Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s bungled effort to pump a little gas yesterday to make a point about his government’s gas-tax cut illustrates why it’s always a good idea to warn your audience if you’re about to try something new.
So I’m taking this opportunity to advise readers of AlbertaPoltics.ca that there are some technical changes coming to this blog, which I expect to be implemented late Saturday when a new version of the site is scheduled to go live.
There shouldn’t be a service disruption, but these things happen. So if there is, consider yourselves forewarned and check back again a little later. More on this in a moment.
Meantime, getting back to the premier’s well-publicized nozzle-extraction difficulties, they suggest that if you’ve invited reporters to watch you gas up your truck, and you’ve never actually done it before, you might want to rehearse the complicated operation a couple of times just to make sure you have it down pat.
But it’s not complicated, you say? Well, it appeared to be complicated for Mr. Kenney in the video circulating on social media last night – which strongly suggests that he’s never actually gassed up his own big blue truck, and that the gas-guzzling carbon-emitter is just a political prop for a guy that used to have a limo and driver in his Ottawa days.
Was it because he stuck a diesel nozzle in a gasoline filler? He might want to check that before anyone takes the truck for a long spin.
Mr. Kenney’s frustrated bumbling prompted some very funny repartee on social media.
Kudos to the guy who amended the premier’s “relief at the pumps” sign to “comic relief at the pumps.” (The “guy” turns out to be my friend Mimi Williams, the fearless Twitterist. Sorry about that, Mimi! Here’s the link.)
And hats off to Independent Central Peace-Notley MLA Todd Loewen, booted out of the UCP Caucus a year ago for being insufficiently enthusiastic about Mr. Kenney and F-bombed in the Legislature Thursday by Environment Minister Jason Nixon, for his own comic-relief-at-the-pumps video demonstrating his familiarity with the process.
But the best response may have been the slap-heard-round-the-world meme, which not only mocked Mr. Kenney for his unfamiliarity with basic vehicle operation but smacked the premier’s lame defence of his sophomoric use of the Oscars slapping incident to attack green energy policies earlier this week.
Well, you can’t really argue with Mr. Kenney that this was “a relevant way of making a point,” in this case what a klutz our premier is.
Getting back to the changes to this blog, they are mostly technical in nature intended to make it easier and quicker to open on any device – including older computers and smartphones.
That need also provided the opportunity for some other improvements, including better revenue opportunities to finance this effort – which will mean a few more ads on the blog – and a new look that I hope readers will find pleasing.
Be patient with me, please, while I figure out how this works. There will be no photo opportunities.
There will certainly be repercussions from this ill thought out gimmick by the head honcho of the UCP to gain back lost support and trust. It’s going to cost Alberta revenue it does not have. This won’t be very long in coming. Also, there’s going to be a big price shock to drivers, when gas companies bump their prices back up again. The head honcho of the UCP won’t have the money to do this foolish gimmick again. Nobody is the winner here. Alberta, and Albertans will end up being the losers.
With each passing day, Kenney lives up to the nickname given to him by his federal conservative colleagues, Bumbles, sometimes, as in the fight with the gasoline nozzle, quite literally.
But, of course, we need to mark that bit of comic relief with a relief of another kind: namely, that presser where this bit of hilarity took place was intended to highlight the removal of the provincial gas tax to provide financial relief at the gas pump. Of course, the whole scheme was stupid, unfair to ABs who don’t drive cars or who drive fuel-efficient cars, and extremely expensive to the treasury.
Who benefitted from this stupid, sad and pathetic excuse for a photo op? The gasoline producers and the retailers. At whose expense? Ours and the provincial treasury. There are reports of only temporary dips in fuel prices and uneven application of the cost savings. Once again, Bumbles and the conservatives have found another way to rob the people of the provincial and give the proceeds to the corporations. This was all predicted by many, many people. And, as I understand it, the increase in the federal carbon tax added approximately 2 cents a liter. Plus, the increase in the carbon tax is accompanied by an increase in the rebate.
