On December 30, Edmonton Sun commentator Rick Bell published a column suggesting Premier Danielle Smith plans a purge of Alberta Health Services that will reach deep into the middle ranks of the province-wide public health care agency’s management.
“Layers and layers and layers of middle managers have been the problem,” Ms. Smith was quoted saying by Mr. Bell, who has often been used by the United Conservative Party Government to signal its intentions to its base and float ideas to see how they might be received by voters more generally.
“If I’m successful by the time we go into the next election, everyone will have a family practitioner, whether it’s a doctor or a nurse practitioner,” claimed Ms. Smith, who promised to fix the health care system within 90 days 460 days ago.
According to Mr. Bell, Ms. Smith and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange are about to embark on a tour of Alberta’s hospitals where they will decide willy-nilly which managers to fire. Since it will be impossible to meaningfully measure competence in such a time frame, the simplest explanation is that they plan to fire managers who show signs of resisting their ideologically motivated policies.
“Yes, fire managers,” Mr. Bell cheered enthusiastically. “Lower the boom, hand out pink slips, give them the boot, show them the door.”
Yesterday, meanwhile, Jeremy Appel at the Progress Report reported on a leaked audio recording of Take Back Alberta founder David Parker bragging during an online pep talk on “conservatizing municipal councils and school boards” how he plans to purge the education system of administrators and other workers who support basic rights for LBGTQ students and employees.
Take Back Alberta, commonly referred to as TBA, is the far-right faction that now dominates the Board of the United Conservative Party, and which credits itself with having removed former premier Jason Kenney and replaced him with Ms. Smith.
With talk of “the tyranny of the rainbow guard,” presumably a sophomoric reference to the Red Guards of Mao Zedong’s China, and the preposterous claim this is a “new form of communism, it’s called queer theory,” Mr. Parker often sounds unhinged. Given his influence over Premier Smith, however, just like Mr. Bell he needs to be taken seriously.
In Mr. Parker’s vision of a far-right takeover of Alberta’s school boards – presumably by home schoolers who don’t have their children in public or Catholic schools – “school boards hire and fire superintendents, superintendents hire and fire principals, principals hire and fire administration, teachers and teachers’ assistants at schools, so if we can begin firing the people that are pushing this ideology and hiring the people who aren’t, we will have a huge impact on our children’s education.”
In other words, he wants a purge too.
So what’s with all this purge talk by the UCP, and in how many other areas of government is the party eyeing the same thing?
Presumably we are now at the point with the UCP that most Albertans, whether or not they support the government, understand there is no certainty this is just talk. Indeed, this may represent a real plan to eliminate the Canadian tradition of a neutral civil service and replace it with a partisan structure that will do the party’s will without argument or regard for the rule of law.
It seems quite likely, given the circles in which they run, that the UCP has been inspired by former U.S. president Donald Trump’s vow that if he returns to office he will quickly purge thousands of federal public employees and thoroughly politicize the U.S. public service.
Mr. Parker’s remark, quoted by Mr. Appel, that most school board officials would fall into line with his nouveau régime echoes the belief of Mr. Trump’s political strategists in far-right think tanks that the same thing would happen with most of the 50,000 civil servants on their purge list.
Whether or not this happens – in Alberta or the United States – depends ultimately on the behaviour of voters and the willingness of engaged citizens to push back.
We would be well advised to take such talk ideological purges seriously.
In the event public sector purges go ahead in Alberta – even on a modest scale – one unintended consequence is bound to be a large number of expensive lawsuits by wrongfully dismissed managers for which taxpayers will have to foot the bill, followed by big-dollar payouts and non-disclosure agreements.
At this point, I would suggest this is almost a certainty at Alberta Health Services. And if purge mania spreads, so will the costs.
The determination to break everything is more than clear now. The UCP/TBA intend to smear everything with their ideological bent with never ending witch hunts to the heretics. Make no mistake about, they are religious zealots of the worst kind. I recall, from my RPC days, more than a few people spoke of Manning leading a “crusade” that would assure the “salvation” of Canada. They would use language like “reform” and “cleanse” the body politic and the nation. Sounds like purge by another name.
David Parker uses the word crusades and purges all the time, and he has formed some interesting and unlikely alliances, among them some of the more extremist elements of various religious communities. Since they all recognize PMJT as their common enemy, why not join together and smash him and his supporter once and for all? And then, of course, they will all turn on each other go back to their usual animosity.
