No sooner did the federal Liberal and New Democratic parties say they’d reached a deal on a national pharmacare program at the end of last week than Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government insisted it wanted no part of the plan.
Never mind that the Liberals and NDP said the details of the plan they’ve agreed to will be made public this week.
As Chris Gallaway, director of Alberta’s Friends of Medicare, said in a statement yesterday morning, “by pre-empting their decision on Pharmacare even before the federal announcement is made, Danielle Smith’s government has made it clear they would rather play politics than get things done to help Albertans.”
Physician Luanne Metz, the Opposition NDP’s health critic, observed that “instead of embracing the new program, Danielle Smith has predictably rejected it out of hand, before understanding any details.”
“Instead of welcoming assistance for Albertans who are suffering from the affordability crisis, the UCP has continued its schoolyard scrap with the federal government and is bowing to pressure from lobbyists,” Dr. Metz, the MLA for Calgary-Varsity, said in a news release.
Both observations seem fair, since the UCP position, as far as anyone can understand it, is just send us the money and we’ll … do something with it. This is predicated, presumably, on the desire not to give the Trudeau Government credit for anything, no matter how helpful.
While it may not be not entirely clear from what the UCP had to say, it’s pretty easy to put together a number of reasons the government of Premier Danielle Smith might object to a national plan that would save lives, make life easier for Canadians with medical needs, and save taxpayers billions of dollars on pharmaceutical costs.
According to a Global News story, one of Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange’s media minions complained that Alberta wasn’t consulted about the national drug coverage plan and “there are limitations in the initial analysis and assumptions, including start-up investment and administrative costs to implement a cost-sharing model, that were not taken into consideration that add costs for the provinces.”
But what does that even mean? It’s certainly not clear what the limitations the government has in mind might be, especially since we don’t yet know the nitty-gritty details of the plan.
As for not sharing the details with Alberta, those details were subject to negotiation between the federal Liberals and NDP until last week. And all the Alberta government would have done anyway, as its uninformative statement shows, is try to throw a spanner in the works.
The statement from the health minister’s office, according to Global, also says that “all Albertans already have access to government-sponsored health benefit plans, which include drug coverage.”
That’s pretty cheeky when so many don’t. Or, as Mr. Gallaway put it, it’s “deliberately misleading” and “belies the fact that one in five Canadian households still cannot afford to fill their prescriptions.”
“To claim that all Albertans have access to drug coverage because they can buy a benefit plan if they can afford one is … beyond offensive,” he said.
“Canada currently pays some of the highest drug costs in the world, and millions are struggling to afford the medications that they need,” Mr. Gallaway explained. “It is well documented that moving to a national, single-payer pharmacare plan would save governments, employers, Albertans, and our provincial health care systems billions of dollars per year. And most importantly it would save countless lives!”
“Removing barriers to access these medications will not only help individuals but also reduce the health care costs that we all pay,” Dr. Metz observed. “Drug costs will be reduced through massive national buying power.”
All true, but there are doubtless other reasons for the UCP recalcitrance as well.
After all, the Smith Government is actively campaigning to get a Pollievre government elected in Ottawa, and anything that makes the Liberals and the NDP look good with voters concerned about the cost of living in 21st Century Canada is bound to be resisted by the UCP.
This is especially so as the agreement on pharmacare, as Global’s story conceded, meets the March 1 deadline to table legislation and allows the supply and confidence agreement between the two parties that is propping up the Liberal minority to survive.
Remember, Pierre Poilievre, the eminently dislikeable federal Conservative leader, is likely to see his lead in the polls shrink as time goes on. Whether or not it shrinks enough to change the Conservatives’ chances of forming a majority government, which seems likely now, is of course a question that obsesses political analysts of all stripes.
Then there is the matter of the UCP’s (and the federal Conservative Party’s) social conservative base, rife with opposition to women’s reproductive rights, populated by men who think a woman’s place is pregnant and in the kitchen, and suspicious of any program that would redistribute wealth in any way.
