Thanks to Friday’s cabinet reshuffle, more than half of the entire United Conservative Party caucus in the Alberta Legislature is now a member of Premier Danielle Smith’s cabinet!
To be precise, 57.4 per cent of the 47 UCP MLAs now have a cabinet portfolio. When you subtract Speaker Ric McIver, just appointed to replace Washington-bound Nathan Cooper, that rises to 58.7 per cent.
And as Mr. Cooper remains on the list for the moment, his departure next month will raise the percentage to an even 60 per cent!
This is not normal and it’s not an indicator of healthy government.
There are now 27 cabinet ministers, two of them meaninglessly labelled as associates but in cabinet nevertheless, up from an already disproportionately large group of 25.
Fully four of them make up the junta, for lack of a better word, responsible for managing health care – or, as was argued in my hot take yesterday, for dismantling public health care – in Alberta.
In addition, there are eight parliamentary secretaries, technically not cabinet members but charged with assisting cabinet members with their duties. Call them cabinet adjacent. If you counted them too, the percentage would rise to 76 per cent of the UCP Caucus, and 41 per cent of the entire Legislative Assembly less the two vacant seats for which the premier has not yet called by-elections.
It’s tempting to make a joke about how when the going gets tough, the cabinet gets fatter, but the fact is this is not a sign of a well or happy government. There is only one reason for having this many cabinet ministers and it’s Ms. Smith’s need to keep the disunited government caucus from fragmenting.
“Putting a majority of caucus in cabinet is a caucus control strategy,” former Alberta NDP leader Brian Mason explained on Twitter/X Friday. “Far from representing a shift towards health care etc., this is an indication that Smith is struggling to retain control and prevent more defections.”
Former Progressive Conservative premier Alison Redford tried a similar strategy in her last months in power, Mr. Mason recalled. She is probably not a good premier to emulate, but, as they say, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Compare this to NDP premier Rachel Notley’s first cabinet in 2015, for which she plucked only a dozen members from her 54-member caucus, amounting to 22 per cent. That was a little too small, as it turned out, and the next year she added half a dozen more portfolios. Can you imagine, though, the outcry from the Wildrose Party had she made 33 of her MLAs cabinet ministers?
No wonder Premier Smith would prefer that we all keep our eyes on the threat of Alberta separating from Canada, rather than the possibility of five or six of the most MAGAfied members of her caucus decamping to form their own extremist party on the Opposition side of the House.
As observed in this space Friday, the most notable change in cabinet is the creation of four ministries of health to parallel the four new bureaucracies the UCP has created to replace Canada’s first fully integrated public health care agency, Alberta Health Services.
That is one minister for each silo in the UCP’s fragmented and excessively bureaucratic new health care structure – which shows that dismantling public health care and smashing Alberta Health Services to smithereens remains Premier Smith’s No. 1 priority.
“The new cabinet comprises both seasoned and newly appointed ministers, reflecting Alberta’s diverse population,” the government’s press release on Friday boasted. The changes, it said, would “address key priorities of Albertans.”
But NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi, still without a seat in the House thanks to the premier’s failure to call a by-election in Edmonton-Strathcona, scoffed at that claim. “Danielle Smith’s ship is sinking and shuffling the deck chairs will not help,” he said in a statement to media.
“This isn’t a cabinet built to tackle affordability, health care, public safety, and education,” he added. “Instead, they spent the entire spring sitting preying on vulnerable Albertans, passing anti-democratic legislation, peddling separatism, and covering up the biggest scandal in Alberta’s history” – a reference to the still metastasising dodgy health care contracts affair.
As Opposition Leader Christina Gray said on Thursday, the last day the Legislature sat, “the UCP wasted this session on their own political gain, not on the real issues that matter to Albertans. Instead of addressing the rising cost of living or the crisis in our health care system, they pushed through anti-democratic legislation, dodged accountability, stifled debate, and covered up their own corruption.”
Friday’s shuffle saw former health minister Adrianna LaGrange demoted, with her portfolio reduced to something called primary and preventative health services. Former jobs minister Matt Jones became minister of hospital and surgical health services, also known as acute care; Jason Nixon had assisted living added to his social services responsibilities; and Rick Wilson switched from Indigenous relations to mental health and addiction. So there you have the four horsepersons of the health care apocalypse.