This is all about craving up the spoils. The Christians can have the rural areas, while everyone else can run the cities; only the more extreme elements need to apply.
This is the beginning of the formal Balkanization of Canada.
Stalin would be envious.
Should we here in Ontario be ready to receive refugees?
JRK: The Government in Exile will be based in Qualicum, more likely. DJC
That would be a very good location, however, Nanaimo is lovely as is the Comox valley, especially if you like to ski. We have a hospital in Nanaimo, which is expanding and getting a cancer centre. You’ll love it on Vancouver Island. All that ocean for sailing. don’t have to shovel snow, except for a few days a year. Year round golf……
DJC– Qualicum is already home to the exiled Premier of NL ,Brian Peckford …I’m guessing because it’s alot easier growing pickles there than back on the rock; and if Skippy has his way with John Rustad and co. taking over Mad Max’s crowd, island life is going to become “interesting ” to say the least.
Especially with PP’s endorsement of his “video” buddy for the North Island :Aaron Gunn ….
My sister and I have a wish, that any candidate who runs for office, should have a 5 yr min residency requirement before they could run, at any level, from Municipal to Federal. Might help keep the parichutists out.
Randi-lee: Alas, that would require Constitutional change, unlikely at the best of times, all the more so because the present system works for all political parties. DJC
I cannot say if there will be refugees from Alberta, as everyone living in Alberta is from somewhere else. Are there people who are from Alberta? I’m sure there are, but few will admit it. Even Skippy Pollivere, who is from Alberta, but born in Saskatchewan, currently the MP for a riding in the Ottawa area, keeps it quiet in his own riding as to his origins. I’m sure he wants to maintain the impression that he is French-Canadian, maybe from Ontario.
I’m not from somewhere else. Born in Alberta 60 years ago, lived all those 60 years in Alberta. Lost my job due to restructuring, the catch phrase of employers to dispose of women of a certain age, usually 50 and up. Not entitled to EI. Went to Alberta Supports for assistance, I’m not sure who Alberta Supports is supporting but I can promise you it’s not Albertans. I’ve on the verge of being homeless, can’t afford my rent I’m told to move to more affordable housing. Is the Alberta Government really that out of touch with reality. Then I was told they wouldn’t help unless I had a job. I’ve been searching for a job since November 2023, long before I reached out to Alberta Supports. I found a part-time, minimum wage job and the Alberta Government congratulated me and decided since I was working I didn’t need their assistance. This whole thing is so screwed up its not funny.
It’s not going to be a surprise if Danielle Smith and the UCP make more cuts to the public healthcare system in Alberta, because privatization is their goal. On the subject of Donald Trump, he axed the idea of Obamacare, because socialism is bad. If anyone has American relatives, or has lived in America, they will know for certain, that paying for their healthcare out of their own pockets leaves many people financially destitute. That’s something we don’t want to see here. The UCP hired Janice Mackinnon to be part of their Blue Ribbon Panel. She was a Liberal, turned NDP, turned Reformer, MLA in Saskatchewan, who closed down all the rural hospitals in that province, with Ralph Klein style cuts, which made the NDP get a massive defeat. Ralph Klein butchered the public healthcare system in Alberta, with foolish cuts, so he could try and privatize it. Hospitals were so underfunded, and badly maintained, that this put people’s lives at risk, or it killed them. So many nurses were laid off, and were forced to leave the province, or retire early. New graduates from nursing school, had an uncertain future in Alberta. Imagine having to leave Alberta, where your family and friends are, to relocate elsewhere, and you are uncomfortable with going? Imagine graduating from nursing school, with no job prospects? Ralph Klein had made these foolish cuts, which we still didn’t get over. In Alberta, people were definitely duped by the UCP, just as they were with Ralph Klein. They think they have to vote for the party, because it has the name Conservative on it, even though there isn’t any resemblance to a Conservative at all.
