Did Alberta Premier Jason Kenney just win the next Alberta election for the NDP?
This is a serious question, people.
Responding to a question about Alberta’s escalating auto instance premiums yesterday from Postmedia political columnist Rick Bell at news conference on another topic, Mr. Kenney accused the NDP Opposition of planning to implement public auto insurance!
If only that were true!
“What we want is a competitive marketplace,” a haggard-looking Mr. Kenney began to ramble in response to Mr. Bell’s query. “And that’s how the market works. We Albertans believe in markets. We don’t believe in socialism.
“Many other provinces have had the government take over the insurance market,” he bloviated onward. “And that hasn’t worked out for consumers. It means you only have once choice, uh-hum, kinda Soviet style, to go to.
“In many other provinces, you don’t get to shop around and find the right policy for you.
“So that’s the alternative. I’m hearing that’s where the NDP wants to take the province. I think that would be a disaster. So what we want is more competition, and hopefully that, over time, will get rates down.” (Emphasis added.)
I’m sure listeners all across the province perked up momentarily when they heard the premier’s idle speculation about what Opposition Leader and former premier Rachel Notley’s New Democrats might have in mind.
No doubt insurance industry lobbyists had a similarly startled, although not necessarily as positive, reaction.
After all, there’s a good reason why, when Alberta’s economy is doing well, so many of the pickup trucks you see every day on your morning commute have Saskatchewan plates. Their owners, living in Alberta and employed in the oilpatch, are keeping an address back home so they can pay lower Saskatchewan insurance rates.
The only choice Albertans have with auto insurance – notwithstanding the ability to get bills on a variety of companies’ colourful letterhead – is between the insurance they need and the insurance they can afford.
I imagine the conservative premiers of the two Prairie provinces to the east of us will not be pleased to hear themselves accused of running governments similar in principle to that of the Soviet Union.
My guess is both of them would be delighted for ideological reasons to dump public auto insurance too if they thought they could get away with it.
But they know that they can’t for the simple reason their voters would turn them out of office. After all, government-run auto insurance pretty consistently delivers less expensive coverage than the “free market” touted by Mr. Kenney.
The Premier of British Columbia, a New Democrat, would be entitled to be as offended as his colleagues in Saskatchewan and Manitoba at the Soviet label, but he has suffered some recent grief with high public insurance rates in his province – the result of bad policy choices made by a previous market-fundamentalist B.C. government, as it turns out. His government responded by bringing rates down an average 20 per cent last year.
Rates in Alberta shot up sharply after the UCP removed the NDP cap on insurance rates soon after getting elected in the 2019 election, rising in some cases as much as 30 per cent.
Albertans learned recently that as a result of the UCP removing the cap they are paying hundreds of millions of dollars more to insure their vehicles while the insurance industry is raking in profits, having collected $385 million more in premiums in 2020 than they did in 2019.
But all that the NDP has rather timidly promised is to restore the rate cap that kept insurance rates from rising too quickly during the party’s four years in power.
So this might be a rare case where it makes sense to do what Mr. Kenney suggests. At the very least, he has handed the NDP an opportunity to do a little polling and see what Albertans really think of government auto insurance. I’d wager the idea’s as popular here as it is in Saskatchewan,
As for the actual purpose of the rather unfocused news conference, it was to tout the United Conservative Party’s vaguely defined job-training effort, Alberta at Work, which includes money that would have been spent anyway on post-secondary training and a federal job-creation program to which the province is providing some add-on funds.
It’s always kind of cute the way Mr. Kenney tries to take credit for federal (Liberal) spending without actually saying where the idea and much of the money comes from.
The sums of money associated with the Alberta program are substantial – the government claims $600 million. But this really needs some serious number crunching to see just how much is actually new money, and where Peter is being robbed to pay Paul.
NDP Labour Critic Christina Gray noted that “the funding from Advanced Education doesn’t come close to offsetting the deep cuts to programs and steep rise in tuition that we’ve seen these past years.”
“At the same time,” she added, “the funds from Community and Social Services are for programs that won’t be developed or introduced for at least another year.”
Alberta’s unemployment rate remains the highest in Canada outside Atlantic Canada.
The government’s news release wasn’t particularly informative, but it did have canned quotes from Mr. Kenney, and three additional cabinet ministers who all appeared at the news conference – recently demoted Labour Minister Kaycee Madu, Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides, and Social Services Minister Jason Luan.