The fact the program would cover the cost of birth control medication, in addition to diabetes treatments and equipment, is hardly a selling point in modern Canadian Conservative circles.
Finally, if past practice is anything to go by, the Smith Government is listening carefully to what lobbyists want – and Big Pharma most definitely doesn’t want pharmacare!
So it was inevitable the UCP would drag its feet in hopes of scuttling the plan, or at least delaying it until a Poilievre Government could be sworn in to do the scuttling for it.
“Once again, the UCP has proven that they do not take women’s health seriously by opposing a national pharmacare program that would ensure access to contraception,” said NDP Status of Women Critic and Calgary-Edgemont MLA Julia Hayter. “Women are currently paying more than $10,000 out-of-pocket for contraceptive products. In the midst of the worst affordability crisis we have faced in a generation, one that disproportionately impacts women, the UCP has dug in its heels on a program that would help.”
As for what Alberta would do with the money if the feds were so foolish as to just fork it over, it is profoundly to be hoped that will remain a mystery.
It is awfully late in the season for the Grinch to appear, but the UCP does have a weakness for pettiness. So, they will deny diabetics coverage because they dislike the current Federal government. I don’t think that will go over well either with Alberta or national voters.
As much as picking fights with the Feds plays to the UCP base, it does not always appeal to the majority of Albertans. So, just like the Alberta Pension debacle, the UCP is again on the wrong side of public opinion on this one.
It really doesn’t help Poilievre, who is trying hard not to be seen as scary or extreme to appeal to moderate voters, that Smith keeps on reminding Canadians that an extreme version of conservatism is flourishing elsewhere in Canada. If this keeps up it could start to quietly erode his support and that majority they are counting on may turn out to be premature. Poilievre, who does not play nicely with others might have more difficulty governing with a minority than say Harper, who was more tactical and a strategist.
So I suspect the Federal government, with the support of the NDP, will tell Smith firmly, clearly and probably more politely than she deserves, that if Alberta wants the cash it will need to be for the things proposed and not something else.
I’m stunned by this.
I’m just receiving a pension, but I’ve had Type 2 Diabetes for over 10 years. My non-insulin drugs cost about $300 per month, and I have no health plan coverage. I celebrated the NDP/Liberal agreement to finally bring Dental and Drugs into the Health Care program, as recommended in the Marsh Report of 1943, and when it was announced that the two priorities for Pharmacare would be Birth Control and Diabetes I felt I was extremely lucky in timing.
But as a resident of Alberta (and not yet having registered with the Alberta plan) I now feel betrayed (again) by my Provincial UCP government, picking yet another fight with Ottawa as a knee-jerk reaction, and demanding they control the funding for a National program that they have not even seen yet. I’m very tired of the Alberta Exceptionalism of Ms. Smith, and all the ‘D.S.’ she keeps laying on us.
Should I register with the Alberta plan now? Will this preclude me (as the Dental Plan for Seniors has done for so many) from receiving any benefits at all in future? Why is this even an issue!
I was so please to see this program going ahead, and that it would actually help Canadians in contrast to the “systems’ south of us in the USA that promote Profit over people’s health, but will I have to leave Alberta to remain in Canada?
I think I’ll stay and fight this nonsense. Even if it costs me healthwise. But it may come to be that I can no longer afford the medications that have kept me healthy.
This is a very good question, Paul Squires.
As it stands now, none of us in Alberta will be allowed to get national pharmacare benefits. Let’s say a comet hit this glorious, drought-stricken province and Albertans were allowed to join (pure sci-fi, of course). Will the AHCIP for seniors exclude recipients from national pharmacare benefits as double-dippers? I’d like to see a direct answer. Anyone about to receive benefits might like to know before enrolling.
Individual Albertans apparently won’t be allowed to opt out of the UCP’s proposed APP. Others will get to decide for us, if a referendum sees the light of day.