There are at least 3 layers of management between Danielle Smith and the AHS middle management. First there is Adriana LaGrange the Minister. Then, Dr. Lyle Oberg, AHS Executive Board Chair and then Athana Mentzelopoulos the CEO of AHS. The biggest mistake a person in charge can make is to go around the hierarchy and meddle. I’m all for holding people accountable but Smith should only be dealing with LaGrange, LaGrange with Oberg and so on down the line. By meddling at the middle management level, Smith is actually eroding accountability in the system. I think she may have the right idea in demanding accountability for results but exactly the wrong approach. She gives those between her and the targeted middle management a perfect out. “I did exactly what you wanted, Boss, it’s not my fault things didn’t work out”.
Cornell: Premier Smith reminds me of a small-newspaper-chain owner I worked for years ago who would buy a new paper, then personally interview the staff and ask them to describe their job. If they couldn’t give him a coherent answer in less than two minutes, he boasted, he’d fire them on the spot. He was an a$$hole, of course, but, still, there was some merit to his methodology. It concentrated my mind to come up with this job-description of what I did. “I talk to people and write down what they say, then I put it in the paper.” The thing was, though, he was the owner of the company, and everyone had to shout How High? when he yelled jump. Ms. Smith may think she is the Decider, but she is not. This is going to cost millions in lawsuit settlements alone. DJC
It’s no longer the UCP. It’s the Dani Party! Punch down? That’s a feature! Suck up that’s another feature! Do stupid shit? That’s our mission statement!
Well, “former U.S. president Donald Trump’s vow” is at the core of what drives our home-grown Magat’s-UCP. Be afraid, be very afraid.
One of the legion of issues with this idea of taking a machete to AHS’ org chart is that it will do nothing to make Daniellezebub’s stated goal of “everyone will have a family practitioner, whether it’s a doctor or a nurse practitioner”. Since family physicians are autonomous practitioners and small business owners, not AHS employees, is this government going to dictate to those family physicians where they can set up practices and what their hours of operation are going to be? That doesn’t seem to be on brand for a government that claims to believe in the free market …
Now there is — or was — a role for AHS in setting up or expanding Nurse Practitioner-led primary care clinics, given that NPs don’t get to bill Alberta Health the way family physicians do. I guess the new primary care “organization” will take that on …? Maybe?
This one’s for “Dinner” Bell! https://youtu.be/Dh8xl5li_WI?t=1
In 1928 The United Farmers of Alberta brought eugenics to the citizens of this province in an effort to cull the “undesirables” from society. The hard asses that supported eugenics in Alberta were also cruel. For years conservatives have tried to paint themselves as a political party for all, but in reality current iterations embolden thugs and the very wealthy – a group of people who are hellbent on utter global destruction. Still, they dupe citizens into thinking that they are kind hearted when in fact they are the opposite of kind, they are unhinged ideologues who weaponize everything they can for power. The same mentality that criminally pits citizens against each other: using illogical but ideological funding cuts, for example, leaving people unemployed, disadvantaged and fearful, a classic conservative tactic to keep the population sullen, unconnected, and distrusting of others is alive and well in Alberta. Currently, the UCP is on a quest to cull public services from Alberta. Ironically, many public sector workers vote UCP. Alberta has a harsh prairie climate and many Albertans are in support of the UCP no matter what they do. Forget values of decency, embrace values of fanaticism, and the zealots are loud and proud as they work together to create their wonderful wasteland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Purge
Here we are, in 2024 Alberta. Rule by fear and paranoia. Kiss the ring! Can we look forward to someone putting their right hand inside their waistcoat?
Hello DJC,
Yes, and I think it that these law suits for wrongful dismissal likely will be successful, as you suggest. It seems to me that Danielle Smith considers that her position as premier enables her to impose her personal preferences on the entire province and she appears to be unaware that there are legal limits on her ability to do this.
It seems to me that David Parker has delusions of grandeur. His pronouncements do Not strike me as rational. I still find it surprising that there has been no criminal legal consequence of his threat to members of the AHS board.
Do you think that there will be push back from rural voters when they see their health care decimated?
Christina: Most rural voters in Alberta don’t care. They have let these phony Conservatives and Reformers walk all over them for so many years, regardless of how badly they get treated by them. If they lack a family doctor, and have no proper access to one, or don’t have a hospital close enough to them, it doesn’t matter. When they have any other issues, it doesn’t matter. They will vote for someone who is a Conservative, just because it has the name Conservative, but really isn’t that at all.
