Women of ABpoli Hot Flashes: Don't go away mad, just go away
This Week in AB
At 51.4% approval, Kenney steps down as UCP leader
Sure, he said he would accept 50 per cent plus one vote and stay on as leader.
Sure, he said "I believe all of our members, will expect every member of our caucus and our team also to respect the decision" when he was asked about the outcome after the vote.
Sure, he says he won't run in the upcoming UCP leadership race, but Jason Kenney's words aren't worth their weight in coal.
Amazingly, a caucus meeting that was supposed to discuss next steps on May 19 -- a meeting that was scheduled for an hour -- lasted at least five hours and came to the conclusion that a person who did not have enough support to stay on as leader of the Party managed to convince caucus that he should remain Premier until a new leader is chosen by the private club that can refuse Albertans membership.
Sarah Biggs from Olsen+Biggs, Joey Oberhoffner, and myself joined Chris Brown from Cross-Border Podcast to talk about the twist; Kathleen Smith and I did our first Twitter Space that same night, and then Kathleen joined Ryan Jespersen on Friday morning while I was making a swift return from Edmonton to chat with CBC.
Meanwhile, the Alberta NDP has been firing on all cylinders since Kenney's announcement; as they should be.
I just hope all parties jockeying for a space next election remember that they don't need to reach for anything to lay at the feet of the UCP; too many were complicit and willing to follow Kenney's leadership no matter where it took them.
Show us all some respect and stick to the facts, please.
Albertans can now renew their driver's licences online
Now you can keep your old photo ID until the new one comes. https://t.co/PZzu6fBy8W”
We may still have to carry all of our government identification but at least this process will make things a little easier. Minus the part about a human determining whether your photo should be updated, of course. I think I've only been offered the option once, myself, but I'm a chameleon.
Conspiracy-laden group wants $$ to lobby AB government
"Public education" doesn't mean that it's immune from private interests.
I really, really, really wish that people understood how important politics are at every stage of their lives because: OMFG - I didn't know.
Life is busy, life is distracting -- I get it -- it's life.
Meanwhile, people with way too much time on their hands are organizing to fuck you, and your kids -- and therefore your future -- over.
Tell your friends.
AB CMOH Dr. Deena Hinshaw asked to provide details
While an earlier challenge against Hinshaw and the UCP was dismissed, another is alive and well.
The latter, brought by the Alberta Federation of Labour and parents of immunocompromised children, challenged the decision of the UCP to remove mandatory masking in schools in 2021.
In June of 2021, I had registered my kids to go back in September. I pulled them after the UCP removed masking.
Kathleen had to keep her immunocompromised child at home.
Jessica went to her parent's place in Ontario that September because she was concerned about her children's safety but also had to work ("laptop class", obviously).
Those are just the stories I know - we had options.
Not everyone did.
The judge has asked for Hinshaw's research.
I want to see it, too.
Canada plus
WTF even is the Great Replacement Theory?
Last weekend, a disgruntled and disillusioned guy live-streamed himself executing mostly elderly Black people in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
The guy, who was just 18, was also white.
So, after going on a murderous and racially-motivated fucking rampage he surrendered to police -- unharmed.
Random angry white dude was a believer in the Great Replacement Theory (GRT; which has come up in Alberta politics before). It's a more "academic" rendition of white supremacy that is... how to put this... more elitist?
The GRT is basically sowing fear that white people will be replaced by non-white people who reproduce more.
However, it's not the traditionally overt racism that we're used to; instead, it's more "highbrow", and espoused by educated individuals (the "preferred elite" that spouts stupid shit unfit for human consumption but is consumed, nonetheless) who can talk more intelligently about racially-reliant pseudo-inequalities in a way that makes otherwise intelligent people (and those who are absolutely not) curious.
I've not talked about it before because I didn't understand it but I'm very (VERY) lucky to know some smart people who did understand it and let me know early on that it was an extremely dangerous ideology.
To GRT believers' credit (not in a good way), prominent promoters have an ability to make it sound less racist and dangerous than it is - because they have managed to find a "loophole", so to speak.
Those smart people who also have these incredibly backwards views realized they shouldn't make their racism so obvious. So, they began to re-frame the argument: it wasn't about racism, or supremacy, it was about sovereignty, personal freedom, and power.
"Conservative" shouldn't mean solely conserving the white folk.
"Lesser known" in the rest of Canada, maybe; it was a non-stop whinge-fest in Alberta, unfortunately. Right up until the UCP were elected, actually; afterwards, the rallies just... stopped.
As an aside, I met the woman who became the organizer of those Rally for Resources get-togethers when I attended the final PC convention in 2017 - she was the one who gave an obvious "oh" at my "Keep the P in PC" button that I got from Duncan Kinney.
And she was on team Kenney (back then).
Just saying.
Emergencies Act analysis
The almost month-long occupation of Ottawa was seen on TV but there was a lot going on behind the scenes.
Those details are starting to come out and are revealing a lot of miscommunication and confusion.
Not sure who that reflects upon more poorly, to be honest.