It may just be a political stunt when a prime minister comes to the capital city of Alberta, puts on his skates and a jersey with his own name on it and warms up with the local NHL team, which just happens to be called the Oilers, but you’ve got to admit it’s a hell of a stunt!
Even if it were to happen again with some politician whose name isn’t Mark Carney, and whose hometown isn’t Edmonton, it’ll never be as good as it was yesterday because, let’s face it, the first time you saw something like this on Instagram is always going to be the best time!
Even if Premier Danielle Smith and her MAGA gang down at the Alberta Legislature weren’t furious about pretty well everything else to do with Mr. Carney – he is a Liberal and an economist with a doctorate, after all – they’d be furious about this.
Some political flunky is probably being horsewhipped in the basement of the Legislature right now for not thinking of it first. Just guessing here, though, but it’s unlikely either Alberta’s United Conservative Premier Danielle Smith or federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre can skate as well as Mr. Carney did, even if he looked a little rusty.
He was, after all, once upon a time a goalie for the Harvard Crimson NCAA hockey team, albeit only a third-stringer. Still, those two Conservatives would be skating on thin ice if they tried the same stunt, if you’ll pardon the expression.
As a consolation prize, Ms. Smith at least got to sit in the skybox at Rogers Place during the Stanley Cup playoffs with the nice folks who arranged to get us all that Turkish Tylenol, or some of it, anyway.
Last night Mr. Carney watched the Oilers play the Jets from the regular seats, and got a nice mention on the Oilers’ blog.
Ms. Smith’s supporters are sure furious about the fact the new prime minister doesn’t have a seat in the House of Commons – how undemocratic! It seems to have completely slipped their minds that when Ms. Smith won the party vote to lead the United Conservative Party in 2022 and was sworn in as premier, she didn’t have a seat in the provincial Legislature either. I’m sure they have an explanation, though, for why this time it’s different.
Likewise, they’ve been furious literally for months that the Liberals wouldn’t call an election, when they were certain they’d win it in a trot. Now, by the sound of it, they’re furious that Mr. Carney is about to do just that – on Sunday, according to Radio-Canada. Being a newbie to elected office, Mr. Carney has an obligation to sit in the House of Commons while Mr. Poilievre yells three-word slogans at him, apparently.
There were plenty of rumours about what Mr. Carney, the central banker who has been prime minister for less than a week, was going to do when he got to Edmonton, but I can’t recall hearing that warming up with the Oilers was on his bingo card.
Some folks certainly speculated he would announce he was going to run in an Edmonton riding. He didn’t, though, and probably won’t. YEG may be his home town, and it’s pretty liberal, but it’s too far from where he’s going to be needed to campaign in multiple ridings if his Liberals are going to pull off the unexpected post-Trudeau turnaround that recent polls suggest might be possible.
If they do, it’ll be almost a miracle, given the polling over the past year, but it’s not going to be a miracle on the Prairies.
Others guessed he’d announce that Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, a former minister in the cabinet of Mr. Carney’s predecessor, was going to return to federal politics. Neither man said much about that yesterday, but it could still happen.
The Edmonton Southeast federal riding is right in Mr. Sohi’s old political stomping ground, both federal and municipal, and it still lacks a Liberal candidate. Mayor Sohi, moreover, would be justified in arguing he can do more for Edmonton in Ottawa than he can in Alberta where the UCP tries to throw obstacles in his way at every turn.
Everyone, of course, understood that Mr. Carney would want to visit Ms. Smith, and that Alberta’s premier would probably make a fool of herself. So no one who bet on that outcome needs to be disappointed.
Ms. Smith childishly refused to have her photo taken with the PM. Or, as Postmedia’s foundering flagship tried to explain it away, “‘We weren’t interested in photo-ops, we wanted to get down to business,’ Smith spokesperson Sam Blackett told the National Post.”
This is odd, since photos of Ms. Smith abound, published almost daily, on the provincial government’s royalty-free photo site, Alberta Newsroom, on Flickr.
No sooner was the chilly 45-minute meet ’n’ greet over than Ms. Smith’s social media brain trust published a performative list of nine non-negotiable “demands” on Elon Musk’s X social media site, where all the serious Conservative minds hang out, that “the next Prime Minister, regardless of who that is, must address within the first six months of their term to avoid an unprecedented national unity crisis.”
