Presumably the risk remains small that deep-pocketed United Conservative Party activists will ever buy party memberships in the names of hundreds of random Albertans, funnel the funds to the party, and use the new “members’” stolen identities to vote for nomination candidates who meet the approval of the party’s leader.
More likely, the UCP Cabinet had a more garden-variety undemocratic goal in mind when it introduced Bill 81, the Elections Statutes Amendment Act, 2021.
To wit: stacking nomination contests to ensure candidates unquestioningly loyal to Premier Jason Kenney are chosen before the next general election over more independent-minded party members.
Still, by the standards of a normal democracy, passage by the Alberta Legislature in the wee hours yesterday of legislation that appears to attempt to legalize activities that would likely run afoul of the Criminal Code of Canada is bizarre and should be unsettling.
The new law’s most controversial provision, which would also apply to future leadership contests, would allow bulk memberships to be purchased without the consent or even the knowledge of the new “members.”
That means well-heeled donors could easily buy memberships in bulk to influence nomination battles and leadership contests with busloads of pliant supporters otherwise not active in politics. This will probably start to happen soon.
It would also enable wealthy donors to stealthily evade other election finance laws, since the membership fees will not be applied to election spending limits, a bonus for Conservatives who were never happy about the flawed efforts of the previous NDP government to take big money out of Alberta elections.
In addition, Bill 81 sets a U.S.-style fixed election date and changes the rules for third-party election advertisers, including an almost certainly unconstitutional provision to exclude election advertising by labour organizations.
So maybe Independent Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes, a former UCP member exiled from the party caucus by Mr. Kenney, was right when he told the Legislature that mass purchases of memberships is “the heart of what the RCMP investigation is from three years ago into this premier and his leadership.”
That prompted a Trump-like outburst from Government House Leader Jason Nixon about “fake RCMP investigations,” a characterization with which the national police force may disagree. We’ll see about that one, I guess.
Regardless, it was the bulk-membership purchase rules that led to the long night of testy debate in which three UCP MLAs – Chestermere-Strathmore MLA Leela Aheer, Calgary-Fish Creek MLA Richard Gotfried, and Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul MLA Dave Hanson – broke ranks and voted against their own party on third reading.
Adding a surreal quality to the late-night session, the government imposed time allocation to hurry passage of the bill, then organized its own filibuster by cabinet members to keep its own rebel MLAs from introducing new amendments while it ran out the clock. Mr. Hansen and Ms. Aheer tried and failed to amend the nomination-stacking provision.
All this is unusual and might suggest to some the UCP is not as united a party as the government would like us to think.
Maybe, but it would be overstating things to conclude, as some commentators did yesterday, that it means Mr. Kenney is not in firm control of his caucus.
On the contrary, the fact the bulk of UCP members would vote for what one political scientist called “the most undemocratic thing we’ve seen in this province since Social Credit tried to end freedom of the press” suggests the caucus is firmly under the premier’s thumb and is quite willing to ignore democratic norms if that’s what the premier wants.
With the remaining exceptions of Ms. Aheer, Mr. Gotfried and Ms. Hanson – who joined with the NDP Opposition and UCP exiles Barnes and Central Peace-Notley MLA Todd Loewen to try to resist the government juggernaut in the House – it means the government caucus may now be fairly described as the United Kenney Party.
And while the three rebel UCP MLAs may still have a few silent sympathizers in the caucus, they are unlikely to succeed at winning their party’s nomination before the next election thanks to the very legislation passed yesterday morning.
Moreover, as Calgary Herald political columnist Don Braid pointed out yesterday, the debate in the Legislature provided some cover for the UCP Board’s decision to hold a leadership review vote on Mr. Kenney’s performance in April, structured to ensure the premier emerges victorious.
The in-person-only vote won’t be held in March, as 22 constituency association boards had demanded, which would have made it easier for farmers from rebellious rural ridings to attend. And Mr. Braid suggested Bill 81 may make it easier to stack that meeting too.
