Women of ABpoli Hot Flashes: Finally, women of ABpoli
This Week in AB
Leela Aheer joins UCP leadership race
She wants to run to 'restore Albertans' trust in the conservative government'. #ableg”
There were rumours that Leela Aheer was going to run for the leadership and she made it official on Real Talk with Ryan Jespersen, Tuesday.
Albertans, of course, are already weighing the pros and cons (pun intended) -- does a new leader make up for the mistakes of the old one? The answer is no -- and it is also not the point.
A new leader should have somewhat different priorities than the previous leader. They aren't running an entirely different party, so many of the priorities will remain, but they should be aware of how the previous leader found themselves in a position where their only choice was to resign. That awareness will be addressed in their own platform priorities.
Take Danielle Smith, who is currently campaigning in rural Alberta to shore up support for her candidacy, for example. Like Kenney, she supports the move to pay more for policing, doesn't agree with public health mandates, and would push for "uberfying bureaucracy" to make it more efficient (think: being able to track requests/proposals/bids/communications with government via an app -- like tracking a package through Canada Post but without worker benefits), and "taking back many areas of provincial jurisdiction from Ottawa".
Smith believes Kenney lost support for not championing more "freedom", faster.
Aheer's launch focused on rectifying some of Kenney's mistakes. She mentioned the opportunity to regain trust in the party and the institution of government, maturity (top notch dig), and listening to Albertans "because good ideas come from all sides". She said she is in politics because she's "compelled to give back".
Aheer is also taking a more "compassionate conservative" approach regarding the de-indexing of AISH (Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped) benefits, the secretive "war room", and a lack of action on Emergency Medical Services in the province.
She was also turfed out of Cabinet after criticizing Kenney's flaunting of public health measures, and openly demanded his resignation after allegations of harassment in Minister's offices became public.
Aheer believes Kenney lost support with his dishonesty, top-down approach to "servant leadership", and a refusal to work cooperatively in the interest of all Albertans.
As of Monday morning, June 13, Calgary-North East MLA and former Community and Social Services Minister, as well as recent Minister of Transportation (she has to step down to run in the leadership) has officially launched her campaign.
Sawhney has chosen Deputy Speaker and Airdrie MLA Angela Pitt as her campaign chair and as part of her launch promised to initiate a public inquiry into the province's COVID response.
It's a very strong start.
Whether you were part of the "Kenney didn't do enough" or "Kenney did too much" group, or even if you were perfectly fine with the measures but wouldn't mind having the details, this would be welcome news.
Sawhney, like Aheer, also came out against Kenney's waffling on COVID rules for everyone else but him, but without reprisal.
According to her launch release, Sawhney is "dedicated to making the right investments in healthcare and education" - a perfectly vague statement that means precisely whatever you want it to mean.
*Nods to whomever is writing comms*
While I don't love the order of (I presume) priorities in the slogan "party, province, families", I get that this race is speaking to party first -- they are the ones who are most invested in this race. Still don't love it but I see the benefit of not actually trying to speak to an entire province when a bare 60,000 people (a majority of whom are in rural) actually hold memberships.
Central-Peace-Notley MLA Todd Loewen launched his campaign on June 7 promising "blue truck Albertans" a return to "good accountable and ethical government" [sic].
Recent Finance Minister Travis Toews came out of the gate with the most caucus support, 23 MLAs, and is also appealing to rural Albertans (where most of the party support lies) as an authentic rural Albertan (a role Kenney cosplayed as part of the unity scam).
Speaking of which, Brian Jean will be launching his campaign on Wednesday June 15.
One note about the rural-focus is that rural Albertans know they were scammed hard by Kenney and the "merger". This race is a chance for them to put someone who they believe speaks for them in to the leadership role.
A lot of memberships need to be sold in urban centres to counter-balance that movement, Alberta.
Speaking of urban centres, we won't likely see the lone MLA from Edmonton wasting his money, or our time. Kaycee Madu, while still collecting a Minister's salary, said his unsuccessful attempt at interfering in the administration of justice as Justice Minister may have damaged his credibility and "gives him pause in a leadership bid".
Gee, you think?
EPS changes priorities
Edmonton Police Service (EPS) has requested permission to reallocate funding approved for dash cameras to instead be used for updating their records management system.
The timeline for this change, Lauren Boothby says, doesn't match up with the documents.
"A report to EPC last November said police expect to choose a vendor early 2022 and spend most of these funds this year.
