“Unaffordable blackout regulations”?
It wasn’t exactly a surprise that Alberta’s United Conservative Party started September by issuing a wildly misleading statement calling the federal Government’s proposed 2035 net-zero electricity generation rules “unaffordable blackout regulations.”
This kind of nonsense is the UCP’s schtick, after all. They got it from the Republicans south of the Medicine Line – speaking of which, does anyone remember “death panels” when Obamacare came along? Same garbage, different issue.
Now they’re so deeply into it they’d probably embarrass Steve “Flood the Zone with Shit” Bannon, Donald Trump’s first chief strategist and senior counsel.
What’s disappointing about this is the central role of Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz is playing in the UCP’s effort to flood the media with BS to stink up the joint. As Mr. Bannon famously said, “This is not about persuasion: This is about disorientation.”
Ms. Schulz’s willingness to stoop to these kind of tactics is disappointing because, when she ran for the leadership of the UCP in 2022, she appeared to be one of the more sensible and credible candidates, someone with a little depth, a little decency, and a solid critique of the eventual winner, Danielle Smith.
She promised a calmer, more grown-up approach to government. “I hear every day that people are tired of the drama in politics,” she told Calgary Herald political columnist Don Braid in July, 2022. “I get it. The Twitter wars, the entitlement, the policies that create chaos and division. I don’t have time for that.”
Alas, she was wrong when she said Ms. Smith’s approach, which she described as “a car crash waiting to happen,” would get the NDP elected. But she was certainly right when she said Albertans deserve to “actually see some humility (from) a government that can admit when it makes mistakes.”
But I guess she didn’t really mean it when she said she didn’t have time for a government that just stirs things up for the sake of the fight – and, as Mr. Bannon advised, the disorientation that intentionally creates.
Ms. Schulz promised “compassion and common sense in addition to conservative values.” But that was then. Now she is in the thick of it, delivering division, fake crisis, and transparent balderdash that treats Albertans as if we’re all dopes.
Well, I suppose under the circumstances, the UCP is entitled to have reached that conclusion.
Still, it’s disappointing to hear Ms. Schulz of all people telling us not strictly accurately that “Ottawa’s unaffordable blackout regulations will increase costs and hurt grid reliability for businesses and families, all for targets that aren’t feasible or realistic.”
“In numerous spots, it’s clear that there is room to negotiate specific issues within the proposed regulatory standards,” observed University of Calgary environmental law professor Martin Z. Olszynski, a frequent critic of the government’s environmental policies and claims about the constitution. “But at the same time the province wants to portray this as an all or nothing proposition.
“‘Unaffordable black-out regulations’ is the 2023 version of the ‘No Pipelines Act,’” he said. “A pretty transparent messaging trick that assumes Canadians and Albertans are stupid.”
Still, even when times are grim and disappointment fills the air, the UCP gives us a chuckle now and then.
“To date, the federal government has provided inconsistent and often misleading information about these flawed regulations,” Ms. Schulz huffed, presumably an effort to cast doubt on the feasibility of the goal of the regulations in line with the Alberta government’s policy of always moving the goalposts farther away to ensure we never actually adopt renewable or carbon neutral solutions.
But to say that unironically days after Premier Smith’s stream of excuses and tall tales about her seven-month moratorium on approvals of new renewable-energy electricity projects requires real chutzpah.
Indeed, just yesterday, the Globe and Mail reported that the Rural Municipalities of Alberta, contrary to Ms. Smith’s story, never passed a motion calling for the freeze.
Well it’s Saturday morning, when CORUS Entertainment’s Your Province Your Premier will soon be on the air, so Ms. Smith will probably have a new explanation for us by then.
Like I said, not surprising. But still disappointing.
Ugly Pride flag comparison resurfaces in Red Deer
A Red Deer Catholic school trustee named Monique LaGrange has aroused a fierce controversy by publishing an image of children waving Pride flags under another photo of German children in the 1930s waving swastika flags, with the caption “Brainwashing is brainwashing,” the Red Deer Advocate reported yesterday.
The story of Ms. LaGrange’s offensive Instagram post, which has been deleted from the social media platform, is on the front page of today’s print edition of the Advocate.
The school board issued a statement saying that the board member does not speak on behalf of the board, although she speaks for at least 14.29 per cent of the seven-member board if you want to get technical about it.
The Advocate did not explain what Ms. LaGrange’s relationship, if any, is to Alberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange, a former member of the same board. Perhaps that’s one of those things everybody in Red Deer knows anyway. For the moment, we’ll just have to list it as a coincidence.
Meanwhile, though, it’s interesting to note that this execrable comparison may have been introduced into Alberta by John Carpay, best known nowadays as the lawyer who hired a private eye to tail the chief justice of the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench. (On Aug. 21, Mr. Carpay and another lawyer for the so-called Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom were fined $5,000 each and barred from ever again practicing law in the province by the Law Society of Manitoba.)
In November 2018, Mr. Carpay was in the news for making a similar statement to the one posted by Ms. LaGrange.