There will be no referendum for national pharmacare, apparently. Dani knows best. Dani decides. So what if 4.3 million people of this province might disagree? There are words for this behavior: authoritarian, demagogue, etc., or other words of your choice. The next election is in whenever Dani changes laws to say it is. Why would she care what the people want?
I wouldn’t trust Danielle Smith and the UCP here either. If they want this federal government money, with no conditions applied, they can do all kinds of nefarious things with it. There are people in Alberta, and in Canada, who would benefit immensely from this pharmacare program. The UCP are in no position to talk, because they blew $80 million on Tylenot.
And let me guess. They want 53% of the money because …blah,blah,Sovereignty, freedom, stay in your own lane, Alberta is rich, Trudeau, Singh, NDP…blah,blah!
There is now zero incentive for young Albertans to live here once they complete high school and their post-secondary education.
It’s bad enough that the UCP has underfunded education at all levels, including post-secondary.
It’s bad enough the UCP is actively putting barriers in the path to employment by shutting down an entire industry, permanently perhaps, as there is no indication of any action to remove the moratorium on the renewables sector. Who knows which other sectors of the economy they’ll punish for not falling within their narrow ideological framework?
They also intend to shut down the Canada Pension Plan in Alberta, thereby ending interprovincial pension portability and stability, perhaps sinking an Alberta Pension Plan’s money into another one of Aimco’s “smart” ideas, like companies on the brink of failure.
Now why would any young person stay in a province where job earnings continue to fall behind inflation (utilities, bottomless pit of$) and they will be denied the savings of national pharmacare program?
It sure is strange that a province undergoing massive and costly health care restructuring is choosing to ignore the potential health savings of a national pharmacare program. Think of all the diabetics who cannot afford medications and supplies now, so ration them in order to afford food, and who end up needing medical care at a cost that far exceeds the cost of properly treating their condition. Think of the costs of unplanned pregnancy care and complications.
Women and the economically disadvantaged are the nothing to the UCP. As their hired hands on social media say, “If you don’t like it, move.”
The young people of Alberta should take them up on this benevolent offer. Move! Just do it. Why stay?
The negative impacts on your life and career possibilities under the UCP continue to accrue. If you do have children some day, would you want them in overcrowded schools with a quasi-religious curriculum that denies them knowledge of their own bodies and bodily autonomy? What if one of your children is trans? Do you want to be a burden to them some day when you age and cannot afford the medications you need to live? Of course, your CPP will be long gone, either sunk into the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund under Aimco’s “prudence” or otherwise Invested with Aimco’s usual “prudence” and “accountability” in an APP. Alternatively, the great wiz Marlaina-Dani herself could give it away in brown paper bags to her oil and gas pals. Let them eat filet mignon and sip champagne. For tomorrow belongs to the Alberta elite, my friends, and you are not it. You are the future peasant class of 2024 and you can go eat cake. Mud cake. Stuff it in. It’s the only free thing you’ll ever get here. Enjoy!
Hey, kids! Looks who’s increasing their minimum wage.
https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2024LBR0006-000240
The UCP government continues to show their complete lack of skill in negotiating anything on behalf of Albertans. Most of us would find out what the deal is before rejecting it out of hand with no information. I am glad that the Feds didn’t cave on the Child Care programme, as the UCP have tried every which way to screw it up with their ill informed ideology. The UCP continues to demonstrate no interest in governing for all Albertans, just TBA, ideologs and lobbyists.
Ross:
It is not their complete lack of skill, this is done intentionally to “own” the libs, IMHO
How much worse will the UCP/TBA’s lack of vision, ongoing tiresome pettiness re: the feds, lack of concern for the common man, repeated errors…get? For what it’s worth, I, a voter, sent an email to Minister LaGrange asking that Alberta, not, opt out of the national pharmacare program. Many of us do not have other coverage, which was mentioned. This is yet another indication how out of touch and tone death the UCP/TBA are.
The question could be: When will right wing UCP/TBA voters start to be negatively financially affected by their toxic policies, since money always talks? When will ‘life’ get too expensive for them?
