Women of ABpoli: Hot Flashes - Issue #19
This Week in AB
Oh what a tangled web...
The mid-year fiscal update and economic outlook announcement with Finance Minister Travis Toews is scheduled for Tuesday, November 30, but Kenney delivered a sneak peek on Friday morning in a speech to the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) at their fall conference.
His speech was a dizzying thirty minutes long with thoughts that went uncompleted and the usual political spin layered on so thick, it took hours to cut through.
A brief synopsis is available here, or the longer form - complete with snark.
Danielle Smith as UCP leadership contender?
“Jason Kenney, Brian Jean and Danielle Smith walk into a bar. Everyone leaves.”
The Western Standard reported on Sunday that Danielle Smith was considering a leadership run.
Danielle Smith corrected the record in her weekly newsletter, saying the Western Standard panel (of which she is a regular member) was discussing whether a hypothetical leadership race could be seen in the somewhat near future as another head-to-head with Jason Kenney and Brian Jean when she was asked by one panelist if she would consider it.
Her response?
"I said, 'if the job were open, I’d be in. I’d feel I’d have to for the sake of unity.'”
Which is funny on its own since the only thing Smith managed to unify as an actual party leader was the shared sentiment that both parties needed to stay separate.
Although she managed to begin repairing her incredibly damaged reputation for a while as a host with 770 CHQR in Calgary, when the pandemic hit, she spent her time platforming the 0.05 percent of people who wouldn't be offered a spot in the back alley behind a respectable publication, let alone a microphone.
Danielle Smith faces the same problem as Jason Kenney - very few people trust either of them.
Speaking of bad ideas...
Almost two years ago, Peace River MLA Dan Williams tabled a private member's Bill to legislate "special" conscience rights for medical professionals, which was voted down in committee with four NDP MLAs and four UCP MLAs voting against the Bill, to two in favour, Williams and Cardston-Siksika MLA Joseph Schow.
Bill 207, the Conscience Rights (Health Care Providers) Protection Act would have protected "conscience rights" as a class against discrimination in the Alberta Human Rights Act. It would also have protected health care providers from lawsuits for refusing care.
The UCP members, along with Williams, however, aren't giving up on their dreams of being able to discriminate against people accessing safe healthcare that they deem immoral or unworthy.
The conscience rights resolution at the policy convention passed by 108 votes.
Luckily for Albertans who still want access to safe healthcare for all their human neighbours, the Canada Health Act is the authority on what care must be offered in each province - at least, it protects us until like-minded individuals manage to form government at the federal level.
Kids' Covid vaccines won't be offered in Alberta schools
I'm old enough to remember when vaccines were part of a preventative healthcare regiment to keep our kids safe. Sure, it was in the before times when most of us wouldn't have even considered wasting time 'doing our own research' on something like a global health crisis.
In typical fashion, the news that vaccines for children was heralded from one department while the Minister of Education wrote an open letter to school authorities reminding them that vaccination remains voluntary to attend K-12 in Alberta - because why listen to 98 per cent of doctors when you have Google?
And we thought government had an atrocious problem for acting in silos before a deadly pandemic.
Kenney added that vaccine restrictions exemption programs will not apply to children under 12 because it wouldn't be fair to kids who are already disadvantaged by having dumbasses for parents.
Albertans can book appointments at AHS clinics and pharmacies for children ages 5-11 here, or read stories of long-haul Covid in kids from the before times when vaccines weren't available here.
Canada
Meanwhile, in Saskatchewan
SK Premier Scott Moe has managed to slide into our consciousness here and there as he battles Kenney for worst governance on the prairies, but he seems to be willing to let Kenney have the honour this week.
Unvaccinated doctors must now let their patients know if science isn't really that big of a deal to them (but the majority of SK docs don't fit into that category); the province is creating 'safe zones' around schools to reduce the impact of stupidity in educational environments; and Moe extended current Covid measures through the holidays because he admits he "should have acted a bit earlier" during the fourth wave.
Manitoba's new Premier is into making waves- maybe a fifth
OOF.
Manitoba's new Progressive Conservative Premier says 'no' to mandatory vaccinations for care home staff. Stefanson will keep the current rules in place of mandatory testing every 48 hours if they wish to continue putting patients at risk because: feelings.
World
Aaaaand we have a new variant, helpfully identified by scientists in South Africa, which the WHO has labelled Omicron (the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet which skipped 'Nu' and 'Xi' to avoid confusion - I imagine every company named Delta wishes it could have had the same consideration, but I digress).
Not enough is known about the variant's potential at this time as only a few cases have been identified around the world - but it's already in at least eight countries including South Africa, Botswana, China, Belgium, Isreal, as well as the UK, Germany, and Italy. Now that's what I call 'moving at the speed of business'.
Final thought
Cover photo credit: @abpressrelease