Could Take Back Alberta have stolen the 2023 Alberta provincial election for the United Conservative Party?
The possibility must now be considered.
We knew immediately after the May 29, 2023, election that the UCP had won six ridings by less than 1,000 votes.
We didn’t know for sure until Tuesday this week, however, that the registered third-party advertiser known as Take Back Alberta, and controlled by the UCP’s far-right Take Back Alberta faction, was breaking the province’s election laws.
The revelation of 12 “administrative penalties” adding up to more than $122,000 levied by Elections Alberta, the province’s elections oversight agency, against the TBA advertising group and three of its officers confirms that there is legitimate cause for concern the election was stolen
Imagine if all six ridings won by the UCP by less than 1,000 votes had gone to the NDP. The result on election night would have been 44 seats for the NDP and 43 for the UCP.
That would have been a pretty fragile majority – especially with the need to pick a speaker – but there would have been no doubt in such circumstances that Lieutenant Governor Salmah Lakhani would have asked then NDP leader Rachel Notley to try to form a government.
Perhaps Conservative Nathan Cooper, not the worst Speaker Alberta’s ever had, would have agreed to another term in the chair, even if at the risk of excommunication from the UCP. Who knows?
Granted, some of the charges are quite technical – failure to deposit funds in the right account, lousy bookkeeping, and the like.
But others could have had a real impact on the vote results, for example, circumventing election spending limits, accepting contributions from outside Alberta and outside Canada, and individuals knowingly making contributions that exceeded $30,000.
TBA founder David Parker, who was slapped with penalties of $7,500, dismisses the charges and fines as a “witch hunt,” and now vows to fight them.
But we have to ask, should NDP candidates Rosman Valencia (Calgary-East, 698 votes behind the UCP), Rob Miyashiro (Lethbridge-East, 636 votes), Druh Farrell (Calgary-Bow, 623 votes), Gurinder Singh Gill (Calgary-Cross, 514 votes), Michael Lisboa-Smith (Calgary-North West, 143 votes) and Rajesh Angral (Calgary-North, 129 votes) have been sitting in the provincial Legislature since the spring of 2023?
Mr. Miyashiro, at least, now has a seat in the House, having won the by-election to replace former NDP environment minister Shannon Phillips as MLA for Lethbridge-West on Dec. 18.
We don’t know, because while Elections Alberta is prepared to tell us that fines have been levied, and how big they are, it is not forthcoming about the details.
And, yes, some other ridings were very close too but landed in the NDP column. Calgary-Acadia, for example, where after the dust from the recounted ballots had settled, Registered Nurse Dianna Batten edged out disastrous former health minister Tyler Shandro by 25 votes.
But it isn’t the NDP that stood accused of cheating, and if the recent revelations by Elections Alberta raise any possibility, it’s that Ms. Batten should have won by more than 25 ballots.
Democracy is important, all the more so in an age where it’s being undermined and assaulted in a nearby country where most Canadians always assumed it was as safe as we hope it is here. This is especially true since certain politicians associated with the UCP seem so enamoured of the way things are now being done in that republic to the south.
Albertans deserve a full public inquiry, led by a judge, into what really happened in the 2023 general election.
If the UCP won a narrow victory, so be it. We need to know they won it fair and square.
If they won by hook and by crook, obviously we need to know that too.
And we need to know who knew about what TBA was up to, and when they knew it.
Call an inquiry!
UCP Government fired AHS CEO for investigating shady procurements: Globe and Mail
If you read any story in traditional media tomorrow, make it Globe and Mail reporter Carrie Tait’s scoop about how the Smith Government fired Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos over Zoom “two days before she was scheduled to meet with the province’s Auditor-General to discuss her investigation into procurement contracts and deals for private surgical facilities.”
According to a Jan. 20 letter from Ms. Mentzelopoulos’s lawyer to the health care agency’s general counsel, she was fired as CEO “because she launched ‘an internal investigation and forensic audit’ into AHS’s contracts and procurement processes.”
Ms. Mentzelopoulos intends to sue for wrongful dismissal and is seeking $1.7 million in compensation, Ms. Tait reported.