On the origins of shameless obsequiousness:
“In 17th-century Europe, a toadeater was a showman’s assistant whose job was to make the boss look good. The toadeater would eat (or pretend to eat) what were supposed to be poisonous toads. The charlatan in charge would then “save” the toad-afflicted assistant by expelling the poison. It’s little wonder that such assistants became symbolic of extreme subservience, and that toadeater became a word for any obsequious underling.”
Further, What is the most common (best) environment and duration for a properly aged fruitcake?
Alkyl– re: fruitcake
1. Wrap in cheesecloth, soak lightly with Cointreau or Triple Sec for an orange accent, Brandy* or Rum ; in the fridge…supposed to be good for a few months, especially if you re-soak the cheesecloth .Does not last that long at our house. Can also be frozen.
* used to be made with the alcohol, another victim of “skimpflation”.
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. And then, on the Holiday Season other hand, as a process of disambiguation, or perhaps more appropriately a double entendre might dictate an alternate meaning such as, “nuttier than a fruitcake, crazy, eccentric.”
As in, “Has David Parker, the fruitcake extraordinaire, been “properly aged”, or is the full flower of his (wing) nuttiness still in the developmental stage?” Or, “Is Alberta the most suitable environment for the proper aging of the ‘conservative’ fruitcake?” Ect., ect.
Sorry, for being ‘lost in translation’ and discursive as it were, or was?(!)
Alkyl– as I told my b-in-law, I’m so stuffed up (cold) my thoughts sound funny. But am now totally amused, bemused, and appropriately scolded, but in my defense, it started with me buying both of my sisters fruitcake this year, for the first time.
I totally missed the “double ” entendre, so if you will allow?
” How to save a fruitcake ”
http://www.kqed.org>bayareabytes
traditionally aged in a cloth wrapping of alcohol for at least 5 weeks, but are supposed to be good for up to 100 yrs. Since neither of these seems quite appropriate to the case at hand, and my b-in-law bemoans the waste of alcohol, then the next best option that I can think of, is do what my neighbor did. Wrap it in paper, put it in a tin, and take it down to one of those Senior Bus tours going to Arizona or Nevada and ask “Mildred ” to take care of it. Nudge, wink ..
It seems to fit the bill for best environment, anyway . The properly aged/ 100 yr scenario is not something worth contemplating*, so I am returning to being lost in translation…LOL ….ta !!
* is Alberta the most suitable environment for the aging fruitcake—- ask Preston & Co.
But then I guess it depends on whether it’s concake or reformcake..
I think it’s important that everyone ask themselves what can I do to stop this. For starters, municipal and school board elections are coming up in 2025. It takes time and money to put together a campaign. Progressive candidates should start declaring soon, and get campaigns underway, exactly as Parker says he wants to do. For the rest of us, volunteering and donating need to become part of our lives. Complaining on Twitter may make me feel good about myself but it won’t stop Parker.
^this^
And investigate and vote for non-fanatical candidates no matter what Rick Bell says.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/fundamentalist-christian-movement-1.6793677
I think you are on to something regarding the proposed takeover of municipal councils and school boards by people sympathetic to the Take Back Alberta cause.
Individuals like you and I don’t have the resources to track everything that’s happening, but I hear. for example, weird and disturbing stories from my former home town in Cochrane. There seems to be an organized push to train people to run for council and school board who are aligned with TBA ideals. This is accompanied by wild accusations on Facebook and other social media against people whom this movement wants to oust.
This may be the current price of democracy, but it behooves the rest of us who have the drive and energy to find out more about these efforts and expose them where we can.
You make a great contribution through Alberta Politics, but the rest of us (and I appreciate the irony of me writing this) need to move outside the echo chamber of commentary made to your blog.
David Parker wallows in the lacunae of his TaBulA rasa, filling the gaps with neologisms. I love neologisms but presumably they need to mean something. In his case “conservatization” of elected municipal councils and school boards is meaningless in democratic rule of law—so allow me: Parker is rather exercising bullshitization.
Damnielle Smith’s Alberta is staring to look a lot like ‘93–no, not Ralph Klein’s Alberta in 1993, but France in 1793 when the popular revolution morphed into Robespierre’s “la Terreur” and tens of thousands of citizens were executed or died in prison awaiting trial on trumped-up charges otherwise known as nihilistic revenge.
Always remember The Six Phases of a Project: it never fails to locate the situation.