In addition, there were quotes from nine of the usual suspects trotted out for such occasions.
This effort certainly suggests the UCP is now is full election campaign mode.
Alas, while the many quotes from the likes of the president of the Business Council of Canada, the Council of Canadian Innovators, and the Edmonton and Calgary Chambers of Commerce may have been rich in enthusiasm, they were lean in meaningful facts.
Still, this does raise an interesting question: Where the heck was Jobs, Economy and Innovation Minister Doug Schweitzer?
“Where the heck was Jobs, Economy and Innovation Minister Doug Schweitzer? ”
A) Exiled as he let slip he’s looking to be the “reasonable” UCP leadership candidate.
B) Desperately working the phones to find a new job knowing he is losing his Calgary-Elbow seat.
C) Laundering UCP War Room money as one of its unFOIPable board members.
D) Straight up lost. You’ve heard him speak? You’ve seen how well he has run his cabinet positions.
PJP: E) All of the above. DJC
Some years ago I met a fellow with Saskatchewan plates. I assumed at the time he recently moved here. I talked to him from time to time over the next several years and was surprised he still had those plates. It eventually came out that insurance cost much less in Saskatchewan and he kept an address there to keep the lower rates. After that, I noticed a lot of Saskatchewan plates here and the number interestingly never seemed to diminish. I suppose the market decided in this case, although not in the way Kenney or his ideological followers expected. You would think Kenney might actually get this, having lived a good part of his life in Saskatchewan.
However, I also suspect like everything in politics now, this it has to do with who are supporting Kenney in his likely now expensive leadership review battle. Surely insurance companies are grateful for his past support and hopeful he will keep the imaginary socialist hordes at bay, or at least try keep them from disrupting the insurance industry’s lucrative business model here.
Like many industries in Canada controlled by a limited number of large companies, competition and choice are sometimes illusions. It is not uncommon for oligopolies to come to an understanding or an agreement not to compete so much. I suppose if you have a bad experience or are gouged by one insurance company, you can try your luck with another one. However, no guarantees it will be much better.
Dave, Albertans have had bad experiences with private insurance for a long time. So, in 1958 the Farmers Union of Alberta started a cooperative insurance pool called Coop Insurance Services. CIS provided auto, home, and building insurance. As it evolved over the years it typically rebated somewhere around 10% of the premiums back to its members. The private insurance companies cried like babies. The final straw came in 1976 while private insurance providers were increasing their rates, Coop Insurance Services rebated a 25% premium discount to renewing policy holders. In another example of industry capture of government regulators, Lougheed’s “Alberta Superintendent of Insurance” forced the closure of the FUA insurance pool in 1978. This ruling effectively privatized insurance pooling making the private insurance companies some of the costliest services Albertans are forced by law to pay. Conservatives pretend to love competition but experience shows that when their cronies are faced with a superior business life-form, like a true cooperative, they never hesitate to use government power to snuff it out.
When Kenney can stand at a podium and call out the socialism of publicly regulated auto insurance rates, all the while getting uber pompous declaring that the rising insurance rates in Alberta is proof that capitalism works is pretty rich. If that’s the case, the Saskatchewan Party must be a gang of Bolsheviks for maintaining their province’s rate regime. Of course, if Kenney tried to put on Scott Moe to abolish that regime for the sake of the Resistance, Moe would tell him to take a hike before Saskatchewan’s voters do.
This has always been the problem with Alberta. When the economy improves and there’s more money around, the grift starts. Albertans are obscenely rich, so they can pay more. But when times are rough, those high rates stay because there’s a war against communism. Why are do other province’s typically do better than Alberta? Sound regulatory policies, for one thing. The other thing being that other province’s voters don’t have the curse of being, like Albertans, the stupidest people alive.
And on the Canada Strong & Free Network today, I found another video of Rob Anders pontificating on how to “legally” overthrow PMJT and his entire government. Of course, it all hinges on the Queen or the GG doing their “constitutionally prescribed” powers and firing Trudeau and dismissing his government. It’s nice to see that Anders has found his inner Alex Jones, before the CRA takes him to the woodshed for tax evasion. Besides, his goofy laugh should be grounds for admission to a rubber room.
It ain’t Just You, bud, it’s me too. A more complete and accurate description of “the problem in Alberta” has never been described.
That’s a fair amount of inflated self-promotion in that NR.
I guess Kenney’s going to call an election ahead of that review vote.