By the sound of the story, all the somebodies who know something were diving for cover yesterday when Ms. Tait called them for comment. No matter, the stuff is going to hit the fan about this today whether they say anything or not.
At this rate, Health Minister Adriana LaGrange is going to need to spend a few extra days attending more prayer breakfasts in Washington D.C. As it is, she’s not scheduled to return to Alberta until Saturday.
CORRECTION: The Lethbridge-West Riding was referred to as Lethbridge-East in one instance in an earlier version of this story. My bad. DJC
I commend you for digging deep, and going to where very few even go, on very important issues that should be concerning to us all. You won’t see this in depth analysis in the conventional media, such as Postmedia, because their columnists, such as Lorne Gunter, David Staples, Rick Bell, and all the rest of the lot are giving accolades to Danielle Smith and the UCP at every opportunity.
Playing by the rules is obviously something that the UCP does not do. In fact, the UCP has never played by the rules. The Kamikaze antics by the previous premier of Alberta, and the UCP have shown that. Elections Alberta slapped at least $230,000 in fines to those in the UCP camp, because they weren’t abiding by sound ethics in relation to elections. The last premier of Alberta didn’t even like the provincial elections commissioner for investigating his ascent to power, so he and his staff were sacked. The R.C.M.P seemed to drag on with their investigation in this, and somehow found him not guilty, which is very suspicious.
David Parker did claim to putting the previous premier into his position of power, and he also claimed to remove him from power. What other antics have David Parker and Take Back Alberta been up to? I couldn’t fathom the UCP winning an election honestly, aside from the fact that Danielle Smith doesn’t tell the truth. Her sweet talking promises, such as tax cuts for Albertans, fooled many people, and got the UCP another term. So did her other empty reassurances, like telling Albertans that the UCP had no aspirations of touching the CPP of Albertans. The opposite is happening with those things. There was also some election rigging and manipulating going on, once again, and David Parker and Take Back Alberta had something to do with it. Because the amounts of these fines are so steep, there is no way that some very shady things weren’t happening.
There has been a longstanding friendship with David Parker and Danielle Smith. He will try to weasel his way out paying these fines, and he may try to influence her to clear him and Take Back Alberta of these fines. Danielle Smith is very power hungry, and she could do something about that. It wouldn’t surprise me if Elections Alberta staff were terminated from their positions. Democracy seems like it’s a joke to Danielle Smith and the UCP.
Anon: I don’t recall Mr. Parker saying he was responsible for putting Jason Kenney in power. DJC
“Most of the people that are signing up to vote against Jason Kenney are people who used to work for him, like myself,” said David Parker.
Parker was an organizer on Kenney’s campaign in 2017. He is now building support to vote out the UCP leader as executive director of Take Back Alberta.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/article/not-trusted-by-anyone-the-campaign-to-kick-jason-kenney-out-of-the-premiers-chair/
David: There you go. Or, rather, I do. Thanks. DJC
David Climenhaga: I recall hearing about it.
Whistle-blowers are something that the UCP hates. That, and anyone who exposes the UCP’s shady government practices. So, they get rid of them. It’s much like a dictatorship.
This reminds me of what Ralph Klein and the Alberta PCs did to MLAs and others that irked them. I remember when Lyle Oberg said that he knew about the skeletons in the closet. He was punted from the Alberta PCs, and had to sit as an independent MLA for a spell.
Ralph Klein definitely wanted private for profit healthcare in Alberta. His damaging healthcare cuts, cost people their lives, and put other people’s lives in jeopardy. People even sued the provincial government for this. Nurses were laid off in droves, and they had to take early retirement, or leave the province, when they were reluctant to do so. Hospitals suffered from neglect.
I recall a frequent commenter on this blog, who has known Ralph Klein since the early 1960s. He said that he and his father weren’t impressed with him. They even said that Ralph Klein’s own family wasn’t too happy with the things he did as a politician.
Danielle Smith has said that she admires Ralph Klein, and it isn’t surprising that she wants private for profit healthcare in Alberta. How many more people will suffer as a result of this?