In a similar vein, I sent and email to Jagmeet Singh and my NDP MP Heather McPherson to please please to not hand any money to Danielle Smith and her UCP government without appropriate strings/conditions attached. Copy to Justin Trudeau…..
To me “Take Back Alberta” means destroy everything the Conservatives created for us and create a Dictatorship where they have complete control over everything Albertans do just like we see in other communist countries.
Wasting taxpayers money on Reform Party friends and idiotic schemes is no concern of theirs and neither is putting Albertans in financial ruin or an early grave due to a destroyed healthcare system.
This is all about having total control and we have these stupid Albertans, mainly seniors, to thank for creating this mess don’t we?
Corb Lund is a hero for fighting these idiots who just can’t leave this Coal Mining stupidity alone even though Coal Tech was fined $6O million for polluting rivers and streams in B. C. and Montana , yet no one is going to tell Reformer Brian Jean what to do, are they?
On the contrary, Alan, there are lots of people who tell Brian Jean what to do. He listens to the ones who are rich, or who are paid shills for the rich. Nobody else counts.
Mike you nailed it that’s what Reformers do. Looking after themselves and their rich friends is all they care about.
Alan K. Spiller: You are correct. Look at how people praise Danielle Smith and the UCP in the comment sections in newspapers.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/danielle-smith-challenges-trudeau-to-call-an-election/wcm/025f2e8e-b2e7-41a5-8499-0710bd1dc204/amp/
Ah yeah like that one country that’s fighting a war on it’s southern border, has been credibly accused of funding terrorism and periodically bombs camps full of citizens who have been organizing for a change of government for decades, oh shit no that’s turkey, a nato country, let me try again.
You must mean the middle eastern country where women are arrested for the crime of driving, homosexuality is forbidden, state executions are routine and the same family has ruled for generations. Damn, that’s Saudi Arabia, our staunchest allay in the Middle East. Let me try again.
Surely you must mean the country that has been belligerent with its historic neighbour going back at least eight years now, the one that bombed civilians who wanted their Democratic will protected for eight years, who carried out massacres of union organizers, who assassinated and tortured journalists, who killed political opponents & suspended elections….
Oops that’s ukraine. You want to stop making hyperbolic accusations at communist countries that don’t exist or should I keep going because I could literally do this ALL DAY.
Israel. Indonesia. Egypt. Colombia. Afghanistan. Pakistan. India. Myanmar. This isn’t even considering the very real historical brutality of countries like France, Belgium, and the UK. Operation condor? That was Latin American governments backed by the US literally carrying out global assassinations against communists, union organizers, and politicians.
I realize this anti communist bias is basically bred into y’all but for real you need to be more thoughtful about this.
I have to admit, this made me outrageously angry yesterday. 1, the idea the UCP has that they can choose ala carte the parts of Canada they like, and leave those which they don’t is starting to drive me a little bit insane.
2. The assertion that because albertans who can afford it can purchase supplementary coverage that is both expensive and inadequate, from MLAs who enjoy a generous benefit plan made me want to start throwing rocks.
3. The knee jerk reactions for the UCP to protect the profits of shoppers drug mart at all cost to the public made me
want to start smashing windows
This government will go down in infamy as the most kleptocratic, undemocratic, unORGANIZED bunch of losers in Alberta history. Mark my words. God I hate this government.
The UCP types believe we are so fortunate to be governed by stable geniuses like Premier Smith and Health Minister La Grange. Last week, at a mere glance, Premier Smith was able to determine what “a perfect project” for a natural-gas electricity plant is. They believe she is so double-plus better than any of those stupid egg-heads putting up investment money or yammering about climate change.
Our theological genius Health Minister immediately saw what a spiritual trap Ottawa’s proposed universal pharmacare program is. We don’t need any of that dirty Ottawa money for contraception or diabetes care. After all they hate the secular state, and don’t believe in contraception or doing anything more than providing palliative care to the biologically weak.
