Women of ABpoli Hot Flashes: Leadership in Review
This Week in AB
It's the final countdown
By the next newsletter, we will already know the outcome of the Jason Kenney's leadership review.
Whether you're a member hoping for change - or not - or just waiting for this drawn out mess to be over, the time is finally near. On Wednesday, May 18, the UCP will announce the results of the leadership review, as decided by no more than two per cent of the province's eligible voters.
The outcome of this vote will determine whether Jason Kenney remains Premier of Alberta; because, yes, a private club that controls which Albertans can be members also has the power to choose who they want as Premier for everyone else.
As always, this privilege applies to any and all political parties who form government at both the provincial and federal level, much to my dislike.
I have refrained from making a prediction about the outcome because I can honestly see it going either way; especially since Kenney has set the bar for the review at the exact same level he's set for his leadership in general: the bare minimum.
Word through the grapevine is that Kenney will pass the review. We'll know for sure in a few days.
UCP staffers say they're encouraged to skirt FOIP
The last FOIP (Freedom of Information and Privacy) request I filed was in March of 2020. I never received any records even after multiple conversations with the advisor to ensure I was going to receive a broad enough search for a narrowly-defined topic. Since this story dropped, I've seen others reporting similar experiences.
In this fantastic expose by Charles Rusnell and Jennie Russell, current and former staffers detail how they were encouraged to purge email communication on a weekly basis, and not create FOIP-able records by using personal cell phones and third-party channels for government business.
Much like the creation of its non-FOIP-able war room, and its multitude of Keystone-affiliated businesses, Albertans are paying but they aren't allowed to see the receipts.
Alberta EMS is in trouble - that means we are, too
Alberta EMS has not had an easy time under the UCP. It began with the centralized dispatch service, which was opposed by many Alberta municipal leaders, and has regularly seen disruptions in ambulance and EMS availability in the municipalities where those services are supposed to support.
They say things are getting better. They aren't.
The Alberta government has committed to spending $28 million over the next two years for 21 ambulances (and hopefully staff), so, if y'all could just try and hold off until then with your emergencies, that would be great.
Alberta's only female cardiac surgeon files human rights complaint against AHS
This story contains many familiar allegations: pay inequity, discrimination, that as a leader, she was "not soft enough" and "like a mother telling her children what to do".
Adult men, in a pretty admirable profession, said this.
Was she surgeon-splaining to you... her staff?
I realize she gained her experience during a point and time where women got little respect for their contributions and virtually no credit but her complaint alleges that it's still happening.
And I just can't really muster the reasonable doubt that it might not be.
Alberta Court of Appeal says federal Impact Assessment Act (IAA; formerly known as C-69) "unconstitutional"
“Alberta wins a key court battle. But what comes next?
Although the non-binding decision has no bearing on the IAA, it was one of the few times the Premier hasn't minded answering questions unrelated to the press conference he was giving.
The federal government says they will appeal the decision because large projects that cross provincial borders are federal jurisdiction.
Remember, the Alberta Court of Appeals said the carbon tax was unconstitutional as well, while also invoking provincial jurisdiction, I might add.
As anyone who has ever said "but what about China's emissions" knows (but often fails to generalize), environmental impacts are not bound by arbitrary lines on a map.
Power costs more in Alberta
I follow people who like to dig into this sort of stuff, so, in the fall of 2021, when Blake Shaffer from the University of Calgary's Department of Economics kept telling people to lock in their rates before winter hit, I did.
Now, as some municipalities are demanding action on high power rates, everyone is pointing the finger at anyone else.
Kenney wants the blame laid on the federal carbon tax (which doesn't affect power rates), municipalities want power companies to reduce their rates, and the Alberta Utilities Commission says the power companies built way more capacity than we needed.
Whomever is to blame, we're still getting the bill.
Follow Blake for the early warning system.
Choice in reproductive health also means the ability to choose to have children
Forced sterilization has come up a number of times in Alberta, either equated with institutions for those with learning challenges, BIPOC women and girls, or plain old eugenics. We tend to think of these as problems of the past but there is evidence the practice is still happening.
Alberta repealed the Sexual Sterilization Act (1928) in 1972. In the 90's, Alberta settled with less than a third of those who were on record as having been forcibly sterilized.
Reproductive choice means that choice should be made by a woman whose decision is supported by her medical providers when possible.
Former Justice Minister denied stay in contempt finding
“Stay denied.. off to AB Court of Appeals Jono goes.. https://t.co/GnaV2YdLcR”
Former Justice Minister Jonathan Denis, QC, lost his request for a stay of his contempt of court finding which is pending appeal. A lawyer for Denis argued that procedure had not been followed in the finding, and that both he and his firm had suffered irreparable damage resulting from the charge but not the action that led to the charge.
Canada
Second CPC leadership debate disappoints all sides
It didn't matter if you were a supporter or hate-watching - the second CPC leadership debate just disappointed.
As a mother of four, I didn't hate that the moderator, Tom Clark, put his foot down on the audience response. Anyone who's had to deal with a roomful of children knows that if you want to have a conversation, you have to set rules for the cheerleaders.
The room seemed to be full of Poilievre supporters and they would have made it completely intolerable to listen to if they'd been given free reign. Instead, it was only marginally intolerable.
There was the fight between Leslyn Lewis and Pierre Poilievre about who was the biggest convoy supporter.
There's a chance Lewis is aware of where her support stands.
Poilievre seemed slightly more subdued, and Charest seemed less angry than at the first debate. Roman Baber and Patrick Brown sound way too similar to my ears and Scott Aitchison was, once again, a mostly reasonable participant.
However, it appears that even the CPC supporters realize this race is much more than a standard leadership race - it's a standard by which they are judging the party.
Again, I will say, it's nice to have the company.
Sarah Biggs of Olsen and Biggs and I joined Chris Brown from Cross Border Podcast after the debate.
Former PM Campbell calls out Conservative Party's direction | CTV News https://t.co/3ZdkAHZDqF”
In the 2020 leadership race there was a not-so-neat divide: Leslyn Lewis and Derek Sloan on the far right, Peter MacKay as the former Progressive Conservative, and Erin O'Toole as the party's Overton Window personified.
O'Toole asked for the down ballot of Sloan and Lewis, which he received, and MacKay had nowhere to turn.
It's slightly more balanced in 2022, with Baber, Poilievre, and Lewis playing whack-a-doodle WTF, and Charest, Aitchison, and Brown trying desperately to make the party seem sensible and worthy of our vote.
Few people probably tune in to these things but the amount of opposition research the Liberals and NDP are collecting has to be incredible.
Final thoughts