I too had known Klein since sometime in the 60s, I could almost see his house from mine.
Later in his life when he was failing in health, his wife Colleen came into a home supply pharmacy store where someone I know worked. She was very unhappy with the cuts to aids to daily living, or whatever used to help support items for home bound patients because, with coverage cuts, she was finding very little expensive! She loudly called out the government for it’s cuts to healthcare.
There’s something about earned karma to this, isn’t there?
Two big scandals for the price of one?
The AHS one is murky because is goes into the cozy relationships that may exist between the UCP and businesses interested in lucrative private health care opportunities. We knew this could be a problem area, but this is only now coming to light because of the dismissal of the former AHS CEO.
The Take Back Alberta one is a more typical UCP problem of not following the elections fund raising and spending rules. The Premier now tries to put some distance between herself and Parker’s organization, but at the time they were working together closely. So questions arise if the UCP used Parker and his organization to get around financial rules for elections. It sounds like now he feels he was an unwitting dupe, but witting or unwitting the UCP certainly benefitted from his organizations support in what was a very close election in a number of ridings.
So just like our father’s conservatives, the UCP has now been in power long enough now that some of their skeletons are starting to tumble out of the closets.
Something new and interesting for the mainstream Alberta media to write about more, if they dare. Scandal time.
Looks like the corrupt chickens are coming home to roost this week. I don’t think this is what they were praying for.
Small correction: The December by-election was in Lethbridge West. As you noted in a previous paragraph, Miyashiro lost in Lethbridge East in the 2023 general election.
https://www.elections.ab.ca/official-results-for-lethbridge-west-by-election/
While I would welcome and inquiry, I highly doubt Dingy Smith is going to call for one, given they have control and enjoy firing those that attempt to call into question or besmirch their reputation in any way. They would not want anything embarrassing to come out now would they?
Given the massive amounts of firings and labor disputes (right now and soon to be), we can only expect a horrible new budget coming out later this month. Expect drastic cuts to services at every corner, all the while they are pissing away millions on border security, wrongful dismissal claims, rebuilding Jasper, trips to Washington to kiss Trump’s ass, and the list goes on and on. Meanwhile let’s not pay workers a real wage and cut services to AISH recipients and seniors.
Two comments on these revelations today. One: TBA and David Parker need to be investigated all the way to Hell and back. TBA’s activities are identical to the Political Action Committees that have so badly distorted US elections and US democracy. They won’t be, though. David Parker put Danielle Smith on the UCP throne. Then his acolytes greased the skids to help her slide into the big chair in the Premier’s office. Smith will never, EVER, agree to an investigation. (Footnote: what’s with the foreign money in provincial elections? I thought that was illegal in Canada. Only if you get caught, I guess.)
Second comment: Athana Mentzelopoulos got fired for WHAT?!? Investigating potential corruption within the AHS + private, for-profit health behemoth. Investigating Danielle Smith’s most-favoured-surgeon deals? Whoa! And now she’s suing Smith, LaGrange et al for firing her—because she was doing her job.
Lady, don’t be a piker; aim high! Add a zero to your wrongful dismissal claim to really get their attention!
Alleged leaders like Parker are easy to manipulate. Many people are saying he is being investigated.
David, thank you for both these posts. I agree that the Mentzelopoulos/Mraiche story is huge. This appears to be heading to a major police investigation.
It had better be headed to a major police investigation, Simon. It appears to be evidence of open corruption, which as far as I know remains illegal, even in Alberta. It also throws a number of recent developments – for example, the sudden departure of Premier Smith’s former chief of staff – into a new light. DJC
DJC— well I guess we have to split the BINGO pool, wasn’t he going to the US on some “special assignment “…??
I’m curious what the NDP could do as the opposition to investigate it themselves, surely there is at a minimum an intrepid reporter or private investigator who’d be willing to chase down some leads for a few bucks. Would they be able to press charges ? Not necessarily, but they could publicize what they find, and that could add significant pressure towards SOMEONE being put in bracelets over this.