Speaking at a news conference organized by a right-wing video blogging site, he said, “How do we defeat today’s totalitarianism? You’ve got to think about the common characteristics. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a hammer and sickle for communism, or whether it’s the swastika for Nazi Germany, or whether it’s a rainbow flag, the underlying thing is a hostility to individual freedoms.”
Reminder: The author of AlbertaPolitics.ca will be taking most of the rest of September off from blogging. For Alberta news coverage, you can’t go wrong subscribing to The Tyee’s excellent Alberta Edge free newsletter, which regularly features news coverage by the likes of Charles Rusnell, Andrew Nikiforuk, and Yours Truly. You can sign up here.
I am not happy! Please pass that sentiment on to our franken government!
We all know that’s you, Pogo. DJC
We all seem to know you. When your holiday has had it’s desired affect? can we expect both barrels blazing?
OgOp: If it has its desired effect, yes. DJC
In summary, Rebecca Shultz showed us exactly who she is. She’s one of Danielle Smith’s foot soldiers. How many LaGranges can Red Deer hold? Reddit says quite a few. And don’t forget to attend the Pride parade in Calgary on Sunday.
Schulz, that poor excuse for a woman, is going to do as she is told. She is just smart enough to realize that this is the best job that she is ever going to have and as an aside, it does not take much to disorient the louts and chawbacons that vote UCP.
It looks like Danielle Smith has inherited Jason Kenney’s gift for turning everything she touches to ordure. Mind you, with most UCP MLAs, the work is already done for her, but one would have expected Schultz to do better. Now she’ll have to live with the shame and the stench.
With the money and perks that Schulz is becoming very accustomed to, she will sleep quite comfortably on her high thread count Egyptian cotton sheets.
Unaffordable electricity? The federal government isn’t to blame for that in any way. Neither is Rachel Notley and the NDP. The UCP still points fingers at others for the big mess that is of the Conservatives own creation. So do the supporters of the Conservatives in Alberta. Ralph Klein was very stupid for deregulating electricity in the first place. Costs for power soared, after he did this. We used to have the lowest prices for power in Canada, and even North America, but that changed. To add insult to injury, the UCP were involved with a slimy and underhanded move, that is called economic witholding. Prices of power have gone up even further. Who is this a benefit to? Certainly not the people who pay these sky high rates for power. I’ve heard that there were MLAs that were in Peter Lougheed’s government, who said that electricity deregulation was a very stupid thing to do. Power engineers have also said this. Phony Conservatives and Reformers don’t listen to sound logic, and that doesn’t get us anywhere.
These fascists are defending their MAGA freedoms, not public freedom. If they were the least bit concerned about public freedoms, they would be up-in-arms about the UCP moratorium on renewable energy.
The fascist UCP is doing what it has always done, control the narrative. Spewing misinformation and disinformation to their gullible base is nothing more than war on the rest of society. The fascist party of Italy and the NAZI’s did this in the 1930’s. The corporate press, owned by the corporate class, is just as much to blame for this.
The idea of ‘nonsense upon stilts’ and ‘fashionable nonsense’ is certainly not new and that is the same for the disinformation, misinformation, perfidy and intellectual decadence that are flourishing in an age that produces very large quantities of high quality, reliable information that are freely available. Or perhaps it is simply a case where:
“So long as authority inspires awe, confusion and absurdity enhance conservative tendencies in society. Firstly, because clear and logical thinking leads to a cumulation of knowledge (of which the progress of the natural sciences provides the best example) and the advance of knowledge sooner or later undermines the traditional order. Confused thinking, on the other hand, leads nowhere in particular and can be indulged indefinitely without producing any impact upon the world.”
Further, the Bannon method of ‘flooding the zone’ is not dissimilar from the ‘Gish gallop’:
“The Gish gallop is a rhetorical technique that involves overwhelming your opponent with as many arguments as possible, with no regard for the accuracy, validity, or relevance of those arguments. For example, a person using the Gish gallop might attempt to support their stance by bringing up, in rapid succession, a large number of vague claims, anecdotal statements, misinterpreted facts, and irrelevant comments.”
Those who have an interest in refuting the nonsense find out very quickly that it is both time consuming and very tiring.
Additional observations suggest that:
“. . . once a person uses a nonsense-argument, they are unlikely to be ever convinced that their position is wrong. In principle, you may try to point to the nonsenseness of their argument, and hope that they will do the right thing . . . In practice, however, it is more likely that they will either pick another nonsense-argument or change the subject, and the only effect you will have is irritating them. . . . If you avoid pointing out the nonsense-argument, or you do and the person you discuss with picks up a new nonsense-argument or changes the subject, then the discussion becomes useless. You are not going to learn anything useful from the other person, because their position is probably wrong, and they are not going to learn anything from you, because they are going to defend their position. . . . As a result, most people cannot be convinced that somebody that talks nonsense is holding a wrong position, unless they already figured it out themselves.”
