PHOTOS: Calgary lawyer David Khan, the only candidate willing to lead the sad-sack Alberta Liberals. Below: Donald Trump in a rare presidential moment; Jason Kenney, the man with a mandate to destroy the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta; and Sheila Gunn Reid, who in real life has nothing whatsoever to do with the Ethical Pipelines Alberta Corp. , which doesn’t actually exist anyway.
The zeitgeist – the spirit of the time, in case you missed it – simply forbids an April Fools joke in 2017.
It wasn’t a dream. Donald Trump really is the president of the United States. You’re not going to wake up to news of the Clinton Cabinet’s latest triumph. Sorry, the Trump Presidency isn’t just going to be annulled during the premiere of the 2018 season.
England really is on the way out of the European Union, and Scotland is on its way out of the United Kingdom. Hola, Gibraltar, bienvenido a España! For all I know, before the year’s out, my native British Columbia will be on its way out of Canada.
The race to lead the Conservative Party of Canada is dominated by racist buffoons, economic fruitcakes and the Boston Stranger. Any candidate with the mojo to actually win a Canadian election languishes at the bottom of the pack.
And Brad Wall – the real leader of Western Canada – is revealed as not only a breathtakingly sleazy operator, which we kind of already knew, but a self-interested one at that.
Oh yeah, and Jason Kenney, the man who bestowed that particular phrase of praise on Mr. Wall, has been elected leader of the mighty Progressive Conservative Party, which ruled Alberta for 44 years, on a promise to roll it up like a worn out carpet and pack it off to the dump.
It’s not delicate social democratic distaste with made-up news that has driven me to this conclusion. I was considering telling you the NDP Government of Premier Rachel Notley and Rebel Media were about to go into partnership to peddle the idea of “ethical pipelines” – after all, “the world needs more Canada, and how are we going to get it to them, slightly diluted, if we don’t have a pipeline to tidewater?” I was going to say the Rebel’s Sheila Gunn Reid would be appointed to lead the new Crown Corporation, Ethical Pipelines Alberta Corp.
But, how could I top the list of actual real news stories above that smidgen of fake news?
Seriously, I’m reconciled to the fact I’m just never going to be able to pull off another one like the time I actually convinced huge numbers of readers, just a week after she’d been forced by her own caucus to resign, that former premier Alison Redford was about to sue the province of Alberta for wrongful dismissal.
Like I said, it’s 2017. No can do.
Speaking of which, it looks as if David Khan is the leader of the Alberta Liberal Party – whether he likes it or not.
Just a month ago at the Throne Speech, the Calgary human rights lawyer was convincingly enumerating the reasons he wasn’t interested in the job – and I have no doubt the poor guy spoke the truth.
But that was before the fellow on whom so many Liberal hopes of a revival rested – St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse – took a powder.
The other Calgary human rights lawyer thought to be interested in the job was snapped by a CBC photographer at an Alberta Party fundraiser Thursday night, and I guess the student who briefly put up his hand couldn’t come up with the nomination fee.
Alas for Mr. Khan, when nominations closed at 5 p.m. yesterday, he was the only person who’d filed nomination papers to lead the moribund party that a quarter century ago came achingly close to defeating the PCs and becoming the government of Alberta.
He probably felt a bit like the proverbial deer in the headlights. Well, props to him for dancing with the one that brung him, even if the band has already stopped playing. (Enough mixing metaphors – Ed.) He’s a talented and obviously loyal man, taking on a job that looks to be impossible.
If either the Wildrose Party or Elections Alberta puts up enough of a fight, the Alberta Liberals could well end up beating the PCs this time … but only into the mists of history!
You can’t make this stuff up. You literally can’t, as it turns out, in 2017.
This post also appears on Rabble.ca.
Saw a stage act with me own eyes. Ezra Levant and David Climenhaga, sporting tuxes, top hat and cane tap dancing to “Me and My Shadow.”
at least it’s not April fools day 1917
Good point, Ron. As I recall, one of the great powers that was quite active that year came to the conclusion 19 months and 11 days later that a nasty trick had been played on it. Whether or not it was true, the consequences of that geopolitical “joke” still reverberate.
OK RonMac & our blogger, I like to think I’m fairly informed about 20th-century history & the World Wars, but this has me stumped. What happened on 01 Apr/17 that was later regretted “19 months, 11 days later”? The nearest I can find is the US entering WWI, which was actually on 06 April…
April 1917 also saw Lenin’s return to Tsarist Russia, with the covert assistance of the Kaiser’s Germany (kind of like a human IED). But I don’t think it was on the 1st of April (Wikipedia doesn’t give precise dates for that trip).
Simply a reference to April Fools Day – a practice that dates at least to the Middle Ages – the thought being simply that April 1, 1917, was probably not a great day for practical jokes. Ha-ha! We’re not really Germans! Those same Germans, as you rightly note, did play a little April Fool on the Russians, although Lenin was no fool, but not until April 16. DJC