The removal of the provincial tax on gasoline is a pointless, expensive, and opportunistic way to score cheap political points.
Good luck with the update to your website, DJC. As an old IT guy, I know how these kinds of things can unexpectedly go sideways, despite the best planning.
i cannot think of a better visual symbol of both Kenny’s incompetence AND his cosplaying as an Albertan (much less an ‘ordinary’ Albertan).
Kudos to those on Twitter who added the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme music to this clip.
Link please
Twitter comments were priceless.
Mad Squirrel: “Trying to get the diesel nozzle into the gas hole. My son did that once. He was five years old.”
Terry Cole: “Monkey trying to fu*k a football.”
I recall, during the 1992 US federal election, then President G. Bush (Senior) got into a distressing situation concerning a supermarket check out scanner. During a visit to such a store, Bush was fascinated by the device. I mean he was really interested, as though he had never seen one before. At least that was the public perception that was successfully sold by the Clinton campaign. Bush is so out of touch with Americans, he has never seen a check-out scanner. Though Bush intended to sell the US victory in the First Gulf War as he ticket to a second term, turns out “It’s the economy … stupid.” became his undoing and only a one term presidency.
In the 90s, I got to meet Jason Kenney. Then, a young an energetic partisan hack, he was widely considered the wunderkinder of Canada’s conservative-reform movement. It was widely promoted that he had the royal jelly to become leader and rise ever higher. Sure, that’s what everyone else saw. I saw someone who was perpetually angry and pretty much everything. And I also saw someone who enjoyed all the trappings of influence and power, including the part where someone, anyone, seeking Kenney’s favor would glad service him. Drive him around? Sure. Cover his expenses? Definitely. Do all those menial tasks that Kenney considered to be beneath is august position? Yep. There was always someone around to do that, too. Kenney never had to lift a finger, nor was he ever willing to do so.
Which brings us to Kenney’s battle with a gas pump. Gassing up the famous blue pickup truck he doesn’t really like driving, while struggling with a stuck nozzle, brings to mind the notion that Kenney is a soft and tender handed fellow, whose never really done anything resembling work in his life. Gassing up a vehicle is as alien an activity to Kenney as, perhaps, shopping for himself, doing housework, or having the good sense to not do stupid shite in the first place. He truly is the essence of what Thackeray termed, “the unmade man” and it shows.
As for this much vaunted reduction in the price of gas, in the belief that it will punish PMJT, is highly conditional. I mean once that WTI oil price drops below $90.00, the thirteen cents gets slapped back on again. But this possibility has not once crossed Kenney’s mind, because the current global oil price boom will last forever and forever, and push Kenny over the top to approval across Alberta, saving his premiership. (And then … Ottawa and the PMO.)
So, while Alberta’s finances get further ruined by Kenney’s relentless gaslighting, not to mention the constant starvation of public services, everyone gets to enjoy these comical moments, care of the blissfully unaware Jason Kenney and his hapless minions.
I guess that Jason should be thankful he wasn’t able to put gas into a diesel vehicle. That would have been truly a massive blunder here in Alberta. The gasoline spigot will fit in the diesel fillertube but not vice-versa.
Well said
My favorite version was this one, set to Benny Hill music.
https://twitter.com/comradeflint/status/1510047130026532864
Definitely worth the click. Thank you.
The column on April 1st was very funny. This view of Jason Kenney is funny, but for a different reason, in that Jason Kenney is not like the rest of us who have to figure out how our vehicles actually operate.
Among the VERY best – and essential, reads in (and on) Alberta today … no matter HOW it is presented.
Thank you!
Comedy gold. A study in incompetence.
And if he indeed put diesel into his gas truck, it would be a wonderful metaphor for his “leadership” of this province. Wreck stuff, keep smiling, never admit that you don’t have a clue, blame someone else, and don’t worry about how much it will cost to fix.