The world must be peopled so they can burn the oil and gas God choose to give us! And in UCP world, it is all about choices made for us by God’s anointed, isn’t it?
Hi Little Bird,
There seems to be little reason to shop at Shoppers/Weston/Loblaws. Gouging consumers and nailing its’ flag to Smiths’ mast are have ensured my money goes to less tarnished alternatives.
Unfortunately, Jimmy, too many people can’t afford to shop anywhere but where prices are (ever so slightly) lower. That means Galen Westin’s stock options and shares are safe.
Marlaina wants to privatize the health care system. In her world, only the wealthy deserve proper health care.
Please, please remember this when it time to vote!
Access and the ability to pay are not the same things. Of course, where the UCP are concerned, those who cannot pay are the problem, so they can go away.
I trust the real reason why Adriana LaGrange decided to opt-out of the federal Pharmacare program has a lot to do with finding on the list of covered items “contraceptives” and “abortion”. Seeing that LaGrange is one of these pro-life meatheads that seem to be everywhere these days, of course she wants no part of the program. But that’s okay. Let the residents of the other provinces have their coverage. Even Saskatchewan, which it owned by the Calgary Cabal, wouldn’t think twice about making sure there are included in the program. Scott Moe has a election this year and too many of his MLAs are not seeking re-election as it is.
Alberta, the screaming rich kid of Canada, is at it again. Maybe Tucker Carlson can do a special on Alberta and how it’s as great as Putin’s Russia.
So Alberta is having yet another political temper tantrum. It is wearisome.
What does Minister LaGrange not understand about the term “universal”?
Sandy
By opting out of the national agreement, Dani’s Devils can set out which drugs, potions and laying on of hands will be approved and by which practitioners. She will institute new performance indices to ensure success. Once PP comes to power, then the national program will be revised.
At this point, the only thing keeping me in Alberta is the fact I have somewhat affordable housing. Have to drive 4 hours round trip to see my doctor (thank goodness for phone appts), but with all the anti-queer, anti-healthcare, anti-professional policies, rising costs of bills, and drought, always needing to have an exit plan in the back pocket.
We need pipelines to tidewater, but rather than carrying oil to terminals for shipping out, we need desalinization plants to transport water from the coast inland – as much as Site C is a fiasco, there should be enough electricity from that to power some desalinization plants and pumping stations for a few strategic water pipelines following Highways 3, 1, 16, and BC 97/2 to fill the Oldman, Bow, Saskatchewan, Athabasca, and Peace basins. And why hasn’t there been talk of geothermal energy? Not sure if its feasible, but converting orphaned wells into geothermal power plants- there’s your back up to wind, solar, and hydro.
Maybe the other reason keeping me here is we need people to fight all this crap at the Christian Taliban that wants to take over, both here and south of the Medicine Line.
Dr. Luanne Metz says Danielle Smith rejected the Lib/NDP deal “before understanding any details.” That’s fair. Danielle Smith is deficient on both “understanding” and “details.”
It’s likely that Smith has been lobbied—hard, and successfully—by pharmaceutical companies to reject any “national” deal. I think it’s equally likely that Danielle Smith (along with Rob Anderson and David Parker) have SERIOUS issues with authority figures. Of course I can’t prove it. You decide.
Adriana LaGrange (or some anonymous staffer) says governments sponsor drug coverage—somehow. OK, if you mean Blue Cross (private insurance that kinda acts like a government agency). Or maybe there’s subsidized drug coverage for seniors (other than Blue Cross). Or did she mean drug coverage for seniors in long term care?
I don’t know. I do know, from personal experience, that a tax deduction for medical expenses (including prescription drugs) does exist; you can claim expenses that exceed 3% of your income per tax year. (Last year I could have claimed about $100. I didn’t bother.) Is that federal, or provincial?