Meanwhile, former Wildrose Leader and Kenney rival Brian Jean continues to seek the UCP nomination in the still unscheduled Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche by-election. But Bill 81 will help Mr. Kenney derail his rival’s ambitions again, just as he did in 2017 when they first squared off over the leadership of the party.
No, for the moment at least, the universe seems to be unfolding the way Mr. Kenney thinks it should.
If Albertans want to get rid of Premier Kenney, they’re going to have to do it the old fashioned way – by voting for Rachel Notley and the NDP at the polls in a general election, presumably on May 29, 2023, as decreed by Bill 81.
Yes Kenney seems to be going about doing things methodically to try lock down his control of the party. Most leaders would take such a high level of disent as a sign of the writing on the wall and just leave, perhaps even gracefully. However, Kenney seems to be digging in his heels. If he can’t stay in power under the current rules, then he will change the rules as much as necessary.
It is like a giant game of chicken in the end, likely forcing those unhappy with Kenney to leave the party. Of course, Kenney has some power over his MLA’s in the short term, but those that want to get reelected in places where Kenney has become quite unpopular may eventually decide it is better to abandon ship than go down with it.
The two key events that will determine what these MLA’s do will be the Fort McMurray nomination and the leadership review. If Kenney prevails in these, particularly in the latter, I suspect that will prompt the departure of a sizable group of UCP MLAs, probably enough to form a new party.
In the end it could all be a pyrrhic victory for Kenney, the UCP may be a united, but much diminished party.
Ironically, the next new right-wing party in Oilberduh might well be the Reform Party of Alberta, headed by Brian Jean.
Kenney seems almost to be willing a new party of the right into existence.
At least this takes away the worrying scenario that the UCP find someone likeable before the 2023 election.
At this point, I suppose Kenney could declare himself premier-for-life and give away the whole game.
There’s no doubt Brian Jean’s nomination bid is now in question, as are any of the rebel UCP MLAs who opposed this initiative. The notion of roving buses filled with instant members flooding into riding nominations is stuff straight out of Mulhroney’s Quebec playbook. I can see Kenney’s mooks showing up at homeless shelters and dive bars right now harvesting for instant members. This is what it has come to.
Of course, the UCP voters could stay home come election time and risk at return if the NDP to oust Kenney, but he may not even go that easily.
Brian Jean could found a new provincial party (Wildrose Original Party) and challenge in an election, but that’s a lot of time, effort, and money to pull that one off. We’ll see.
In the meantime, I suspect Kenney will just get crazier and go full Idi Amin before long.
Our premier is not a libertarian, as others have claimed. He is an autocrat. No need for niceties any more.
Is this what you wanted, Alberta? Because you’ve got it.
RE: The three-year-long RCMP investigation into the shenanigans that went down during the last election.
Is it reasonable for me to ask why it’s taken the RCMP so long to do this? I understand wanting to take your time and do things right, but this is creating the appearance that Albertan electoral law lacks any meaningful enforcement.
it is reasonable to ask
it is because
it is a legal system
not a justice system
sticky laws spun by spiders in late night sessions
to no ones advantage except their own
Oh, I think it’s the last part…
“. . . . this is creating the appearance that Albertan electoral law lacks any meaningful enforcement.”
Are these not signs, symptoms, and indicators of a greater increase and normalization of a moral and ethical decadence in the larger body politic? Where, for example, honour, integrity, truthfulness, and humility are simply quaint old fashioned concepts from a bygone era and where the furtherance and maximization of personal self interest, at any cost, is the new ideal unbounded by society or the state (‘God’ is effectively “dead’ along with institutional religion and the old moral and ethical framework, at least in 21st century 1st world economies. Jason Kenney’s religious projection is mere cynical political chicanery, pandering, and marketing, or PR directed at a certain subset of voters. ). And where the individual , becomes the perfect economic actor, making choices solely according to individual/personal costs and benefits. The leaders, economic and political set the standard and the rest of the tribe follows. Is that not so? it certainly seems to be the case, as was observed long ago,
“Men seldom rise from low condition to high rank without employing either force or fraud.”
