Women of ABpoli Hot Flashes: Rolling in the deep
This Week in AB
Final membership count to choose UCP leader/Premier
Why are leadership races important? Because they have outcomes that might affect you, or someone you love, maybe not even now, but a few years from now.
Last weekend, after membership sales ended, I realized there was another leadership race that, in retrospect, turned out to be pretty life-changing for many here in Alberta: the first UCP leadership race in 2017 that elected Jason Kenney.
Yes, yes, allegations of fraud and all that, but manual fraud only makes a difference when there's low turnout; humans are constrained by time and totally human things -they can only do so much within a restricted period.
Yet, just think - if more people were actively engaged in the political process, and more people looked at the ability to shape their province's political future as the genuine privilege that it is, we might have a government that truly represents us.
Of course, by "us", I'm referring to a majority of Albertans who are reasonable people who want the best for themselves and their children and realize that achieving that comes with some compromise because we don't actually live in a bubble of our own preferences.
Unless we're babies... that's like, as good as it gets for always getting what you want and even they eventually turn into toddlers who, at some point, have to be told "no". But I digress.
While I'm seeing numerous complaints from those who didn't access the privilege, and exacerbation toward even seeing reports about it (aka: NEWS), due to the current situation with the leadership race being held by the party who has formed government, the 123,000+ children (14-17) and adults who purchased a membership will choose the next party leader who will, ipso facto, become Alberta's Premier in less than two months.
As many people know, I purchased a membership to participate because it's important to me to have a vote. Let me be clear, though, it's not because I want to respect the process - instead it is that I am required to respect the process in order to have my vote count.
In fact, I'd like to see the following legislation enacted: if the governing party loses its leader either by caucus/membership vote, death, or resignation, that caucus be required to appoint an interim Premier until the following election period. If caucus is cajoled into not appointing an interim Premier to complete the initial mandated term, that either; a) the vote for a new leader must be open to the public, or; b) a general election must be held within three months.
We've talked about how political parties are "private clubs" but this instance is not solely a private club matter - if the leader of the party becomes the public-facing representative of the province, I see no legitimate reason why forcing people to pay to participate in such an important vote should be either legal or acceptable.
As always, it's an opinion, and if you wouldn't like it when the other team does it, do me a favour and tell your team that it's not okay for them to allow it to continue either.
Thank you.
Why a provincial police force?
Like Shawna, I was not privy to demands for a provincial police force (outside of the time I spend catching up with the most righteous right). In fact, it seems like the few people who have been trying to build demand for an Alberta provincial police force simply haven't had much success.
This decades-long lack of interest in a provincial police force prompted Jason Kenney to create a "Fair Deal Panel" in 2019 (similar to one headed by Doug Griffiths in 2001-02). Unlike the one under Ralph Klein, which sought evidence as well as opinion, Kenney's panel was tasked with spreading the word to drum up support to fund his vanity project.
Even with all the government press for townhalls to discuss issues that were tailor-made for the independence crowd, a provincial police force still only managed to receive 35 per cent support and ranked second last out of 15 policy proposals to make Alberta freer (pg. 65).
The only "fair deal" proposal to rank lower was independence or separation, at 34 per cent (keep that number in mind because it will be relevant again shortly).
(I also had this conversation in 2020 with Dr. Melanee Thomas, former PC MLA Doug Griffiths, and Dr. Herb Emery - each of whom have personally been involved in public opinion research and evidence-gathering with regards to a provincial police force over the past 30 years.)
Undeterred by obviously unpopular policy that is apparently super important to him, Kenney launched the Alberta police force transition study, the provincial police service engagement study, and numerous town halls to talk about the benefits (not costs) of this personal fantasy.
He's not the only one, of course.
Three UCP leadership replacement-hopefuls are committed to seeing this through; namely: Todd Loewen, Danielle Smith, and Travis Toews.
I've signed up for the town halls, the first of which is tomorrow morning; tweet you then (@Mitchell_AB).
An Alberta separatism lobby group and a right-wing infotainment artist walk into a bar -- because it's so low
The Alberta Prosperity Project (APP) advocates for separation from Canada. Full-stop, no excuses, just super excited about having all those sweet federal tax dollars stay in Alberta.
"Alberta has sent net transfers of $611 billion to the rest of Canada (since 1961)," they complain.
Why so focused on the glass being only 30 per cent full?
According to two people who are way smarter than I, if Albertans paid $611 billion in taxes over the past sixty years, we also earned between $2 and $3 TRILLION!!
T-R-I-L-L-I-O-N-S
Oh yeah -- some Albertans make bank, baby, and special interest groups like the APP would like you to donate to help them keep more.
Won't it keep the money flowing locally, you ask?
HAH!
People with means like the taking advantage part of the Alberta Advantage best.
