On Monday, Alberta’s former infrastructure minister complained that his 30-day suspension from the United Conservative Party Caucus in the Legislature with its accompanying gag order had lasted 48 days.
Yesterday, Premier Danielle Smith, with the help of her henchpersons in caucus, made it permanent. Caucus voted to banish Mr. Guthrie from the UCP benches and cast him into the parliamentary version of outer darkness – that is, the Legislature’s distant independents’ corner.
Well, the Airdrie-Cochrane MLA is gagged no more! Yesterday afternoon, he rose in the Legislature and said, “Yeah. Mr. Speaker, I would like to table my February 25 resignation letter from cabinet.” Hansard doesn’t record any gasps, but one imagines there may have been a few.
I mean, it was a cabinet document. It was supposed to be a secret. It is no more.
Credit where credit is due, Alberta media has covered this development with unusual alacrity and thoroughness, recounting the allegations in Mr. Guthrie’s resignation letter that Health Minister Adriana LaGrange, and maybe Premier Smith too, “deliberately misled” cabinet about “procurement issues” at Alberta Health Services.
“This deception resulted in the dismissal of the AHS board,” Mr. Guthrie’s resignation letter bluntly stated.
“Procurement issues” in this case sounds like the pressure from individuals connected to the UCP to accept dodgy contracts and other ethically questionable practices alleged in fired Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos’s $1.7-million wrongful dismissal lawsuit, which the Smith Government aggressively denies.
The clear implication of Mr. Guthrie’s new allegation is that if cabinet had understood the suspicion something nefarious was afoot was justified, it wouldn’t have fired the board – which, Ms. Mentzelopoulos alleged in her lawyer’s Jan. 20 letter to AHS first reported by The Globe and Mail and in her statement of claim, led to her being fired on Jan. 8, after which her investigations were blocked.
Ms. Mentzelopoulos’s claims have not been proven in court, but Mr. Guthrie’s now-clarified reason for quitting cabinet certainly seems to offer some credibility to the suggestion something was rotten in the state of Alberta.
Clearly, Mr. Guthrie’s impression that cabinet had been hoodwinked was what led to his call in February for Ms. LaGrange to “be moved to another unrelated ministry until an investigation is complete.” Premier Smith rejected this out of hand.
In his Feb. 25 letter, Mr. Guthrie had asked: “If we can normalize deception in government business practices, what other indiscretions may emerge?” This is a good question. For asking it, Mr. Guthrie was put on “probation” the next day, barred from attending caucus meetings and told to keep his mouth shut.
After the resignation letter had been made public yesterday, the premier’s spokesperson, Sam Blackett, insisted that Mr. Guthrie was “mistaken” about what happened at the meeting. This seems unlikely.
According to Calgary Herald political columnist Don Braid, until yesterday Mr. Guthrie thought he might be readmitted to the UCP Caucus. To anyone who has been paying attention to the conduct of Ms. Smith’s government over the past few months, this seems unrealistic, even naïve, but I guess hope, like outer darkness, is eternal.
“MLA Guthrie has made it clear that he does not support the government’s decision to wait for the investigations of both the Auditor-General and Judge Raymond Wyant to conclude prior to taking further action on the issue of AHS procurement practices and the allegations made by the former AHS CEO,” the UCP Caucus said in an unsigned statement. “It is also clear that he wishes to continue to publicly voice his opposition to the government on that issue.”
Accordingly, the caucus statement snottily concluded, “we wish him well as he continues in his role as MLA for his constituency.”
Politicians in Alberta – Ms. Smith notably among them – have recovered from what appeared to be career-ending moves before. Still, it seems likely this will be the beginning of the end of Mr. Guthrie’s political career. He will certainly have trouble getting re-elected as an independent candidate should he consider that course of action.
On the other hand, this may free him to speak even more clearly. “That’s why there should be an open, transparent inquiry,” he told Mr. Braid in an interview. “Let’s open the books and get to the bottom of this. I think a judicial inquiry would do that.”
That is a fate Ms. Smith is determined to avoid.
One wonders also about the impact of this situation on the future of Auditor General Doug Wylie, who had his staff make it clear he does not approve of the government’s scheme to press government employees he contacts to talk to a government lawyer first. Alberta officials who defy the whims of Ms. Smith have a way of not remaining in office.
While Mr. Guthrie’s fate may serve as a warning to other UCP Caucus members not to be too free about saying what they think if it involves anything less than fulsome support of the premier, she faces some practical limitations on overdoing it.
There are now 46 UCP members of the Legislature, 47 if you count Speaker Nathan Cooper, the MLA for Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills. A few of them are still rumoured to be harbouring feelings of resentment if not resistance to the premier.
Two former MLAs, Mr. Guthrie and Lesser Slave Lake MLA Scott Sinclair, now sit as independents. Mr. Sinclair, the only First Nations candidate to run for the UCP in 2023, published a social media post on March 1 criticizing the government’s February budget and suggesting he might not vote for it. He was sent into exile less than a week later.
Meanwhile, there are 36 members of the NDP Opposition in the House. And there are two vacant seats – Edmonton-Strathcona and Edmonton-Ellerslie.
NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi is expected to win Strathcona with ease whenever Ms. Smith gets around to calling a by-election.
Ellerslie was unwisely abandoned by Rod Loyola to run in the federal election as a Liberal before he was unceremoniously dumped for comments he made in a 2009 video recording. Nevertheless, the NDP has a good chance of holding that riding too, although the UCP will surely make a serious effort to win there to end the Opposition monopoly on Edmonton ridings.
When the dust settles, the UCP will still have a comfortable margin by Parliamentary standards, but not one so comfortable the premier could afford a wholesale purge of rebellious members.