Kamikaze elections are now a thing.
I’m EQUALLY as sick of the UCP telling me socialism is evil as I am the NDP fearmongering about privatization. Both have their merits, and their place in Canada. Right wing lunatics, and left wing psychopaths, however, do NOT belong in this country, or this province.
Left wing psychopaths? Seriously? I doubt that claim. If there were, there would be a number of right wing martyrs being extolled in the MSM.
Privatized Socialist: Privatization of basic, much needed services doesn’t work. I’ll illustrate this with prime examples. Ralph Klein privatized driver training in Alberta. How did that fare out? Accidents increased greatly in Alberta. Privatization of registration offices was another big disaster. Identity related crime in Alberta increased greatly. There are many more examples I could give you, but these are two obvious ones.
A job retraining program that no doubt helps middle aged workers who become unemployed and need to be able to develop skills to allow them to participate in a workforce that they are otherwise totally unprepared to participate in.
Sounds like Jason Kenney is thinking about his own future.
Soviet, no, they had trains. Give me a break Jason, the Soviet Union fell in 1991 it’s been the end of history for two decades, you need a new boogieman we aren’t buying it anymore
Am I wrong in saying that the vast majority of insurance companies are located outside Alberta? If Kenney is concerned that all this money is leaving the Province (as in transfer payments for Federal Government), then why is he such a champion for private insurance companies? Is he getting a kick back by chance?
Everyone knows true freedom is paying more than you can afford to buy a car from one of the largest industrial cartels in history, which instantly depreciates by half, so you can pay Maintanance costs out of pocket just to drive yourself back and forth to the job that doesn’t pay you enough to buy the car, let alone the gas that you are putting in every week, literally lighting your money on fire.
Really, freedom in the utmost.
Sometimes, to know two, you must first know one. Other times, willfully choosing to believe absurdities, (“one” is not a number, it’s a sandwich topping!) also prevents you from knowing two.
Between the things they don’t know and the things they think they know that just ain’t so, I don’t think Albertan voters, taken as a whole, are capable of understanding politics except as a series of absurd bumper sticker slogans. Yay free markets! Boo Communism! Yay freedom! Boo taxes!
Where was Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides during the University of Lethbridge Faculty strike? Nowhere to be seen, that’s where. It’s almost as if an invisible hand is guiding the markets and the sinking UCP ship.
This is not a good time to be a Conservative in Alberta. The UCP is a divided mess and I suspect that it will dissolve. The Federal Party…well what can you say. Do not know if they are chalk or cheese. Same issue….a split is in the cards.
We were at a social event on Sunday. I had the opportunity to speak to some long time Alberta Conservative supporters. The comments were all very consistent. Kenney has to go, the sooner the better. It is not just Kenney, his team is incredibly weak. The next election is lost. Time to break apart the UCP.
I was quite surprised at how direct they were….no discussion among them whatsoever. Complete agreement. They all claimed to have voted accordingly.
Have to wonder if these comments were representative.
“….a haggard-looking Mr. Kenney began to ramble”
Mr. Kenney looks quite unwell lately.
Brett My conservative friends and I want to see this phoney Conservative party disappear like the Social Credit party did. Our family supported them for at least 30 years and dad donated around $30,000. to the Lougheed and Getty governments over the years. We doubt we will ever be able to get these damn Reformers kicked out of the party and I agreed with the former MLAs the conservatives need their asses kicked for allowing their worse enemy to join them. What a really stupid idea.
Alan K. Spiller: My dad, who is also a senior, and has long since retired, would definitely remember the Social Credit Party, when he could start voting in the early 1950s. Peter Lougheed was glad to get rid of the Social Credit Party. He despised Reformers, which reminded him of the Social Credit Party he fought to get out of power.
Under Ralph Klein he allowed the insurance companies to increase our auto insurance by 40% . I know because family members owned an insurance company in Calgary at the time and they were furious. We were told that thanks to Klein we were now paying the second highest insurance rates in Canada next to P.E.I. You can bet we are now paying the highest under Jason Kenney thanks to him taking the caps off. Some of my senior friends have seen an increase from 32 to 38% and I am assuming that it’s because of their age.
Alan K. Spiller: Also, under Ralph Klein, the quality of the services diminished, while the insurance rates went up. That certainly wasn’t good.
In 1990-95 Bob Rae’s New Democrats formed the NDP’s only Ontario government. Campaigning on bringing in public auto insurance, hopes were high. Once in power, the heat was turned up and he wilted. Some New Dems are still upset.
