) drier causing fires to burn more intensely and to cover more ground.
The political response
Even a politician blinded by ideology can’t argue with the fact that 3.8 million hectares of Canada are on fire.
So here’s a suggestion.
Let’s take Ford and Smith’s statements at face value (yes, I know it’s hard but bear with me).
Let’s assume that we, the governed, are not allowed to ask those who govern us to consider whether climate change plays a role in wildfires because this would force them to reconsider their unbridled support for the fossil fuel industry.
Let’s also assume a mad mob of arsonists is running around the countryside setting great swaths of Alberta ablaze.
What is Danielle Smith going to do about it?
Pulling in more resources from the US, Australia, Mexico, Spain, Portugal, and South Africa and dropping $1,250 in compensation on those who’ve been turned out of their homes for more than seven days is, at best, a short term solution.
Smith needs a long term plan.
She must reverse Jason Kenney’s cuts to the firefighting budget and in fact increase it by millions of dollars in order to meet the government’s stated firefighting objectives of:
- containing the spread of a fire by 10 a.m. the day after it’s detected, and
- starting suppression activity before the fire grows larger than 2 hectares (4.9 acres) in size.
She needs to significantly increase manpower for lookout crews who detect fires–they catch about 30% of the fires, the rest are spotted by aerial detection and other means–and firefighters and emergency personnel who extinguish fires and evacuate affected communities.
She must beef up the government’s fleet of aircraft, airtankers, and helicopters, acquire more equipment and supplies for fire suppression, build more warehousing to store this stuff, build more facilities to repair and refurbish equipment, expand radio tech services, and set up more fire camps, lookouts and airtanker bases.
She needs to set aside billions to cover the cost of evacuation, compensation (including skyrocketing insurance costs), and rebuilding burned out communities, to say nothing of addressing the strain on our healthcare system as diseases caused by toxic smoke inhalation increase.
And she’d better be prepared to increase the budget year over year because the situation is only going to get worse.
Oh, and with respect to those arsonists, perhaps she could hire a bunch of sheriffs to maintain a tight perimeter around the boreal forest, or maybe build a wall? Sorry, that’s what happens when you accept a ludicrous premise at face value.
At the very least Smith must provide Albertans with free N95 masks and HEPA filters so we can continue to live and work in this hellish environment without killing ourselves.
Because the government can’t have it both ways. Either it addresses the root of the problem, climate change, or it pours billions of dollars into living with its consequences.
Setting up a boogeyman of politically motivated arsonists won’t cut it.
Susan on the Soapbox 
While I agree with everything you say….it just might be that Smith can claim whatever she wants, do as little to prepare for the future our fossil fuel addiction has already baked in, and still stay in power.
Chris Hedges has a depressing little post today called REQUIEM FOR OUR SPECIES. Turns out he’s in New York, where the air quality has been declared the worst in the world…thanks to Canada’s burning boreal. He just might be right, that we’d rather fight each other than unite or change our profligate lifestyles for Actual Life.
He thinks we’re doomed. If so, the election of a genuine and sincere science denying libertarian, a woman yet an as bold as Trump and as clueless……..
Would be the perfect leader for our present moment in time.
I’m genuinely afraid more of us want to stay asleep. Joining the army of the Woke is simply a bridge too far….we’ll watch our boreal burn and use that as an excuse to clear cut it faster…. according to Chris Hedges:
We’re doomed.
We have seen a lot of smoke on the west coast in recent years, and it really does make everyone feel the apocalypse is truly here (especially when followed by massive flooding, ie., in the Fraser Valley. I get why Chris Hedges feels we’re doomed. But we shouldn’t go down without a fight!
We’re not. We’ve had solar for 13 years, put in more when the NDP had the 30% rebates, drive an EV since the 2019 Alberta debacle. We do everything we can……..and refrain from everything that creates CO2, to the best of our ability.
But the majority still fly off on Vacate Ons…and can’t afford solar. What’s worse, we’ve built a global economy on endless consumption….and imperial theft of what others need to live.
Sadly, I don’t see any majority following that old adage: Live Simply, that others may Simply Live. Quite the contrary in fact…….and the bigger their footprint, the more likely it is they vote for quacks like Smith.