The psychological traps and impediments to clear thinking appear to be hardwired; where,
“Admitting mistakes can be very difficult for our ego and self-image, say psychologists.”
“Cognitive dissonance is what we feel when the self-concept — I’m smart, I’m kind, I’m convinced this belief is true — is threatened by evidence that we did something that wasn’t smart, that we did something that hurt another person, that the belief isn’t true.””
https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/why-admit-when-you-wrong/
It looks like Monique LaGrange has ambitions to run for political office with Instagram posts like that. Her constituency nomination will be a virtual certainty with that post. She could easily parlay that post into a Ministerial position.
Excellent post David. This is so disappointing, and, yes, right out of the Steve Bannon playbook. And comparing the rainbow flag to oppressive regimes! Orwell himself couldn’t do better. These clowns are in the same league as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz and the rest of the swindlers and vagabonds who’ve taken over conservatism, or maybe it’s who they were all along. Anyway, thanks for keeping us informed and have a well earned rest!
Just the other day, the US Dept. of Energy announced $15.5 billion US will be allocated to re-tooling auto plants to make electric cars. This money will include re-hiring and re-training auto workers. They are calling it a “just transition.”
So, perhaps fräulein Schultz and Premier Dani can explain why when our major trading partner is encouraging a just transition and adjusting to the inevitable technological evolution taking place, they are picking a fight with our Federal Government and banning renewable energy projects here.
Do the UCP actually believe the nonsense they are spouting, or are they not allowed to do so by their patrons in the obsolete end of the fossil fuel sector? Which is worse?
With friends like the UCP, the fossil fools really do not need any other enemies.
https://www.energy.gov/articles/biden-harris-administration-announces-155-billion-support-strong-and-just-transition
The Alberta UCP government provides much more than chuckles folks. Outright non-stop guffaw is more likely.
Speaking of brainwashing…how would Ms. LaGrange feel about her comment being quoted under an old photo of the Ku Klux Klan burning crosses in their infamous white hood–with a MAGA hat below that?
Hey guys, it’s all part of the Free Alberta Strategy–you know, the unstated part they only talk about in private.
First, find a useful idiot to front for them. Danielle Smith? Check! Next, scare enough yahoos, rednecks, mouth-breathers and other braying jackasses to win an election. Check! (Bonus point: crow in public about your overwhelming mandate while saying, very much in private, “Boy, that was close!” Check.) Third, pound on every hot-button topic to keep the Base riled up. So-called Sovereignty Act: check. Fed-bashing: check. Climate crisis: check. AHS: check. Wind and solar power: check. Trans and LGBT+: uh…not so much. (“Maaaaaybe put this one on the back burner till we can have a talk with Daneille.”) Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat….
So here’s the REAL plan to Free Alberta. It’s simple: act like spoiled brats and complete MAGA idiots till the rest of Canada says, “Oh for GOD’S SAKE! Just shut up and LEAVE!”
I suppose this is the eternal dilemma for conservative politicians, especially for somewhat more moderate ones like Schulz. Stick to your principles like Aheer or Schweitzer or Toews and keep your distance from the wacky extreme Smith gang or let the hope and promise of power lure you in, but ultimately sully and tarnish you.
I suppose for Schweitzer it was easier as he knew his constituents would probably not go for this. Aheer had made the decision to stand up before Smith arrived on the scene and Toews was to the point where he could just comfortably go or retire.
I can’t see much of a political future for the few supposed moderate conservative that stick with and defend Smith. So I guess they should enjoy power while it lasts.
I wonder if you could list as just coincidence John Crapay’s rumoured affection for ZZ Top.
“Rumour spreadin’ ’round
In that [North] Texas town
About that shack outside La Grange…
…the got a lot of nice girls…
But I just might be mistaken
Hmm, Hmm, Hmm.”
At least it’s better ‘n’ listening to Crapay singing his own paean of “individual rights” while besmirching those of whom he personally disapproves. Hmm, Hmm, Hmm…
La Grange is a city in Fayette County, Texas, United States, near the Colorado River. La Grange is in the centre of the Texas-German belt. The population was 4,391 at the 2020 census, and in 2018 the estimated population was 4,632. La Grange is the county seat of Fayette County. — Wikipedia
Someone on twitter said the husbands of Adriana and Monique are second cousins and there are many LaGranges in the area. So they probably know each other but it’s unclear if they are close or distant.
I find it amazing as someone who has travelled Europe how out of touch these idiots are. While Europe prepares for the electric car era this fools put Albertans in a horrible mess. What are we going to do when you don’t have nearly enough electricity to keep up thanks to these fools. Perhaps they want us to go back to the horse and buggy days.
Is she the Environment Minister only for that space under the rock where she resides? Because she sure isn’t doing Canada’s environment any good, nor Alberta’s specifically.
As more than several relatives and several friends who live in Ontario have said to us….those Alberta funded ads just confirm to us what we already know. Danielle Smith is a fruitcake.
The adverts have become a source of laughter and derision. Unfortunately painting all Albertans with the same brush. Nut cases!