Among them, “guaranteeing Alberta full access to oil and gas corridors to the north, east, and west” (our last territorial demand in Canada); “eliminating the oil and gas emissions cap, which is a production cap” (except it’s an emissions cap); “halting the federal censorship of energy companies” (notwithstanding the fact there is no censorship); and the always vital “ending the prohibition on single use plastics.” On this last point, as a former dishwasher in her husband’s High River restaurant, Ms. Smith is death on paper straws.
Seriously, if her communications brain trust could have come up with one more point, they could have made it a Letterman-style Top Ten List!
Her statement also blamed last summer’s tragic Jasper fire on Parks Canada – certainly nothing to do with global climate change.
Readers are welcome to read it for themselves, but if they’d prefer to save time, acerbic Twitterista Mimi Williams summed up the premier’s threat nicely on X: “‘Do exactly what I want, or I will unleash the lunatic separatists (less than 20% of Albertans) to flood Twitter with badly designed memes!’ is not the flex she thinks it is.”
One expects Mr. Carney would have come to a similar conclusion before heading out to watch the Jets beat the Oilers, 4 to 3.
I don’t think its a political stunt as much as a perk of being PM, to take advantage of what might be an once in a lifetime opportunity and dream. Now he actually has some cred here, as the picture of him as a hockey player in his youth indicates. But at this point I’m sure McDavid doesn’t need to worry about his position being challenged by the new guy.
Yes, Smith probably blew a gasket when she saw this, as one to seldom miss a great photo op. All she got were Sky Box seats to the Oilers playoff games and a bunch of expiring pain medication. Perhaps she took some today for the resulting headache.
I don’t know if any decisions have been made yet about high profile candidates for the Federal Liberals in Edmonton, but speculation has sure erupted now about the Mayor who also was a Federal Liberal Minister in the past. It makes some sense when you think about it, a high profile candidate also with very relevant past experience.
As for Smith’s long list of demands, I expect they will be mostly politely ignored, which will probably make her even more angry and that headache worse. So take some more of that pain medication, Dani. At least you’ve got a lot of it still kicking around.
When I saw the first 5 seconds of the news coverage, showing him in Oilers gear, I decided laundry could wait. Was not disappointed. The foot stomping was reminiscent of peanut shell lounge floors, back in the day in Calgary lol.
I’m not sure if Skippy and Marlaina have a wager on whom can out d’rump d’rump, but they are both giving it their best Uof C try it seems.
Again, amazingly, neither one knows or cares that people have memories of what they have said/ posted in the past, way long ago, in February and the one before that, and the one before that and the one before that.
Hmmm, maybe the brain fog is starting to wear off some of the covidiots crowd. Fingers crossed.
I suspect some of the reason for Smith’s juvenile diatribe is a response to the enormous number of “What the F#^& are you doing toadying up to Trump?” she has been receiving.
When the UCP is out of their depth and are being called on, they resort to bluster and bullying.
Case in point, minister McIver’s obnoxious response to Calgary mayor Gondek criticism of the province’s education tax hike (CBC Eyeopener Thurs Mar 20).
I like the way Mr. Carney approaches this. He is not afraid to jump into the lion’s den with Diaper Dani right off the get go and appears calm and rational, which Smith appears to be unable to do. Like others have said, I to am sick and tired of the only thing Smith is capable of doing is complaining and fighting with others.
Stormy Danielle is an embarrassment to Alberta. Sure there are a few kooks out there who get their information from Post Media and believe every lie that she spews, but most Albertans are rational, caring folks. All Marlaina achieved with her petulant tantrum was showing the rest of Canada that she would grovel before Trump in a second if she thought it might somehow benefit her personally.
Carney One – Poilievre Zero. Welcome home Mark.
In my comment yesterday I speculated which was Danielle Smith’s higher priority, Albertans or the oil and gas industry. I think it is noteworthy that all 9 of Ms. Smith’s demands are tied to either the production or consumption of fossil fuels. Meanwhile, missing from her top nine priorities is anything about the plight of canola farmers hit with 100% tariffs from China, or beef farmers probably hit with on again/off again 25% tariffs from the US.
