PHOTOS: George Clark explains Plan B to the media in a Calgary parking lot yesterday (CBC Photo). Below: Mr. Clark back in the day when his fair-weather friends from the right-wing vlogosphere used to interview him regularly; and the late U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had an explanation for this sort of thing.

Abandoned by the mainstream conservative politicians and professional right-wing agitators who had befriended him, George Clark and a half dozen or so supporters watched their dream of a magical constitutional coup d’état to replace Alberta’s NDP Government end yesterday with a whimper, not the bang they’d been dreaming of, in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Calgary.

Give the man some credit, though. He was game to the very end. If a notarized petition couldn’t topple the government in 15 minutes as he’d promised early last month, then he’d downsize the #kudatah, as one of his followers famously spelled it, to a mere hijacking.

GEORGE_SHEILA_1-JPGThat’s right! Mr. Clark’s supporters will all now join the NDP, take it over and kick Premier Rachel Notley right out of office!

Meantime, Mr. Clark, a construction contractor who for a spell seemed to have concluded he was Alberta’s answer to Joan of Arc, is still vowing one of these days to take his petitions to the Queen in London if he keeps being ignored by the premier and the lieutenant-governor here in Edmonton. He appears not to have explained how he’ll get past security, but, in fairness, it’s been done before.

Yesterday’s parking lot announcement prompted literally hours of hilarity on social media, with Albertans of all political stripes joining the mockery. “Its a polite, Canadian version of the #Oregonstandoff,” said a typical Tweet, “less actual poop, same crazy shit #kudatah.”

Not only was there no sign of those Wildrose MLAs who had helped out with the petition signing back in the day and no more supportive social media messages from Progressive Conservative Leader Ric McIver, there wasn’t even a story about the poor guy yesterday evening on Rebel Media, whose “journalists” used to stick to Mr. Clark like white on rice.

LBJPresumably it finally dawned on all of them just how nutty Mr. Clark was starting to sound – and thus why it probably wasn’t a winning political strategy for the Wildrose or the PCs to hitch their wagon to his particular star. I suspect the Wildrose Party’s staff in particular gave their MLAs a brisk talking to about the company they were keeping and advised them to get off the crazy train before it was moving so fast they’d have to wait for the next station.

The very few reporters who showed up at the Westbrook Mall parking lot in Cowtown’s southwest reported the hastily organized announcement took even less time than the change in government Mr. Clark promised to deliver with his notarized petitions.

Mr. Clark and his remaining supporters must have decided to strike before their iron cooled completely, unexpectedly moving up the coup d’état date from the original plan from March 8 when the Legislature opens.

It remains to be seen whether the NDP now gets the 400,000 new members on an unlikely crusade for change that Mr. Clark hopes to deliver, or just the seven or eight still sticking with him. The party probably shouldn’t budget for a big run of new members’ donations.

Indeed, many of Mr. Clark’s sometime followers may be furious at him for turning them into objects of ridicule.

As U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson famously advised, “Son, in politics you’ve got to learn that overnight chicken shit can turn to chicken salad.”

Unfortunately, as Mr. Clark and his coup d’état plotters have just learned, that transformation can happen the other way too.

This post also appears on Rabble.ca.

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33 Comments

  1. What about that over 20K donations he called for for with this foolishness? What say it be contributed to food banks or something useful? Is there anyone auditing this call for donations and what will be done with it? This is serious. I do hope there is no mis-appropriation of taxpayers funds/donations to this ridiculous cause.

      1. Have you tried looking for a job in the land of plenty -Saskatchewan where Wall is weaving miracles amidst the global oil crisis?

    1. You appear clueless as to the reason for the donations. Understandable if you’re still blindly backing the NDP
      We happen to think free speech and working for the majority is what they were elected for. The majority of people,(and you can try and spin that anyway your fantasy takes you) are not in favour of the party , the leader, or the policies she is trying to, and has enacted. Yup..they won an election, but they will never have the heart or support of the people.

      1. But the issue is what becomes of the donations to Clark once the reason for the donations has been abandoned – if the donations were to deliver a petition, and he doesn’t do that, then, arguably, he is guilty of fraud. Your post was a poor attempt to change the subject.

      1. Ummm , you do realize the fascist kons have ” lost ” more billions to corporate lobbyists ( not to forget the $4 b that was straightforward STOLEN ) than the entire NDP budget for their 4 year term right ?
        What’s the provincial deficit now ? Over $120 billion and what improvements have we seen?
        You’re deluded if you think we got ANYTHING for the loot the unilaterally corrupt posers STOLE from you.

  2. And there goes his 15 minutes of fame – poof!

    On the other hand, he did serve the right wing agenda in the MSM which is to avoiding real news. Good filler for them. Now what will they report on? There are only so many kittens in trees to rescue.

  3. The Stand Off passed without a bang and hardly a whimper. The next installment of this comedy will come when Mr. Clark is received royally by Her Majesty.

    The Roser MLAs can return to their rural whisper campaigns of the imaginary bogey men and the latest Sasquatch sightings.

    Ezra and his troop of “reporters” can regroup at an obscure Diner somewhere and wolf down their LBJ chicken salad sandwiches (enjoy).

    The Alberta Militia will retrench and reload even if the black powder is soaked with their tears.

    Mr. Clark can now put his contractor tools to work again and build that giant Trojan Horse in his backyard.