1. Enthusiasm
2. Disillusionment
3. Panic
4. Search for the Guilty
5. Persecution of the Innocent
6. Praise of the Non-Participants.
The not-always-so-funny part is locating the various political players in Alberta on the list—the public service, closet ProgCons in the UCP, TBA extremists in the UCP, and so forth. We might as well throw “conservtaization” in there, too.
DJC — an amusing if not ironic observation by my sister the other day in regards to the the actions of the UCP. Starting with JK and D’rumps elephant party (I just happened to watching Love Nature)– the UCP need to renamed “dung beetles”, because it’s 100% what they do. Freshly dropped pile of poo, and they swarm it, roll it up in compact balls they can handle, and start rolling it around trying to find the perfect spot to deposit it, lay the eggs for the next generation. The analogy was almost perfect imho.
Anyone who ignores D&D is going to be subject to consequences of the worst of our southern neighbors. When the ‘rich’ use the term elites to rile the base, you should KNOW that you are being Con’d, especially by people that tout religion that is not supposed to be mixed with politics. Imho, history has provided us with enough examples of the consequences, but I don’t think most Canadians have any concept of what could/will happen to their so called freedoms, if their leaders start talking about “purging “….
Yes, Beaware !!
Question about TBA’s David Parker. Is he related by any chance to the former BC cabinet minister David Parker from Terrace, BC?
Mr. P: I don’t know, but I doubt it. If I ever get the chance, I’ll ask. DJC
Dave Parker, former BC Socred Minister of Forests under Bill Vander Zalm? My, that’s a blast from the past! (Of whom it was said: “Big like tree, smart like tree!”)
And for David Parker? Your days are numbered in metaphorical single digits! You an yours smell funny! ttps://youtu.be/5HTVMh7fur4?t=2
“You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Your kingdom is divided and given to the Libs and the Dippers.”
A large portion of today’s Alberta civil service was hired during the long PC reign. Wouldn’t there have been a long sorting-out of the ideological sheep from the goats during this period? I’m not referring to the AHS, which is a relatively recent institution, but to other ministries. Anything to do with the oil and gas industry, for instance, has apparently experienced regulatory capture – I’m sure that there are other examples of this sort of thing.
I wonder just how many sacrificial lambs Smith might be able to find, if adherence to conservative tenets has been a prerequisite for advancement in the civil service for decades. Not saying that it is, I would be interested in hearing from those better-informed on these matters.
You know when they say the “cruelty” is the point? That’s not so with the UCP.
Their “anti-elitist” and 100%-rube friendly policies point to “stupidity”.
The “Rainbow Guard” probably comes from the Game of Thrones books or TV show. The King of Westeros was protected by a White Guard of seven knights dreessed in white. One of the contenders for the throne was Renley Baratheon who was gay. He created a Rainbow Guard for himself of seven knights with various coloured cloaks.
Parker and his ilk like to think they are the heros of fantasy, the Gandalfs and Aragorns, when they are really just orcs.
“The tyranny of the rainbow guard.” Talk about queer theories. I wonder if he actually meant to say ‘tranny’ because, home schooling being what it is, maybe it’s easy to think the two words mean the same thing. And really, doesn’t ‘tranny of the rainbow guard’ have more practical usage, as in “Who’s that over there?” “Oh, that’s the tranny of the rainbow guard.”
All I know is that, less than a year in I’ve had more than I can stomach of this performative gong show of a government. It’s clear that we need to effect some transformative change in order to ensure that this government is transitory and that we are able to transition towards a government with at least a semblance of sanity. Maybe we should send a transmission to Ron DeSantis asking if we could transport these clowns to Florida where they would unquestionably be helpful to him in his undying efforts to transmute Disney World into Fresh Hell On Earth World. If he agrees, then we would need to act swiftly but transparently so that everyone is informed, including trans parents because, you know, parental rights and all that.