Like leadership candidate Danielle Smith, for example, some people make retirement plans to take their money out of Alberta and mooch off another tax base, like Panama, that offers them "free" stuff to spend their money there instead.
I digress.
The leadership debate is being moderated by "Rebel Commander" Ezra Levant, purveyor of opinion and infotainment for the conservative-minded consumer that feels funding a few libel suits here and there is just part of the price you pay for stories no one else is making up.
Leela Aheer and Rajan Sawhney refused to attend the debate outright. That still left Brian Jean, Todd Loewen, Rebecca Schulz, Danielle Smith, and Travis Toews as headliners.
That is, there were still five headliners until August 19 when Rebecca Schulz and Travis Toews caught up to the fact that the event is a being billed as a fundraiser for... wait for it... some start-up cash to help the APP start their own right-wing political party.
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Dr. Dennis Modry, APP's Chief Executive, was previously the Director of Policy for the Wildrose Independence Party. Modry only recently lost his board seat at the AGM in April of this year (if you want to check out the wild ride that Modry took me on while I was covering WIPA's first AGM in 2021... hold onto your hat).
If you can get UCP leadership candidates to help put some dollars in your pocket to start yet another right-wing political party, there's still some very low-hanging fruit ripe for the picking, apparently.
Also, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Alberta launches new campaign to lure skilled workers
The campaign, "Alberta is calling", is a new Government of Alberta initiative to get already-educated workers to move to the province and fill an increase of available jobs that, I can only assume, exist because the federal government hasn't "killed" them yet, with their "anti-Alberta" policies.
Despite not having a "fair deal from Ottawa", Alberta is "the best place to live".
Not that long ago, most of us had family doctors, one of the top-performing K-12 education systems in the country, access to affordable post-secondary at top-ranked institutions, and didn't have to worry about whether an ambulance would show up if we called one.
Our government wasn't downloading costs to municipalities, or trying to make life more expensive by lifting rate caps on insurance, and electricity, or expanding government to provide duplicated federal services, or even set up a new provincial police force to increase our independence/autonomy/freedom "we can be just like Quebec but without all the taxes and government spending on people" feelings.
Alberta, without Jason Kenney, will not be the same.
Canada
We have GOOD NEWS! Michelle O'Bonsawin has become the first Indigenous Justice appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada!
"Justice O’Bonsawin holds a B.A., an LL.B., and an LL.M., and completed her Ph.D. in Law earlier this year. A fluently bilingual Franco-Ontarian, she is an Abenaki member of the Odanak First Nation," the federal press release stated.
O'Bonsawin has also been a Justice within the Ontario Superior Court since 2017.
But also... former Peterborough Mayor has had enough
Like Her Worship, I too hate giving airtime to these people. That's why I skipped including the sad display of delusion that went on around the Peterborough Police Station last weekend.
However, as journalist and right-wing watcher Justin Ling pointed out, we do have to talk about them because they aren't in some hard-to-find chat group online, they're in our cities, trying to advance some warped sense of self-appointed superiority over our institutions and our governments.
And it's not new.
We saw it in Alberta with the "kudatah" in 2016 when Alberta First antagonist George Clark claimed he had in his possession the magic words that would take down Rachel Notley and the NDP without an election.
We saw it during the Ottawa Occupation when five people claimed they could be bullied into allowing five random people to create a coalition government.
And then there's the woman who declared herself the "Queen of Canada" (upgraded last June to "Queen of the world").
Romana Didulo (also referred to by the non-converted as the "QAnon Queen") travels around the country, popping up at freedom rallies in an attempt to pick up new supporters.
Because if you're already firmly in the "Canada is a dictatorship" camp, her handlers know that it's only a matter of time before you're willing to swear allegiance to a woman living out of a motorhome.
Last weekend, Didulo and a group of supporters showed up to the Peterborough Police Station to make citizen's arrests of police officers for pretend crimes.
Unsurprisingly, only Didulo's followers who thought they could actually get away with putting their hands on officers in an attempt to make their little fantasy a reality were arrested.
There are other consequences to this detachment from reality that has firmly planted its claws into some since the pandemic began.
Aside from the more well-known pandemic-related disinformation, some followers of Didulo stopped paying their gas and electric bills after she decreed they were debt free. Another woman lost her home because she believed "New World Order" meant she didn't have to pay the mortgage anymore.
Some people actually aren't actually aware enough to understand how their delusions hurt others but too many politicians (and infotainment providers) are - and they don't really care so long as the money keeps rolling in.
Women and media
Women have never had an easy time in media, due either to their appearance, nationality, age, or basically a list of things that had nothing to do with their competence.
But there's a movement gaining steam to bring awareness to the toxicity journalists, mainly women, of colour are getting as well. The first story I remember seeing on social media was Supriya Dwivedi's.