Silly me. I simply assumed that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith didn’t pick Jason Stephan as her justice minister because he showed signs of being too much of a wingnut.
Turns out that probably wasn’t it. He may have been one of the few lawyers in her United Conservative Party Caucus, but he just wasn’t available when Ms. Smith needed him to start!
Leastways, in another entry for the rapidly thickening This-Could-Only-Happen-in-Alberta File, the MLA for Red Deer-South didn’t bother to show up yesterday to be sworn in with most other MLAs for his second term.
No matter, though, after Tuesday’s brief sitting, the House won’t assemble again until the day before Halloween anyway, so there really isn’t much for MLAs not in Ms. Smith’s huge cabinet to do. I mean, how many constituent barbecues can a representative’s arteries stand?
Local media tried to contact the missing MLA to find out what was going on without success. But eventually someone in the United Conservative Party Caucus thought to put out a statement explaining that Mr. Stephan wasn’t available to be sworn in because he is taking “a previously planned trip out-of-province with family.”
Tim Gerwing, the UCP Caucus communications director, “did not specify the exact nature of the trip,” Red Deer News Now solemnly reported.
“He will be sworn in before the Legislature sits again in the fall,” Mr. Gerwing assured the Red Deer Advocate. “Being sworn in allows an MLA to take his or her seat in the chamber. MLA Stephan will not miss any of his legislative duties because of this trip.”
The timing is interesting, though, since it’s been known since early November 2021 that the next provincial election was scheduled to take place on May 29 this year.
Perhaps Mr. Stephan really thought the NDP was going to beat him on May 29. It was always a longshot, but Red Deer-South was rumoured to be one of the few ridings outside Calgary and Edmonton where the Opposition party imagined it might have a chance.
More likely, though, Mr. Stephan just views the constituents who metronomically vote for him with genial contempt and sees no reason to hang around to represent them when he has better stuff to do just because they re-elected him.
Mr. Stephan was also left off the Legislative Assembly’s official seating chart, but presumably someone will be able to scare up a desk for him by Halloween.
The NDP, naturally, put out a statement about Mr. Stephan’s mysterious pre-planned absence. “The fact that Jason Stephan chose to be travelling outside the province rather than fulfilling his duties to the people of Red Deer is extremely disrespectful, not just to his constituents but all Albertans,” NDP House Leader Christina Gray complained.
“Jason Stephan is not a rookie,” she also said. “He knows the process for swearing-in. Choosing to leave your constituents without representation is a shameful display of contempt for the Albertans who voted for him. The people of Red Deer deserve better.”
Well, fair enough, I guess. Nevertheless, I hope readers will forgive me if I say that I’m inclined to think his constituents got exactly what they deserve. One could even make the argument they will be better served by Mr. Stephan in his absence. So, no harm, no foul!
With Mr. Stephan out of the province, someone else from the UCP Caucus will have to complain about how the NDP Government from 2015 to 2019 was, despite behaving remarkably like some of the Progressive Conservative governments that preceded it, “a socialist occupation.”
As blogger Dave Cournoyer pointed out at the time in 2020, there are several UCP MLAs now in Ms. Smith’s cabinet with the necessary red-baiting credentials to carry on Mr. Stephan’s calling in his absence.
He was also known as a relentless critic of COVID-19 mitigation measures and is said to be a strong supporter of Ms. Smith’s unconstitutional Sovereignty Something-Something Act.
This is not Mr. Stephan’s first travel controversy. He was booted off Treasury Board in January 2021 during the Kenney Government’s first mid-pandemic travel scandal, one of several MLAs and staff members demoted for travelling when the rest of us were supposed to be hunkered down at home doing our civic duty to avoid the virus.
“By travelling abroad over the holidays, these individuals demonstrated extremely poor judgment,” then premier Jason Kenney said at the time. “Albertans have every right to expect that people in positions of public trust be held to a higher standard of conduct during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Well, those days are certainly over in Alberta!
Mr. Stephan declined to apologize for his 2021 Arizona holiday. “There is already too much contention in our society and I regret if my actions have contributed to that,” he said. “I look forward to moving past this experience.”
“I support individuals and families having the freedom to choose for themselves whether they travel or not, provided they are respectful of others in doing so,” he also said. “International travel, in and of itself, does not negatively impact Alberta’s COVID curve if it is done responsibly.”
The memory of Mr. Kenney’s criticism, though, may have accounted for the absentee MLA’s apparent animus for the former premier in the last months of his tenure.
Mr. Stephan sure likes travelling! Maybe he should consider a career as a travel agent, rather than an MLA.
I do wonder whether that family trip was scheduled, or known about by the UCP, before cabinet positions were decided. If so, it might have been a factor. Even in the UCP there is some expectation of judgement in making and scrutiny of travel plans, well at least after Kenney’s COVID Christmas travelling MLAs and Ministers debacle.
In any event, for now his constituents get neither a Minister or a MLA. Perhaps his absence will be noticed, but then again perhaps not.
Okay, questions ..about this previously planned “family ” vacation.
Does family involve children?did he take them out of school early? If no children, does that mean just him and his wife/partner…..no profile, that I could find.
Observation: imho… if Dani’s newly appointed ‘Justice ‘ minister, does not feel it’s important to be sworn for his new job, because of family vacation priorities, it does not portend well for the future of decisions made in his office.
But not all is lost, on the federal level Albertans are being well represented by MP Matt Jeneroux,who said he is putting through a petition to make Taylor Swift come to Canada on her world tour, because we’re losing out on so much revenue etc. etc……priorities people !!!
