This week in AB
For cabinet making, you don’t need all the tools
“What does Danielle Smith’s cabinet tell us about the UCP’s plans for Alberta?” I was asked by Hannah Thibedeau on CBC News Network June 9.
I honestly hadn’t had enough time to think about it at that moment as I was still making a list of who made it into cabinet, where they were from, and whether they had been in cabinet before (there’s only six ministers who haven’t been named previously under Smith or Kenney).
I want to tackle one criticism straight off; diversity.
Smith’s options weren’t fabulous because her caucus isn’t diverse; there were 37 men, 11 women, and one shit cookie candidate/“independent” elected. Of those, she only had five candidates who are persons of colour and probably as many with critical thinking skills.
This has long been a complaint of political parties in general — they know where the “safe(r) seats” are and they have a reasonable expectation that people who are candidates in those ridings will be elected. Therefore, if they actually want a diverse caucus, they know where they can place candidates they want to see in caucus.
The NDP had at least nine candidates in Edmonton (almost half the available seats) who are not white and male. Some of those candidates were new, some were previous MLAs. That was likely a decision in which some care was taken by central to ensure the party would have the foundation of a diverse caucus. It can be done, with some attention to detail but let’s be realistic about the diversity that actually exists in rural Alberta — it’s not great.
Second; most of cabinet is from rural.
Of course it is — that’s where they elected the most MLAs. What else could have happened; unelected Ministers from the “council of the defeated”? Excuse my eye roll but that would be even worse than not naming anyone from Edmonton.
Now, let’s go back to Hannah’s question: what does this signify for the UCP’s plans for Alberta?
First, many of Take Back Alberta’s most ardently supported candidates did not receive cabinet roles. That is a good thing but I’m sure it’s just temporary to take some attention away from the subject because it hurt them in Calgary and didn’t do them any favours in Edmonton. Luckily — for both you and I, dear reader — I won’t forget when they start showing up
.Adriana LaGrange’s appointment to Health Minister may cause some alarm based on some eye-opening moves from her previous role. We could see a concerted effort to remove the term “public health” to simply “health”, as was the case when LaGrange was Minister of Education.
We could see increased funding funneled into the separate health system (which Alberta totally has), Covenant Health, where decisions are made with the wishes of the Bible’s authors in mind rather than the patient who is expecting legitimately reasonable — and legal — care considerations today.
The NDP didn’t do anything about this either, so, excuse me while I eye-roll again.
Smith had a choice between only three candidates for Justice — Mickey Amery (Calgary), Brian Jean (Fort McMurray), and Jason Stephan (Red Deer). Maybe she didn’t want to throw both Health and Justice to Red Deer. Maybe Stephan is a contentious kind of guy. And maybe she didn’t trust Brian Jean to bend the rules for her — I don’t know for sure and my contacts actually stonewalled me with “no comment”.
Otherwise, cabinet is fine and I must reiterate an amazing piece of advice from Stephen Carter in a recent episode of The Strategists podcast: set the expectations higher.
No Ministry tasked with “climate change”? Give it to Environment! Set the expectation that someone will be answering for it then sit back and enjoy the show.
By reducing the expectations for Ministers, we’ll also be reducing the expectations in the minds of voters. Expect better, demand better, hold them to account.
Lastly, Smith has 48 caucus members and 25 members in Cabinet. This is also strategic in that Cabinet, by convention — for whatever that is still worth — agrees to disagree behind closed doors but is united and upholds the premier’s wishes in public. Keeping the TBA stalwarts out of cabinet but being able to count on their support is a benefit to the premier in her position.
It’s still about the politics.
Canada
How low can you go?
There was no other way this was going to end — between the perceived relationship between Johnston and the Prime Minister and the fact that there are certain issues and concerns the government just will not release.
Good luck getting someone else in to do the work after the hatchet job Johnston received though.
As one friend put it, remember that scene in A few good men? When Jack Nicholson says:
“You can’t handle the truth!
We live in a world that has walls and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom! And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives!
You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall — you need me on that wall. We use words like ‘honour’, ‘code’, ‘loyalty’ — we used these as the backbone of a life spent defending something; you use them as a punchline.
I have neither the time nor inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very protection that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it!
I would rather you just said ‘thank you’ and went on your way, otherwise I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand your post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to!” ~A few good men, 1992
It’s a probably one of the greatest movie rants and it spells out the ivory tower we — or in this case, the opposition — lives in while demanding answers to questions that perhaps, for national security purposes, cannot be made public.
After all, it’s the reason why Poilievre declined security briefings — if he knew what the national security issues were, he wouldn’t be able to blame the government he so desperately wants to run.
Ugh. Speaking of which…
There’s a by-election in Portage-Lisgar, a federal riding in Manitoba.
Apparently the Conservative Party of Canada believes its strongest competitor is People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier, who is one of four challengers facing CPC candidate Branden Leslie for the seat Candice Bergen (CPC) left in February, and so they’re going all in against a global conference of business leaders.
It’s a weird fixation that I can’t even begin to explain but it’s really, really dumb and apparently, it’s worth fighting about, publicly, like we’re in grade five.
Final thoughts
It’s Pride month — transgender people have existed for thousands of years and so have gay people, and two spirit people, and queer people. Spread love, not hate.
Reading
Lisa young: