In Ontario last week on union business, your blogger was startled to discover the United Conservative Party had quoted his recent post commenting on recent polling results by Janet Brown Opinion Research that suggest NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi has been seriously underperforming.
“We can’t expect Mr. Nenshi to ship out,” I had concluded in that piece, “but he does need to shape up.” I stand by that opinion, and hope profoundly that Mr. Nenshi takes my advice.
Nevertheless, on June 6 I was not expecting to read in a column by Postmedia political commentator Rick Bell that “for probably the first time in the party’s history, the UCP quote David Climenhaga, a man who has soldiered on in the NDP trenches through the many battles of that party, in good times and bad.”
Say what? The UCP has only been around since July 2017, and as far as I know Mr. Bell is correct that they’ve never quoted me in a press release before. But at the risk of being self-referential, regular readers of this blog will agree, I am sure, that they were bound to do so eventually – it’s just that I reckoned it would be more likely to show up in a fund-raising email saying something like, “Can you believe what this woke CBC-loving dope is saying about our fine leader?!”
As for the rest of Mr. Bell’s thumbnail assessment of your blogger, I am sure there are many in the NDP who would object to the claim I’ve soldiered in their trenches through the many battles of the party. Let’s just say I’m more of a flying buttress than a pillar – I generally support the church of the NDP from the outside.
Mr. Bell’s column continued: “The UCP also mention other names usually not considered candidates for the party’s Christmas card list.” Naturally, I wondered, who the heck would that be? And whoever we all are, why was the UCP quoting us at all, when it’s generally not considered best practice in political campaigns to refer your party’s voters to its opponents.
I can now answer most of these questions. Before the suspense kills anyone, the other commentators unlikely to be found on the UCP Christmas card list are my colleague Dave Cournoyer, publisher of the Daveberta Substack, and political commentator Evan Scrimshaw, author of the Scrimshaw Unscripted Substack column.
Both are quoted in my May 31 post. I am grateful to Mr. Bell, though, for only mentioning me, though. I mean, it’s a dog-eat-dog world on Substack!
The news release was sent out in support of Darby Crouch, the scrappy but almost certainly doomed UCP Candidate in Edmonton-Strathcona where Mr. Nenshi is running in the June 23 by-election to replace former MLA and premier Rachel Notley.
Ms. Crouch has worked as the press secretary to Agriculture Minister RJ Sigurdson, so perhaps she wrote the press release herself. Maybe she concluded progressive bloggers have cred in Edmonton-Strathcona, which is one of the safest NDP seats in the province.
“‘The Call Is Coming from Inside the House’: Nenshi Faces Internal Backlash as NDP Craters,” the news release was headlined.
“In a scathing article published this week by the Tyee, known left-wing outlet, long-time NDP supporter and union activist David Climenhaga issued a frank assessment of Nenshi’s performance. He joins a growing number of left-wing critics, including political analysts Evan Scrimshaw and Dave Cournoyer, warning the Alberta NDP is fading under a leader who has failed to energize voters or define anything close to a vision.”
As for Yours Truly, according to the presser, I didn’t mince words. I hope that readers of this blog will agree this is frequently the case.
Ms. Crouch was quoted asking: “If Naheed Nenshi can’t even hold his own party together, how can he expect to win over the rest of Alberta?” Just to be perfectly clear, I am not a member of the NDP at this time and, as far as I know, while I am not entitled to speak for either, neither Mr. Cournoyer nor Mr. Scrimshaw is either. So when the NDP leader encounters criticism from any of us, he need not worry about holding the party together for that reason.
None of the trio of authorities quoted, indeed, quite match the UCP description of “hardcore NDP supporters,” but as Oscar Wilde famously observed, “there is only one thing worse in life than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” So, in this instance, I will forgive the governing party.
I hope, nevertheless, that since they are now apparently using my blog posts as their sole source of research they will in the future provide a link so that their supporters can read more.
In the meantime, pay attention, there may be another poll soon, and you never know what it’s going to say.
Ric who?
I jest – the opposite of hate isn’t love, it’s disregard.
Here’s to hoping the final collapse of PostMedia is in the near offing.
Hello DJC and fellow commenters,
The UCP will stoop to any tactic, including attributing to you membership in the NDP which you clearly state is patently false.
And, their apologists are willing to suggest other falsehoods including attributing to you the assertion that the NDP is splintering from within. This is shocking on the part of the UCP. It suggests to me that the UCP is grasping at straws to stay united and to try to hold onto their victory in the last provincial election.
Christina: Oh, I think they were quite sincere in their belief that I am an NDP party members. Otherwise, in their tribal and partsan-in-every-way worldview, why would I argue in favour of policies advocated by the UCP? DJC
In summation, sounds like the NDP is feeling not quite itself lately, more like NDP-ish. Well, I’ve got the remedy. Take two tablets of ivermectin and you’ll feel better in the morning.