Guy: The bus to Florida idea is excellent. It truly captures the zeitgeist. Maybe we could get them drunk of sacramental wine, put them on a bus, and keep the doors locked until it got to Tallahassee? If it worked, arguably, it would be a modern miracle of transubstantiation! DJC
The myth of NP has any research by DS been done. Has anyone in UCP typed in NP jobs in alberta How many provinces have NP jobs posted How about the states How long does it take to be a NP. If you read the job postings through Canada and USA you will get a feel of education requirements experience and salary range A NP who specializes in family has to have the basic Degree be a registered nurse. Do say 2 yrs masters plus NP program which includes practical supervised experience. Look at a few specific jobs. NL health services NP Bonavista health center Ck salary range around 50 to 60 hr Ck the financial incentives. all up to. Sign up 14 thousand Come home 60 long term care bonus 8 relocation support. Student bursary 5 Look at Texas cedar park wisemen family practice FamilyNP salary 90 thousand to 130 How about NY NY has a NP women’s health mobile medical baby bus maternal care 140 to 160 thousand How about MAID Are NP working there too. Basically there are many many places who are looking for NP Does DS think that NP are knocking the door down to come to alberta What are the incentives to come here If a NP typed in alberta health care what would come up Not many positives if any. The mountains can only attract new people for so long It is scandalous that DS is snowing albertans with the false hope of a line of NP just waiting to be there for them It would take. X yrs to become a NP. This needs to been pointed out to the public Thank you
Geri: Thanks for these helpful figures. I truly believe Ms. Smith is just running a typical scam, confident that most Albertans will really have no idea what an NP is or how many there are, she can promote a fantasy in which NPs provide care in the face of a shortage of doctors. By the time the public has figured it out, I’m sure she’s confident she can come up with another equally appealing yarn. DJC
I agree, DJC. What’s particularly amusing is this idea she’s planted of everyone magically having a family doctor again (or failing that, a friendly NP because in Schmidt’s world there’s one on every corner). Does anyone else get a sense that in the UCP’s white picket fence vision of the future your trusty family doctor will pull up to your house in his horse-drawn buggy every time little Suzy has the sniffles? Or how about the good doctor delivering your next child with a Rothman dangling from his lips? Indeed, in more ways than one they’d like to take us all from 2024 to 1954….or is it 1924?
Why does this all sound like a reverse mirror image of Mao’s Cultural revolution. Either you’re for us or against us. If you’re against us prepare to be exiled. Or perhaps rather like Social Credit taking power in Alberta in the dustbowl, when long time skilled civil servants were replaced by Social Credit lick spittles.
At times politicians say what they believe will appeal to certain audiences. When an election is coming that may be to reassure a wider group of voters. At other times it may be to play to the party base of supporters.
This is something Smith does too, but you also get the sense she really believes much of what the more extreme part of her base does. Perhaps in part this is due to spending a number of years marinating in various extreme right wing echo chambers, including talk radio.
So, I don’t doubt she will be eager to impose her solutions on health care. Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone in her party will be able or even want to stop her. No doubt they will also see any resisters as at best a nuisance or more likely as an obstacle to be destroyed. I wouldn’t be surprised if that includes removing them from their jobs or positions. It has already happened to the former chief medical officer, so I suspect it will happen to others too. I feel it is going to be a tough few years to work in health care in Alberta and probably in education too.
You can bet there will be deaths attributed to their health care cuts and lawsuits for Albertans to pay for, like we saw under her hero Ralph Klein. I knew three guys who died in the back of an ambulance waiting outside a hospital unable to get access to a bed or doctors and nurses to help them. My father the strongest conservative I ever knew who had donated around $30,000. to the Alberta Conservative Party came within 15 minutes of becoming another one. He was 80 years old and had major surgery on his spine and we were told he would be in hospital for around 21 days. They sent him home after 4 days because they were desperately needing beds and they thought he was doing well. After 4 days he went into shock and the doctor stated that he would have been dead in 15 minutes if mom hadn’t gotten him back to the hospital when she did. He spent the next two and a half months recovering in the hospital. Doctor friends told me that quadrupled what the operation should have cost taxpayers. Not a surprise. It’s no secret that the retired doctors, nurses, teachers and other medical staff along with the oilmen continue to state that these damn Reformers starting with Ralph Klein had no business destroying what Lougheed had created for the good of the people and Rachel Notley should have been given a proper chance to fix it. But ignorant Albertans would rather help them put our children and grandchildren in financial ruin for years to come.
Alan K.Spiller: I wonder how things will play out if the UCP get sued for putting people’s lives in jeopardy with their stupid brand of healthcare reform? Ralph Klein was bad enough, and now the UCP want to emulate what he did. They don’t seem to care about anyone other than their rich friends, and how they can make them richer. I remember how badly healthcare workers in Alberta were treated under Ralph Klein. It will be the same thing with Danielle Smith and the UCP. You see how people come to her defense in newspaper comment sections. Anyone that disagrees with them gets called nasty names. One person was even called a communist. Where’s the sense in this?
