Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland MLA Shane Getson poses with a firearm on his Facebook page (Photo: Facebook/Shane Getson).

With apologies to the Sound of Music, what do you do with a problem like Shane Getson?

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Photo: Justin Trudeau/Flickr).

More specifically, what should the Alberta Legislature do about a member like Shane Getson, the United Conservative Party MLA for the rural riding of Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland west of Edmonton, who seems to be engaged in a personal campaign to debase political discourse and discredit democracy in this province?

Whether or not he “made a veiled threat” against Justin Trudeau, as an NDP Opposition critic put it, he certainly appeared to be advocating that Canada’s democratically elected prime minister be lynched.

There was nothing veiled about the poster Mr. Getson published on his Facebook page featuring the silhouettes of three mounted cowboys, ropes at hand, reading: “I need you to take Trudeau to the train station.”

For his part, Mr. Getson claims he didn’t know that the poster was a reference to the TV series Yellowstone, or that it implied a suggestion that the PM be lynched. Busted, he removed the post. 

The man is obviously not the sharpest tool in the UCP toolbox, so I suppose it’s possible that he didn’t know what he was saying. It is clear, though, that pretty well everyone else in the province understood the implication of his meme, including even those few who had no idea Yellowstone was an American drama series.

Former finance minister and UCP leadership candidate Travis Toews (Photo: David J. Climenhaga).

I guess that I don’t know what I’m talking about is as good a defence as any when we’re dealing with something that would otherwise meet the definition of sedition in the Criminal Code of Canada, which says: “… every one shall be presumed to have a seditious intention who … publishes or circulates any writing that advocates, the use, without the authority of law, of force as a means of accomplishing a governmental change within Canada.”

Indeed, Mr. Getson has a history of this kind of idiocy, although he does seem to be getting worse. 

At a meeting with a group of business owners complaining about having trouble finding employees in his riding in the fall of 2020, the former construction project boss accused Albertans receiving the Canada Emergency Response Benefit of spending the federal pandemic support on cartoons, recreational drugs and Cheezies, followed by a barely coherent string of abuse directed at the prime minister.

Mr. Getson pleaded that he was taken “out of context” and that little ripple soon disappeared into the calm waters of Lac Ste. Anne. 

Last February, though, during the illegal blockade of the Canada-U.S. border crossing at Coutts by Q-adjacent anti-vaxxers and far-right radicals, Mr. Getson expressed his support for the blockaders and called on police to disobey any orders from Ottawa to clear the road and open the border.

The NDP urged Jason Kenney to kick Mr. Getson out of the UCP Caucus, a call the premier naturally ignored while criticizing his MLA in the mildest of terms.

Presumably emboldened, Mr. Getson has now moved on to more disturbing rhetoric. Either that, or he really is as out if it as he says he is. 

It’s not too late for the UCP Caucus to fire Mr. Getson out the door, as it should. That seems unlikely for a variety of reasons, though. 

Last night, the former chair of the UCP’s small group of Edmonton-area MLAs pledged his allegiance to UCP leadership candidate Travis Toews on his Facebook page. It would be a fair question to ask Mr. Toews what he thinks should be done about his new supporter. 

It is also theoretically possible for MLAs of all parties to band together and vote to expel Mr. Getson from the Chamber for advocating violence and undermining democracy.

Alas, that too seems unlikely. 

There is the danger that Mr. Getson will run again, and prove justified in that decision. So, at the very least some brave local UCPer should challenge him for the nomination, for the good of the riding, province, and country. 

Remembering that song about Maria, Mr. Getson’s not an asset to the party. And he doesn’t make anyone laugh. 

Field of candidates registered to seek the UCP’s leadership has grown

Since former finance minister Toews’s entry into the UCP leadership race on Monday, three additional candidates have officially thrown their hats in the ring, Elections Alberta reports

Independent MLA and UCP leadership candidate Todd Loewen (Photo: Facebook/Todd Loewen).

Former Wildrose leader Brian Jean made submitted his paperwork to make it official on Tuesday.

He was followed yesterday by the other former Wildrose leader, Danielle Smith, in addition to Central Peace-Notley MLA Todd Loewen. 

Mr. Lowen may not have much chance of winning, but his entry adds some novelty to the race, since he was turfed out of the UCP Caucus in May 2021 and has sat as an Independent in the Legislature ever since. 

His sin, being insufficiently supportive of Mr. Kenney, was apparently worse than anything Mr. Getson, mentioned above, has done or said. 

Mr. Loewen seems to have remained a member of the party in good standing, though, and that’s good enough for Elections Alberta to grant its imprimatur to his candidacy. 

There will be more, perhaps many more, candidates signing up soon.

Jason Nixon named ‘interim’ finance minister

Speaking of which, Jason Nixon, widely thought to be likely to run to replace Mr. Kenney as well, has been named by the premier as “acting” finance minister to replace Mr. Toews. 

“Acting” Finance Minister Jason Nixon (Photo: David J. Climenhaga).

