Women of ABpoli Hot Flashes - Feels like sweeps week
This week in AB
Jason Kenney puts his Twitter account in "safe mode", auto-blocks everyone who engaged with a tweet
You will spend your rebates where they want: at the pump, and on your last three electricity bills.
There’s no application, it will be applied for you.
Now, run along and play. https://t.co/8qnX5pHDPS”
The above quote tweet managed to get me autoblocked. Maybe it mistook "bucks" for "ducks" (the well-known iPhone autocorrect for the "F" word?). I mean, that combination of words only makes sense to Albertans and Klein-era political fanatics.
Innocuous though it was, safe mode for Kenney's Twitter account means that fewer replies and quote tweets will be attached to Kenney's tweets. It's a good business decision when you want fewer challenges to your narrative.
For the record, subtweets (not quoting or replying; creating your own tweet and *not* including the person's handle) and using screenshots can usually protect you from being blocked.
To the question I'm sure is on everyone's mind: what are "Kenney bucks"?
First, as one user pointed out, it's closer to "Kenney's pennies".
If you were one of the unlucky recipients of a power bill that ran double or triple its usual rate in January, February, and - I'm sorry to inform you - MARCH, the Alberta government will be sending $50 for each of those months directly to the power companies on your behalf.
That $700 power bill now only cost you $650!
That's not all!
Maybe you noticed that gasoline prices jumped $0.10/L the week that most preventative public health measures, including work-from-home recommendations, were lifted. It was the same week that Trudeau prohibited Canadian companies from buying Russian crude.
Well, they were expected to increase another $0.02 cents per litre on April 1, thanks to the federal carbon tax.
Riding the wave of an oil-induced budget surplus, Kenney announced that Alberta would take a revenue holiday by briefly removing all provincial taxes, $0.13/L, from the pumps.
Provincial tax will return to the gas prices on July 1, 2022.
Finance Minister Travis Toews said that although his government had no mechanism to enforce retail providers to pass the savings onto consumers (read: Albertans), they "would be monitoring the situation".
Three days later, gas prices in some parts of the province (mainly south) increased another $0.06/L to $0.11/L (between $1.62L to $1.67/L on March 10, up from $1.46/L on March 2). Edmonton area stations retained prices around $1.56/L.
Strangely enough, the most recent price surge happened the same day that oil prices suffered a slight decline as OPEC member United Arab Emirates (UAE) said production should be boosted to fill the gap left by sanctions on Russian oil and gas.
As one astute person noted, gas prices increased due to a projected supply shortage - the market's way of stemming demand. The UCP's decision to intervene in that market-based decision will not help consumers any more than it will help the treasury - but it will pad the pockets of retailers for a couple of months.
The pandemic isn't over
“Learning to live with COVID =/= living as though COVID does not exist.”
While news departments have largely moved COVID news to the inside pages, COVID has not disappeared, and neither has its effects. Since Kenney announced the end of most restrictions on March 1, Alberta has recorded an average of 7.6 deaths per day. Fewer than 11/day in February but still closer to 11 than to zero.
For those who require personal protection due to health concerns for themselves, their patients, clientele, or family, the anti-mandate people are still out in full force, reminding you that if you don't need protection personally, screw everyone else.
Freedom, you know?
Kenney has 27 days to remind special interest groups why they elected him as leader
Despite telling municipalities not to put away their "shopping lists", Kenney has been spending, spending, spending.
It began Monday with the removal of Alberta's fuel tax, new bursaries for women in STEM and women in commercial trucking, and sending Grande Prairie MLA Tracy Allard to Washington to talk energy (??).
Finance Minister Travis Toews was off to New York and Toronto to promote investment and cozy up to bond rating agencies, Kenney and Energy Minister Sonya Savage spent a few days in Texas (don't expect any journalists to ask if there aren't more pressing matters at home).
There's new funding for: addiction recovery, suicide prevention, boosting EMS capacity, prenatal benefits for those already living in poverty, public transportation, the Canmore Nordic Centre, and security for tax-exempt buildings.
Finally, Alberta's $380 million public investment in rural broadband infrastructure was matched by the feds, providing $720 million in public funds for private companies to charge exorbitant monthly access fees (I'll not get over this corporate handout, ever).