@djc
Umm Lethbridge East? I thought Ms. Phillips won that in 2023, so how did Mr. Miyashiro also run for that riding in 2023?
As for an enquiry, as you have noted, the UCP has no shame. Can’t see it happening. What I would like to see is the names of the outside of Alberta & excessive amount donators (would Elections Alberta have them listed?). Better yet, criminal charges.
Gerald: Ms. Phillips was the MA for Lethbridge-West. Easy mistake to make. Alberta ridings have confusing nomenclature and with candidates like Mr. Miyashiro running in both Lethbridge-East and Lethbridge-West in quick succession, it’s easy to get them mixed up, as I feared I had when I first saw your comment. As to your second point, that is part of the information that Elections Alberta has not released and probably won’t. That can only be remedied through an impartial inquiry. DJC
Every single day brings more news of Marlain-a-Lago’s corruption. Not only does she grovel at Trump’s feet, she shares his contempt for democracy and the rule of law.
Who needs to investigate and prosecute this? The RCMP have shown that they are incompetent at anything other than photo ops. The Auditor General will be fired if they look into UCP crimes. Most of the media is nothing more than a UCP lapdog.
Alberta is quickly becoming an oligarchy that only serves the fossil fuel industry and those cronies profiting from the wanton destruction of our publicly funded education and health care systems.
A close election doesn’t mean a stolen election despite the Trumpian inclination.
The NDP also won several ridings by narrow margins:
CALGARY-ACADIA 22
CALGARY-BEDDINGTON 543
CALGARY-EDGEMONT 284
CALGARY-FOOTHILLS 261
CALGARY-GLENMORE 48
BANFF-KANANASKIS 303
Only 1,467 swinging from the NDP to UCP would have resulted in a decisive 55 to 32 seat victory instead of 49 to 38.
TBA is paying a fine and is no longer a force in the province. If it did have an influence in 2023, it was most likely in rural AB, and least likely in Calgary. Unfortunately, the likes of AUPE, ATA and UNA are still political forces across the province.
Doug: I anticipated and preemptively responded to this point in the text of the post. Assuming that only the UCP/TBA was cheating (as I do) the close results in all the ridings you site might have been (likely would have been) larger in favour of the NDP. Moreover, AUPE, ATA and UNA all abided by the law and, as much as it might gripe you, we all (including Mr. Parker and TBA) still have a right to free speech in this country, although I doubt that would last very long if Alberta were a separate state, and we know it would not if Alberta were a 51st state of the disintegrating nation next door. You are quite wrong to say that TBA is no longer a force in this province. Mr. Parker may not be, but TBA has simply rebranded and continues to dominate the UCP. Regardless, only a full and impartial inquiry will settle the matter. And please don’t whinge about the cost. If democracy is worth our lives, as we are constantly told, it’s certainly worth the cost of a judge-led inquiry. DJC
‘lil pp a true right whinger?! right whinger ? think I’ll keep that! tyvm.
Another tidbit on David Parker and his legal troubles, courtesy of CBC. Parker is quoted:
“My claim is we did no political advertising. Their claim is the town halls were political advertising,” Parker said Tuesday. “Nobody who gave money to Take Back Alberta was donating to political advertising. THEY WERE UNDER THE ASSUMPTION THEY WERE DONATING TO OPERATIONS.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/david-parker-take-back-alberta-fines-political-advertising-1.7450567
NB the added emphasis. Parker’s donors were under the assumption they were paying for TBA “operations.” Two questions: 1) Which donors, exactly? 2) Were ALL of his donors “under the assumption,” or did some of them know Parker was gonna beak off in favour of his chosen UCP candidates?
How many recordings of his “town hall” stump speeches are available on Ex-Twitter? That should settle matters. Only an independent judicial investigation will reveal the truth.
Hello DJC and fellow commenters,
The conclusion by Elections Alberta that TB overspent on election advertising is momentous. TBA’s accepting donations from sources outside Canada raises the spectre of foreign interference in the most recent Alberta election.