There isn’t really such a thing as an acting minister in the Westminster Parliamentary system, so this raises the questions of whether Mr. Nixon has changed his mind about running now that the party establishment has chosen Mr. Toews as its champion, and if he’ll be sworn in as minister or will just be a spokesperson for the purpose of pre-election press releases about how fabulously Alberta is doing. 

Mr. Nixon will continue to serve as the minister of parks and the environment, a job that apparently includes opening parks to all-terrain vehicles and making it easier to degrade the environment. 

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29 Comments

  1. When somebody poses with a killing machine, might one wonder what he’s going to do next?

    1. some of the people who talk like he does won’t do anything. They’re all talk. However, it might be a good idea to take away his guns. He could be dangerous.
      Usually people like him, when they encounter violence aimed at them, they just run. All talk. He still should be arrested for threatening some one with a gun.

    2. I know these people are really into bad stuff if grooming
      Running about while we are immobilized by fear

  2. Perhaps Mr. Getson, was one of the people Kenney had in mind when he was ranting about the UCP party being taken over by lunatics. So who allows guys like this to run? Oh, that would have been Kenney. Whoops! Also, this is not the first time Getson has said something really dumb, or to put it in a more fittingly rural way – its not his first appearance at the crazy rodeo.

    So what will the UCP do about him – probably nothing. I doubt Kenney will kick him out, as he didn’t before. I suspect the local UCP members are not too troubled by his remarks, so it probably wont affect his ability to run again, if that is what he is planning. He could just become another problem for the next UCP leader, a bozo who may potentially erupt from time to time, but hey there are more than a few of those in the UCP, so he might fit right in.

    As the Federal Liberals repeatedly defeat their (un-united?) Federal Conservative colleagues, Trudeau derangement syndrome seems to have set in and spread amongst the UCP. One struggles to figure out exactly what the Prime Minister has done to them that is so bad, it probably was defeating them repeatedly, but in any event the feeling has become more visceral over the years. So it plays well to the base for UCP politicians to say nasty things about the PM and nasty seems to come fairly easily to many UCP and Federal Conservative politicians anyways.

    If Mr. Getson were to think for a moment, he might try think of the golden rule. He is a politician and I suspect is not universally popular, even in Alberta. So how would he like it, if someone was implying he should be lynched? Exactly. The problem with such thoughtless nastiness, is it can unexpectedly bite back. As a politician he should remember he is not immune from the type of contempt he is trying to stir up.

    Speaking of nasty, if the UCP wanted someone as an innocuous interim Finance Minister, they probably should have picked some one other than Mr. Nixon. Mr. Toews for all his shortcomings, managed to mostly steer away from needless and often petty, vindictive controversy. So, just what the UCP needs now – a bull in another china shop. On a brighter note, perhaps it will give us a break from Nixon destroying our parks. However, unfortunately, his focus now may be our finances.

  3. Last night there we were protestors outside the hotel in Calgary where Mr. Trudeau was staying before signing an agreement with the Siksika Nation today. The timing of Mr. Getson’s remarks are disturbing in that light, or any time. Let’s not forget the mass murder of children at a school in Texas.

    Is this how the UCP will deal with anyone they don’t like if they get re-elected next year? This goes far beyond stupidity into the realm of dangerous. It’s yet another reason why the UCP must be removed from office.

  4. Well l, there are some precedents for this kind of stuff. In the Diefenbaker sweep federally back when, one of the honourable members (PC) of the Parliament of the day kept showing up wearing a revolver in a holster. Nonetheless times have changed, so is it not time for the RCMP to visit Mr. Getson to give him a talk.

    As to acting ministers, hasn’t Alberta already seen enough incompetent types acting, er behaving badly as ministers of the crown. Need we another one, complete with a unintentionally accurate but incorrect title.

    My congratulations again to Premier Bumbles, as he and the servants have another bozo eruption of truly AWSOME PROPORTIONS. Sorry, for some reason I am channeling the stable genius south of our border.

  5. This is what happens when you run in a sure bet riding that would vote for turnip as long as the candidate represented the right party according to the locals.

    And that is apparently what the constituents of Ste. Anne Parkland did and will most likely do again.

    Really, what clear thinking voter would vote for this clown?

    1. Brett it’s funny that you would mention that. During the BSE crisis I met a beef producer in that area and I asked him if he had been hurt by the way Klein had handled the crisis . He said he had and he was fed up with members of his own family and friends. He stated it doesn’t matter what Klein does to us these fools continue to support him. I’ve got fence posts that are smarter than them.

  6. You do nothing with Shane Getson. Nothing at all.

    He’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer and conceivably he may be a few logs shy of a full pile, but that’s why he is going to win reelection by an even greater margin than the last time. He’s also Uber-violent in his speech and thoughts, if not in his actions. He’s always throwing insults around and making threats to whomever, in particular PMJT. But that’s where he scores his biggest points: he’s a big mouth who isn’t afraid to speak his mind; he thinks outside the box, and his constituents love that. He has rough hands, a gruff voice, and swarthy manners. He’s one of the people, who tamed the land and made Alberta great. You know…morons.