Bob: The solution to the canola problem is obvious: lift the ridiculous tariff on Chinese-built electric cars, which was put in place mainly to please former president Biden, which are of considerably less utility now that the United States has revealed itself clearly to be an enemy of Canada. Also, it probably wouldn’t hurt to clean up the canola we ship to China which, as a couple of regular commenters on this blog frequently point out, is full of crap since Stephen Harper closed down the Canadian Wheat Board and sold its assets off to Saudi Arabia for a song. Of Chinese EVs, Ms. Smith said the other day, “nobody wants them anyway,” or words to that effect. On the contrary, I’m pretty sure if they were sold in Canada for the price they’re sold in China – well under $20,000 Cdn – the streets of Calgary and Edmonton, and even Grande Prairie and Lethbidge, would be full of them. DJC
Yes, please, to Chinese EVs: cheap, efficient and apparently good quality. Could form a partnership to sell these vehicles with an existing auto retail chain. With US tariffs threatening the survival of North American auto manufacturing, Canada needs to move on it (for the canola, of course).
https://electricautonomy.ca/policy-regulations/2024-08-02/byd-canada-passenger-evs-rideshare/
Agreed, David. We should lift the tariffs on Chinese EVs. If I had the funds to buy a new car, I’d be looking at BYD (although, why can’t we look at retrofitting current cars to be EV or Plug-in Hybrid – do we really need churn out new models every year?)
Drew: It’s certainly possible to retrofit cars as EVs, just as it’s possible (in Cuba) to retrofit old V8 Buicks and the like with Lada 4-bangers. I’d be looking at a BYD too if I could. DJC
I was recently in Thailand. Lots of beautiful BYD cars.
I’d love to own one for under $20k.
It looks like tRump is determined to kill our auto industry and one trade war at a time is surely enough.
Chinese EVs make everyone else’s EVs look like battered Tonka toys. In a few years everyone will be driving them everywhere, except in North America where we get overpriced crap from the big automakers, and exploding crap from Tesla; also overpriced (and I would think not very popular on the resale market). Buying a Chinese Ev Use it for its entire lifecycle and recycling it at the end is going to be cheaper than LEASING and it’s like your driving a spaceship. Seriously, they’re amazing cars, just one of many fronts that China is kicking ass on.
One other thing I wanted to shoehorn in here, as it comes up fairly often on this blog, does anyone know who facilitated the deal between the Saudi Investment firm and the Canadian government to purchase the wheat pool ? I have seen rumours that one Jeffrey Epstein was involved in the transaction, and it’s not outside the realm of possibility from what I was able to gather together. MBS did chair the investment firm that made the purchase and he was a top client and close personal friend of J.E. The deal is OUTRAGEOUSLY in favour of the Saudis, in fact it has amounted to a heist of billions of dollars from Canadian farmers. That is to say, it’s the kind of deal that looks like there may have been pressure applied, which is what got me wondering about the rumours I saw elsewhere on the internet. Not for nothing the agricultural minister at the time resigned shortly after to “concentrate on his family”.
All I want to know is, does anyone know brokered the deal?
Kang? Any thoughts on this? DJC
Grande Prairie would be a stretch David!
I’m torn on this. We imposed that tariff at the urging of the Biden Administration, and now we see that genuflecting to the US hasn’t helped us much. And China has slapped harmful counter-tariffs on certain Canadian products, from Canola to seafood. So there’s a good argument for lifting them.
But, in the other hand, there’s this: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/china-executes-canadians-drug-related-crime-1.7487764.
China has an opaque and heavily politicized “justice” system in which guilty verdicts are virtually guaranteed, and imposes capital punishment for drug offences among other non-violent crimes. Do we really want to be doing business with them? Is the almighty dollar worth putting up with that kind of a brutal regime?
So do we lift the 100% tariff on Chinese-made EVs despite our deep distaste for the PRC government? Or do we leave them on and allow our farmers and fishers to suffer? There’s no easy answer.