  4. These guys should go to a hardware store and buy some decent hinges because clearly they have become unhinged.

    The only problem Alberta really has is that the oil industry runs the province instead of the government. Lougheed, and Stelmach gave in to the industry’s threats. Because when the whole economy is the oil business, the industry can dictate government policy.

    Oil pricing is Controlled by world supply and demand and neither the PCs nor NDP can change that.

    Lougheed tried to diversify the economy and did to some extent, but alberta needs to harness downstream oil products to serve Albertans.

    1. No sorry, we need market access and a Government that actually stands and speaks up for Canada and Alberta… that is the problem! We have 40% of a WORLD required product used in EVERYTHING EVERY DAY and we have a Government basing policies on a failed agenda. That is the problem. Hypocrites are not the answer!

  5. Alberta has acted as a unitary single-party state for the last 40 or so years. Mr. Clark knew this, so it is most unkind to question Mr. Clark’s idea of joining the NDP. If you consider the NDP record so far, it looks like the NDP has joined Mr. Clark and his friends.

    I just watched three new shallow gas drilling rigs go up and down a couple of miles south of my place (no doubt with an Ab Gov grant winging its way to the drilling company), and I saw several quarter page ads in the local paper from a private seniors care company advertising for employees. So, as far as I can see the #kudatah is already successful.

    Consider the NDP record:
    – Farm occupational health and safety regulations being drafted by the Wildrose’s wholly owned farm check-off organizations with the blessing of the Agriculture Minister
    – Public Private Partnerships being used for infrastructure development
    – Human rights being defined by church groups defying the Charter of Rights and Freedoms when it comes to LGBT issues. Yes, some churches have a right to their own school system but that does not give them a right to defy the state on human rights issues.
    – Continued dismantling of government provided seniors care and private seniors care businesses flourishing
    – Regulation of the oil and gas sector controlled by the oil and gas sector through its wholly owned subsidiary, the Alberta Energy Regulator
    – looks like the government is still supporting the industry in opposing landowner legal attempts to end the impunity at the AER
    http://www.thetyee.ca/News/2016/01/13/Supreme-Court-Fracking-Battle/
    – is extra-territoriality being applied to work conditions in the tar sands, even when there are fatalities?
    – zero change at the Alberta Electric System Operator – wind and gas turbines still held to 50% of what they could provide while coal runs near capacity
    – scapegoating of contract employees with salary freezes
    – Private provision of essential services in medical imaging and highway maintenance continues wasting tax dollars
    – inoculations that are essential to adult public health and lowering hospital costs, like those for Hepatitis, HPV, and Shingles have been moved from public health to the private sector with costs going through the roof and unaffordable for ordinary people.
    – all the same Conservative freeloaders making mischief on institutional boards and commissions across the province.

    As one long time and now former NDP supporter told me: she is now a D 3: Disappointed, Disenfranchised, and Disgusted.

    I keep consoling myself with the mantra that politics is the art of the possible, but it is getting to be pretty thin gruel.

    1. And the Alberta Geological Survey is still part of the Alberta Energy Regulator, so their scientists are muzzled. The public doesn’t need to know about fracking or other geological hazards.

      1. Keith Fracking has been done for over 60 years now, it is safer than it has ever been! How many people die in car accidents, as compared to the zero in fracking? Feel like a chicken little yet?

        My advice, read more than al jazeera!

        1. Trevor, check the link. The risk from Fracking is damage to ground water. Almost all rural residences depend on ground water as do many towns.

  6. Another quote from LBJ could apply to Mr. Clark.

    “I feel like I just grabbed a big juicy worm with a rigid sharp hook in the middle of it.”

    1. Thank you SICKOFNDP! I was going to say that but you beat me to it! Seems like Nutley and her band of fools are running a bit scared!!

      1. Yes the NDP are up against a wall, their support has plummeted and they are a one trick pony with a shortening lifespan!

  7. OH my God who paid this blowhard to write this crock of shit? George has garnered more support than 90% of the politicians out there (ever in the history of Albertan politicians) and continues to have a huge amount of support in Alberta. Just hang about on the losing side while we take back our province from a disgusting socialist party. Can you say “Trojan Horse”? Google it you know nothing dork.

    1. ‘George’ is a meatball who has no clue how Alberta or Canada’s system actually works. He’s just some guy with big dreams and a bigger mouth. He’s a nobody and in a few weeks no one will even remember who he was. But you go ahead and stand behind him with the rest of the outraged idiocy that seems to be so prevelant in Alberta these days. The rest of us will work towards making this Province a better place without people like you.

  8. He only writes a blog. Treat yourself to a Valium and while you’re at it, Google “non-sequitur”.

  9. I’m sorry but this guy is so biased it is laughable. Read about him in his little bio. He has been a UNION trade “communicator” (translation, card carrying member of the NDP propaganda machine) , a poet and a teacher. He has never had to be self-employed, run a business and obviously lives in an ivory tower if he has no clue how the average Albertan is hurting (nor cares, as it sounds). As a minion Albertan, there are plenty of us who are fed up with this government and it’s obvious anti-democratic, ideological, arrogant and self-serving agenda that has nothing to do with what is best for Albertans. It is obvious by his self-important attitude that he doesn’t dwell where the majority of Albertans do.
    In reality.

    1. You missed “award-winning journalist” and MA in journalism. Unlike those fakers at Rebel Media who can’t investigate anything farther away than their navels.

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