MLA Shane Getson "spanked" back over Bill 4 comments
Who has two thumbs, a textbook Covid infection-related side-effect, and will happily drive his dump truck over municipal freedoms? Lac St. Anne-Parkland MLA Shane Getson.
UCP's Bill 4, the Municipal Government (Face Mask and Proof of COVID-19 Vaccination Bylaws) Amendment Act, 2022, was introduced Monday to require municipalities to ask permission of the Minister of Municipal Affairs before they can enact COVID-19- related bylaws.
The Minister will then take the request to the Minister of Health who will presumably ask the Chief Medical Officer of Health for their advice, and then, within the protections of Cabinet Confidence, decide whether to follow the advice and respond back to the municipality.
Is there an Associate Minister for Red Tape Reduction in the House?
Speaking to media on Monday, Getson said that municipalities were "children of the province. If the children get not aligned, maybe it’s time for someone to get spanked," sparking the above response from St. Albert Mayor and Alberta Municipalities President Cathy Heron.
The other Kenney Show debuts
“It starts "This is Your Province, Your Premier" Wayne Nelson, host and moderator opens”
Saturday mornings from 10 to 11AM, Premier Kenney will answer (or reject the premise of) questions from Albertans.
It may not feel like questions from the official opposition but Kenney's not above treating them with the same smug disdain.
Canada
The fight for CPC principles is on
Kheiriddin is out, Jean Charest, former Progressive Conservative Party of Canada leader, and Quebec Liberal Premier is in.
2020 leadership contender Leslyn Lewis, former Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown, and (a formerly unknown to me) Joseph Bourgeault, all joined perceived front-runner Pierre Poilievre this week.
We are in very early stages of the race and milestones have to be met by each candidate to actually get their names on the ballots in September.
First, the rules, released March 9, stated the election period began February 3, 2022, the day after Erin O'Toole was voted out by caucus, and two days before Poilievre announced.
As a side note, when Andrew Scheer resigned, on December 12, 2019 (and was voted to remain the interim leader the same day) the leadership election period didn't actually start until January 13, 2020.
Harper resigned as leader in October 2015 and interim leader Rona Ambrose was chosen in November. The 2017 leadership election didn't officially begin until March 2016. Just an interesting tidbit that could allegedly be tied to the date someone - such as a perceived front-runner - began accepting funds for their leadership bid.
Moving on.
Required for candidacy are: two installments of $50,000 for the entrance fee, 500 signatures of members from at least 30 ridings, and a $100,000 compliance deposit. These are due in full by April 29, 2022.
Candidates are not confirmed until they have met the above qualifications.
Back in the headlines is the question that has existed since Stephen Harper and Peter MacKay made their backroom deal to "merge" the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PCPC) with the Conservative Reform Alliance Party (CRAP): are red tories welcome in the CPC?
The short answer is "no".
The longer answer is also "no" but attempts to explain why.
When the parties merged in 2003, it was - much like Kenney's UCP fiasco - supposed to be a merger of equals. That is, neither the party nor its leader were overt about the fact that they wanted nothing other than to vanquish the Progressive Conservative party and use the merger to mask their CRAP roots.
It also gave Harper more than enough time to ensure like-minded individuals were well in place where the real power lies - on the boards.
It worked... until it didn't.
However, enough time, and elections, had passed to give the CRAP members a false sense of security in their electability with their CRAP principles.
I mean, seriously - the 2017 leadership race came down to an absolute nail-biter between Andrew Scheer and Maxime Bernier. Bernier.
Then, in late 2018, Stephen Harper sat down with Ben Shapiro to talk about all things conservative.
Harper mused about topics he didn't address publicly while in office, like, why would a progressive want to be part of a conservative party? He also said he believed that true conservatism is populism.
Now, some may ask who really cares what Harper thinks anymore but listen to Poilievre and you'll hear the echo loud and clear.
The fascinating thing is that although the CPC doesn't want to welcome Progressive Conservatives into the Party, or onto the Boards, or into policy design, they want the votes on Election Day.
This is something Erin O'Toole understood, yet was also his downfall with the CRAP-principled members of caucus.
So, when you hear red Tories still having this conversation, and Blue Tories saying there is no conversation to be had, and political commentators saying the winner of this leadership could break the party once and for all, they're all right - because, remarkably, there are still red Tories who believe their principles are as welcome as their votes.
Just like the name red Tory suggests, though, they're only half right.