Heating up for summer
This week in AB
The Nenshi show opens to mixed reviews
Evergreen tweets like Kristin’s are the best because it can be usefully applied to anything, by any one of our ilk, when it’s that kind of day.
The United Conservative Party launched a full-throated attack on Nenshi this week saying he was “Trudeau’s choice”, a “tax and spend Liberal”, etc, etc.
While the connection works well to stoke the anti-Trudeau sentiment within the ever-shrinking conservative circles who have been conned into believing a global oil-price drop in the 1980’s was caused by Trudeau the first proposing a National Energy Program for Canada, Alberta has elected six Liberal MPs since 2015 (counting Boissenault twice because he lost and regained his seat), one NDP MP three times, and a second NDP MP in the last general election — something few would have believed possible in the decades since.
Alberta is changing and it deserves a leader who will represent that change.
This, obviously, is where recently-elected Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi comes in.
He has the opportunity to keep moving forward on Rachel Notley’s success, and he has shown both that he has the capacity, and the ability, to do that.
Victory speech Nenshi is that person. Victory speech Nenshi has the potential to be Premier Nenshi.
He has also demonstrated a willingness to play the blame game, a family favourite whose rules were determined long ago by conservative politicians in this province.
We watched Rachel Notley and her team play this game and lose. We watched as they continued to play this game and lose less than they did the first time, but “first loser” is still not winning.
Naheed Nenshi needs to walk this line very carefully. It may be tempting, oh, so tempting, to return the trash talk. He may be tempted to drop the gloves and take the penalty to make a point. Late in the season for hockey references, but it works best for what I’m aiming at here: the penalty is not worth it.
A lot of people “on the left” have begun to resist taking that higher ground.
As someone who spends time in conservative circles, let me lay it out: making the leadership of this province about “us vs. them”, where a majority still identify as conservative, is not the winning tactic.
Playing their game is not a winning tactic.
I know conservatives who have lost friends because they are willing to consider “the other side” may not be their mortal enemy. I know progressives who feel the same.
Alberta needs to be united behind a common goal and Nenshi presented that goal throughout his leadership campaign: Alberta. All of us.
Division favours the UCP. Othering favours the UCP. An insult, haphazardly thrown, favours the UCP because they are so very good at victimizing their own base and making them feel targeted — I mean, they are, after all, targeting them.
Nenshi has a biting wit which has served him well, but he needs to target policy, not people.
He needs to embrace compassionate condescension.
“This government is trying, but their preferred approach is failing Albertans.”
“The UCP may have good intentions but the evidence shows their policies are not helping Albertans in need.”
“The governing party thinks they know best but they are not listening to Albertans.”
Alberta needs to be able to unite behind a vision for our future. Victory speech Nenshi has that vision. He only needs to focus on that for three and a half more years.
For Alberta. For our home.
Canada
“When the walls, come tumbling down…” ~John Mellencamp
Christy Clark is as blue a liberal as they come but that doesn’t soften the blow of losing a seat in Toronto and the ripple effect of that loss to every Liberal MP who still has a seat.
The by-election loss in Toronto-St. Paul's was more than just a reflection of motivation to send a message to this government, some say, it’s a reflection of a motivation to replace it.
That wasn’t the only thing that happened after we last connected, friends.
Journalist Justin Ling was privy to one side of a few telephone conversations by Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault in a train station. The Minister appeared to be gauging support for the Prime Minister resigning his position as Liberal Party leader.
Said Minister has since released a response denying that he was anything but loyal to the Prime Minister.
Then, Wayne Long, a Liberal MP from New Brunswick “accidentally” copied journalists on an email saying Trudeau needs to resign, which the author of the linked article, Althea Raj, says she confirmed agreement with other Liberal MPs.
As a person who practices journalism, I can tell you that people in government don’t offer their opinion if they don’t want you to know what it is.
Some have tried to offer me something useless they hope I’ll repeat. Others have tried to get me to spark interest in a nothing burger. The fact remains that none of them offer something they don’t want in print.
Could it finally be happening? Is it possible that, after even I said the time had come, which was long after coalitions and convoys, that there might be some push coming from inside the house?
It’s not an easy task to block out the constant anti-Trudeau hum in Alberta to hear what is going on beyond our media bubble. I thought I connected with it last fall, and predicted he would make his exit by the spring.
I was wrong, technically, but I take solace in the fact that I should have been right.
Someone in my politico circles said Trudeau missed an opportunity to follow in his father’s footsteps by making an exit on February 29, 2024.
As it would have worked perfectly within my own proposed timeline, I can’t find it within me to disagree.
As Lindsay Amantea and I discussed last week, it’s not about Trudeau any more, it’s about minimizing the losses for the Liberals, if not outright trying to turn the tide in their favour.
And no, no one needs or wants a year-long race.
Admitting you have a problem is the first step — solve the problem quickly, and decisively.
Then move on.
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