Perhaps it was always the case.
Alkyl my friend; though I admire your ironic cynicism, I must remind you that there are still, pure actors in this game. No, I am not one of them. But, I do know a few of them! Those I know? I respect. These UCP muppets? Only if the drain was large enough, would I flush them with my next dump! I also respect hydraulics!
What a farce, but you had to know that after these fake conservatives slashed corporate taxes to benefit their rich friends they would expect these same rich friends to fill their pockets with donations and memberships. That was the Klein way. Screw Albertans out of billions of dollars and buy votes with the money you gave away. Harper did it at the federal level also. It’s a Reform party way of getting votes.
I was a card carrying conservative during the Klein years but I certainly didn’t vote for him. Our family had known his family since the early 1960s and we knew what a jerk he was. We weren’t surprised when members of his own family tried to help us vote him out. They were a lot smarter than the fools who supported him.
ALAN K SPILLER: You certainly have got it right. I do recall Angie Klein voting for the NDP. She clearly had the sense to see these pretend conservatives and Reformers were up to no good.
So, not only does Premier Bumbles and his UCP caucus have no understanding of and no respect for good governance, they also have no regard for basic democratic principles. You should not be able to buy memberships to any organization, regardless of what it is, for 3rd parties without their consent or knowledge. If people want to join an organization as a voting member in that organization, they should apply and buy it for themselves: it should not be a gift, which could also qualify as a bribe. Furthermore, as DJC and others have pointed out, the ability to buy memberships for 3rd parties does provide a way to stack meetings with like-minded supporters and to bypass political donation restrictions. This law does indeed seem custom made to keep Bumbles in power. As, I think, Rachel Notley observed, Kenney drives a big Dodge and now has become one himself – he dodges accountability to the people of the province, dodges campaign finance rules, and dodges threats to his position of power.
A more disgusting example of selfish and naked ambition would be hard to find. He is not good for either the province or his party and should just leave. But, he can’t recognize what the honorable thing to do is given his complete mishandling of many files. He probably justifies these unethical tactics that diminish and threaten what little democracy we have left with the belief that he has been anointed by a higher power to subject the province with policies that align with some theocratic vision of righteousness.
The interesting part to me is that we are all witnessing this slow control of everything in this province by these fascists and we barely do anything other than words.
Where are the unions, where is Public Interest Alberta and the Parkland Institute and everyone of us to protect decency, morality and ethics in this province.
We are slowly being absorbed into UCP hell and we do not respond
That to me is more serious than these goons trying to take over our lives.
Let us all march to the legislature and show these goons we are not slaves of malicious objectives
David you are a director in AUPE and you tell me we cannot do more than what we have not done yet?
I am serious here and I would like to know what it takes to get us moving
Carlos: I worked for AUPE as Communications Director from 2000 to 2011. I am no longer an employee of AUPE, although I enjoyed my years there and left on good terms. I have been employed in a communications role by United Nurses of Alberta since 2011. DJC
You are passing on a tree. A tree that produces fruit and then dies because it has no known reason to exist in the first place!
And will the 22 UCP constituency associations/farmers from rebellious rural ridings, just sit back and take it on the chin?
Will their only recourse be voting for the AB NDP? I guess we shall see how seriously political belief systems will be rejigged since Alberta appears to be a two-party province now.
Now that Alberta’s peaceful kingdom has gone full autocracy, the question is what other crazy is Kenney willing to pull to stay in power?
I believe that since he has reached the point of not caring what others think anymore, he has even more outrageous tricks waiting in his Tickle Trunk.