But “benefit programs that include drug coverage”? Only if you have a good job that pays well, and your employer offers a benefit program that includes supplemental health-care coverage. That’s what happens when the company owner believes in paying well to attract talent. It has NOTHING to do with the UCP government, and even less to do with Danielle Smith and the TBA not-a-political-party of David Parker.
Mike J Danysh: I don’t think the UCP cares about ordinary Albertans. Their corporate backers and Take Back Alberta are pulling their strings.
Not only that; unless I’m very confused Alberta Blue Cross is a subsidiary of blue cross / blue shield, and yet another instance of alberta giving public funds that belong to albertans to american corporations.
I retired about 11 years ago. At that time Blue Cross coverage (that Smith claims everyone can have and already has), would cost me $700.00 per month. Given the recovery rate, co-pay and deductibles, I would have needed about $9000 a year to break even.
This was without the things that have since happened to me, like: diabetes type 2, heart attack, and cancer. My medications cost us about $2000 per year, luckily I get the senior blue cross rate on some things, but not all. It is obvious Dingy Smith has no regard for anyone other than filling the pockets of the wealthy business people and oil companies at the expense of the less wealthy.
Wealthy AMERICANS.
Why would anyone in their right mind want to do the right thing? Is oxycontin covered? Inquiring minds want to know! (actually yes, post surgery) What a granfalloon! Birth control? Nah! Insulin? Nah! These UCP are certainly despicable. But a few of them smell clean, so there is that!
WTF is this?
I pay federal taxes. The federal government wants to save me money via a pharmacare program. Who gives a shit what Batshit thinks? The arrangement is between me and the Feds – not her or Alberta. I feel the same way about my CPP. Why does the UCP feel the need to interfere and interject between me the Feds?
Smith and her UCP/TBA cronies genuinely believe—against all evidence—that the Kingdom of Oilberduh can “go it alone.” Who needs the other 35 million people in Canada? We’re tough! We face into the wind! The Free Alberta Fantasists say we can win, and we will! Sovereignty! Freedumb NOW!!!
So help me, Smith, Anderson and Cooper—to say nothing of David Parker!—sound like a bunch of spoiled sophomores who’ve suddenly realized school is hard. And guess what? They really, really resent the fact. So much easier to blame the headmaster than to buckle down to the hard work of earning a good grade.
Or, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe they’re not whiney first-years. Maybe they just really, really hate being told what to do. Teen rebellion is one thing when you’re an ignorant but privileged teen. For an alleged adult who’s in charge of a government, acting out your whiney teen years is far worse than pathetic. As Robert Heinlein once wrote, “We could be a nuisance—but how long will papa take it before baby gets spanked?”
Trudeau’s government has already shown they’ll make bilateral deals with individual provinces. They did it with $10 per day daycare, and with a medicare top-up deal. They’d be stupid NOT to do it with pharmacare. Jason Kenney’s government signed on to both of the earlier deals, after the usual performance-art bitching and moaning. Are Smith and LaGrange dumb enough to refuse this one? Or will they “grudgingly” accept after more bravura performances as Alberta’s top drama queens? Oh, the joys of living in Oilberduh.
Before we do more work on Artificial Intelligence, why don’t we do something about natural stupidity! And yes, it might be best for the feds to withhold $$’s until they are certain that the funds will go toward the prescribed policy directives. After all, the UCP did a turnaround on day care subsidies [payments to providers] with a lot of $’s from the feds for that programme.
As a diabetic, I shall “raise a little hell” with this bunch ruling from Calgary.
There’s a declarative echo in Alberta’s rejection of the federal pharmacare agreement just announced in a general way, without details, yesterday: it is the echo of the tRumpublicans’ rejection of the US Senate’s border security bill even before its own details are revealed. Yes, Danielle Smith’s UCP knows who to copy when indiscriminate political obstructionism needs deployment purely for partisan advantage and not for the public good.