Done like dinner! Ring that bell! https://youtu.be/X-FA8RodjlQ?t=1
Darby Crouch, never heard of her. I suspect this run is for a little experience and next time she will parachute into an uber rural riding, given her rodeo bona fides.
Congratulations, I guess. Are we to believe that the UCP have been reading your blog all along and possibly sending some obstreperous staffers into the comments section from time to time? Well shiver me timbers.
The problem for why the NDP were defeated in 2023 isn’t the fault of Rachel Notley and NDP at all. Nor is Naheed Nenshi at fault for why he and the NDP don’t seem to be gaining any traction. There are only two factors for these issues. One is that we have a media that doesn’t even dare to hold the UCP and Danielle Smith to account for their major mistakes, and they publish mistruths about the NDP and Rachel Nothey, as well as Naheed Nenshi. The other issue is that the media does not even acknowledge Naheed Nenshi in any proper way. Danielle Smith will not even allow him to run in the by-election in a timely manner, because Naheed Nenshi scares the crap out of her, due to them having known each other for over three decades, having attended the University of Calgary together. If Naheed Nenshi is in the Alberta Legislature with Danielle Smith, he will catch her lying, and grill her and the UCP for their epic failures and it’s game over. To begin with, had the media not lied about Rachel Notley and the NDP, and actually held Danielle Smith and the UCP to account, for all that they have done wrong, Rachel Notley would still be our premier. Naheed Nenshi isn’t having any presence, only because the media and Danielle Smith refuse to give it to him. As long as we see Postmedia columnists, such as Lorne Gunter, Licia Corbella (now retired), David Staples, Rick Bell, and others publishing rubbish, this doesn’t help.
https://albertapolitics.ca/2023/05/copy-editors-checking-facts-thats-thing-of-the-past-at-postmedia-apparently-as-election-column-illustrates/
https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/bell-naheed-nenshi-under-fire-ndp-danielle-smith-ucp/wcm/92f12f7d-6f1a-45d5-ace4-551eed2ed949
Congratulations
Great stuff, DC. On the topic of “Good writers borrow, great writers steal.” [TS Eliot, or maybe Picasso], I love the line about pillars and buttresses. Sad to see that Churchill may have beaten you to it. In 1991 Lady Soames wrote: “Winston Churchill was not religious in a conventional sense — and certainly no regular church-goer. I saw him once greatly embarrassed when a visiting Divine addressed him as a ‘pillar of the church.’ My father, one of whose endearing qualities was candour, replied: ‘Well, I don’t think that could be said of me. But I do like to think of myself as a flying buttress.'”
On the issue of suppport for the NDP, I like to say that I’ve been a member of the party for 56 years, and have never been gruntled.
Simon: Well, I do remember where I first heard the thought expressed that way, and it wasn’t from Winston Churchill, rather from Charles Schulz, the creator of the Peanuts cartoon, in a booklet produced for Christian teenagers before I was a teen. Presumably Mr. Schulz stole it from Sir Winston. Thou shalt not steal, I know, but as you point out, it’s OK to borrow. That said, as the reputedly wise King Solomon pointed out (Proverbs 22:7), the borrower is slave to the lender. DJC
Ah yes DJC, the old “use their quotes when they support your position and stick-em-in-the-political-box” silencing strategy from the Tighty Righties.
Imma just gonna add, because I like this blog, and its’ followers (who don’t seem to believe there’s no reasonable box remaining to climb into) when the right wing mentions you, it’s only to manipulate you. They’ve had a great deal of success with flooding bloggers and vloggers with their followers who start with agreeing–then taking over financially and slowly corrupting the viewpoint of the lefties who accidentally slide down the audience capture (and sometimes audience financial hold) hole. Simultaneously, they shove out the original lefty audience who slowly back away in disgust.
Sometimes the b/vlogger pulls themselves back out after realising what’s happened, sometimes (like Joe Rogan) they stay stuck, there. Forever.
The only reason the right-wing does this is because they’ve done it to co-opt the left–and it works. Increasing their numbers and diminishing, ours.
Don’t let ’em pigeon-hole ya.
They use the honesty critiques of the left as their sword against the left to fracture the left.
Please correct this error: Rick Bell is NOT a “political commentator”. Rather, he is a paid “agent provocateur” of the forces of evil deeply ensconced in the powerful neo-liberal galaxy of Darth Trump et al.
Well not bad work Dave. Guaranteed you get more readers now. As for Ms. Couch she probably knows she is a to be forgotten person.
As you know, Mr. Blogger selling your soul like the sycophants at U.S. owned Postmedia would garner a lot more cash in the bank. Although their masters allow them to quote you they’d likely go apeshit if they spotted a link to Alberta Politics.
What a travesty? Oh well. Our Dani does the dishes! https://youtu.be/vdvnOH060Qg
Congratulations, David, on making it to the big time!
I do have to question the UCP’s political wisdom in making their supporters aware of your blog. One column may have worked to their advantage, but I would expect the UCP really would not want their supporters to become regular readers of Alberta Politics, lest they start to look more critically at their party of choice.