Grant Hunter was named associate minister of water, with no explanation of the role of that new portfolio in the government’s news release. “He’s openly called drinking water standards a form of red tape,” Mr. Nenshi said. The MLA for Taber-Warner in Alberta’s far south is also known for comparing the NDP to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and visiting Coutts in 2022 to lend his support to the convoy blockaders.
Myles McDougall is new to cabinet as minister of advanced education. According to Mr. Nenshi, “it’s alarming that Danielle Smith appointed one of her most extreme caucus members to cabinet. Myles McDougall has attacked post-secondary institutions and made extreme comments online about Black and First Nations people.” In 2020, the MLA for Calgary-Fish Creek apologized for Facebook posts that he admitted were “racially insensitive and offensive, particularly to the Black and First Nation communities.”
Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides will have child care added to his portfolio. Former addiction minister, Dan Williams, becomes minister of municipal affairs, replacing Ric McIver, whose shuffle to the Speaker’s chair was announced last week.
Former tourism minister Joseph Schow becomes the minister of jobs, economy, trade, and immigration, replacing Mr. Jones. Former leadership candidate and advanced education minister Rajan Sawhney becomes minister of Indigenous relations.
Andrew Boitchenko, MLA for Drayton Valley-Devon was named minister of tourism and sport; Calgary-North MLA Muhammad Yaseen becomes associate minister of multiculturalism.
But perhaps the most significant change was the one that didn’t happen. Justice Minister Mickey Amery remains exactly where he was in cabinet, which the NDP leader called “a glaring lapse of judgment” by the premier.
“He’s admitted the business person at the heart of the worst corruption scandal in our history is a long-time friend and family member,” Mr. Nenshi said of Mr. Amery. “But the Premier never asked him to recuse himself from these files.”
You would think a diminished UCP caucus after the last provincial election would have made having a smaller cabinet easier, but ironically it seems the opposite may be the case. After already losing two MLAs because of her simmering health care scandal, now she can’t afford to lose many more. So she has to try keep a diverse group happy, particularly the perennially disgruntled right wing.
I suppose the only good news is that LaGrange, while not removed has had her position diminished, with Matt Jones getting the position of the four closer to that of a typical Health Minister.
However the bad news for Smith is that probably some of the one quarter of the UCP caucus who are not in caucus could also be more disgruntled. They and the former UCP MLAs could be enough to make one heck of a party.
Although given the way the UCP is going now it might be the Canada supporting less extreme members that end up breaking away and the larger group becoming the party of separatists and right wing extremists. Wouldn’t it be ironic if rather than the right wing that split away to become the Wildrose Party, it was the more moderate side which splits this time?
Smith likes large class sizes. That way she can rule with an iron fist over her many charges. The image in the photo of Smith and Gray “escorting” McIver to the speaker’s chair is well worth a thousand words. Here you have a woman in Smith who is an autocratic dictator up to her eyeballs in corruption; spends plenty of tax payer dollars freely and proudly on her private/public junkets; aligns herself and consorts with dangerous extremists, obfuscates the truth, spends tax payer money to keep her friends wealthy, and does nothing for the people of Alberta. On top of all this disgusting putrid behaviour she is hell-bent on destroying Canada. The UCP are in power because the people of Alberta want them to be in power. The UCP are supposed to govern this province representing all Albertans, yes, she is supposed to represent Albertans, but hates Alberta and by extension Albertans because it is a province within Canadian confederation, and she does not recognize Canada as a nation. She is seditious, dangerous and cruel. Smith is just the kind of leader many Albertans can identify with because they too are just like Smith. There is no hope for this province to be anything other than a wasteland filled with people who gleefully love to destroy everything around them – is it greed, avarice, narcissism, mental illness run amok, or is it the Rapture? Which brings me back to Smith and the aforementioned image. It looks like she is happier than a pig in crap. A pig that can do and think and say anything and her supporters will ensure that her evil grin will always be on her mug.