That rural Alberta supported a single, middle aged Catholic drop out, who has never worked a real job a single day in his life, but drives around in a big blue pick-up because “he’s one of them”, always baffles me.
Problems with gas nozzelus interruptus and the rhythm method gone wrong, as recommended by His Follies Pope Bumbles. Or as my Brit ancestors would say, just cack handed, he is.
But seriously, I bet Rachel Notley can not only fuel up her car, but change the tire as well. A real Albertan for certain. Unlike Bumbles.
I am surprised some Conservatives still take Kenney so seriously and regard him like some sort of political genius. I mean, really after all the dumb things he has done over the last few years. So I suppose this is just the latest.
Kenney is clinging to his job so desperately in part because of the comfortable salary and power it provides, but there is more than that. He also has a number of loyal political aides at his beck and call paid for by Alberta taxpayers who can take care of many of those tedious and time consuming day to day tasks. For instance, they can get his coffee and fill his SUV with gas. Its like having a retinue of part time servants.
So perhaps it makes more sense why he is so reluctant to give up his cozy upstairs downstairs lifestyle when he is the one upstairs. Of course with government expense accounts, I also expect he seldom, if ever, has to pay for a tank of gas out of his own pocket.
So while the photo op was meant to remind us of the temporary tax reduction, perhaps Kenney is unwittingly reminding us with all his fumbling that ever time he fills up his tank, we are probably the ones paying.
I think it’s hilarious how some of his followers are hurling sarcastic comments a Trudeau , accusing of him of going to Europe for nothing more than photo ops during this war while their hero Jason Kenney makes an ass of himself giving us a different look every day. Does he honestly think it will win him the election. Next maybe he will be kissing babies on tv. One of the senior women in our group says she is sick and tire of his mug showing up everywhere and her friends are to.
It certainly doesn’t make his supporters look very smart , but neither do the ones who are praising Danielle Smith and Brian Jean for wanting to make fools of themselves once again. Two more stupid reformers for Albertans to defeat. I wonder how many times they have to be defeated before they finally wake up and realize Albertans don’t want them?
Alan Spiller: These pretend Conservatives and Reformers in the UCP sure are good at pulling the wool over people’s eyes, and they go along with it, regardless of the consequences. Very pathetic, to say the least.
Oh, one other thing, I bet you anything Rachel Notley can drive a manual shift given she lived on a farm, and city slicker Jason Bumbles can’t. Proof he isn’t a real Albertan for sure, for sure. Betcha Jason, can’t drive a tractor either.
Such a Heritage Minute.
Re: new format. The tiny menu link in the upper left hand corner is useful for sorting posts by category, if noticed**. On my 1920 x 1080 desktop only the featured picture shows up as the left half of the screen while the other half is blank. To see the headline I have to scroll down the page. Might be more useful to have the headline adjacent to the feature picture. All the best.
** also contains donation link
Thank you, Kang. I have passed this concern on to my web designer. However, the donation section is still a work in progress as well. Eventually, there should be a donation widget right on the home page. DJC
DJC, In the previous version of the web site, you used to provide a “Continue reading …” link at the bottom right of the intro text. That seems to have disappeared with this upgrade. Now, you must click on the picture or the title that accompanies the article to get the full text. That is not an intuitive move that readers might assume right away. I think it might be a good idea to restore the “Continue reading..” hyperlink to provide access to the full text.
I like the new font and the new look.
Phlogiston: I will pass this on to the web designer. I fear, though, that this is one of those things that is lost whenever one changes to a new WordPress theme. I have found this every time – you get a better package overall, but you always lose something you liked. DJC
David, I would reiterate Phlogiston’s comment. As a long-time reader, used to clicking on something to continue reading, I (eventually) guessed that I could click on your story’s title to continue reading. I can see how a new reader, however, wouldn’t realize such an option existed, and just leave your site.
As well, is it no longer possible to click to cancel a reply?
