Women of ABpoli Hot Flashes: Weak-end
This Week in AB
Your somewhat regular reminder that political parties are private clubs; even when they're government
If I haven't (I have) mentioned (definitely ranted about) it before; I've come to loathe political parties.
I want to believe there are good people wanting to do good things but those people can, and eventually will, be replaced while the legacy of the party run by good people who want to do good things continues whether the good people are there or not.
But I digress.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced on October 21 the largest Cabinet in recent Alberta history (because "fiscal conservatism" doesn't always mean not spending money). It even included some of her biggest opponents of the Sovereignty Act.
Gracious, right? No.
Cabinets are like a pendulum wave; they might have an initial opportunity to go in all different directions but eventually, if they're made correctly, they fall in line.
The UCP caucus currently holds 71 per cent of government seats. Cabinet represents a whopping 60 per cent of caucus. Those Cabinet members have been told they're supporting the Sovereignty Act -- no matter what.
Cabinet, however, only represents 43 per cent of the seats in government but who really has the backbone to vote with the NDP?
The 2023 campaign begins Tuesday
Chortle.
The stories will be hatched on Tuesday night; the story of how the (UCP/NDP/Alberta Party/Wildrose) is the right choice for 2023 and how only the (UCP/NDP/Alberta Party/Wildrose) can beat the (UCP/NDP/Alberta Party/Wildrose).
The Alberta Independence Party is also still a thing, apparently, and they're rounding out the independence-or-bust circle jerk between the half-baked libertarian-led UCP and the farm animal with a new lipstick colour that is the Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta.
Regardless of what the outcome can do for your team, it would have been lovely to see a broader narrative that this by-election is a referendum on Danielle Smith.
If Smith doesn't get a seat, the UCP is still government; there has to be some appetite for that even amongst UCP voters. Unfortunately, no one seemed to take the opportunity to put that idea forward.
Advanced polling numbers show around 12 per cent of eligible voters, 4, 231, cast ballots ahead of Tuesday; around 60 per cent the number of people who went to advanced polls ahead of the 2019 general, or a decent turn out in rural for a by-election.
The candidates participated in a debate on November 3 and unsurprisingly (for Alberta), Pierre Trudeau was mentioned in the opening statements.
Yes, there was a National Energy Program proposed that would have laid pipe from Alberta to every coast. Yes, Alberta went to bat for private companies who had signed contractual leases to drill Alberta oil and send it and the long-term refinery jobs across the border instead. Yes, all of that coincided with a global oil glut, you propaganda-fueled numpkins; and yes, in the past four decades since, conservatives have realized it would have helped Alberta, and Canada, far more than it would have hurt us.
They missed out on the party forty years ago; quit whining and start looking forward ffs.
If you build it, they will come
When Danielle Smith, it is widely believed, sunk her party's chance at forming government in 2012 after choosing to stand with one of her candidate's abhorrent personal views rather than a widely persecuted community, she claimed she had learned a hard lesson about leadership.
So, ten years later, she has chosen to stand with a community of people who would rather take medical advice from social media "influencers" than actual experts -- as one who has a pretty broad definition of "learned" would.
These conspiracy-fueled rage-mongers are so darned mad actual experts aren't taking their google searches seriously that they've rounded up their addle-minded Facebook group members to help them win UCP nominations -- and it's working.
Back in August, one such contender (with the help of some true believers) managed to entice a majority of 450 people to help take over the UCP board in Chestermere-Strathmore ahead of a nomination challenge in Leela Aheer's constituency.
“The last person is registering now. Full house folks.”
Aheer announced October 26 she would not be running for the UCP in the next election.
Roger Reid, in the constituency of Livingstone-MacLeod, was expecting to come up against an ivermectin-promoting conspiracy theorist but, since Smith chose to run in Brooks-Medicine Hat, Reid found himself being challenged by Nadine Wellwood instead.
Reid announced he was withdrawing his nomination Friday adding that if Wellwood won, he wouldn't support her; yet he was still willing to run for Smith.
Perhaps Smith is a little more politically savvy with her conspiracy theories du jour but I really don't see a difference; if you can be taken in by ten, you can be taken in by twenty.
Wellwood said Monday that she's been disqualified by the "gate-keepers" of the private club who has signs she would like to put her name on and stated she would keep campaigning.
That didn't work out for Raj Sherman -- or literally any other candidate who the party didn't want to carry their banner -- but why would doing something that hasn't worked before not work this time?
Smith said her priority is keeping the nutbars in the UCP because if they were squeezed out, there's a possibility they could steal enough support from a non-nutbar party and then socialism would be forced on everyone (paraphrased).
Or maybe she just doesn't want to disappoint her supporters.
In any case, let's all say it together: the private club gets to choose who they want to wave their banner; if you don't like their choices, organize and take over the board.
Canada
Emergencies Act Inquiry futile
“The back of her sign says “FreeDumb CONvoy - sponsored by January 6, 2021.””
Last week gave Canadians an opportunity to hear testimony from self-appointed convoy organizers that just makes you shake your head.
Too often during their testimony -- such as believing your cause is more important than a city's responsibility to keep their streets open to the public, or local resident's rights to sleep -- it just becomes apparent they have an unhealthy level of faith in their own self-importance.
The expectation that the Prime Minister would meet with people who didn't like border restrictions could only have been topped by the same group demanding to meet with the President; because that sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?
The cast of characters in this melodrama range from the "not really a bad guy" who was surprised so many people wanted Trudeau to get bent, to "super compassionate about some people crying girl" to "them's just jokes dude".
Incredibly, none of them have a problem with saying they were in over their heads, had no control, and didn't read or know basically anything they should have before offering themselves up as leaders of and spokespeople for a mob of muppets who probably thought someone smarter than them knew WTAF was going on.
“Starting to wonder if Trudeau enacted the Emergencies Act simply so there would be an inquiry.”
In sum, a bunch of nitwits who didn't know what they were doing led an even bigger bunch of nitwits to an illegal occupation and then goaded them to stay by pretending they knew what they were talking about.
Fascinating.
Final thoughts
“A fight for freedom? Nope, it failed the Martin Luther King test https://t.co/xZbSQbQlwS #ableg”