Minister of water? Who’s the minister air? Chocolate? Shoot me now! The cartoon is nearly over! https://youtu.be/idEoWXP-LVs?t=6
can you imagine what the mandate letters look like!
Brad: We’re all wondering about that. DJC
Fear? Uncertainty? Doubt? Is that the mechanism? Sensei? Please bring clarity.
I will as always bring a song. https://youtu.be/F6KzYUoYzUY?t=7
Thanks for writing another interesting article, David. Ms. Smith does give you a lot to write about!
So, out of 47 members of the UCP caucus, 27 are ministers and 8 are parliamentary secretaries. This leaves 12 MLAs with no cabinet affiliation. Let’s call them the Unlovin’ dozen.
Those 12 MLAs must be looking around the room during a caucus meeting and wondering what they did wrong to be singled out with no cabinet bonus. If Danielle Smith did indeed give her problem MLAs cabinet posts to get them to toe the line, the message sent to the Unlovin’ Dozen is quite clear: become a problem MLA. I wonder if, in a few months, we will see those MLAs be given some sort of bonus to keep them in line as well.
Bob: Some of them will be committee chairs and the like as well, but there’s only so many hours in an evening and column inches (or centimetres, if you prefer) that readers will tolerate. DJC
A relaxing Sunday is a wonderful opportunity to research questions David’s blog has made me curious about. In this case, I wanted to see who was in the Unlovin’ Dozen.
The UCP caucus page lists only 46 MLAs, including Nathan Cooper. They originally won 49 seats, and have since expelled 2 MLAs, which matches David’s 47. Missing from the Caucus page is Jennifer Johnson, of feces in cookie batter fame. Her absence is interesting, since the caucus page is current enough that it does not show Peter Guthrie or Scott Sinclair, the MLAs expelled from caucus.
The Unlovin’ Dozen, then, consists of:
Eric Bouchard
Scott Cyr
Jackie Lovely
Brandon Lunty
Angela Pitt
Garth Rowswell
Peter Singh
Jason Stephan
Glenn Van Dykin
This is only 9. Add Nathan Cooper and Jennifer Johnson and you get 11, and I cannot find the 12th person.
As I looked through the list I noticed that Danielle Smith saw fit to appoint two Parliamentary Secretaries for Rural Health (Justin Wright (South) and Ron Weibe (North)) but didn’t consider urban areas worthy of a Parliamentary Secretary.
I am surprised to see Angela Pitt’s name on the unloved list.
“Grant Hunter [has] ‘openly called drinking water standards a form of red tape'”. This is particularly alarming, given that this weekend is the 25th anniversary of the Walkerton, Ontario, tainted water scandal, in which seven people died and thousands were made ill:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/walkerton-25-year-later-tainted-water-1.7534610.
The original “red tape” was a triumph of form over substance: US Civil War veterans applying for pensions in the first decade of the 20th century had to tie their applications up with red ribbon or they would not be considered. (In fact, the expression “red tape” long predates this period, but that’s the popular explanation:
https://ianvincewriter.medium.com/the-twisted-history-of-red-tape-d95cc9f0aac1).
But the key to “red tape”, as opposed to regulation in general, is that it is an unnecessary insistence on form that has no bearing on outcomes. All regulatory processes can be made more efficient and more effective, as evidenced by the amount of “case work” the average MP or MLA has to do on behalf of constituents. If governmental administration were more effective and more streamlined, and more user- friendly for the citizenry, our legislators could focus more on legislation and less on acting as sort of über- ombudspersons for constituents.
But the regulations themselves that are intended to protect the community, in terms of health and safety, of fairness and equity, of natural justice, of financial stewardship and avoidance of corruption, and of quality of life: we tamper with these at our peril.
This is particularly alarming, given that this weekend is the 25th anniversary of the Walkerton, Ontario, tainted water scandal, in which seven people died and thousands were made ill:
I live in Ontario. That was the first thought that flashed through my mind.
jerrymacgp: Cutting red tape does have consequences. I remember the Walkerton tainted water tragedy very well. Mike Harris, who had an appearance similar to Ralph Klein, and was a friend of his, caused that tragedy to happen. It was through mimicking Ralph Klein style austerity, and also from cutting red tape, which gave Canada its largest E-Coli outbreak in Canada’s history.