I wonder if the results of the internal investigation and forensic audit initiated by Ms Mentzelopoulos will ever become public. Would any information about the investigation or the results be available if a FOIP request was made?
Oh wait! Here’s another fine mess the UCP’s gotten themselves into. Jason Nixon announced the UCP guvmint is suing the company that dumped a partially-paralyzed stroke victim into a Travelodge motel room instead of a long-term care facility:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-government-sues-non-profit-that-moved-clients-into-hotel-rooms-1.7450500
I am shocked—SHOCKED, I tell you—that Mr. Nixon has taken this action. It’s been less than a year since Mr. Blair Canniff was rousted out of the Royal Alex Hospital into the Travelodge, and then (after public outrage) returned to the RAH. Hasn’t the poor guy who owns Contentment Social Services suffered enough?
(Outraged footnote: Yes, UCP trolls, the above is sarcasm. Get over yourselves.)
So, they’re suing the guy who dumped Mr. Canning in a totally inadequate motel room. Why now? Why so fast? Why at all? It’s been only 10 months since the story first broke. I would have expected Danielle Smith to sweep this mess under the nearest rug and pile furniture on top to hide the mound.
I take a wild guess and say that some PR flack has recommended Smith et al revive this small embarrassment to distract her fanboys from the utter humiliation she suffered when Donald Trump treated her like dirt in Mar-a-Lago.
Mike: Or perhaps it had something to do with the metastasizing procurement scandal at AHS that led to the firing of the CEO who tried to investigate it and the entire board that recommended turning it over to the RCMP. The UCP brain trust would have known in exactly that time frame that Carrie Tait’s story in The Globe and Mail was about to break. DJC
Mike J Danysh: If all of these things don’t put the UCP party out of existence, what will it take for Albertans to wake up? Likely, all of this will reach a breaking point, and the UCP will be gone. Too many screwups from the UCP for them to carry on.
Meanwhile the NDP are MIA. On this and other issues: Eastern Slopes Coal, Provincial Parks All Season Act Resorts, AHS procurement/fraud, AHS reorg fiasco (the political gift that keeps on giving) and the Green Line fiasco, for example, should have Nenshi pounding the pulpit in front of the AB ledge! But so far no NDP pushback. Danielle is loving the political vacuum.
A vacuum only exists in the sense that the Alberta media refuses to cover anything that he does. I get updates every day from Nenshi.
Here are some links to get you started: https://www.ctvnews.ca/video/politics/2025/01/16/power-play-alta-ndp-leader-nenshi-says-smith-is-fearmongering-over-tariff-threat/
My Reaction to Bombshell Allegations about Alberta Health Services https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=haorjgUqlgY&pp=ygUGTmVuc2hp
https://lethbridgeherald.com/news/lethbridge-news/2025/02/05/ndp-hosts-local-town-hall-on-upcoming-alberta-budget/
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-5-calgary-eyeopener/clip/16125104-nenshi-green-line-plan
I don’t think so, Fred. The Herald and the Sun, now Postmedia owned, don’t cover the NDP. Look at this excellent story in the Globe. You won’t find it covered in most of the Alberta papers. Maybe the Medicine Hat paper.
The Conservatives in my world who proudly supported Notley in 2015 to stop this Reform Party stupidity blamed her for blowing it. Unlike 2015 when she praised Lougheed for what he had accomplished for the good of the people and explaining why we needed to get our oil royalties and corporate taxes back up to the Lougheed levels she came out a few days before the election and promised to increase corporate taxes by 3% without any explanation of why. The people assumed that she would be increasing their personal taxes also and these Reformers had what they needed to defeat her with all the lies they came out with. While they claimed that she had wasted $80 billion of taxpayers money and these morons still believe it. The financial statement some of us saw proved she hadn’t but she didn’t use it to show people what she had accomplished.
We all saw it as a huge mistake and she blew it.
The only mistake I saw was the rural voters choices…whining about Notley is pointless. How about we whine about the people in charge…that WE put in charge!
