Prime Minister Mark Carney kept his promise yesterday and expeditiously called a by-election in Alberta’s Battle River-Crowfoot riding so that seatless Conservative Party of Canada Leader Pierre Poilievre can return to the House of Commons as soon as possible.
For those of you who have been in a coma or on a desert island without an Internet connection since before April 28, there needs to be a by-election because no sooner had Mr. Poilievre been defeated in the Ottawa-area riding he’d represented for more than 20 years than Battle-River Crowfoot MP Damien Kurek promised to quit to give Mr. Poilievre a safe seat in which to run. He kept that promise on June 17.
And that seat’s so safe that if Mr. Poilievre can’t win there, he couldn’t be elected dog catcher if we elected dog catchers in Canada. (And if you don’t know the answer to that riddle, best find another blog to read.)
Tout le monde Canadian politics understands that the Conservatives could run anyone – or any thing – in Battle River Crowfoot and win. Dinosaurs once roamed that huge territory east of both Edmonton and Calgary running all the way to the Saskatchewan border, and if you go by politics, some still do.
The by-election will be held on Aug. 18, said Mr. Carney’s minimalist 27-word press release.
Since everyone agrees that the outcome of the by-election is a foregone conclusion, that means Mr. Poilievre will only have to put up with being called the Stornoway Squatter for 48 and a half more days.
If you look at the current policies of the Carney Government and the platform of Mr. Poilievre’s Conservatives in the lead-up to the April 28 federal election, you’ll notice that there’s less light between the two parties than you’d expect if you paid any attention to the hysterical Conservative rhetoric we hear every day out here in Wild Rose Country.
Still, they are political rivals, so it is unusual for both parties to want so urgently to get Mr. Poilievre back into the House of Commons.
The Conservatives are determined to stick with Mr. Poilievre because, having gone full MAGA in their disastrous 2025 election campaign, they have decided to double down and expect a different result next time. This, as we know, is the pop culture definition of insanity, even if Albert Einstein never actually said any such thing.
The Liberals will be delighted to see Mr. Poilievre back in the House of Commons as quickly as possible for, essentially, the same reason. Mr. Poilievre’s extremism allowed them to pull the fat from the fryer in April and they believe he can do the same thing for them another time if he sticks around.
As Napoleon is reputed to have mused, never interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake. Indeed, if you can give the enemy a hand in such circumstances, the Liberals must have thought, why the heck not do it?
Carleton MP Bruce Fanjoy, the Liberal who knocked off Mr. Poilievre on April 28, made a little fun of of the Conservative leader back on May 18, when he observed on social media that “the margin in Battle River-Crowfoot was over 45,000 votes. Why is a by-election required there?”
That was, presumably, sarcasm. Everybody knows we can’t just go appointing Conservatives in rural Alberta or we’d never have any elections out here. Of course, that day may be coming soon enough if Alberta Premier Danielle Smith gets to realize her dream of being the first president of the Republic of Alberta, but that’s a topic for another day.
Given that kind of sniping, I’d wondered if Liberals might not even bother running a candidate to challenge Mr. Poilievre. That kind of traditional courtesy would not have been without precedent in Canadian political history.
Nevertheless, yesterday the Liberals named Petroleum Engineer Darcy Spady as their standard bearer in the riding. Mr. Spady grew up in Three Hills, within the riding’s boundaries, but the party news release didn’t actually say where he lives now. But he’s the manager of a Calgary-based company that provides “decarbonization solutions for the energy industry,” the Carbon Connect International website says.
Well, it’s not as if Mr. Poilievre can accuse him of being a carpetbagger, is it?
Mr. Spady and his wife Laurie have created a University of Alberta scholarship that “assists students from rural communities studying the arts and humanities while also pursuing a major or minor in religious studies.”
It will be interesting to see if the federal NDP runs a candidate. It would be a wonderful and much needed opportunity for the party, which took a pasting on April 28, to demand answers from Mr. Poilievre on tough questions about where he stands on Canada’s public health care system and on the Alberta separation project being promoted by the province’s United Conservative Party.
That would also be an excellent way to demonstrate to voters throughout Canada that there are real differences between the NDP and the Liberals, something that became quite unclear in the seven and a half years after Jagmeet Singh became the party’s leader. Mr. Singh resigned as leader on May 5.
Meanwhile, according to The Globe and Mail, more than 200 people affiliated with the Longest Ballot Committee, a group that advocates for electoral reform in Canada, have signed up to have their names on the ballot in Battle River-Crowfoot.