The timeline around 2020’s police funding discussion also doesn’t match Barker’s explanation.
EPS would have known the department would get less money than previously expected when it pitched funding for in-car cameras to council in November 2020, and when the request was finalized in the budget the next month. Council approved freezing the police funding formula and reducing the increase, in principle, in July 2020," Boothby wrote in the Edmonton Journal.
EPS declined to comment.
Travis Toews' leadership campaign co-chair (aka Alberta Energy Minister) says UK policies not proposed in Canada would nonetheless be unwelcome here
UK's Boris Johnson and his conservative majority have passed "windfall tax" legislation to include a 25 per cent surcharge on oil and gas companies this year.
What does this have to do with Alberta, or Canada for that matter?
Why, absolutely nothing.
That didn't stop someone from asking Savage to weigh in as if she were a political pundit rather than a director of a government slush fund to promote oil and gas, or a campaign co-chair for a partisan political exercise, or a Minister of Energy in a country that is not part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
Savage said that if Canada were to implement such a tax, it "would be considered an 'extreme act of aggression' against provincial constitutional authority", according to the Calgary Herald.
A snide, yet fact-based, reminder that the federal government has every legal authority to tax businesses that operate in Canada without consent from (or even duty to consult with) provincial Cabinet Ministers.
Wouldn't it be nice to see our politicians clap back at things that have nothing to do with them and focus instead on issues they actually have control over?
"Things in themselves have no power to extort a verdict from you."
~ Marcus Aurelius
Canada and beyond
Inquiry into Emergencies Act to provide so much legal nerd porn (What? That's totally a thing)
As thrilling as it is to read through armchair legal theory on social media, bear with me while I fangirl over people who actually study and make arguments (and sense) out of it.
West goes on to suggest that these "novel interpretations" effectively lower the threshold of criteria that need to be met before the Emergencies Act can be invoked.
If this fills you with as much joy as it does me, I recommend following the University of Calgary's ABlawg (with another commentary on the Emergencies Act, from Shaun Fluker).
The commission also now has a twitter account:
“Requests for Standing at the Public Order Emergency Commission must be submitted by June 15, 6 pm, EDT on the form provided. Visit our website for more information https://t.co/uRUplp3Jdo”
CPC leadership race: T minus 91 days
Canada's honking trumpeter: Pierre Poilievre; freedom from public health lover, World Economic Forum resister, Bank of Canada interloper, and general thorn in the side of reason.
How do you deal with someone who has little relation to the truth? How do you fight a disinformation meme with an explanation that would also fit into a meme? You can't.
Short, quippy, simplified explanations will always be easier to share than reality because the truth is, it's complicated.
Public policy isn't developed on a cocktail napkin (though it could certainly begin there) - it take a lot of research, facts, and work to create good public policy. It's not quippy. it's not simple. That's just a fact.
You can't fix a free-market economy by electing a different government; you can't fix global inflation by firing the Governor of the Bank of Canada, and; you can't fix the problems facing Canadians with memes.
Be that as it may, the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada could very well be a person who wants us to believe otherwise.
Meanwhile, Jean Charest's team has accused Poilievre's team of "making up" membership sales numbers, who claim they've sold more than 300,000.
Charest's team called it "PierreInflation".
Snicker.
Unfortunately, even if I get a snicker, I think that attempt might go down as the most "liberal" response Charest's team could come up with for a conservative audience.
Epic swing and miss, there.
Hitting disinformation moguls where it hurts
There's a difference between "misinformation" and "disinformation".
"Misinformation" is akin to saying a dinner party is on Saturday June 10th, when it's actually on the 11th (because Friday is the 10th). It's often an honest mistake.
"Disinformation" is used to purposely confuse, or mislead, because it suits your agenda.
This happens either covertly -- ie, you don't want that person to attend the dinner party, so, you tell them it's next Saturday even though it's this Saturday -- or overtly, by saying there isn't a dinner party.
Covert dishonesty, or spin, is what some politicians and communications professionals are pretty good at. It's technically true, for example, that this Saturday is the next Saturday but common vernacular raises the probability that the intended audience will misunderstand it.
Overt dishonesty is pushing lies and bad faith arguments, like saying computerized voting machines were rigged when you have no evidence to back it up.
Grab them in the wallet, I believe the saying goes.
Final thoughts:
Your job is to look out of the fucking window and find out which is true. — Now more than ever.”
“Good morning to the woman who just walked by in a T-shirt reading “VASECTOMIES PREVENT ABORTION””