Bob: Thanks to Phlogiston’s comment, a continue reading tag has been added after the summary of the main story, which is always the newest story. As for the others, they now show a headline only, but your cursor should turn into a little Mickey Mouse hand when your cursor passes over a link. I will look into getting the cancel button back on comments. DJC
Kang: My web designer asks – are you using an ad blocker? If so, an ad blocker will alter the layout of the pages slightly, so the experience will be a bit different. DJC
It’s been asked: why do (probably) authentic conservative-leaning citizens vote for Jason Kenney’s UCP? Well, they’ve only done it once, doesn’t mean they’ll do it again—but also: Alberta isn’t the only example of this phenomenon. Toryism took a wrong turn forty year ago, rode high for twenty, been declining since that peak as the sickening feeling came trickling down that the promised prosperity was less than honest and this neo-right was getting more and more dishonest trying to cover it up.
It defies the democratic principle that revealed charlatans get turned out of office, yet nominal conservative parties are still hanging on with potential to do damage despite having gone whole-hog on lying and, increasingly, cheating to stay in power. They parry the obvious with the blatantly absurd that almost puts grosse Lüge —the “Big Lie” theory of politics—to shame: climate change, the mounting challenge of our time, doesn’t exist; Covid 19, the viral pandemic of the past two years, which has already killed millions, is a hoax. The blame for saying different lies with the neo-right’s partisan rivals whose leaders are singled out for relentless ad hominem attacks and branded as evil waiting on the wings of judgement day. Preposterousness is thus fertilized: tRump’s “Wall”, HarperKenneyCons’ bitumen bonanza, neo-right opponents sacrificing children in satanic-sexual ritual and, of course, “globalism”—the euphemism for world domination by a shadowy Jewish cabal. And “The Rapture” of course. It’s small wonder why the neo-right is in its throes. A much bigger wonder why it persists after such behaviours.
I think it’s not so much that it won’t turn itself around: rather, it can’t, and therefore the desperate antics the neo-right displays as it continues to slide toward the edge of their historyless , flat political earth.
Again I say: real conservative voters keep voting for these crazy losers because they can’t see an alternative—well, at least not one that isn’t even worse. Again it flies in the face of democratic principles: free citizens should be able to form whatever kind of parties they want— but real Tory voters can’t seem to do it.
Why so chicken? I asked myself that whilst watching K-Boy desperately failing at getting his nozzle out of this filler pipe. The look of utter terror. The End Is Nigh!
I think this is also why so much insightful political commentary is now found on late night comedy shows.
It remains, my Tory neighbours, that you can go down with the ship or bail like mad in a life raft and maybe survive.
But, naturally, that’s easy for me to say: I’m not a conservative—and even if I was, I wouldn’t vote for this ship of fools.
As puzzling as it is hilarious. Didn’t this guy drive across Canada in a truck as a political stunt? Hasn’t this guy railed against carbon taxes? How has he never done a photo op at a pump before? How has he never operated one? “Can I pump the gas, Dad?” “No Jason, pumping gas is for the help.”
The alternate explanation is Mr. Kenney has a magic truck that runs on BS, which would explain a very great deal.
The new blog design looks pretty good David. A pleasing look although not much change of course. Speaking of photo ops, have you got your photo with the sixth Alberta premier since this blog started? The clock is ticking…
Mickey: I blew it! I had my chance and I didn’t ask for a photo because he was surrounded by a lot of more sincere well-wishers. Now, I’m afraid, he knows who I am. DJC
Definitely an upgrade! Well done Sensei!
Thank you, Pogo. I had wondered how you would react, given your response to my last upgrade. DJC
I am not really concerned about the logistics of your presentation, I just want to ensure that this incredible fountain of information from you continues, otherwise how would we know just how really insane this so called ” government” is becoming further and faster off the rails…… Thank you, DJC for your continued and knowledgeable eye on this ongoing Provincial disaster. We all owe you!
Maybe gas pumping proficiency should be added to the K-6 changes.
Great work Todd, very accomplished. You’ll go far.