When Mike Harris realized what went on, he stepped down as premier. He had cabinet ministers who went into the CPC, and brought those bad lines into the federal government. The tragic results included the listeria deaths, and the Lac Megantic rail car tragedy.
Cutting red tape by the UCP is what resulted in the second largest E-Coli outbreak in Canada’s history at daycares in Calgary. The UCP will not care about what happens to our water either, as we seen with tailings pond leaks that were left unresolved for months, and the allowing of open pit coal mining on the eastern slopes, with the Grassy Mountain Mine project commencing.
Given that we now have an Associate Minister of Water (whatever that means), it is surprising Smith did not appoint someone as Minister of Air, specifically looking after those nasty Chemical Trails. Maybe next time we could also have a Minister of Wind, Sunshine and Clouds? This is an opportunity for another four ministries. Smith obviously does not want to leave anyone out, regardless of how goofy this looks.
Perhaps the Water portfolio relates to all the contamination that will be happening as a result of coal mining on the eastern slopes of the Rockies, recently approved?
Alberta is a failed state. Revolt.
One of the interesting things in this shuffle was one of the drops – Shane Getson is no longer whip. That one surprised me, given his pro-gun & anti-vax dog whistling (I was visiting my parents, and read one his screeds disguised as a mla report in the local Post Media owned fish wrapping). I consider him to be one of her redneck crackpot fanboys, so why would she kick him to the curb?
Alberta ex-justice ministers in the news:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/law-society-alberta-jonathan-denis-guilty-citations-sanctions-appeal-1.7494975
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/alberta-justice-minister-madu-reprimand
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/tyler-shandro-alberta-law-society
The current one is doing what the premier appointed him to do.
Well, if we pay attention to Machiavelli, this is a clear indicator that Dixie Dani has lost her grip on power.
How so?
Because a smart leader rewards *loyalty* after a subordinate proves they’re loyal. You can’t *buy* loyalty. This is precisely what (as the kids say now) Dani Sith is trying to do, here. You don’t give more power to people who haven’t proven they stand on your side and in this case, numerous people who are opposing you.
Conservatives claim to stand for cheaper, smaller government. This reeks of desperation and it doesn’t fall within her supposed political belief system–meaning, she’s an opportunist and not a very good one, at that. Because she can’t hide her opportunism.
She’s on a downhill slide. She complains too much, she explains too much, she rewards too much and she reeks of panicked decision-making. Any one of those factors could cause her downfall but at this rate?
She’ll be gone in a few months–one way or the other. The knives are sharpening and whether through scandal or power grabbing or a combination of both, she can’t hang on.
How many millions of taxpayer dollars are being wasted paying these people, most of whom aren’t remotely qualified to manage anything more complex than their expense accounts? Marlaina has been burning through taxpayer cash lately like oil is at a $100 a barrel. The $280,000 rug for her office is especially offensive at a time when she is stealing a measly $200 a month from AISH recipients. I wonder how she’s going to handle the inevitable citizen petitions calling for her resignation or a fully public judicial inquiry into the Corrupt Care scandal? Will she just select those petitions that serve to distract from her incompetence such as the separation nonsense that she is pushing for? I wonder how the few UCP members who weren’t paid off with cabinet positions feel about her? Is there even a remote chance any of them will find their voices like Mr. Guthrie did? One can hope.
And now for something completely different. I sincerely hope that Danielle will be holding one (or more) of her Next Panel hearings during the G7 – and won’t be hanging around K-country trying for another selfie with the Orange Blob. Or worse – offering to negotiate a 51st state deal with her as governor. We’ve suffered enough international embarrassment.
I especially enjoy the ‘silo’ metaphor!
Silo = rotting silage for the pig trough
Silo = empty vessel for missile storage
DJC— according to the breakdown, Tara Sawyer is the candidate for Nathan Cooper’s riding of Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills.
When NDP Opposition Leader Christina Gray said the UCP wasted the session “on their own political gain,” I have to wonder whether she was being sarcastic or meant to say ‘on their own partisan gain’ instead because by many measures the UCP doesn’t do politics.