China imprisons and punitively punishes people who commit serious crimes in China. It is not the only sovereign nation to use capital punishment and it’s likely the most responsible of those that do. As a sovereign nation, it’s entirely up to them how to conduct themselves. The three Canadians they talk about in that story ALL were attempting to move massive quantities of narcotics into China and were caught red handed. (Curiously it’s also noted in this article that Robert Schellenberger is still alive and appealing his death sentence, that really blew my eyebrows back)
In contrast The United States kidnaps and renditions enemies of the United States all over the globe including those who have not committed a crime in, or against the United States, while also engaging in illegal assassination, sabotage, terrorism, unjustified invasions of sovereigns, economic blockades, starvation, having the worlds largest system of prisons, most of which are used as a slave labour force for American companies. Oh yeah and they tried to rendition a publisher they didn’t like revealing in granular detail the specific nature of their crimes, revealing for all their right to “free speech” as what it is. They have a network of black sites within THEIR OWN COUNTRY to spy on, sabotage, or murder their own citizens.
Should we continue to trade with such a bad faith country who has spent the last eighty years bullying literally everyone on planet earth? Tough questions.
Also, she’s never talking about easing costs to Albertans of our electricity or auto insurance nor does she talk about our kids who are stuffed into over filled class rooms or sick people who can’t find a doctor! But she’s always going on about the poor oil companies and how hard done by they are.
“Release the hounds, Smithers!” That’s going well. Now Albertans on X are expressing their wishes for a Smith-free Alberta, rather than an an Alberta-free Canada.
Rumor has it that a Justin Trudeau staffer will run in the Papineau riding, but a seat in Nepean just opened up.
https://www.thestar.com/liberal-party-drops-ottawa-mp-chandra-arya-as-election-candidate/article_0fc5973f-aa7e-4ea2-a6d4-84f227afb389.html
Nepean it is, according to the Globe and Mail.
Well, if you read the comments on the Globe, the MAGA folks have their own list: lying about his blind trust, being a green fanatic, unelected, Trudeau’s clone, WEF enthusiast, and so on.
Unfortunately, most Albertans read the Nazional Putsch and its clones if they read anything besides the alt-news on the net. So if the Liberals can manage 3 or 4 seats across the prairies, it will be a miracle. If the NDP and Mr. Singh still exist….well….
Hysterical lies repeated incessantly and at the top of ones the lungs is an effective strategy, because, well, incurious, uninformed, malicious, dumb: most people are some combination of the four.
What may possibly save us is, it takes time to pour enough poison into suffiently many ears. We can already detect the broad themes…what the LPC will do is deny them time to take effect. Hence the shrill edge of panic in their voices.
Alberta’s TBA premier goes out of her way to have taxpayers fund vacations so she can take selfies with the orange filth current disgracing humanity and other MAGA creeps like drug addict Jordan Peterson, convicted criminal Conrad Black and Russian asset Tucker Carlson. I am so glad I moved back to Canada from your shit hole province.
CX: I have added some citations to demonstrate that your adjectival phrases qualify as fair comments. DJC
Make to mistake, treason can be dealt with in only one manner: death.
Time to build gallows, but I prefer the drama of the guilotine.
JM: I don’t agree. It’s just too murky what constitutes treason. And guillotines have bad habit of being overused. A long prison term would be appropriate. DJC
The point is that the accused loudmouths lose their heads.
Whether truly guilty or not, it’s well known where their sympathies lay.
FWIW, revolutionaries in France were regretful of the guillotines, something about how it poisoned the spirit of the whole egalitarian thing.
OT: I have been in the basement of the Alberta legislature. It is perfect for horsewhipping.
CX: So have I. Completely agree. Although the coffee there is punishment enough, probably. DJC
Imagine if you will a CS Mark Carney in a great hat (reference stevey harper hat pic ) casually chatting politics in the line up to have Dani put pancakes on his plate with only a wry “good morning” and a smiling “thank you very much” without any other interaction. A couple of “to be overheard” trigger phrases could be included near the service area. Please arrange video and telephoto coverage. Have it all “we didn’t know he was in town”.
The hockey was good tho.
That dog in a manger style of tc dani looks like a key to turning non Albertan conservatives into lib votes.
