For the first time since Danielle Smith became premier of Alberta in the fall of 2022, a rift in United Conservative Party cabinet ranks appeared in public view yesterday over whether or not Adriana LaGrange should be removed as health minister to control the damage from the festering Dodgy Contracts Scandal.
In a memorandum to his cabinet colleagues leaked to the CBC, Infrastructure Minister Peter Guthrie called for Ms. LaGrange’s immediate ouster from her portfolio in the face of allegations of improper insider influence set out in fired Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos’s wrongful dismissal lawsuit. Ms. Mentzelopoulos was dismissed on Jan. 8.
“Min. Adriana LaGrange should be moved to another unrelated ministry until an investigation is complete,” states Mr. Guthrie’s memo, as quoted by the CBC. But unless he’s suggesting a new portfolio be created for his cabinet colleague, this amounts to a call for her to be kicked out of cabinet.
Plus, said Mr. Guthrie, one of Ms. Smith’s original caucus supporters who may still be smarting from his demotion from the Energy portfolio in June 2023: “Remove Andre Tremblay as CEO/administrator at AHS and as (Deputy Minister) until such time as an investigation is complete.”
If any of the information found in the investigation into insider interference and overpriced contracts begun by Ms. Mentzelopoulos in November “appears to be criminal in nature, all materials must be turned over to the RCMP immediately,” Mr. Guthrie’s memo continued.
“It is my strong recommendation that we do not hesitate any longer and implement these recommendations today,” the memo said – a recommendation that has obviously been ignored.
Since we don’t know who leaked the memo to the CBC, we can’t conclude that Mr. Guthrie has publicly broken ranks with cabinet – which would be a grave violation of cabinet confidentiality, a core principle of the Westminster Parliamentary system. But, this being politics, someone surely had a calculated reason to leak it.
Nevertheless, this is a significant development, as the premier has been able to maintain remarkable unanimity and message discipline since the United Conservative Party’s Take Back Alberta faction ran former premier Jason Kenney out of town and replaced him with Ms. Smith in 2022.
But that doesn’t mean Mr. Guthrie isn’t speaking for other members of cabinet in his memo.
At least two other ministers are thought to be “distancing themselves from Smith over this issue,” political commentator Dave Cournoyer said in his Substack on Thursday.
And if Ms. LaGrange gave the same explanation to her fellow ministers when she sought their OK to dismiss the CEO that she gave to the public – that it was all part of the government’s health-care reorganization plan and nothing more – they would be justified in concluding they had been deceived.
Regardless, as yesterday’s news coverage made clear, Mr. Guthrie’s suggestion has not been embraced with enthusiasm. “I have full confidence in the health minister to continue her important work in refocusing and reforming our health system,” Premier Smith said in a statement sent to The Canadian Press.
Meanwhile, the Opposition NDP continues to call for Ms. LaGrange to be fired as well – which some observers dismiss as a Wayne Gretzky strategy of trying to race to where the puck is supposed to be so they can take credit when it gets there – an approach that works well in ice hockey, but not necessarily in politics.
To be fair, at a news conference in Calgary yesterday that didn’t appear to get much coverage from media, NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi excoriated the premier. For reasons not obvious to this observer, the party didn’t announce that Mr. Nenshi was going to be there.
“If these allegations are true, this ranks among the largest scandals faced by any government in the history of Canada,” Mr. Nenshi said. “And yet we’ve heard next to nothing from the premier on this. She’s skating past these ‘corrupt care’ allegations hoping that it’ll all go away. It’s not going to go away.”
Obviously anxious to be able to say that in the Legislature, Mr. Nenshi also demanded that Premier Smith call a by-election in Edmonton-Strathcona, where he has been nominated by the NDP to run to replace former leader Rachel Notley.
I’m thinking if Marlaina is to go, it won’t be without a fight. The likelihood is that it will destroy he UCP and any sort of conservative provincial party for a generation perhaps more. Infighting does that. If she were smart she’d quit really soon. There has to be a nice boutique law firm who can give a make work job. Or maybe Chorus Network can take her back for the 8 to midnight slot.