So its hard to have a lot of hope,
Ingamarie and Colleen: I was listening to an interview on CBC with Madeline Ostrander, an environmental journalist who talked about our growing sense homesickness for our homes (indeed our planet) as a result of climate change. She described it as “solastalgia” and said it emerges from the sadness and fear we experience as floods, heat waves, and smoke from wildfires take over our homes. At first it sounded like a dismal interview, but then she started talking about how communities banded together to help each other overcome these challenges.
The one thing she didn’t say, and I think she should have said, was that these communities of people who have come face to face with climate change must band together to demand their governments do better. That means real action on reducing emissions and shifting to a more sustainable life style.
Like Colleen, I don’t feel doomed (yet), but I think we need to get real about pushing a green agenda with the NDP (maybe with the help of the Greens).
And kudos to you Ingamarie for taking all the steps you’ve taken to reduce your carbon footprint. We must follow your lead.
Thank you both for your comments.
Yes to that!
Bringing in firefighters from all over the world is not a cheap nor long-term, sustainable solution. Skilled firefighters will be in high demand as wildfires around the world increase over the years. We might not be able to bring them here in the future. It’s time for prevention and advance planning, which will be both costly and necessary. Waiting until forest fires are out of control every year before doing anything is not a plan. We’ll all pay for this with our health, but Danielle Smith said any cancers up to stage four are our own fault and completely preventable. Blame the victims and take away publicly-delivered healthcare at the same time. All the better to disqualify 4.3M people from coverage for wildfire smoke-related illnesses in the future.
This article appeared on Global today:
https://globalnews.ca/news/9761043/dry-spring-southern-albertan-farmers-zero-production/
Climate change is not acknowledged but farms are at a 50-year low for soil moisture? Dust bowl like the 1930s on the way? How could anyone believe the conditions affecting farms do not also affect our forests?
The irony here is that the farmers in this article are smack dab in another hotspot: Take Back Alberta territory around Fort Macleod. They seem to think the solution is to declare an emergency and ask for a handout from the federal government.
It’s getting harder and harder to keep up this level of denial. It’s climate change! Owning the feds by refusing assistance for forest fires for a week, then putting out palms for federal money because farms are experiencing levels of drought not seen this century nor well into the last. This is not normal. Nothing is fine.
Will TBA insist on not taking federal money when their own farms are on the line? Will they take the cash and insist on Alberta separation before they realize that they’ll suffer most? Will they finally admit we’re in a climate crisis that threatens our existence? Or will they just badmouth “Ottawa” and the prime minister, take the money and eventually lose their livelihoods? It’s Alberta. My guess is the latter. Fanatics only see their fantasies. Arsonists did not use giant paper straws to suck the groundwater out of all the farms from Calgary to Fort Macleod, that’s for sure.
M: Wow! That was an eye-opening article. As you said, how can any farmer facing zero production or rancher feeding his cattle winter feedstock because the fields are turning into dust possibly deny climate change is real.
The beauty (although I hesitate to call it that) of this situation is that there’s no way they can blame Trudeau for this. Although as you point out they can make the situation even worse by rejecting the cash because it comes from Ottawa.
This story will replay itself over and over again, eventually some (but not all) of those affected will come to their senses.
I think we’re at a pivotal time and a smart political party (hello NDP) will see the opportunity and take advantage of it.
Susan, I’m related to a number of those people in Fort Macleod and area who are in trouble… and asking for federal money. It’s interesting, they think nobody else should get assistance. And it’s not climate change, it’s just the weather doing what it does. They believe the earth is 6000 years old, it’s all god’s plan, and people have nothing to do with it.
They believe in self sufficiency… until they struggle, then they deserve more. They hate Trudeau with a fiery hatred, he’s the reason everything is wrong in the world (I wish I were kidding).
It’s so frustrating to watch.
Susan: Thanks for sharing another great blog. I think Danielle Smith is out of her league, and so is Doug Ford. These premiers are examples of ones who do not look for solutions, and they have farfetched ideas as to how things happen, and why things happen, including with these wildfires. It doesn’t help the situation. I feel bad for those who have to be evacuated from their homes. I’ll share some more music. This is a Robbie Robertson composition, from The Band, called The Weight. It was released in 1968, and it is I my music collection.
*in*
Dwayne, thanks for that clip. I didn’t recognize the title until I heard it.
I certainly agree with you that DS is out of her depth. As I said in the blog post, even assuming the arson investigators determine that one or more fires were caused by arsonists what is she going to do to deter them from setting more fires in the future. How will she protect our forests, our communities, our people?
