Sure, I can fit the last year into one post
A look back at 2024, and what's to come in 2025.
Looking back, I see how many of the topics I write about are not “finished” but are better described as “works in progress”; politics has an ongoing storyline that doesn’t necessarily end with the conclusion of a post, or a vote in the Legislature or House of Commons.
This year in AB
At the beginning of the year, we saw Danielle Smith set the stage for denying care to transgender youth, something she followed up with complete misinformation to justify government intervention in personal medical decisions and restrict parental decision-making on behalf of their children. We now await the repercussions, none of which will provide the benefits Smith claims to be protecting since they weren’t at risk to begin with.
Smith brought in her targeted legislation against one of the smallest, and highly vulnerable, minority groups in the province ahead of her fall leadership review. The gambit worked, as Smith was rewarded for her government’s discriminatory legislation with 91 per cent support from the 5-6,000 people who made the trip to Red Deer in November.
The UCP passed legislation late in 2023 to allow Smith, Ministers, and their political staff to accept more expensive gifts from people who want to give influential people in the Alberta government more one-on-one attention. This spring, Smith, Ministers, and political staff were gifted multiple playoff tickets — both at home and away.
The ensuing scrutiny prompted the UCP to make more recommendations to exempt political staff from conflict of interest rules, as well as protecting communications between political staff and anyone else from Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy requests.
Alberta’s pension plan fever dream of accessing more than half of the Canadian Pension Plan’s assets were dashed by the end of the year but the saga will continue, in the form of a referendum, which would be unsurprising to see scheduled along with municipal elections in 2025.
Smith likely saw her predecessor’s attempt to bring more conservatives to the polls in 2021 with the equalization referendum as a well-intentioned idea that just didn’t favour the conservative options enough in the province’s two largest cities. Certainly, voters in Calgary must have been confused about the political leanings of long-time conservative Jeromy Farkas and now-Mayor Jyoti Gondek’s effective campaign against said predecessor, then-Premier Jason Kenney, while Edmontonians must have struggled to determine which mayoral candidate was less Liberal than former Liberal Cabinet Minister and now-Mayor Amarjeet Sohi.
It’s long been my contention that political parties are better screens for ideological failings than lone candidates can manage. It follows then, that I would see the UCP’s focus on political parties at the municipal level as more about hiding those candidates behind a party banner so they have a better chance of electoral success.
After attending the first annual general meeting of A Better Calgary party and noting the plethora of who’s who from former PC, Wildrose, Freedom Conservative, and UCP organizers in attendance, I find it comical they chose the acronym ABC, commonly used in non-conservative circles as an acronym for “Anyone But Conservative”.
The UCP also addressed the fledgling insurance industry. As Alberta was met again with more extreme (but also now so frequent as to be expected) weather events and devastating wildfires, I started talking more about what seems to be expected; insurance companies can’t keep up with the costs and are not interested in providing a public service.
We’re being offered the “less coverage” model instead, which somehow costs more over the next two years until premiums can go down thereafter. I have a theory about prices coming down after people adjust to higher ones: they don’t. Just the cost of doing business in the lowest taxed jurisdiction in Canada, I guess.
Alberta saw the resignation of Rachel Notley as Alberta NDP leader, a leadership race that hinted at growing pains before the blowout win by former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi, the resignation of Shannon Phillips, the election of her nominated replacement, Rob Myashiro, and, closing out the year, Rachel Notley’s resignation of her seat in Edmonton-Strathcona.
I have no confirmation that Nenshi will be running as her replacement whenever Danielle Smith is ready to allow the NDP to rack up more political points with another by-election win, but I believe he will. Not only does it allow him to retain the group of Calgary MLAs the party currently has, it’s smart politics for a new leader who is focused on unifying a caucus he was previously not part of. Additionally, as the Premier herself demonstrated, it’s also smart politics to run in a riding far from home where there is little chance of losing.
Canada plus
By the end of 2023, I was certain that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would see that his continued leadership of the Liberal Party was likely to cause more damage than it could provide benefit. With the resignation of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in the final weeks of 2024, I was referencing a quote by Jason Kenney where he said the Prime Minister had the “political depth of a finger bowl.”
Despite multiple requests from inside the party for the Prime Minister’s resignation in 2024, there’s little indication he plans to do so.
I’ve seen arguments for him to stay and go. Some, like those who suggested he should take his lumps in the next election if that’s what Canadians decide to give him, were fair, even if I thought he was taking a real risk with his party’s electoral chances. It was his to lose, I reasoned.
Until Trump decided to go full Napoleon complex.
Many eyes were on the American election as, early in the summer, President Joe Biden announced he would step aside after a disappointing debate showing against former-President Donald Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris was appointed candidate in his stead and for a brief moment, it looked as though the tide may turn for the Democrats. I let my optimism run away with me hoping to see Harris choose another woman to fill out the top of the ticket. I realized the options were few for the role, but it would have been great to see them run against the bro-based ticket of the Republican party; if they had a plan, that is.
When Donald Trump took the win, I looked back at Canada’s leadership and wondered if the Liberals could make a case for having managed one Trump presidency already and that they would be best positioned to deal with a second.
Then, during the Prime Minister’s dinner at Mar-a-Lago — presumably to discuss Trump’s social media post about 25 per cent tariffs — Trump made a “joke” about Canada becoming the 51st state.
Trump even went so far as to later refer to the Prime Minister of a sovereign nation as a “governor” of a decaying democracy. To me, he was no longer demeaning our leadership but the office itself. I was insulted as a Canadian. I was insulted as a person who still has some faith in our democratic institutions. And somehow, I was even insulted on behalf of the person who seems poised to become the next leader of our great country; Pierre Poilievre.
Many of these stories have only just begun, some are further along, but none are truly finished.
As I welcome 2025, I am excited to continue following these stories and dig into all those yet to begin. I’m also thankful that so many of you are along for the ride :)
To another year of living in interesting times — whether victorious or battle-weary, may we see it through.
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