Meanwhile, the NDP is trying to capitalize on Ms. LaGrange’s troubles by launching a campaign calling on the premier to fire her.
The Opposition party is obviously counting on the premier not to do that, but they should be careful what they wish for.
After all, at this point, what would they do without her?
As a born cynic I sit in awe of Ms. Smith. Whenever the kitchen gets hot, she turns her focus onto the Federal government with a dose of gas lighting. This acts as the perfect distraction to what is going on in her caucus, province etc. Price of oil dropping, deficits climbing no problem blame Trudeau, oops Carney. Need an escape head for a right wing talk show. If it wasn’t so sad it would be funny. PS… when can we see the results of the CPP survey?
From Dani’s point of view? A brain dead sock puppet is better than no puppet! For methaqualone La Lagrange? Well, a pay-cheque and a pension would seem to be enough! https://youtu.be/Tyvn3QR7BRk
It’s hard to go back to the farm once you’ve seen the bright lights of the big city — Washington, D.C., that is. And so it seems we’re stuck with Adriana and her Children First pin.
Speaking of a wing and a prayer, did anyone pay to pray with Dani and Jordan Peterson’s wife at the Alberta Christian Prayer gathering on this Holy Thursday?
I never get the whole Peterson nonsense cult.
He lied from the start to make his first viral video by stating he’d be arrested or fired for “not using correct pronouns” rather than the truth which was that the legislation had no teeth, it was merely a pronouncement of intent, more than anything else.
At that point is when he should have been publicly called out as a bullsh*t artist by everyone and every media outlet via explaining the actual bill (name of which, escapes me at the moment, at the time I read it thoroughly) but was not– thus, we find ourselves with this guy that dresses like the Joker’s sidekick, spews plagerized self-help Dale Carnagie pseudo-psychology to a cult of incels…
…that could have saved us a ton of nonsense from young people who *should* be aggrieved, not because their rooms are messy or think they’re entitled to sex from women–but because their future economic security has been hijacked by neo-liberalism. If we look at that and provide them with a better future in housing and jobs–he’ll fade into obscurity pretty fast.
He’s not credible. He never was and he’s been riding that self-righteous victimhood claim ever since. Peterson screams “fweedom” at the top of his lungs while he preaches authoritarianism.
So why anybody of any leverage hangs out with him, well, says a lot about them, right there.
@djc
I’m curious – the by-election to replace Rachel Notley must be held by June 30, but is there a deadline for the announcement as well? Ie I am asking if there is required campaign period too?
While Smith does have a track record of bad decisions, I would be gobsmacked if she is petty enough to delay this by-election and risk giving Lt. Governor. Lakhani irrefutable cause to remove her.
Gerald: It’s actually against the (election) law to prohibit a by-election, or to not have one within a 6 month time frame. Why Danielle Smith wasn’t punished for this is baffling. Calgary Elbow, never had a by-election, to replace Doug Schweitzer, a UCP MLA, who had resigned (apparently he had ties to the Kamikaze affair). The seat sat vacant past 6 months, until the provincial election in 2023. “Costs” were the excuse Danielle Smith used for this. Danielle Smith doesn’t want to see Naheed Nenshi in the Legislature, because they have an association that goes back around 35 years, when both were students at the University of Calgary. He’d wipe the floor with her, because he is aware of how she lies. Give him even a short period of time to debate with her, and she’d be finished. Apparently, there are other vacant ridings, because MLAs have resigned, so Danielle Smith will not want to hurry with by-elections there either.
Smith will probably come to regret that she did not listen to Guthrie and then removed him from the UCP.
First of all, he can now speak more freely and he seems to know, or have a good idea of, where some of the skeletons are buried here. Second, this latest event keeps us talking about and wondering about the UCP Health Care scandal. For instance, why is Smith digging in her heels so much here? Is it just being stubborn, are there some things she does not want to come out or is she even a bigger part of the problem herself?
As uncomfortable as a public inquiry would be for the UCP, this steady drip of news may be more corrosive for them. It also only takes a few more unhappy MLAs to join Guthrie and they will be able to form their own party.
The longer this goes on the more uncomfortable some will be in continuing to be associated with the United Corruption Party, as it may start to be better known as over time. Another mystery is why Smith continues to keep the Health Minister in place. Perhaps the easiest thing to do at this point would be to get rid of her. Again is it stubbornness or worry that the Minister knows to much and may also start talk, if cut loose? Lest we forget that others implicated in this scandal worked closely with the Premier in her office.
After several months, still so many questions and so few answers here.
This just gets more and more intense, as time goes by. I have my doubts that the UCP will get out of this big mess unscathed. There are more layers to this too. At one point, we may very well see Danielle Smith do an acting job in front of the media cameras, trying to say how she stood up for Albertans, when we know full well that isn’t the case at all. We will see her departure from politics. The UCP will disintegrate. Preston Manning will watch as his latest attempt at uniting the right will flop. He’s already attempted it twice, and those times were unsuccessful.
There’s an out in the legislation concerning proximity of a general election. The UCP used it to block a timely by-election in Calgary-Elbow. It may not have changed the outcome in the riding, but arguably it worked in the general election. DJC
I find myself confused by all this. There’s so many levels of questionable actions.
Is there no mechanism by which, this can be looked into by a neutral party? Like RCMP fraud squad (is that why Dani wants provincial police?) or a non-partisan investigative hearing…something? Ethics committee hearing?
Where can we at least get folks digging around to find out some semblance of the truth of these matters. Or do we need an investigative reporting team that can dive deep so the authorities have no choice but to take heed?
I think it’s about time that legislation be put in place to make all votes blind votes. If these politicians are so afraid of being sacked for going against their tyrant of a party leader that they won’t stand up for their constituents and what is right, then we are really no better off than the states right now. No wonder Smith gets along so well with the maga losers.