The false flag freedom clownvoy for selfcentered greed tack, this time writ large on the international stage and the naked pandering to drumpf (sry for the image) looks like the treason it really is.
If I were Mark Carney? Or his advisers? I would go with a Cordovan Hat! What better chapeau in a reign of bull shit!
You’re selling Danielle short. She spent her time in the Dining Car waiting on tables and was only a temporary dishwasher. I’ve eaten there – pre-UCP. She did a good job taking our orders and delivering our meals. Nice to know she has something to fall back on when the Premier gig is up. (For the record, will not step foot in the place again until it’s under new ownership. Still for sale. Price reduced. No takers. Wonder why?)
HH: I’m not shocked Ms. Smith is a good waitron. She’s very charming, and gaslights with enthusiasm. I’m sure she never told a customer, “Don’t eat the cheeseburger, the burger’s mostly bread and it’s undercooked.” DJC
No worries, she will have plenty of places, and plenty of cash from boards of oil leeches to have to revert to the cutting board in the dingy dinner.
Seriously, who is giving Smith this advice? She is making demands that MUST be met in the next 6 months or she will make it her life’s work to make sure there is a unity crisis in Canada. Smith is channeling Don Quixote, tilting at windmills with her lowly squire Scott Moe as Sancho Panza.
What fun!!!
Dani and her gang are being seriously wrong-footed.
VERY enjoyable read!
What a PR moment. The PM smiled, looked relaxed, pleasantly humble, yet confident. How refreshing and positive to see the human side of a political leader rather mindless, negative, robotic puppets whining and demanding while blaming others for the madness they wrought. Can’t wait to vote.
Nice to see a PHD in Economics who can also play hockey.
Chuck: My late dad had a PhD in astrophysics and he was a terrific hockey player. Alas, his son was a disappointment in this regard. DJC
Not sure which you mean he was good at, but must be Astrophysics.
This old NDP supporter will be voting Liberal in the Okanagan, as my family and friends will be.
I get a good feeling about Carney.
And I hope FPTP delivers .
Chuck: He was good at astrophysics. He was also really good at ice hockey. DJC
There goes the provincial subsidy to the Oilers Entertainment Group. Perhaps now the UCP brain trust will have to content themselves with screwing up Edmonton’s transit system order to give the Capital “equal treatment.”
Neil: Screwing up Edmonton’s transit system any more than it’s already screwed up would be a challenge, even for the UCP! DJC
Edmontons transit system was built to punish folks that don’t have cars. I’ll never not believe it.
Bird: I concur. But I also think, in the spirit of democracy, that has been expanded to punish people who do have cars, too. DJC
What struck me the most about Carney was his exchange with a Western Standard idiot/reporter who tried to crash the presser. Carney stood up to him, showed him no respect, and ripped him a new one. In these times of disinformation, propagated by Postmedia and a host of alt-right media platforms/cesspools, it’s time to attack them, hard and furiously.
In war, it’s necessary and required to destroy the enemy. Obliterate. Incinerate. Exterminate.
I’m heartened that Carney is going on the offensive. It’s time to rip the unholy alliance between the CPC and the GOP/Evangelical cabal.
McJesus ain’t impressed.
https://x.com/AmazingZoltan/status/1903191536088781103
This video looks like what they call a “deep fake,” although in this case it’s amateurish, that is, not very deep. DJC
“[O]ur last territorial demand in Canada”: I saw what you did there. Sounds like the pledge made by a certain Austrian emigrant to Germany to Messrs Daladier and Chamberlain in Munich in 1938.
I beg to differ on the emissions cap versus production cap, but only because most environmentalists have serious doubts emissions can be reduced while maintaining and even increasing fossil fuel production. I am not qualified to judge the veracity of those doubts, but they exist and have been prominently featured in many of the more progressive media outlets.
that picture of PP, not a happy boy. Nasty doesn’t get you as far as nice.
Smith may have demands she but fails to have a back up plan. Others may not be willing to waste time negotiating, if there is nothing to negotiate. ,. Carney can simply respond, “not wasting our time on this”
Holding votes to leave Canada haven’t been successful, check with Quebec.
Just because Smith went to Mar a log glow doesn’t mean she can disengage from Canada.