The group flooded the ballot in Carleton with 85 of the 91 candidates on the ballot, giving rise to conspiracy theories in Conservative circles. Their efforts, while annoying, would not have changed the outcome of the election in the riding, though.
Well so far, no one is talking about the independent candidate… Bonnie Critchley…who announced that she was running, right after the Cons made their parachute announcement. She’s a 22yr military veteran who actually lives in the riding, and doesn’t agree with Damien Kurec giving up the seat the constituents voted for, just to give a so called ‘safe’ to someone who rides in and expects to be annointed.
She has been out knocking on doors a month ahead of Skippy who finally deigned to show up, coincidentally after comments on P&P about him not changing his M.O. which cost him his seat in Carelton in the first place. Maybe that smugness will be replaced again….we can hope I guess.
For Bonnie– best of luck, go get ’em……2 thumbs up!!
I’m voting for Bonnie. A cadaver (with worms crawling out it’s nose) would win the conservative seat here in Battle river Crowfoot, and no one would bat an eye. Same goes for the soulless UCP MLA across the street from the dry cleaners. It’s astonishing. Go Bonnie!!!
Bonnie has my vote
Ooooh…congratulations Alberta!!
Inspite of all the “we are so hard done by ” on the one hand…
Marlaina on X- June 30th
Albertans work hard and starting July 1st they’ll keep more of what they earn.
With our latest tax cut over 2million people will see real savings on their paycheques. That’s up to $750 for individuals and $1500 for families, putting over $1.2 billion back into the pockets of Albertans this year.
The news headline was that Alberta had found some to offload the children’s “Tylenot ” to ( I haven’t found out where or whom yet).
Is that where some of that money for the tax cuts is coming from??
Asking for a friend….
I read, probably on CBC, that at least some Tylenot is being “donated” (read “dumped”) to Ukraine. Hopefully before its expiry date.
Relating to the children’s medicine, a CBC article was published on June 27, then updated June 28, 2025. The Canadian Press-Aaron Sousa was the originator.
It stated that the Government of Alberta had donated the medicine to a christian charity named Health Partners International of Canada.
Mike J Danysh: The UCP have no shame. They don’t care who gets harmed by their stupid policies.
$750 a year per Albertan would be better spent ($1.2 billion in total I believe) on building a couple of new schools or hiring a bunch of doctors…..but hey, when you’re trying to line up votes and don’t care what the voters have to live with on a day to day basis, I guess this pittance of a tax break is pretty typical for bad money managers like the UCP. It should be noted that Alberta already has the lowest provincial and federal income tax rates.
As to the children’s medication being sold off, pardon me if I don’t believe a word of it. After all, it’s not like this government is honest and transparent.
Yes, oddly at the moment at least two parties feel Poilievre is a great asset for them. I do believe one of them must be wrong.
Even though the long ballot gang has followed him west, there is probably little danger of Poilievre not winning this by election. So his performance will be measured by something else, possibly how well he does in comparison to his back bench predecessor. This may explain why the Liberals are bothering to run a decent candidate here and perhaps the NDP will also.
Carney has kept his word with a quick by election. You might think it would be better for the rookie PM to delay this, but I feel the Liberals don’t want to give Poilievre too much time to reflect on his all his shortcomings. The sooner he is back in Ottawa as usual, the less he may learn from his uncomfortable but not that painful experience.
It is not every day an opposition leader whose party is relatively popular manages to lose the seat he held for decades. The Liberals realise that Poilievre probably hasn’t forgotten anything during this brief interlude, they can only hope he hasn’t learned anything either.
If he hadn’t forgotten anything and hadn’t learned anything, he wouldn’t be a conservative, now, would he?
The playbook here is crystal clear:
Run PP and win. Run cover for Carney by toadying up to other parties so any legislation that’s not austerity-based is sandbagged.
Then, take the first right turn until they can go for a non-confidence vote. Get in as the lead minority at the very least, a majority if the stars are correctly aligned in their favour.
Let PP run free to In-All-But-Name, turn us into The MAGA North Fascist Regime 2.0 ™ so we stop giving Trump conniptions. (as if that’s even possible). What did anyone think this economic trade blackmail play was about, anyway? It’s about bankrupting the countries The Empire fears and subsuming the ones they don’t. To them, belief in sovereignty is for chumps.
The Cons aren’t in this as old-fashioned Red Tories banging on about constitutional rights, rule of law and fiscal restraint, any more. They’re in this to become America’s labradoodles for the benefit of American Imperialist Oligarchy.