Imagine a mere six months before the next election and Kenney is so far down in the polls, his destruction is assured. Then, he pulls a fast one and declares a provincial emergency. Because of the extreme probability that the NDP will come to power and incite a communist revolt in Alberta, Kenney declares the indefinite suspension of all civil liberties, elections, assemblies, communications, publishing, and other political actions. Everything is considered an insurgency against the UCP government. Kaycee Madu will make it so, all the while declaring that “God has blessed Alberta with the riches of able and fair government.”
Too strange and weird to really happen? This is Alberta, don’t cha know.
Joseph Stalin would be proud.
There will not be a coup in alberta, for the simple fact that Kenney has no troops. Who’s going to fight the federal government ? The kudetah guy ? What’s left of the proud boys that isn’t infiltrated by CSIS/ RCMP ?
Kenneys death by a thousand bureaucratic cuts will be worse.
Back to the past circa 1971. I volunteered ( I was very young) to work on a PC nomination campaign in Wetaskiwin-Leduc constituency. Party memberships were bought by the nominee candidate for people without their knowledge, or consent. Were these memberships voted? I suspect so. Kenney is now following Tory, definition old English: bog robber, practice. Alberta one really parochial and corrupt polity. Nothing is new under the sun, hey.
Watching this whole drama unfold is interesting because everyone is getting a free glimpse into Jason Kenney’s mind.
I suppose it was doubted and many really did believe that Kenney created the UCP as part of a greater mission to serve Alberta’s interests. The problem is that Kenney’s creation is, in his mind, HIS property. He owns the UCP. It’s his. He owns it. He tells it what to do and it obeys him. And if someone tries to take it away from him, Kenney will never give it up. The hyper-possessive nature that Kenney approaches the UCP MLAs and their membership do bring to the fore the obsessive nature of Kenney’s mind.
Kenney has a worldview that belongs to him. He made it and it determines the reality he wants to see. Debate is not something that lives in Kenney’s mind, because he wants to hear the sound of his own voice all the time. It could be said that this is what happens when a fanatic is in charge. It has been seen time and time again. An obsessive and fanatical leader creates his reality and rewards those who are willing to support that reality. But what happens when that reality is torn asunder by overwhelming events? There can be no doubt that Kenney will rage on and fight anyone who says he pushes things too far.
Kenney’s lackadaisical response to the pandemic was typical of his disinterest in it from its very beginning. Kenney would declare there is no way on earth this is a big deal and he believed that. When things started to get out of hand, he, albeit grudgingly, went along with a modicum of public health measures to prevent the spread. But when Kenney declared the “Greatest Summer Ever” that was the real Kenney, the one who doesn’t believe COVID is a threat. And if people die, so what? Kenney doesn’t know them and they don’t factor into his worldview anyway. (Like voters who never voted UCP — who are these people, anyway?”
So, you have a malignant narcissistic personality, determined to do everything and anything, legal or not, to prevent his downfall. What could possibly go wrong?
Considering that Kenney has lived almost his whole life with a sense of mission (maybe he thinks it’s a divine mission) it would be a crushing disappointment if he had wasted his whole life on an unrealizable pipe dream. (Like a pipeline to nowhere?) When the fall finally does come, it will be a collapse typical of history’s despots, ignominious and total.
I can’t wait.
When Kenney is finished with alberta the betters he is serving will have something for him. Just look at papa Steve. If Kenney isn’t the Harper model of politician there isn’t one. You can see it with how he surrounds himself with bullies and sycophants. The best part is when he’s gone there will be no one to fill the vacuum he created.
I believe that when you’re talking about what Kenney believes, you’re talking about suspended disbelief, the faculty that most fiction readers deploy in order that what they’re reading seems realistic enough to be engaging plot-wise and thematically, the faculty the reader switches off when he or she puts the book down. Readers of fantasy or science-fiction would find the story too unbelievable to be anything but an uninteresting waste of time if they couldn’t temporarily suspend disbelief and, likewise, more ordinary stories would seem nothing more than a series of implausible coincidences meant to dupe rather than entertain.