The secondary mission of all Grift-o-kons, after positioning themselves in conflicts of interest, is back-stabbing their colleagues. Neither compulsion has proven to hold them back for long in Alberta.
Indeed. Look what the Wildrose Party looked like when she left it behind.
Perhaps there is more to all of this and Guthrie knows it or he could just be hedging his bets and is getting out in front of this. Guess he isn’t that fond of the Minister or has bigger plans. It makes me wonder if any one else knew what the Minister was up to. Guess we shall see what it all amounts to and I’m sure you will be keeping all of us up to date.
Mr. Guthrie seems to be ahead of some of the rest of his party, although I expect they will eventually be forced to catch up. Maybe LaGrange could switch with another minister, but politically that probably would not go over well. So I expect at some point she will have to step down.
Interestingly Guthrie also proposes the current CEO of AHS should step down. I wouldn’t be surprised if the UCP is eventually forced to accept this as well.
But the bigger questions remain about what happens to Mr. and Ms. Smith. I suppose time will tell, but surely as Desi once said to Lucy they also have some splainin’ to do.
Dave: You can’t just switch ministers around willy-nilly. Because ministers should NOT come from the field they oversee – like making a teacher the minister of education, or a physician the minister of health. There is a learning curve required for them to be able to do their job properly. Ministers are not likely to want to change portfolios on a temporary basis for that reason. Sometimes in politics such a need arises – say, when the minister of something important dies suddenly. But I would expect most cabinet members to argue this is not one of those cases. Realistically, the premier’s choices are kick Ms. LaGrange out and replace her (possibly as part of a broader cabinet shuffle) or keep her. DJC
I agree the UCP MLA’s proposal that LaGrange be moved apparently temporarily is not likely to fly and it would also be disruptive for governing. Although some other Minister or MLA could probably be enticed or strong armed into doing this if this was what Smith decided to so. After all, if Smith and the UCP were really that interested in good governance, we probably wouldn’t be in this mess, would we?
“because ministers should not come from the field they oversee..”
Certainly seems to be generally true for health ministers (though Colin Carrie, a chiropractor, was parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Health at one point federally, and Iris Evans was trained as a nurse), but not necessarily for other portfolios. In fact is it normal to require that a Justice Minister/Solicitor General be a Lawyer? Tyler Shandro, Kaycee Madhu and Kathleen Ganley were certainly all lawyers. Plus you can find examples of people with a background in teaching that were education ministers (Halvar J0nson). Energy ministers have come from the energy sector (Savage; Murray Smith for example). And so on…. Doug Horner’s background was in Finance, several Agriculture ministers have been Farmers and Ranchers, Ministers for the status of women have been… women.
Also, if one looks at the number of different portfolios a number of past ministers have held in their careers in this province, and in other jurisdictions as well, perhaps they can in fact often be swapped around willy-nilly, no ?
Michael: See my response to AB Born and Raised, written before I saw your comment, in the same topic. DJC
Just curious.
Why can’t ministers sometimes come from the field they oversee? Why assume those fields are so errant they require outsiders? A teacher or a doctor minister would still be accountable to voter and party wishes, they wouldn’t automatically “work” for the field….or if they did, why is that bad?
LaGrange has only a college diploma in counselling form 1981. Counsellors rock, but that does not qualify her to oversee vast education and health departments.
Se we ended up with a faith-based private schooling advocate as education minister, someone who couldn’t discuss pedagogical theories in a million years.
Curious what you think, cheers.
AB Born: Obviously there’s no law saying a minister ought not to come from the field she oversees, or even a Parliamentary convention, although it is fair to say it is generally considered a sound practice, the argument being that a minister from the field is likely to have an insiders’ stake in how things are run. Not everyone would see this as a bad thing, of course – especially said insiders – but my view is that this is generally a sound practice. I don’t think that a lack of academic credentials should bar anyone from holding a ministerial portfolio, so defining “qualifications” in the Westminster system is always tricky. I should note that there is one traditional exception to this informal rule, and that is that the Attorney General (and therefore the Justice Minister) should be a lawyer. Personally, I don’t buy this, but that is the conventional wisdom. DJC
I guess Queen Danielle maybe headed back to Panama, shortly.