The point here is that these fires, regardless of how they started, are bigger, hotter and more unpredictable thanks to climate change.
The COO of Yellowhead County said that even with all the resources being put into firefighting by the municipalities, by the province of Alberta, by firefighters from across Canada and across the world, he still can’t say when it will be safe to return.
“unprecedented” the new catchy word to add to “tipping point” and “point of no return” and “100 year advent” and “self reinforcing loop” and “dwindling resources ”
“The Great Dying wiped out at least 90% of the species on Earth due to an abrupt rise in global-average temperature about 252 million years ago. The vast majority of complex life became extinct. Based on information from the most conservative sources available, Earth is headed for a similar or higher global-average temperature in the very near future.”
https://guymcpherson.com/edge-of-extinction-scared-shirtless-in-india/
check out Climate Change Summary for a “check and mate” look at our situation.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/policy-arctic-lessons-climate-change-1.6872199
This article should cheer us up. However, 43 years is a long time to wait in light of the current situation. The expected date of Arctic sea ice melt has been bumped to the next decade but will these forest fires accelerate the pace of change?
https://phys.org/news/2023-06-arctic-ocean-ice-free-summer-2030s.html
What are Albertans going to do about it? Contrast and compare NYC and Alberta. New Yorkers wore N95 masks outdoors after only a few days of wildfire smoke. Some were supplied by governments. Have you seen anyone in Alberta wearing an N95 mask outdoors lately? The smoke goes on. Albertans ignore it. Albertans are oblivious heading into oblivion. The people of this province prefer magical thinking, so it’s business as usual and que sera, sera. The federal government can’t save us and we’ll make sure of that by fighting them every step of the way. Hasta la vista, baby!
M: thanks for the article on the banning of CFCs and the repair (albeit slowly) of the hole in the ozone layer. That got me thinking about how we managed to come together to finally put in place a global ban on CFCs in 2010. Just think of all the products that were illegal and all the profits that such products generated. And all the powerful companies that lobbied their governments to oppose the ban. There’s a lesson to be learned here.
PS I really liked your point about New Yorkers wearing N95s.
lungta mtn: “Nature bats last” kind of sums it up doesn’t it. Thanks for the link.
Smith is known to frequent some questionable websites and she is clearly listening to rightwing conspiracy nuts who are the only ones blaming it all on arsonists. Some of them claim the arsonists are eco-terrorists which fits nicely into Smith’s support for the oil industry agaist all measures to cut GHG emissions.
I don’t know if Smith is fool enough to believe the conspiracies or completely cynical about using them. I think she is a fool.
Smith is no fool. She’s a libertarian ideologue. The arsonist idea is a dog-whistle to the already-planted policy warbling around a provincial police force.
Looks like this – “Arsonists setting the provincial wild fires=”we” need a provincial police force!”
I wish it was “likely incompetence, rather than malice” with Smith. Smiths logic only has binaries. Its so much simpler to disasterbate the cause of the fires and go to some proximally-relevant hard-assed “Law and Order” solution.
Permit me this observation – Smith et al are not interested in government – libertarians never are. Suprise! They are libertarians – they are not conservatives!!. This rubby crew managed to get themselves elected to break government so irrevocably they can say “Look! We busted it! It’s busted” …… “and here are our private sector buddies with their deal for you to pay out of pocket”.
While most of Albertas’ fires were caused by people, the majority by far were caused by those who disregarded the voluntary call to closure ( clownvoy) that extreme risk and request to stay home (leisure and industry) and not take the risk .
(Way too much like a Covid precaution for UCP)
An actual shutdown of forest during extreme risk might have cut fires by 50% but would definitely incite TBA to ignite against the UCP.
I remember when they used to block roads.
Aside :The attempted murder trial of the border blockers associated with Diagolon starts today. Their credo actually has accelerating destruction and the destruction of existing government in it.
lungta is incorrect; the experts say about half of fires are caused by lightning, and the really big ones tend to start by lightning in remote areas where they are not detected for a while.
The human causes include overheating machinery such as ATVs (so convoyers probably deny that as a cause), campfires, cigarettes, etc.
Most arson tends to be near where humans live so it tends not to be a big fire.
Thanks lungta for the reminder of the Coutts trial for conspiracy to commit murder, etc. I’m looking forward to seeing and hearing the evidence.