But imagine not being able to reawaken the sense of disbelief after putting down, say, a science-fiction or fictional crime novel: such a reader would go through the remainder of life anxious that around every corner a horrifying murder victim or a space alien with a ray-gun might be encountered.
Coincidentally, just the other day I was discussing the possibility that tRump (of whom “malignant narcissism” was the first time I’d heard that description) can lie with such bald-faced facility because he truly believes the fantasies he spins, and that once they’re uttered in the script he casts himself as hero they become a ‘real’ past that he’ll defend or attack, as the case might be, no matter how blatantly obvious their unreality—that is, as if he does not (perhaps cannot) reawaken his sense of disbelief, or as if disbelief in his guff is permanently suspended. Although he does repeat his lies ad nauseam, his resentment when questioned about the patently false seems as sincere as he ever gets, notwithstanding that tried and true “Big Lie” methodology.
The obverse of suspended disbelief with respect something fictional is not believing in something that’s real, like not believing in climate change or Covid. If a parallel with tRumpublicanism can be made in these two respects, then it probably can be made in a larger ‘Kenneyism’ because, as many observe, he’s copied tRump a lot (with Covid, as disastrously as The Orange One). Your points remind me that another prominent parallel is partisan political use of the Bible which the strictly religious and ‘faith-on-the-cheap’ evangelicals are advised to believe, even in the scientifically impossible— that is, suspend disbelief in something impossible (like a god creating the earth in only six days, only 6,000 years ago or the altruism of Televangelist Kenneth Copeland) —on pain of everlasting punishment in a burning underworld or everlasting reward in an over-the-top world in the sky. For example, surveys show that the vast majority American evangelicals actually believe in tRump’s fantastic claim that he won the 2020 election despite looking for and finding absolutely no evidence of voting fraud. Like suspending disbelief in plain fantasy in the Bible, tRumpublicans also believe tRump’s election loss is not real as if under the same terms of eternal reward or punishment in places equally fantastic.
However, as much as Kenney tries to emulate tRump, their personal histories are quite different with respect the Bible. Kenney has a Christian upbringing, cut his political teeth as student at a Roman Catholic university (as an anti-abortion advocate), and has built his career in association with the religious right-wing (pro-life, homophobia, bigotry, &c) ; tRump, on the other hand, couldn’t tell Corinthians from Romans, much less Leviticus from the Ten Commandments (he probably cannot recite), and his smirking claim of piety is, despite the promiscuous trust his evangelical flock have in his plainly disingenuous pretence, is a matter of disbelief I, for one, simply cannot suspend for a second—making the story tRump wants his followers to believe wholly implausible, supremely incredible, and gallingly unreal except to gullible evangelicals inured to suspending disbelief as a way of “everlasting” life (for example, “snake-handlers” and anti-vaxxers). Consequently, tRump’s ‘auto’biography, The Art of The Deal, is gospel to him and them, even though he didn’t write it and probably neither ever read it.
But of course Kenney got elected as leader of a rookie party in its first term in a province with 1% of the population and 7% the area of the USA, diminutiveness a significant factor of difference between the two men. He exists in a significantly different kind of federation and evangelists do not dominate his caucus or UCP voters. The scale of his malignancy must likewise be somewhat minute in comparison to “The Donald”—but the narcissism, I shall grant.
At least that’s what I believe.
Neil, your question is reasonable, but I suspect the answer is that the RCMP have many higher-priority cases and a staffing shortage. Other than the slow-moving (apparently stalled) police investigation, I see no sign of accountability or oversight–legal or otherwise–for the UCP.
Democracy is sure a foreign concept to the UCP. The UCP gets in by cheating and lying, and wants to do anything they can to remain in power. The head honcho of the UCP had something to do with the robocalls shenanigans, when he was a CPC cabinet and. You just can’t get any lower than these pretend conservatives and Reformers.