Smith and the UCP aren’t in the same league as the US federal government: the fate of millions of Ukrainians, of Western Europe, and of the whole world does not hang in the balance because of petulant UCP nose-thumbing at absolutely anything the federal Liberal government proposes. Her churlishness involves nothing like that weighty Russian threat which finds itself is sitting on the bubble only because tRumpublicans in the US House of Representatives are holding Ukraine et al hostages simply to afford Donald F tRump a continuing refugee crisis on the southern border so he can use it to campaign against Joe Biden. Indeed, MAGA chauvinism also threatens to shutdown funding of the whole US federal government yet again after similar tRumpublican brinksmanship on domestic finance has almost paralyzed American politics a number of times in just this latest term —which of course threatens regular US public spending, federal public-sector employees’ and contractors’ paycheques, loan payments, federal transfer to states, and much more which will potentially hurt tens of millions of Americans whatever their partisanship or location.
Albertans are certainly suffering because of their UCP government —and Smith unabashedly promises to inflict a lot more—, but nothing she or her government does can affect Canada’s federal policies, domestic and foreign, there’s nothing by which she can hold the nation—and possibly whole continents—hostage and, fortunately for her there’s no immediate existential threat to her government, her party, or her political career. On peevishness alone there might be some value in copying tRump’s rote demonization of partisan rivals, but even Smith’s oft-implied threat to secede from Canada is so preposterous it can hardly be taken seriously. Still, we have to grant some schematic, if not to-scale comparison between the hopeless GOP and the hapless UCP: they both represent the ruination of traditional conservatism by appealing to the reactionary far-right in a desperate attempt to disguise failure, postpone irrelevance, dodge culpability, and stave off extinction.
tRump desperately needs to win the presidency in order to pardon himself for his own crimes, MAGAnauts are as desperate to follow him, and the GOP is as desperate to avoid a fatal schism, all of which are pretty selfish reasons to put the world and history’s most powerful nation—and Canada’s most important ally—at risk; MAGA’s rhetorical hyperbole ominously predicts even civil war. But as bellicose as the UCP can get, it cannot possibly hope to achieve the same perfidy-of-scale as the tRumpublicans, though its ultimate political fate may be as safely predictable: the fruits of extremism slowly renders the cult too unpopular for any contingency, be it gaming the system, corruption, or electoral cheating to save it.
tRump’s ploy to sabotage bipartisan agreement on the southern border issue only to help him win, no matter the consequences for the world, for Ukraine, or for his own country and party (and probably his family, too) is incredibly cynical—almost apolitical. Aside from cutting taxes for billionaires, an easy thing to do if there’s no fear of psephological consequence, tRump has succeeded only in the King Merdeass effect: everything he touches turns to shit but his narcissism —“malignant” insofar as it infects his cult—blinds him and his base to the fact that he didn’t win a majority in 2016 (damn Electoral College!), failed to implement anything good even with GOP majorities in both Houses of Congress, presided over losing that advantage in the 2018 midterms and, of course , over losing his own re-election bid in 2020. His judicial appointments rebuffed the quid pro quo he honestly expected in challenging Biden’s win; almost every MAGA candidate he endorses loses; and he has 91 indictments looking at him on the very near horizon which, even if things go well, could destroy his and his heirs’ wealth (and possibly result in imprisonment). And let’s not forget his deadly Covid non-policies which cost at least half a million Americans their lives—over double the rate of Canada right next door.
At present there is absolutely nothing in Alberta remotely comparable with the desperation of the American right, nothing so globally consequential, nothing so nationally influential. Yet so much of tRumpublican demagoguery is admired by the UCP and its TBA puppet masters. They pay the sincerest form of flattery.
Almost laughable would be any notion that Danielle Smith can make any kind of meaningful political calculus with regard Pierre Poilievre’s bid to defeat the Liberals in a year and a half. She is simply politically gormless (and PP knows it). With that I must say Mr Gallaway’s comment that the UCP would rather “play politics” with the proposed pharmacare policy be needing some correction: the UCP is incapable of doing politics, “playing” or otherwise. It does partisanship, and that’s all.