The experts did say that at this time of year most fires are human-caused but I wonder if there was more lightning than normal in May because of the unseasonal heat. As the temperature goes up it causes more lightning.
There was a fire started at Banff by lightning, I saw a photo; and someone saw lightning at Fort Chip at the time that fire started.
The Coutts 4 trial did start today but so far it’s under a publication ban. CTV says there were about 100 supporters of the accused outside and 40-50 inside the courtroom.
Valerie and Lee: I must admit I’m torn between whether Smith is a hard core conspiracy theorist or a conniving libertarian who won’t be happy until everything we value is broken. There may be a third option.
A few years back Smith asked a friend to go onto her talk radio show. I’ve forgotten what the topic was. Smith told my friend they’d discuss the positives of an NDP policy then the negatives.
As it turned out they ran out of time before my friend could get tino the negatives. After the interview Smith read out a bunch of questions listeners had texted in. The listeners tore my friend apart, saying she was an NDP shill. Rather than admitting that she’d failed to give my friend sufficient time to go into the negatives of the NDP plan, Smith jumped on the bandwagon and trashed my friend.
I’ve heard her do the same on the Your Premier radio show before the election. So does this mean she can’t think for herself or that she’s manipulating the audience by mirroring back to them what they want to hear. It’s as if she’s a teenage girl who, in the moment, desperately wants to be liked by everyone. Weird.
That’s a good description. When someone who has known her says she is intelligent, I wonder if she just batted her eyes at them and agreed with everything they said. That would make her cunning, not intelligent.
Susan: Here is my next song pick. This is a Howlin’ Wolf composition, called Killing Floor. The Jimi Hendrix Experience covered it, and this is a live performance from 1969, in Stockholm, Sweden. Howlin’ Wolf and The Jimi Hendrix Experience are also in my music collection.
Thanks Dwayne, “electric church experience” is a new one on me. It was great to see this unfold as it was happening in the moment.
Here is the thing about climate change. Governments can’t fix the issue without implementing draconian measures that would be resisted by the general population. Think about the great furor over wearing a mask during Covid. Now think about how those self same ‘freedom’ folks would react to a decree saying they couldn’t drive their big trucks when, where & as they chose because of GHG emissions needing to be reduced. Imagine telling urban dwellers they all of them must now start using public transit to get around, no ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles allowed. Or begin charging a ‘climate tax’ to drive one, equal say to the annual property tax bill or one’s annual income tax. This in addition to fuel taxes, carbon taxes & so on.
Smith’s pathetic arson ‘investigation’ may well turn up at least one example of someone deliberately starting a fire. Pyromania is a real thing just as climate change is real. My point is that unless we all of us make some radical changes to how we live the man made portion of climate change will continue to increase. I do believe the climate is changing, but I also believe this is a natural cycle that unfortunately has been exacerbated by human activity. As ‘lungta mtn’ notes, ‘The Great Dying’ was a climate change disaster that wiped out some 90% of all species some 252 million years ago. Humans were not involved in that yet it still occurred, as did other climatic disasters over the millennia. However because we appear to have entered such a natural cycle, even if humans did cease all GHG making activities we’d still be seeing a lot of climate related disasters unfolding. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do anything, it just means we need to adjust our expectations as to how much we can affect the outcome. Plus adjusting the expectations of when one might see the benefits of taking action to reduce/end GHG emissions. Folks these days expect immediate results. They won’t be happy to be told it could take decades or even centuries before things return to ‘normal’.
As per Wiki, Canada emits some 763 million tons of GHG from man made activities. The USA 5,794 which still trails China at 11,706. China, the USA & India are in the top 3 spots. Yet Canada can’t point fingers to excuse our own emissions as manufacturing powerhouse Germany with better than twice our population emits some 777 tons to our 763. The USA actually has lower GHG emissions per capita than we do! So yes, lots of room for improvement everywhere.
The area of Germany 357,021 km2 (137,847 sq mi)
The area of Canada 9,984,670 km2 (3,855,101sq mi)
Hardly a fair comparison : a more moderate climate and 1/25the the size to the 2nd largest and second coldest country in the world
It is true Germany has a smaller land area but then with the exception of Russia all countries have less land area than Canada. Hence our #2 spot on the land area scale. However, despite a milder climate, the fact remains that despite being a manufacturing powerhouse plus having more than twice Canada’s population Germany produces only slightly more GHG emissions than Canada does. I’d add that milder climate doesn’t mean a lack of colder temperatures, just not as cold as we get here. However the climate conditions also tend to have fairly high levels of humidity. I can testify that humidity exacerbates the effects of colder temperatures as well as warmer temperatures. Damp cold is the worst!