I’m just curious – does this mean that I can buy a membership in the NDP in Jason Kenney’s (and several other UCP’ers) name? I would love to see his name as a party supporter, along with Savage, McIver, Sawhney, Toews, Nixon, Shandro, Orr, Luan, Madu, Copping, etc., et al.
Except with NDP, you cannot be member of any other party…..
That may be the NDP’s policy, but since this is a bill passed in the legislature and covers elections in general, I would suspect that it surpasses the NDP policy and renders it either moot or illegal. Otherwise, wouldn’t a simple party vote be able to overcome any law (except for the voting part, this sounds like JFK’s wet dream)?
A corollary question is this: how much mental energy and time does Kenney and his inner circle expend in thinking up schemes that channel Trumpian autocratic dreams to remain in power despite the wishes of most Albertans and a significant portion of UCP voters? How much time and energy does this take away from job he supposed to be doing, which is to govern (not rule) the province? He is like the bad employee who spends their time browsing the Internet on company time.
Kenney is being too clever by half.
He can stay as leader of the UCP as long as he wants. The longer he stays the more likely the UCP will be wiped off the electoral map when the time comes.
In other words, the biggest liability the UCP face going into the next election is Kenney. He’s so stupid!
I don’t understand why JK wants to stay in power so badly. It just makes no sense to me. He’s presumably got lots of money and would never have to work again. What does the power do for him? How does it benefit him?
I just don’t get it.
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Lord Acton, 1887
It’s not about the money. Just ask Donald Trump.
He has spent most of his career in politics. He has little work experience or skills outside of it, so no profession or trade to fall back on. He does not have a spouse/partner or kids (that I know of) and I suspect few friends outside of politics. So, it is his life, plus the job pays fairly well for a person of his educational attainment.
It’s said that he always had prime ministerial assertion— but except for the matter of suspended disbelief (see reply to Just Me, above) and his dismal performance in I really don’t get it either.
Janna,
You don’t get it, because you don’t understand the mind of a sociopath. Most people become victims long before they figure out what a sociopath does or plans. That is one of their advantages – the element of surprise.
Sociopath are not all that clever, nor do they need to be. However, they are quite manipulative, and rely on the element of surprise along with the naivety of their victims.
Power over others is their number one motivation. Of course many times money is involved, but that is not their primary objective.
Previously I had labelled Jason Kenney’s UCP as “embarrassingly incompetent and dysfunctional”. I now realize that this was a distraction from Kenney’s true intent – pursuit of power by any means. His determination to undermine democracy is diabolical and dangerous. Regrettably, most Albertans will find it hard to believe that such evil lurks in the heart of this man. Albertans should be justifiably terrified.
Evil is always where you least expect it. More often than not, it comes with a smile.
https://radioopensource.org/hannah-arendt-and-the-banality-of-evil/#:~:text=Evil%20comes%20from%20a%20failure%20to%20think.%20It,nothing%20there.%20That%20is%20the%20banality%20of%20evil.
This is a highly instructive comment on the nature of evil.
Another very interesting and controversial study of evil is the movie “Swastika”.
https://www.timeout.com/movies/swastika
Made from Eva Braun’s own home movies of life within the Nazi power structure, it presents a rather ordinary view of an ordinary Hitler, shoveling snow off his own terrace and playing games. Evil really is banal.
It certainly isn’t hard to understand why desperate Kenney is hellbent on kicking out the RCMP so he can create a police state controlled by him so he can use it to control anyone who doesn’t support him. Wasn’t it Hitler who pulled the same stunt? I seem to recall German friends telling me that what became a case of respect soon turned to one of terror by many of his own supporters, you didn’t dare say anything bad about him.