Yes the premier is governing outside the traditional norms, she is still striving for the same goals benefitting her benefactors. In Alberta and Canada these benefactors seem to be shielded from public scrutiny and I would like to know who they are and how they are doing it. There is an army of lobbyists here in Alberta, who have gone unreported, who are pushing for the privatization of healthcare. The PR agencies developing the strategy to make privatizing AHS acceptable, as they are doing to make APP acceptable to the public. All these require huge funds, some of it is financed by the public purse and the rest of it is dark money. As we have seen, this dark money has been rewarded with lucrative government contracts, positions of control, and policies that favour their access to wealth—the moratorium on Renewable Energy projects, as an example. The Conservative PR agencies are also convincing the public, government legislation is not creating inequality, the poor are the problem, the crony ridden free market will profit everyone, they didn’t create the housing shortage, and deflecting the reality, Alberta’s major resource has become a liability to it’s citizens. Who is running the province, I would argue it’s not the government but, dark money and it needs to be exposed.
Well, I think I have figured it out Dave. We’ve been looking at Smith’s roots in Ayn Rand, the Chicago School of Capitalism, the Thatcher-Reagan axis of privatization and related trends when really we should have turned our gaze to fiction.
1984 to be precise.
The world divided into sectors of control. Brain washed political followers. Doublespeak. Mass surveillance. Thought police.
And the central character? Winston SMITH. Coincidence? I think not. Dani has adopted Orwell’s fictional world and is hell bent on transforming Alberta into the reification of same. Ha! QED.
Lefty: I recommend Sandra Newman’s Julia for a 21st Century perspective on 1984, and an entertaining tale to boot. DJC
I keep reading comments about the need for the Left get off their butts to mobilize against the Right to counter all these attacks on our society. There are numerous issues with this rather simplistic view. First, the right is remarkably well organized and extremely well funded by dark vested interests and this seems not to be limited to North America but a global movement. Decades in the making, I daresay; the fascists and the religious zealots have been playing the long game while the left decided to be blissfully ignorant about the coming storm. Of course the vast majority of right wing funding comes from the billionaire class and last time I checked there aren’t a whole lot of left wing billionaires out there to finance a progressive resistance comparable to what we are seeing on the right. In the end what do the ultra-rich financiers care if they have to spend a few hundred mil here and there? As the saying goes, you need to spend money to make money so long as they can buy off various governments the taps will never be shut off. Of course the billionaires need useful idiots like David Parker and the religious right to do their bidding and make it all appear to be a “grassroots movement”, as long as they throw Parker and his disgusting ilk a bone every now and then and allow them a societal change or two (illegal abortion, acceptance of discrimination of identifiable minorities). The funny thing is Parker, being a hot-headed religious crackpot, has too much of a massive ego to conclude that he is indeed the useful idiot. Or maybe he doesn’t care, as long as he gets his way? Either way, follow the money, expose him as the puppet he is and perhaps Parker’s house of cards may just take a fall.
It isn’t about whether the left has their shit together. Its about the general population. They need to vote for the left. Doesn’t matter how organized the left is, if voters don’t vote for them……….
If they want deplorable health care, the UPC can deliver that. As they used to say, you can not save those who will not save themselves.
The problem is that reasonable people expect good faith behavior and conservatives have discovered that they can exploit good faith by saying whatever gets them into power then doing the opposite. They seem to think people don’t notice this but they did in Manitoba and that’s what is coming for other alt-right governments.
I am wondering when the book “The Dangerous Case of Danielle Smith and David Parker” will be available. I said before the election we need a mental assessment of those vying for leadership positions. When someone throws out logic, stats, experts, history, evidence and sanity and leads by ego, cruelty and conspiracy theories we know the end result will no be good.
Dear HB,
Smith is called Batshit for a reason. But what does it say about those who voted for her?
I think a lot of those who voted for her were just gullible. When she said she would not touch pensions before the election I did not believe her for a second.