Notwithstanding my appalled disapproval of the UCP’s supposed “policy”, even if I did approve (gag!) I sure wouldn’t be happy about the lack of progress—in fact, given the attendant corruption scandal is generating increasingly-instant karma, the 26 months left in the statutory term might easily be as wasted as the first half. If they going out the mandate backwards like they did when they first come in they oughta mind that election day appears farther away in the rear view mirror than it really is.
There’s always a psephological element (getting elected or re-elected) in doing the politics that gets public policy done. Smith has got the UCP buckboard good ‘n’ mired in scandal and controversy so it’s a question whether she can outpace the bow-front of disaffection to the ballot box before too many voters are repelled by wretching nauseam. Smith’s psephological incompetence was always astonishing regardless, and as if the drawing and quartering of AHS weren’t stupid enough already, it is also as unpopular as every single failure to win “political gain”—for themselves or anybody else—that UCP MLAs have attempted so far. They won the last election but that’s been spent and so far they got nuthin but lead boots. They haven’t achieved any political gain at all.
Granted, insofar as all parties have a policy to elect/re-elect representatives to legislative assemblies, they do the politics of getting that done. Early in the term the governing party ideally sweetens the bitterest political medicine by paying at least some service to the cheaper promises made on the recently successful campaign, then makes sure to be fully engaged in the promised big policy ticket by midterm, have something sellable, if not full completion (that is, something promisING) by the final quarter-term—including the fact, if all goes well, that the last half year is nothing more exciting than providing good governance: this is the normal psephological arc, the approaching election, no matter how close or far, always presuming elements of it be deftly interwoven with the politics and the policies all along the way so that hopefully a record of performance, of public good will counter whatever unforeseen events might have cropped up by the big day. In stark contrast, UCP psephology is so utterly gormless that it can’t even do the politics of its own basic electability—or at least it’s safe to infer that the government is so far into the goo that it hasn’t time to get even one foot pulled out and hop into the incumbency campaign without a boot—maybe without two.
And that’s because the UCP doesn’t do politics. It does partisanship instead. And not that very well, either. While it spends parliamentary payola to plead for peace among the partisanship of its own intestinal factions, a certain woofy pong of cold sweat is becoming more palpable. Smith’s ‘unity-cabinet’ just did the thing that has bedevilled her neo-right equivalents from the outer reaches of Greater Anglo-Saxony, through its beating North American heart, straight back to mother Britain and its Franco-Norman forebears on the western Continent: she promoted her radicalized faction, effectively demoting the dwindling moderate one. Nothing really new with that, been going on for almost a quarter century already. The more recent feature is the neo-right’s over-commitment to it and, then, its inability to stop or steer to meet conditions on the road to the gibbet cage—uh, excuse me, ahem! I meant, BALLOT BOX (phew!)
Yes, that election date might indeed be closer than it appears. With freeboard nearly submerged to the gunnels and Danielle’s stormy weather certain to blow even harder ahead, there’s real risk an extremist faction might hive-off to hold a UCP minority to more radical, or quicker action, Damocles’ sword of parliamentary confidence hanging over her head—it would take only, what?—four or five UCP MLAs threatening to go Buffalo to get Danielle to head for the Wexit…
Lord! —what a mess! I here I thought Christy Clark was bad!!
Danielle Smith won’t be happy until all the non-rich get cancer and die because they can’t afford treatment.
Obviously, this is about Danielle Smith having power and control. Having a cabinet this size is ludicrous.
She’s not happy ’til you’re not happy! God damn our band master! When you’re still alive and get covered by your better distaff? Well even I must raise an eyebrow!
I forgot the meaning of a song, a poem and whatever the flying excrement the UCP is serving today! https://youtu.be/2sky1tt8vLA
Funny, if I recall correctly before the Conservative Grant Devine government in Saskatchewan was deep sixed by the voters, this was about the percentage of government members in cabinet at 72 per cent.
That is just plan funny.
How to give all your ‘friends” a raise. So how much that come to?
So its better to give all those people a raise but social services can take a hike in the wilderness. Nice going there Smith. gee she really has spent too much time with maga.