I mean the weather is nicer, Mango Mussolini is closer, and flying over the Gulf of America makes the whole experience seem that much more friendly.
Cracks in the party appeared before Jason Kenney was ousted. Could the same thing be happening again?
https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/culture-of-fear-critic-says-alberta-premier-reaping-results-of-divisive-leadership
As soon as I saw the CBC story about Peter Guthrie yesterday, I googled his name to see which riding he represented, wondering if Mr. Guthrie was one of the Calgary MLAs who barely won his seat in 2023. My thinking was that cracks in the UCP caucus will show up there, as MLAs start to worry about keeping their seat in 2027.
Peter Guthrie represents Airdre Cochrane, and won his seat with 60% of the vote. Guthrie won his suburban Calgary seat comfortably, but at the same time he has to know that a large segment of his support base are not the ‘UCP good, NDP bad’ flock that some of his more rural colleagues enjoy.
Peter Guthrie has an interesting history. He was dissatisfied with Kenney, seeing him as too top down and likely corrupt. He supported Danni the Wonder Worker and got a Cabinet seat for his efforts. Now he sees corruption in the Wonder Worker’s leadership. So is he an honest broker or just another ward heeling politician? Hard to say. But it doesn’t appear Airdrie Cochrane is in danger of falling to the socialist peasant farmer horde soon. So I would go with a politician looking to grab the brass ring when Marlaina the Wonder Worker is shown the door. It seems cynical, but his actions speak for themselves.
FA: We may be able to see by what happens to him. Although, maybe the government will have to turn private detectives and hackers loose to find out who leaked the leak. DJC
Adriana LaGrange will have to fall on the sword, and Smith and the UCP will be back to business as usual.
I think every MLA ,MP should give a statement,none of this drip drip drip stuff we know so well
Marlain-a-Lago can only hide from Albertans for so long. Eventually she is going to have to say something in public rather than through social media or her lapdogs at Postmedia.
Kudos to Mr. Guthrie for speaking up. If only the rest of the UCP caucus weren’t quislings (maybe they are all still on vacation).
The political money shot (“A money shot is perceived as essential to the overall importance or revenue-generating potential of the work.”) is always the driver of policy for self interested, backstopped by the state, market driven, dogmatic ideologues and their benefactors.
In other words, all who are opposed must be removed and replaced by individuals that are both malleable and sympathetic to the overall design and its goals. That is, as noted by the palterer (“It is no secret that politicians often lie, but consider this – they can do so simply by telling the truth.”) in charge,
“If there’s wrongdoing, we’d like to get to the bottom of it, and if there isn’t, WE NEED TO FIND OUT WHY AHS IS STANDING IN THE WAY OF CHARTERED SURGICAL CENTRES.”
Healthcare is the biggest budget drain we have. Bureaucracy, administrators, unions, media are all entrenched into their left leaning bubble. Making changes will not be easy. This is not the time to stop, because some spineless MLA or embarrassment of a Minister doesn’t have the nerve to fight on and stay the course. Keep up the fight Premier Smith and Minister LaGrange, and thank God you don’t have to share a real foxhole with some in your cabinet or caucus.
Don Guenette: That is so way off base that it’s not even funny. Corruption of the highest magnitude has been happening with the UCP since their existence, and this really brings that to the light. It is impossible to defend this abhorrent behavior at all.
Well Don if COST is your overall concern and not people getting “entitlements” you’ll be happy to know the UCPs preferred health care model is the most expensive one in the entire world, that also happens to have the worst outcomes of any G7 nation, that’s right I’m talking about health care in the United States.
As far as your pithy little attack about leftists and unions ; I wish. What you’re actually talking about is the fact that health care, (along with education and public employees & postal workers) are about all we have left for unions that actually will fight for the rights of their members, and by extension (solidarity) all workers in our society. The average union member isn’t any more left than their colleagues without representation, they just have safer jobs with better pay, better protection from employers, and better retirement prospects.