Oh I can hardly wait. Purging health care and education should work wonders for the province and its economy. May have to drive over to Calgary or where ever to see how all the law suits proceed. taxpayers could be on the hook for hundres of millions of dollars. the fun part will be, not only will the provincial treasury take a hit but at the same time there will be a real lack of services and no one to figure out how to run an organization.
The problem as I see it, is most people either don’t know how to run a government or don’t care how its run, as long as their way is being used.
What many of these “purge” people don’t understand, large organizations rely on other groups to run things smoothly. Smith and co. may decide to fire all middle managers in hospitals. Fine, but who makes decisions then, who decides on priorities, who puts together the crisis plan in case of an emergency. It will be interesting to see if they fire some one and then there is no one to order supplies for the hospital or perhaps screws up the ordering for the surgical rooms.–that one is always so much fun, especially is the patient dies–law suites go on forever.
Back in the Harper days, he decided to reduce employees and purchased the Phoneix computer to take care of payroll. He also centralized all pay services to one office. Phoenix was to replace 2700 pay roll clerks and yes they were all laid off. Harper figured he’d save $70M this way. That didn’t happen. It has cost the federal government $22B as of last year to try to fix the mess. Now none of this may cause Smith and co to change their minds but it will be “fun” to see what happens. In the federal government 80% of workers have been impacted one way or another. What is surprising is many, with out pay cheques continued to go to work for months. People lost their homes==couldn’t pay mortgate or rent; some committed suicide, some retired early to get out of the mess, some to this day are still either trying to get the money owed them or paying back what was over paid to them.
with no humans to pay there were also no humans to fix errors and change rates of pay, put people back into pay when they came back to work from sick or maternity/parental leave, etc
Governments are huge entities and most people don’t understand that or what it costs to run them.
Talk about purge mania, not to mention hubris and over-reach:
“In response, Smith didn’t specify about her hopes for the next election, but said her province is looking for “an immediate change in the Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.””
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/alberta-premier-danielle-smith-wants-prime-minister-justin-trudeau-to-find-a-new-environment-minister-1.6713329
Where does she get off deciding who should be a federal cabinet minister?
And considering what a crappy environment minister Schulz is for Alberta…
Read that this afternoon. Smith wanst the federal cabinet minister gone. Does she really think Trudeau is going to listen to her???? That woman is dumber than I thought she was and that was very dumb. Or she may be that in awe of her self and the powers of her position. Having read a bit about the Enviornment Minister it is doubtful Trudeau will replace him because that is what Smith wants. The guy has been involved in enviornmental issuues for a very long time.
Wonder how long Smith will continue to do her I’m so stupid routine on the enviornment? The enviornment is changing. climate change is real. Sometimes when politicans are doing very stupid stuff I always wonder how much they are being paid by corporate interests. Then of course I come to the conclusion, they’re doing it for free, they are that stupid. I can understand politicians on the take, but selling your province country down the river for free or your ego or to rub shoulders with corporate idiots, never under stood that and concluded those politicans were so stupid its a wonder they managed to stay alive.
Well dang! It’s 2024 and the goat rodeo that is Alberta, continues apace. Our sad brethren in post brexit “great” Britain are confronting (oddly enough) the same things we are. https://youtu.be/egXi-IvR0sE?t=1
Some recent news concerning the COVID remedy that Smith promoted – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38171239/
I will never forget the words of an 86 year old former university professor from Germany who taught me about people and politics. He stated that anywhere in the world the populations are made up of about 66% of stupid people which is why you can’t vote them out. Since meeting him I have followed elections closely and he has proven that it is mainly true. It certainly was during the Klein years. Ignoring what these Reformers have done to us and blindly supporting the word conservative certainly proves how stupid they are.
So now the working class, unionised, rank and file worlera need those managers? I thought at least the NDP folls had taken a bit of anarchist ideas along with them. Im under no illusion that the United Clown Party has, though, yes i can tell its all political for them. But that makes me wonder – as someone who does try to keep up with their rhetoric – they describe NDP plans the same way, with all this conspiratorial sounding language.
The UCP are planning a purge!!!!
The NDP are planning to pervert our kids!!!!
The UCP is planning to fire ideological opponents and politicise health care and education!!!!
The NDP are planning to put ideologically driven leftists in charge of our kids education!!!!
Get ahold of yourselves. I say the same to the right wingers. Neither of your sides are the comic book villains you imagine the other to be. Reach out and hash things out like adults that haven’t lost your minds!