Randi-lee: Mr. Stephan is not the justice minister. Mickey Amery is. He was considered a candidate because he’s one of the few who is a lawyer. I will review my prose to ensure this is clear. DJC
DJC- my bad, about which minister was involved with the ‘traveling’ controversy, though ironically I wasn’t wrong about the justice minister— T.Lukaszuk/the Breakdown: the new justice minister— is claiming the ethics commissioner Sabir “lied “….Missed that in the report. ——
On top of that, got home just in time to see Garnet Genius, 2nd motion to end the session today, because the questions are just becoming dumb and dumber?? ( I think that’s what he said)….. either way, it’s a break for PP , not having someone in the HoC, calling him out, as they did on social media, for not having the dignity to bow his head, for either the 2 RCAF personnel, or the Indigenous peoples, after the new flag was raised in front of parliament.
No words, at least that are printable.
And then there’s the whole fake news stories from NP ,picked up and tweeted out by Mark Strahl ( of Brianna fame) along with a few more Con’s, then correction by NP – oops— but that didn’t stop the Con’s; along with other fake accounts targeting PMJT….
IMHO….if the CPC, doesn’t pull another coup with their leader, they should. Never mind that he is an embarrassment to the party, he’s an embarrassment to Canada. But it seems to be the “in” thing with politicians these days. They seem to feel that they are above being held accountable or responsible for their actions.
My sister’s and I are considering our options on getting a petition going for — MP’s –not having so called “parliamentary privilege ” to spout misinformation in the HoC. This absolutely drives me bonkers, call it what it it-the are lying, they are deliberately lying, and they are doing it not because it has anything to do with the issue at hand, but because they want to score points with any of the base that happens to be watching. This is a total disservice to the people they are supposed to represent and it shows a complete lack of disrespect for their positions. The speaker of the house, has got to start enforcing the protocols. I personally find it a total embarrassment to watch, I guess I should be thankful for the summer break, time to cool down, somewhat.
On a slightly different topic, I’m taking this from T Lukaszuk’s account…..just because it made me laugh, 2 thumbs up Thomas…lol
Q. how many months a year
vacation time do MLA’s get?
A. Looks like UCP MLA’S have a great collective agreement….
And so the dog days of summer begin …..woop, woop!
A previously planned trip? This feels like a case of deja vu on recalling the December 2020 trip to Arizona which he naively attempted to rationalize by indicating the tickets were bought the previous October. A wingnut no doubt; well he is TBA connected. Not being one of the sharpest knives in the drawer may help partly understand the exclusion from a humongous provincial cabinet. Perusal of his Facebook displays obvious poverty of words, prediction of miracles, and frequent inclusions of ‘freedom and prosperity’ without any specifics on thoughts he may posses of actions necessary to attain and maintain either. I recommend the posted videos of his scripted Legislature speeches as a splendid remedy for insomnia.
As one of the 10,000 or so of Mr Stephan’s ill-served constituents who in fact voted for a conscientious and compassionate NDP candidate, Michelle Baer, in the May election; I take exception to the comments that we “deserve” Mr Stephan’s (lack of) representation. Literally hundreds of folks volunteered to try and have a more responsible and responsive candidate represent our electoral district.
T’was not to be this time but we shall persevere.
A strange excuse, indeed. As a gov’t caucus member on a corresponding salary you’d think his travel options would be extensive. It’s not like he needs to slum it and wait for last minute deals on Sunwing like the rest of us peons (oh sorry, I guess it’s West Jet now). And I agree wholeheartedly with you DJC, the constituents of Red Deer got EXACTLY what they deserve. I don’t have a sliver of sympathy for them and their poor choices.
The folks who voted for his representation got what they deserved. Y’all really have no idea what it’s like being a left leaning person in rural alberta do you
To our host and innkeeper; You are a fine and gentle human. My hat’s off to you!
Yep, he’s a real great UCP member. So into his ‘job’ that he didn’t even show up to be sworn in. Most people would be fired for not showing up for the 1st day of employment. Just think – the only MLA missing. My MLA, no less. Foolish and arrogant. Not the 1st time that he’s been missing in action for his own enjoyment – remember his trip to Mexico during the pandemic ??? So glad that I bought a UPC membership to help push him out the door permanently. We deserve a committed MLA, and he’s not it.
A lot of our contemporary government system-wide dysfunction for serving the public good, stems from the reality that the concept of ‘civic duty’ if probably lost on the majority of citizens. EXCERPT: ‘… rest of us were supposed to be hunkered down at home doing our civic duty to avoid the virus.’
==========
Citizen apathy, and justified cynicism, is very difficult to address.
The UCP prove they don’t care. What else is new?
Just one question: Because he was not sworn in, is he on the payroll?
Mary-Louise: I will check to confirm my answer, but I would assume yes. Otherwise he would have been there with bells on, wouldn’t he? DJC
Oops, almost forgot with all the other noise going on, the whole Dr Deena Hinshaw fiasco– fired ,rehired, fired*
and now indigenous Dr has resigned because of this.
Job offer redrawn???
It just never stops with the covidiots…..
Randi-lee: I’ll get to that soon enough. I’m trying to restrict myself to one post a day with the occasional day off. DJC
Wow, it’s really hard to keep up, given that parliament isn’t in session…..Dani tweets how everyone elected is all RIP roaring and ready to go to work for their constituents….wait ..what ??Seriously?? that really is some serious ‘c- h- n-es’ ,imo.
Especially coming right before a , guess what , another apology. From something from 10 yrs ago according to her followers, yada, yada, good on you, bot appreciation day in overdrive. Speculation is can you say ‘Law suit’ ,if nothing else, people are doing alot of refresh searching.
Time for bed,and see what shows up in the weekend comics tomorrow. Why do I get the impression, that will not be all of it, not by a longshot.