  7. I believe the line

    “Either that, or he really as out if it as he says he is.”

    should say

    “Either that, or he really is as out of it as he says he is.”

    1. ST: You are correct. And I have corrected that passage. Thank you. DJC

  8. The best and the brightest certainly aren’t in the UCP. What else can you expect with these pretend conservatives and Reformers?

  9. A random observation: Kevin Costner, who plays John Dutton in the TV show, Yellowstone, and who instructs his henchmen to take a troublemaker to the Train Station (a grim location where the Dutton’s dispose of the bodies of their enemies) is the Parade Marshall for the 2022 Calgary Stampede. I get that Yellowstone is modern-day, gritty Western that evokes a bygone, but imaginary era of frontier justice and the wild west. Still, it is a kind of retrograde nostalgia based on some sort of fantasy, just like the fantasy the Calgary Stampede tries to evoke. Costner also plays the central character in Dances with Wolves, so I guess he has some kind of modern-day cowboy cred. He should not just be remembered for the 1995 film, Waterworld.

    The animal rights activists are already lobbying him to speak out against the cruelty to animals that occurs every year at the Stampede. Personally, I would like to see him also speak out against political violence of the kind the odious and moronic Shane Getson promulgated with his Yellowstone meme and remind people that Yellowstone is a TV show and should not be confused with reality.

    1. The interesting thing to note about Kevin Costner is that while the CONs may love him, because the perceived conservatism about him, he’s pretty liberal. Or, as has been noted about “California Republicans” they are pretty blue once they are dropped into a place like Texas.

      Costner did publicly support that commie Ronald Reagan, but has since been supportive of Democrats, among them Barak Obama and publicly endorsed Pete Buttigieg’s campaign for the Dem’s presidential nomination. Costner did step back from his entertainment career for a time and dedicated himself to a host of liberal causes, like environmental protection and clean up, including support for reducing carbon emissions. He’s never been a gun rights advocate of the crazy NRA type. It’s like when Foxnews psycho and loofa boy Bill O’Reilly invited Bruce Willis on his show to be the voice of “conservative Hollywood” only to be corrected by Willis, who declared his support for some conservative causes but many liberal causes. It was a short interview.

  10. The biggest challenge to the UCP election may actually be attracting star candidates.

    Really, when you look at the cast of UCP MLA’s, those sitting with the Government and those who are not, what star candidate would want to associate himself or herself with the likes of Getson and the other numerous other U CP wing nuts. It would be somewhat demeaning and may involve taking a shower after every caucus meeting.

  11. Great article David ahh yes, I remember the comments “Cheezie” guy made two years ago and saw the video someone posted and he meant every word he said A very dangerous “ fire cracker” who lives in another reality

  12. Trudeau LOST the popular vote in an election with 62% turnout. MOST Canadians REJECTED this failure as our leader, and his corrupt party, and their vile enablers (NDP, this blog) should be expelled from our once great country. We WILL make Canada great again (yup, I went there)! Ford is only the beginning. Keep pushing your evil agenda by making Canadians poorer, emptying our prisons into the streets, and cancelling opinions that make you sad, and see how quickly Conservatives take FULL CONTROL of Canada. We’ll be shutting down your bank accounts too, by the way.

    1. Too bad your truck is still impounded in Ottawa.
      Next time research your issues before you waste money on frivolous exercises.

    2. News flash, binary/non-binary/Mr/Ms Troll: Ford is many things, including a former thuggish drug pusher, but he is not a conservative, or at least not the conservative you think he is. He knew, for example, that he needed to listen to actual experts for Covid-mitigation policy, rather than the right-wing in his caucus and would fire anyone who disagreed with him. Further, like Ralph Klein, he knows how to apologize. And, he was most definitely not on the side of the freedumb clownvoy, although he did do some buck passing on this issue. Finally, in case you have not noticed, he also spends a lot of time cozying up to PMJT.

      I wouldn’t vote for Ford, but he is not the same kind of conservative that Polio Polievre is. I hope that the next CPC is more like Doug Ford, that is, someone who tries to be genuinely more popular with people and whose electoral promises, such as buck a beer, are relatively inane and harmless, unlike the crypto bro swindle that PP is trying to foist on his gullible supporters (the dumb money that fuels the crypto pyramid scheme).

      But, don’t take my word for it, listen to the excellent West of Centre podcast that dropped on June 3 for an excellent analysis of Ford and the reasons he won the election.

  13. Shane Getson – A flibbertijibbet! A will-o’-the wisp! A clown! He’d outpester any pest, drive a hornet from its nest. He could throw a whirling dervish out of whirl.

  14. So far I don’t see any comments on the outrage of naming Nixon as “acting Finance minister”. Yet another job offered to this thug, who ironically shares many of the same boorish behaviours as Getson.

    I literally feel ill at the thought of this pair being re-elected.

  15. Th y have a favourite sayings among them …..we own the Police (while playing them like fools and more)
    “We own the courts”always a reminder no one goes anywhere unless you have a pass free card

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