As far as “staying the course” to do what exactly ? Give away another SIX HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS in sole source contracts with outrageous margins baked in for ONE COMPANY !?
That’s not bravery, it’s naked corruption and theft. If it was Russia or China or Venezuela y’all would be screaming to high heaven.
The short bus will be home soon! Wow!
Delving into the hypothetical, what if Ms. LaGrange was asked to step aside earlier this week, but refused. She might have felt there’s no reason for her to accept a demotion and – more importantly, a pay cut – when she was simply doing what someone else had instructed her to do. And what if, hypothetically speaking, Ms. LaGrange has the support of many of her fellow caucus members. After all, what happens to her could happen to any of them. And what if (just spit-balling this), the 92% support enjoyed by Premier Smith at the UCP AGM is not reflected within the caucus. And what if there are two ambitious, high profile cabinet ministers who ran in the last leadership race who are working quietly to undermine Premier Smith with the aim of replacing her. Again, hypothetically. Would Premier Smith push LaGrange to the back benches and risk a caucus revolt? And is this exactly where those two high profile, ambitious cabinet ministers want her – between a rock and a hard place?
Hippie: Or three. DJC
If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would put forth the suggestion that this leak was deliberately made under the direction of Premier Smith. This would give her the cover of wielding the axe without her actually having to accept responsibility for “doing the deed” to the Health Minister.
John: That is not outside the realm of possibility. DJC
Nah, that plan is way too elaborate for Bathsit to think up on her own. Someone else might have come up with it, but not her. She’s not that intelligent. She lies good on camera,and that’s as far as her “intelligence” can take her.
The UCP are going to wind up slipping through the cracks. That’s after they’ve pecked at each other, like crazed vultures.
Global News on Sunday the 16th played on audio clip of Smith saying Lagrange needs to be “removed from decision making”. Under the bus throwing is starting.
So Marlaina was so enamored with Hollywood coming to Alberta, she’s recreated an Alberta version of
Mr and Mrs. Smith??
Look here! I am dyed in the wool! But this is no time for self congratulatory schadenfreude! To the barricades! https://youtu.be/iJDc3TbZPkU
Incidents of UCP ham-handedness have drastically increased during Danielle Smith’s 28 months as premier, way up from the pace Jason Kenney’s government set during his 42 months. The K-Boy period now seems too innocent to have warranted scores like “Canada’s-most-unpopular-premier” and worst-provincial-Covid-fatality-rate as it did back then. His shifty moves in creating the UCP out of two parties of the demoralized right, his unabashed appeal to shady characters of the full-patch far-right, his suspect electoral tactics, and his singular stand against Covid protocols felt more shocking in kinder, gentler times. But they seem quaint since Danielle Smith took power.
K-Boy’s promised anti-environmentalist “War Room” was a goofy way to spend tax dollars —hunting Disney Sasquatches in movie theatres or copying long lists of organizations concerned with atmospheric CO2 pollution online. But to objective observers it looked like a clown-car from the start, a silly campaign promise most parties would bury and forget as soon as possible after victory. I don’t think Kenney would have willingly risked his speculated career goal of prime minister by giving the stupid inquiry (into alleged foreign funding of anti-Alberta-petroleum propaganda) the high profile he did; rather he was compelled by the unforeseen circumstance of Covid to wave the War Room’s red-meat flag much longer and more vigorously than he would have liked. Designed to appeal to his pro-Alberta-petro voting base during the 2019 campaign , the War Room was eventually used, post-campaign, more to distract a subset of radicalizing anti-vaxxers among that base who were upset when their K-Boy was inevitably forced to concede that following tRump’s viral dismissal of Covid was an irrefutably spectacular and tragic epidemiological flop. The two subsets neatly overlay the UCP’s larger ideological factions: the old ProgCons and the radical Take-Back-Alberta faction both support Alberta’s petroleum industry, but differ distinctly about Covid protocols, especially vaccines, the former happy to comply with public health orders and vaccine recommendations, the latter angry that everyone doesn’t see Covid as a hoax. Thus the War Room was a handy device to hold the two factions, viciously opposed on at least one particular issue, together in one party with respect, as Kenney correctly identified, Alberta’s most important economic sector.