As for Canada, with our literal centuries of experience one would think we would have long since perfected superior heating/cooling technology with zero emissions. Not only is European technology ahead of where we should be we still rely on wood burning stoves in many parts of Canada for heat during the winter months, not just because sitting beside a crackling fire is enjoyable but because it is also far less expensive. That may well prove to be a false economy, given how climate disasters are on the increase. So we might save money burning wood instead of using electric/oil/natural gas/propane heating but in return we get to pay for the costs of climate related events not only via our tax dollars but also via increased insurance premiums. Our house insurance used to be half the cost of our car insurance. These days our annual home insurance costs MORE than our annual car insurance does. It keeps going up as a result of all these climate events even though we ourselves haven’t made a claim in decades. I’d note that despite our having ‘replacement’ coverage that roof replacement is not 100% covered. This due to Alberta’s dire track record of hail storms. So even a metal or tile roof sees the amount of replacement coverage depreciating by 2% per annum if it is more than 6 years old. Asphalt shingles depreciate by 5% per annum. Ka-ching!
Linda, as you said even if this is a repeat of the Great Dying, the responsible thing to do would be to slow down how quickly it came upon us by reducing our carbon footprint. If not for ourselves then for our grandchildren.
What I want to know is where are all those innovators who were supposed to fix the runaway car before it flew off the cliff? Seems to me the only way to get oil companies to reduce their emissions is to pay them hefty subsidies while they tinker around the edges. This isn’t good enough. We have to demand more of our governments and ourselves.
Hi Susan. Oddly enough I was just chatting with a fellow gardener about climate change & how it is becoming harder than ever to predict when/how to deal with gardening challenges. People have been banging the climate change drum for literal decades, yet there are still those who deny climate change is actually happening even as their house literally burns. Regarding Smith’s arsonist comment, at least she is acknowledging that humans are responsible at least in part for what is happening. Just don’t say the phrase ‘climate change’.
Regardless of which, the cycle is in motion. I truly don’t think anything we do now will stop it from playing out. At best we might be able to mitigate the effects somewhat but only if we act in concert. Given how people acted during Covid I have my doubts that even self interest will save us from ourselves. It certainly didn’t stop folks from associating with one another, refusing to get vaccinated or even wear a mask during a pandemic. Good lord, folks were denying they had Covid even as they died of it! I swear, lemmings have more of a sense of self preservation than we humans.
This is what much of so called conservatism seems to be reduced to these days – denial and conspiracy theories.
I would say the real arsonists here are the ones who have set fire to our political system and are trying to destroy it for their own advantage.
Dave you nailed it! Thanks.
Dave that is very correct and that means almost all of them. Politicians are the ones not allowing the system to change because the status quo serves them well. One amazing example is that there is a push in Ottawa to replace the voting system and one person in the country, our prime minister, said no and that is the end of it. He does not want Proportional Representation and no more discussion. It is really unthinkable that we call this a democracy.
How do you convince Albertans leaving in these very volatile areas that maybe, just maybe, their UCP government is NOT looking out for them at all.
opps “living not leaving”
Hi Joan. Maybe both? Living yet leaving. I know that if I were in such a volatile area I’d consider leaving, especially if my current abode was reduced to a pile of ash. Or if I did decide to rebuild, I’d be exploring housing alternatives that might prevent my seeing my home burnt to the ground again. Already there are reports that some insurers are no longer providing fire coverage in areas where the fire risk is deemed too high.
Recent election results show the rural areas believe the UCP is the best choice, regardless of evidence to the contrary. So don’t know just what it might take for them to change their vote. Promises to do better are all very well, but it is what actually gets done or more important, what isn’t done that should be that should shape the outcome. So will the UCP provide the panacea the rural ridings expect? Or will they discover they bought a pig in a poke? Myself, I’m betting on the ‘oink’.