Alan K. Spiller Much like Ralph Klein was, the UCP and Danielle Smith can’t get anywhere without being deceiving. The 2019 provincial election was a sham. In 2023, Danielle Smith and the media were telling lies about Rachel Notley and the NDP, and that’s why the NDP were defeated. Gullible people also believed the lies of Danielle Smith.
I will never forget my father lying on a gurney in the hallway of the Foothills Hospital in Calgary in 1997, thanks to the financial disaster Klein had created in the healthcare system. Next door to the emergency room with people crying and screaming in pain and so much noise from the coming and going of Paramedics so they couldn’t get any sleep. They brought in a 16 year old with a major cut on his leg from a farm accident. He left a trail of blood on the floor from his wound. A few minutes later I asked a nurse if anyone was going to clean it up. She said Klein privatized the cleanup and we aren’t allowed to touch it. She was as disgusted as I was.
I left six hours later and it was still there and people had been walking through it and it had dried, and the young man moaning in pain still hadn’t seen a doctor.
After donating $30,000. to the Alberta Conservative Party that’s how dad was treated, he lay there for 4 days and died on Christmas Day 1997.
When I told this story in the Calgary Herald a man phoned me and told me his story. He was in a room with three other men sharing one bathroom. After several days of visits by his wife and daughter they showed up with buckets and mops to clean their filthy room and bathroom. The nurses called security on them and they had to fight their way past them. When
the security officer came he told the nurses to leave them alone they were doing a good job. To hell with Klein and his privatization he said.
I am very sorry that your father was treated that way, Alan. It was inhumane.
More of the same happened during the Kenney years. I took a leukemia patient to an emergency room one cold night hovering near -40, for what turned out to be pneumonia. They prescribed medication and recommended an overnight stay but the only space available was in the ambulance bay. You read that correctly: a person in their 90s with pneumonia and leukemia in the ambulance bay in -40 weather, with a thin blanket. That was a recipe for sure death, so I took the patient home. Thanks for nothing, Kenney.
When el gordo became Premier of B.C. he privatized the cleaning of hospitals. It was the largest mass firing of women in Canadian history. What did the people of B.C. get, dirty, dirty hospitals. In one hospital I knew would have family members go in and clean the bed and around it before they would come into the room. Bathrooms in wards of 4 were cleaned once a day and if they were too dirty to use, you called an R.N. who would clean it. Oh, and Burnaby General had over 80 patients die of il deficle in short order–investigation team made of B.C. Lieberal cheer leaders didn’t think there was a problem.
Please explain how exactly you came to the conclusion the election was stolen? I didn’t see anything in your allegation that indicated some form of ballot-box stuffing, or NDP votes not being counted. What evidence do you have that the actions of TBA prevented a riding from electing an NDP candidate? Pretty thin gruel IMHO.
You’re welcome to your opinion, dear sir or madam. DJC
“There are eyes that can not see and fingers that can not touch. That’s the way of the world.” – Way of the World, from the album Album by Generic Flipper.
Now that everything has blown up all at once, the role of Bow Valley Credit Union in provincial politics also needs to come under official scrutiny.
https://www.rmoutlook.com/canmore/bow-valley-credit-union-marketing-tactic-under-moral-scrutiny-8308112
https://www.airdriecityview.com/opinion/our-view-if-it-quacks-like-a-duck-and-walks-like-a-duck-its-a-duck-8331281
https://www.stockwatch.com/News/Item/Z-C!MNT-3505649/C/MNT
Why did its CEO speak at a Take Back Alberta event?
As a loyal gate keeper of Heck on Earth! I demand a copy of the Globe and Mail article detailing the byzantine machinations of our “government” vis a vis our now lamented, formerly known as, Alberta Health Services! We in the under class have no resources to pay to climb the pay wall!
As one without a car on the eastern side of the Bosphorus? I thank you! Full article from the Globe & Mail:
“Premier Danielle Smith’s government dismissed the head of Alberta Health Services two days before she was scheduled to meet with the province’s Auditor-General to discuss her investigation into procurement contracts and deals for private surgical facilities, according to a letter obtained by The Globe and Mail.