The dominant faction was revealed when, half a year before the UCP’s first term was complete its creator and first leader was felled by a TBA-demanded leadership review : Kenney—lamenting that the “lunatics have taken over the asylum”—stepped aside after garnering 51% approval from voting members. Just days later Danielle Smith was elected leader with just 53% approval. However this near perfect dissection did not foreshadow a fatal split between the two factions so plainly contrasted: six months later Smith led the UCP’s to its first incumbency win, a more crucial test for her than winning the leadership because if the party won the election it is arguably, a fortiori, united.
Nevertheless the potential fissure within was underscored by the facts that the NDP Opposition very nearly won 2023 (recall it did win in 2015, obviously garnering the support of voters who’d kept the ProgCons in power for over 44 years) and now forms the largest Loyal Opposition in Alberta history. There are only two parties in the Alberta Assembly, but only one in which unity is ever a question.
Kenney had been instrumental in terminating five parties of the right (federal ProgCons, Reform, Alliance, Alberta ProgCons, and Wildrose) and reuniting two ( CPC and UCP). Few politicians have as much knowledge about what holds party factions together and along what plane a party will fracture into two. He never lost an election, a success by any measure, yet despite being hailed the saviour of the partisan right in the locus of its self-ascribed Albertan autocthony in April 2019, he was booted just three and a half years later after nursing the party through its first two critical junctures— PC/WR amalgamation and an its first election win— but in the end failing to shepherd his creation to the real test of any new-party government: re-election. His sin wasn’t that he’d revealed the sword of dissection that hangs perennially over every Frankenstein party—like a magician who gave away a trade secret— but rather that he provoked petulant peeve among MAltaGA calf-punchers when he was forced to capitulate to public health authority as the province achieved the worst Covid fatality rate in the country—which anti-vaxxers chauvinistically decried as a conspiracy during (sometimes illegal) Covid-mandate-protest-prayer-meetings; and, to top it off, K-Boy waffled the way Wexiteers wailed against when their blockade of the Coutts-Sweetgrass border-crossing blockade was broken up. Obviously they weren’t going to accept Kenney’s appeal to the rule of law.
When Smith took over she instinctively stumbled into a controversy by commiserating with a radical street preacher who asked for her protection from prosecution for his part in the illegal blockade. After pleading rookie-mistake, she let her TBA base know tendentiously that she only said she would help him before she knew it was illegal. Yet not long afterwards the UCP government won reelection. Not with firearms and explosives on board.
Hafta ask if it’s even a real illusion that Smith took a K-Boy-fissured party on the brink of schism and re-re-united it for the win. Don’t hafta ask how she maintains that unity now: about half a year after the 2023 victory, the party gave her a 91% approval rating. I suspect it’s partly attributable to the continued bleed of centre-right moderates drifting over to the NDP opposition (which effectively gives more influence to TBA by default), but mostly it indicates TBA’s near-complete takeover of the party. In retrospect everything she’s done since becoming premier is to appease the MAltaGA base—or at least her agenda is as extreme as theirs and conspicuously similar. And she’s had the good luck not to be challenged by a pandemic like the one that felled her predecessor.
However, polls indicate that there must still be a significant, if lesser-faction of moderate ProgCons in the UCP and that therefore they must be feeling quite cowed by now. I can’t imagine anything she’s done that would relieve their discomfiture with her more extreme positions. Thus, if the fissure is for now silenced, any hint of dissent—especially in cabinet—is very, very interesting indeed.
Good analysis, Scotty, of what Mr. Kenney’s considerations may have been to continue supporting the ludicrous War Room. DJC
Infrastructure Minister Peter Guthrie no more wrote the memo calling for Ms. LaGrange’s immediate ouster than LaGrange improperly used her influence. Cabinet ministers in this government are nothing but expendable stoolies for the true decision makers. C’mon folks, it was a set-up!
Infrastructure Minister Peter Guthrie called for Ms. LaGrange’s immediate ouster from her portfolio in the face of allegations of improper insider influence