Hitler, rather cannily, secured the loyalty of the police at every level. To the average cop, German society needed cleanup and Hitler promised them he would make it so. He promised them he would punish the criminals, the perverts, the defectives, the liberals, the communists, the vermin, etc. It was a massive hit list and Hitler checked off all the right boxes. And if the police should get out of line, install your own partisans to police the police.
Hitler’s cult of personality assured that he was the state, the law, the nation’s will, its pride, and its mission. Will Kenney go that far? He’s already too close for comfort.
Among the questions this story raises is–what methods did Kenney employ to persuade all his critics in the UCP Caucus to support legislation that quells their dissent . There must be quite an interesting story there.
As for the overall legislation, and Kenney’s unprincipled cunning to get it passed–it looks like the Republican Party has made an appearance in Canadian politics.
How did Kenney silence his critics in the UCP caucus?
With position, money, and power. Kenney believes that the world is primarily a transactional universe. Anything and anyone can be bought and everyone has their price. Reward loyalists to no end, and if the price goes up, pay it.
As for the mindset of Kenney’s loyalists, if all they have to do to have more is to become trained seals, then they are willing to do so. These people are as unprincipled as Kenney and as voracious in their lust for money and privilege. None of them want to go back to the lives they once had. They all believed they are worthy of greater things and Kenney is their sugar-daddy.
K- Kinky
E- Evil
N- Narcissistic
N- Narcissist
E-Evil
Y- Yammered
So, where do I think all this will end for Kenney?
First off, he’s really pushing it by amending the legislation that will now allow the stacking of memberships and identity theft on a massive scale. Obviously, Kenney is not concerned with the larger legal ramifications of what this defense against any challenges to his leadership will entail. Rather, he has taken the position that he will not be budged and they’ll never take him alive. It’s an interesting position for Kenney to take because it has happened before and with another malignant narcissist.
A. Hitler rose to power with a political party that was largely by his own invention. It’s hard to say how an amateur watercolor artist rose over a brief period to not only build a national political movement, but also a cult of personality, where its membership would swear complete and undying devotion to the leader, until the end of that leader’s life and their own. (The lives of the members are one and same as that of the leaders — pretty chilling stuff.) Hitler’s ‘will to power’ enthralled millions and secured for him not only leadership but also absolute power over the lives of those millions. Those millions of devoted followers, and millions more, who Hitler saw as no more than inconsequential vermin, were dragged into a catastrophic holocaust, where the absolute worst of all human hatreds were revealed and exploited. In the end, Hitler, a malignant narcissist to the end, denied his fate, declared that his final was victory was at hand, and those who opposed him were personal enemies to be destroyed. Worse, those who failed to defend him to the last were not worthy of life, let alone their dignity.
Hitler ended himself. One does wonder how far Kenney will go with his shenanigans until he runs out of avenues of escape?
This K-scam reminds of another ploy to misappropriate names to a particular purpose.
The Mormon church has the largest, most accurate human genealogical pile of data in the world: respected scientists use it for research all the time—for a price, naturally. However, the main reason it’s so big isn’t exactly scientific —unless Mormon apologetics, the well-funded and ever vigilant department of the Later Day Saints Church, with its cooked-up, con-man-concocted canon and zany, space-racist theology counts as ‘science’, at lest as much as Mormons count it.
Rather, the pile is used for ritual mass ‘baptism’ of dead people, or “proxy baptism”—and without their permission, either. Such is the practice that Jewish Holocaust survivors protested when it was learned that the LDS Church had ‘baptized’ whole families wiped out in death camps, availing the creepily meticulous records the Nazis recorded of each of their victims before murdering millions of innocent men, women and children, thus fulfilling a goofy cheese-and-Maroni-baloney purpose of Mormon hocus-pocus. Not only Jews were offended by the weird revelation. As one critic said of Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal whose name exists in the Mormons’ genealogical pile, “Simon doesn’t need any [Mormon] help getting to heaven.”
Alberta voters should be offended by the UCP’s cheating ways, too—especially the hocus-locus part. Spooky, no?