My suspicion is that Kenney has already made up his mind that he is going to call a snap election to save his premiership.
He’ll declare that he needs a new mandate to continue the constructive reforms to everything, but also to destroy the scourge of the NDP once and for all. Here’s my on the rationale for Kenney’s crazy.
Back in the fall, PMJT called a completely unnecessary election. But there were two objectives that Trudeau may have had in mind when he called that election. The first one was to win a majority government, which was in the cards mere days before the writ was dropped. Another objective was to destroy any stability in the CPC’s leadership. I suspect Trudeau knew and could see that Erin O’Toole was enduring never ending fights with his caucus over pretty much anything to do with moving to the political center. Calling an election would force O’Toole to really be the centerist of his caucus’ nightmares. If the Liberals scored any kind of victory, even another minority government, it would knock the wheels off of O’Toole’s wagon and cause him to be ousted.
In the end, Trudeau only got half of what he wanted. Though he may have put his own leadership on somewhat thin ice, there is now turmoil in the CPC caucus and their big tent is shredded by all the tribes within.
How does this apply to Kenney calling a snap election?
First, an election will force the UCP to follow Kenney’s leadership, regardless of how much they hate him and don’t trust him. This objective becomes that much easier if the opposition is the NDP socialist boogieman. A win is possible because Kenney will lionize his campaigning and resources in rural ridings and avoid certain urban ridings like the plague. Edmonton will be completely sidelined and only safe UCP ridings in Calgary will be defended. Even if Kenney scores a greatly reduced majority, a win is a win is a win.
Once Kenney gets his win in the bag, Brian Jean’s efforts to oust Kenney will be squashed.
It appears that Trudeau is such a master at this game, Kenney has decided to pull the same strategy.
The portion of this post that discusses the difference between insurance rates in Saskatchewan and Alberta certainly resonates with my personal experience, although it could now be considered ancient history.
I moved to this province from Saskatchewan when I was 20 years old. To get here, I drove a vehicle that required me to literally keep a case of oil in the back as it faithfully consumed 1 quart of oil for every 100 miles traveled, simply because the world was measured more frequently in quarts and miles in those days. (Side note: I sincerely hope that Jason Kenney is not a frequent reader of this blog or I fear that there will be a bill introduced into the legislature by this time next week requiring all vehicles in Alberta to be equipped with this exciting new oil-consumption feature.) Shortly after arriving I learned that similar coverage for said vehicle to what my $28 per year policy in Saskatchewan provided would cost me something between $350 and $500 per year (can’t remember now), but more than a 10x increase. This was significant for someone struggling to pay for post-secondary education. The reasons for the increase were threefold. I am male. I was under 25 at the time. And that was the going rate for males under 25. The number of choices that I had for insurance providers had no meaningful effect on what I was required to pay because there was no incentive whatsoever for any provider to lower their rates to attract my meagre business. They didn’t have to compete with what I paid in Saskatchewan, only with each other, so it was no competition at all. That was then, this is now, but nothing about capitalism has changed since then that makes things any different today. Kenney’s statement that having more players results in increased competition and lower prices is nonsense.
I’m not advocating for government control and oversight in every aspect of our lives, less is better than more in my opinion, but when it comes to essentials that people need to survive, if pricing becomes predatory then I’m in favour of government intervention. Granted, insurance isn’t necessary for survival but it is a requirement for anyone who owns and operates a vehicle legally, and that encompasses the majority of us in this province and for some, private transportation is indeed a necessity. In addition to the surge in insurance rates, the huge increase in the cost of natural gas and electric utilities so far this year is making life unaffordable for more people every day. And, as we have seen with ATCO Electric’s recent $31M penalty for attempting to have their own customers repay them for what was essentially a bribe to a contractor, it isn’t realistic to expect the players in the game, regardless of which industry they are in, to compete with any sense of decency or fair play if they are unregulated. Once the door is opened for unlimited corporate greed there is no shortage of those who are ready to take advantage in any way possible, without regard to the detrimental effect on society in general or the economic strain it places on their own customer base. They take the words of Randy Newman to heart: “It’s Money That Matters”. This is the society that the UCP is creating for us, the fulfillment of the Kenney (Presumably Wet) Dream™ as it were, and that is reason enough for me to support government insurance or at least a return of the rate caps that were removed.