Linda, I just read another poll that said while both UCP and NDP voters identified fixing healthcare as their number one priority, more UCP voters than NDP voters wanted the government to help grow the oil and gas sector. I don’t know if this poll was conducted before or after Suncor and TCEnergy announced their layoffs, but you really have to wonder about voters who still believe that the oil and gas sector must be protected at all costs.
While this doesn’t address the point you raised in your comment, it does lend support to the conclusion that the “oink” side will prevail.
Good question Joan in both the “living” and the “leaving” sense.
Think Smiths govt will reverse the firefighting budget cuts started by Kennedy?
https://pressprogress.ca/albertas-ucp-government-has-cut-tens-of-millions-of-dollars-from-wildfire-preparedness-programs/
Not holding my breath…..wow, just realized that’s what she want Albertans to do!
“holding my breath” good one Lee!
That article at the link was an eyeopener. When Smith said we have to be “more nimble” in how we approach wildfires it reminded me of all the CEOs who, after slashing and burning their staff tell everyone that they’ll just have to learn to work “smarter”. The reality is without the bodies you can’t get the job done. So when the UCP cut the wildfire contingency fund from $485M to $76M and then let it creep back up to $173M, they’re dreaming in technicolour. Even a “nimble” firefighter can’t do their job without the resources they need.
Not having the bodies to do the work doesn’t faze ideologues like Smith or her analogues in the hordes of incompetent malignant narcissists infecting middle management in the private sector.
Cost-cutting is the purpose, goal, technique and end state.
The UCP/PC history is rife with examples of this fantastical thinking – Klein (the worst premier Alberta ever has been cursed with) moronically characterized Albertas’ public debt as a species of “mortgage” to be monomaniacally paid out – and lo it came to be – the “mortgage” was paid, but the boy o boy didn’t the Alberta house roof leak, its windows kicked out, the front door missing from the hinges, the basement full of water, the battered wife long gone and the kids nearly catatonically feral in asylum-like foster care! Folks on the right point at Rachel’s govt record for debt and damn it don’t they forget how in bad shape the property was in when she pried it out of the PC slum-landlords greasy clutches!
I’d argue we are still recovering from the trauma of the neglect Klein austerity program all these years later!
Dud-duh Danielle and her herd of UCP stinkers will double down. Sometimes I think conservatives in Alberta are most comfortable when they’re getting knocked about and kicked in the teeth some!
Excellent commentary on how DS and Ford are behaving and the consequences of it
Thanks Ruth!
Susan: Here is my final song pick. It is a Don Covay composition, covered by Aretha Franklin, in 1968, called Chain Of Fools. This is also in my music collection.
Dwayne, fantastic choice, both in the song and the singer! Thank you!!
A very convincing argument. It’s astonishing that there are still people denying man-made global warming, even though the evidence is overwhelming. The great tragedy of our age is that so many people are not in touch with reality and don’t accept evidence-based beliefs or decision-making.
Hi Neil. It’s sad, but there will always be people who demand “proof,” which means they refuse to “believe in” global warming till it hurts them personally. In fact, most folks didn’t “believe in” climate change till they had to pay for flood damage, hail damage, high food prices (flood or drought causing shortages), shortages of hay (I used to have a pet horse, so I know that one from experience).
I’ve sometimes met such skepticism with recommended-reading lists on this and other blogs. I once posted ten links to climate-change-is-hurting-us-right-now articles. (Must have been on David Climenhaga’s blog albertapolitics.ca because WordPress balks at embedded links.) Funny how the skeptics don’t reply to those posts.
Another skeptic-squelch, which I’ve only used sparingly, is to say, “Well I guess you can wait till your house is destroyed by a tornado; the wreckage is burned to ash in a wildfire; and the ashes are washed away by a flash flood. Then you can be REALLY sure climate change is real. But the rest of us don’t want to wait that long.” Anybody who needs this lecture usually reacts badly. Have fun, but you’ve been warned….
What amazes me about these people is that they do not have any problem swallowing the most absurd conspiracy theories going around but when it comes to scientific facts – NO WAY – because of course they are findings what what they call the LEFT wing elites.
And so we march ever faster towards disaster, which is not a problem to them because of course they believe they are the chosen ones.
Carlos, you’re correct. Sadly there’s something fundamentally out of whack with the people who prefer loopy conspiracy theories to scientific facts. What I find really frightening is that these people can be very well educated (I know a couple) but still under the spell of QAnon and other fruitcake conspiracy theorists. I wonder sometimes whether they did not get the love and support they needed as children or whether they suffered a horrible shock which in turn destabilized them so that when the “Great Answers to All Your Questions” appeared they fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.
