This Week in AB
It’s pretty much a dead heat in 2022 fundraising, which should succeed in scaring everyone for different reasons. Partisans, obviously, but for the rest of us, the scariest thing is knowing that voters change elections and to reach them you need to be where they are: go knock doors and pick up the phone.
Don’t forget that most parties want your vote and your free labour; not your criticism, ideas, or input.
Have fun out there!
Sorry if you’re offended
Alberta’s UCP has decided the words “just transition” are offensive. How dare the federal government draw attention to what the provincial government has been doing since 2018? How dare they say it out loud!
The NDP oversaw the coal phase-out and set aside $40 million for retraining affected workers. In 2018, the number of people who took them up on that free education was dismal; 9 out of an estimated 2,000. Of course, it’s quite possible not everyone affected needed to upgrade or pursue new training. Some probably took early retirement, others found new jobs with the skills and education they already had — same as many former oil and gas workers who found themselves in transition after the oil price dropped in 2014.
The federal Liberal government has acknowledged that the transition to a low-carbon economy has the potential to affect many Canadians; particularly those in the energy, agriculture, manufacturing, and transportation industries.
The term “just transition” came out of the Paris Agreement where governments were encouraged to take into account that the transition to a low-carbon economy would affect employment and ensure they were in a position to prepare citizens for that reality.
We also already have a skilled trades worker deficit in most provinces.
The UCP has been pushing trades training since before the last election, with former UCP leader Jason Kenney’s first release coming in March of 2019, just before the election. Then, it was under the guise of his “belief in a dichotomy between the worth placed on university degrees versus trade qualifications”.
When I toured the province promoting post-secondary opportunities, I found more than enough anecdotal agreement in that sentiment.
There are too many who believe trades are not worthy academic pursuits — by the same people who, presumably, do not want to be electrocuted when they turn on a light, or have their roof cave in after a heavy snowfall, or have water shooting up from the shower drain, or their refrigerator or furnace stop running… and those are just a few of the things we hope don’t happen before we even leave the house.
Almost every luxury (and basic need) we take for granted is thanks to a trade.
Trades and apprenticeship training in Alberta is top notch — people come from across Canada to get trades certification in Alberta because it is accepted, and respected, globally.
For posterity, “post-secondary education” literally means “education after high school” — whether the education provides a doctorate, degree, certificate, journeyman’s, or the ability to obtain a Class 1 or 2 driver’s licence, it is included within the term “post-secondary education”.
So, the fact that the UCP is currently raging against the federal government for putting Albertans ahead of rhetoric with their “just transition” legislation is, at best, confounding, and at worst, actively working against the interests of people in this province.
It shouldn’t escape anyone’s notice that the biggest cheerleaders of “standing up for Alberta” are doing so from their cushy office chairs during the day because they aren’t the ones whose jobs are in jeopardy.
Maybe Danielle Smith interferes in the administration of justice and maybe she doesn’t but she sure wants people to think she does (not)
“A clarification is when you say clearly today what you said unclearly yesterday. A reversal is when you say the opposite today of what you said clearly yesterday,” wrote Ken Boessenkool of Meredith & Boessenkool.
It pretty much encompasses Smith’s entire tenure as premier thus far.
From saying the unvaccinated were the most discriminated against group she’s seen in her lifetime, to comparing divisions of government that Albertans like to squabble about with the horrific treatment of Indigenous people, to claiming that she has interfered with the administration of justice, Danielle Smith has consistently “clarified” that she has absolutely no way of discerning the difference between reality and the incoherent musings of the very disturbed individuals she’s listening to.
So far this week, Smith has reversed her previous comments around interference in the administration of justice; as in, she’s saying the opposite of what she said previously.
Very clearly, Danielle Smith has said she’s spoken to prosecutors regarding prosecutions for COVID-19 public health order violations.
Now she’s saying she never spoke to prosecutors which is definitely the opposite of what she’s said.
The NDP are calling for an independent inquiry, much like the one that investigated former Justice Minister Kaycee Madu (who was demoted to the Ministry of Immigration and Labour after the investigation found he attempted to interfere with the administration of justice but was simply unsuccessful). Madu was promoted to Deputy Premier under Danielle Smith, highlighting for all Albertans how seriously she takes the digression from her “team”.
While in the role of columnist or shock-jock, these types of comments are good for clicks, calls, and ratings.
In opposition, they’re good for getting headlines, and dare I say, votes from people who don’t care if it’s real, they just super-duper want it to be true.
Fortunately, the fact that it’s an election year offers Albertans an opportunity to reject the fairy princess of la-la land now cosplaying serious adult in the Premier’s chair.
Unfortunately, it’s Alberta and we vote like sheep — not wolves.
It could happen to you
Some people are amazed when they discover that they are not, in fact, free from the consequences of their actions — I’ve taken some lessons myself and can confirm the fucking around part is excessively more fun than finding out (but worth it).
Jordan Peterson, registered psychologist and internet bad boy, was asked by the College of Psychologists of Ontario to participate in social media training. Who is this gatekeeper, and why do they have the authority to ask Peterson to do anything, you might ask?
At some point, Peterson applied for a licence to practice as a counselling psychologist in the province of Ontario. The College is responsible for those it extends a licence to, in effect offering a guarantee that the person who is counselling you has the education and expertise to qualify them in that capacity. They answer to both membership and the public.
As a member of this professional organization, one has agreed to certain standards of behaviour and professional conduct that will neither embarrass the college nor its many other members.
The simplest action to take when you are a member of a group but no longer wish to acknowledge their authority or accept the rules of membership, is to stop being a member.
Rebel Media’s “Commander”, Ezra Levant, took this route with the Alberta Law Society in 2016 — after his behaviour was the subject of complaints — to avoid the potential consequence of disbarment.
Peterson decided instead to whine incessantly on multiple social media channels and in Canada’s national newspapers that his free speech is being curtailed, and conservative columnists are spreading the word that unlimited freedoms may not actually exist at all (shocked face).
Meanwhile, two lawyers from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) have been charged in response to the surveillance of a Manitoba Justice who was hearing a case by the JCCF.
The JCCF said they were “disappointed” that its President, John Carpay, was being charged 18 months after he totes apologized.
I digress