The letter also alleges that the Premier’s then-chief of staff interfered in AHS contract negotiations.
Alberta terminated Athana Mentzelopoulos as AHS’s chief executive on Jan. 8, replacing her with Andre Tremblay, the deputy minister of health. Ms. Mentzelopoulos, in a lengthy letter from her lawyer to AHS’s interim general counsel on Jan. 20, alleges that she was fired because she launched “an internal investigation and forensic audit” into AHS’s contracts and procurement processes.
AHS’s operations came under scrutiny after The Globe reported that members of Alberta’s government received gifts from a company that imported generic pain medication from Turkey for the health authority.
The Office of the Auditor-General, in a statement to The Globe, confirmed it is aware of allegations of questionable procurement practices but declined to comment further.
The AHS board, after Ms. Mentzelopoulos provided an update on her investigation in December, recommended that she take her findings to the RCMP, the letter alleges. The government dismissed the board Jan. 31.
Ms. Mentzelopoulos investigated AHS’s relationship and contracts with MHCare, the company that facilitated Alberta’s $75-million deal to import generic children’s pain medication from Turkey in 2022, and its owner Sam Mraiche. She also dug into AHS’s chartered surgical facilities (CSFs) and their contracts.
In her letter, she alleges that she faced pressure to sign new deals for chartered surgical facilities, including an extension for a provider known as Alberta Surgical Group (ASG). CSFs are private outfits that perform operations paid for by the government as part
I wasn’t quite complete. Don’t worry though. There will be plenty more where this came from!
I suspect if this story unravels further it will take Danielle and her government down. The people of Alberta have historically liked a clean and honest government- no matter the strange doctrine the government may enunciate. If the government turns corrupt it is the usual result to turf the government. Danni dearest may have dug her, and the used car party’s grave. The clock is ticking.
Hello DJC,
I agree with Anonymous that you dig into important issues that most don’t. (Susan on the Soapbox, being one of the few who also does.) I also agree with Anonymous’s other comments above. Lots of other good comments, too, on this issue.
I am so sorry to read of Alan’s father’s hospital experience. Regrettably, under Danielle Smith, we can expect more of the same kind of deteriorated treatment of patients.
That was a fun read. Not surprised at all. Don’t think much will be done, unless it can make its way into the courts. The voters of Alberta will keep re electing Smith and gang, just as americans voted for Trump. “there are none so blind as those who will not see”.
We have rules regarding who donates to political parties and how much. When those rules are violated you are “stealing” an election. It doesn’t have to be ballot box stuffing or lying about the rules.
If it quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, walks like a duck, it’s a duck.
After this lethbridge by-election, That US election, I am never trusting another poll ever again.
I am glad I wasn’t the only one feeling this, not to mention the polls. I am in the TBA telegram! (which is rapidly losing members as we speak)
And scrolling through their chats, One message stuck out to me that… makes me not wanna trust polls is that.
During the announcement of smiths policies on trans youth, A radio station wanted to do a Poll, and sense this was the height of TBA, Parker made announcement on there demanding everyone flood it saying they support it. (even though it was a Calgary station looking for people in there local area)
Not to mention when there was a poll stating the NDP are beating the UCP. He stated it was “Not good”
I am sorry, but… your telling me that the NDP, Nenshi whos campaign broke records in this country and province alone in membership sales, ALMOST WON THE ELECTION, were I am starting to see more and more anger of the UCP. and yet… “there doing good” even though if you look at the very same polls, The other parties are doing well (liberals, ABP, GREEN etc)
something doesn’t add up and I am glad we are talking about this as TBA/Parker are fucking sketchy.
Thank you Dave. Helluva followup to a very, very serious story.
Thank you, Mike. I always try to add a little value, in the form of analysis, not just repeat what the press release says. DJC
I heard elsewhere (the breakdown) one of the fines was for improper recording of donations (who? how much?) so do we even have an idea of how egregious the overspending was? And how much came from outside Alberta?
CAD: The answer to both your questions is that Elections Alberta hasn’t said and we don’t know. DJC