Some people you can reason with. Others are beyond hope.
Neil and Mike, I’d add that the problem is exacerbated by cunning politicians who continue to politicize science. It’s almost impossible to reason with someone who’s wrapped up in identity politics.
The beauty of a science-based conversation is that if the science changes, we can change our policies and it costs us nothing.
However in an identity-based conversation, when we ask someone to change their mind, that’s the same as asking them to give up their identity. They won’t do it. Which is why these beliefs are so hard to displace.
Alberta has long been the most Americanized province in Confederation. This despite the best efforts of the Ford brothers in Ontario, plus Brad Wall and Scott Moe in Saskatchewan. Republican-inspired identity politics and culture wars have infiltrated Canadian politics. Now, we’re gonna pay the price. More on this in a new thread, below….
The fact that Smith can convince the ranchers and farmers to vote against their own best interests in droves is impressive. That is leadership!
Sorry, JE, I can’t agree Smith is convincing anyone. She’s just using the age-old conditioned reflex of Alberta Conservatives to believe with all their hearts that they deserve to be punished for something.
I agree with Mike on this one. Danielle Smith is a peak performance crook. Now she is flooding people with her restaurant and how she is a true people person. Not hard to do if you have the media behind you. The fascist world is on the move and we have to admit they made enormous progress but do not underestimate the rest of us.
Jaundiced Eye, Mike and Carlos: I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to figure out what’s going on in the hearts and minds of the rural folk who continue to vote conservative notwithstanding the damage the conservatives have done to healthcare, education, you name it. But I do take heart in the fact that the majority of Calgarians, in the heart of the oil and gas sector, voted for the NDP. More Albertans are waking up to the fact that the world is changing and the old true blue conservative government is not the answer. This gives me hope.
Hi Susan. There’s some reason to hope that Alberta is moving forward, leaving 19th-century attitudes behind. A work friend, raised in small-town Alberta, once told me that she couldn’t understand the ignorance, prejudice and tribal “us-vs.-them” attitudes of her neighbours and friends. (She’s become a left-leaning, eco-minded progressive feminist in response. I gathered that, as long as they didn’t discuss politics, everybody could still have a good time.)
However, I would not, repeat NOT, consider Rachel Notley’s party progressive. Notley herself is now the personification of the old true-blue Conservatives. Peter Lougheed would—probably–have been proud. Her dad? Maybe not so much. Notley is still utterly committed to oil and gas development. This will be a problem in the next election cycle, and beyond.
My preference would be to vote Green. I vote NDP provincially because they’re the only viable alternative to the extreme-right UCP. I vote Green federally (if they run a candidate in Edmonton Millwoods; usually they have). That’s a protest vote, not a wasted one. Our choice in Oilberduh is limited to right-wing or extreme right-wing parties.
We can surely hope that the next election will see a larger contingent of progressive voters, those who understand that we can’t solve our problems by relying exclusively on oil and gas to save us. This may be helped by the Kenney government’s attempts to attract Ontarians to Calgary to find cheaper housing. Oh, the irony….
Another GREAT article/analysis. Thanks so much Susan.
Tom: you’re very welcome!
Duane Bratt is right. American-style culture wars now dominate Alberta politics.
https://globalnews.ca/news/9769528/danielle-smith-facebook-ban-censorship/?utm_medium=Twitter&utm_source=%40GlobalCalgary
David Climenhaga pointed out that Rob Anderson, that paladin of free speech and fair dealing (as long as both are on his terms), promptly started dissing Dr. Bratt on Twitter. I blame Ralph Klein for entrenching identity politics in Alberta. I blame Jason Kenney for making identity politics not merely toxic, but poisonous.
https://albertapolitics.ca/2023/06/the-boss-is-going-crazy-shes-practically-giving-her-restaurant-away-plus-big-tech-is-censoring-her/
How long before Danielle Smith yields to pressure from the TBA/ Free Alberta factions to “liberate” us from actual laws? Not long, I think. Brian Jean has just fired a warning shot in the latest culture war against a “just transition” led by Ottawa.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-wants-guaranteed-seats-on-proposed-sustainable-jobs-partnership-council-1.6878539