Sorry that I can’t put this in a prettier, more socially acceptable, polite way.
Being Cassandra sucks donkey ballz.
I remember well the fiasco that was required to get Christy Clark re-elected when Vancouver rejected her. Cost a lot of money, and 2 byelection. One in , one out. Ben Stewart served her well.
I think the practice is very undemocratic, and with Pollievre, reveals what a weasel he is.
The photo of Pierre with his hands in his pockets pretty well sums up the unique and distinct culture of Alberta. Namely, a guy in a golf shirt wearing a cowboy hat for a few days and then up in the closet the hat goes. The pretend rodeo champion belt buckle the size of a bread plate is optional.
Agreed, the cons could run a sack full of hammers in that riding and get the sack elected.
PP’s belt buckle was probably compensating for… something.
PM Mark Carney is showing that he’s an honourable person that doesn’t play games.
Once nominations are in, I will be sending money to the ABPP Party (Anybody But PP Party). I am glad the longest ballot are getting involved also.
PP is a man with no morals. I was a long term Progressive Conservative. PP has made it the regressive Conservative party. He has encouraged the scum of Canada to join the party.
@Bill I used to have a site and debated Red Tories. I liked them. Didn’t often agree with them but they were just a different-thinking Canadians than others that hung there (including a few nice libertarians, anarchists and communists). The debates/discussions were skilful and everyone had a good sense of humour.
PP has *none* of this. He’s MAGA North through and through. I can’t imagine how crappy it is to have nobody representing your actual beliefs out there to fight for the legislation you want.
Oh wait, yes I can. Although the level of wingnuttery involved with PP, can’t be good.
“The group (Longest Ballot Committee) flooded the ballot in Carleton with 85 of the 91 candidates…” Can any readers of Alberta Politics explain the rationale for doing this? I understand the arguments for proportional representation, but how does jamming a metres long ballot help their campaign?
Tom: The last time I said I thought they were dicks (I still do) I did get a couple of impassioned defences from readers. They say it’s a protest against the first-past-the-post system and a call for an independent commission to set electoral rules. DJC
But they’re still dicks.
Lars: I think we’ve established that we’re in agreement on this. DJC
Probably full fledged Richard Edwards
My understanding is that Israel has proportional representation. Has anyone done a headcount on the number of representatives that have served terms in prison?
JE: Your understanding is correct. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Israel A lengthy but not necessarily exhaustive list of Israeli public officials convicted of crimes and misdemeanours is found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Israeli_public_officials_convicted_of_crimes_or_misdemeanors DJC
Arguments against PR often pull in the most extreme cases, like Italy and Israel. But many more countries use it and have stable governments, from Germany to New Zealand and Australia. Yes, majority governments are more rare under PR, but so what?
Genuine coalition governments — instead of unstable minorities or shaky “confidence and supply agreements” — tend to be the norm in those countries, meaning that members of smaller parties serve in Cabinet. What would be so bad about that?
Personally, though, regardless of how superior PR might be to FPTP, I don’t think Canadians will ever go for it. We are too wedded to having one MP or MLA per electoral district, and even mixed-member PR requires some members to be selected from party lists to correct the proportions.
And ranked ballots/preferential ballots/”instant-runoff” ballots — authorities on voting systems claim these are different models but I don’t see how — would greatly benefit the most blandly centrist party, so the Liberals at the federal level.
No, I think the best option for Canada might be the French model of holding genuine runoff elections in all seats where no candidate obtained a true majority of votes cast. It would cost a bit more than our current system, but a more representative democracy would result. Voters in the second round of voting would know how their peers voted in the first round, and could make their choices accordingly, which is not possible with any of the “instant- runoff” models.
https://electoral-reform.org.uk/voting-systems/types-of-voting-system/two-round-system/
You have the platform, you had the chance, you could’ve run a photo of the one Battle River-Crowfoot contender who wears a real hat and boots, rides a real horse, who gave real service to Canadians as an armoured crewman in the Canadian military and who lives in the community.
Instead you gave us all the white-guy-rhinestone-cowboy-cosplay pictures. Trudeau in blackface, anyone?
Bonnie Critchley wants sensible gun control (Afghanistan may have clarified what that means), painfully recognizes the effects of climate change on the land she loves, but doesn’t want a performative tax, thinks human rights apply to all of us and that Alberta separation is a non-starter. She honours the history of the area and recognizes the riding is on Treaty 6 and 7 territory. Oh, and she wants affordable housing and fair access to healthcare.
Bonnie Critchley thinks politicians should serve their constituents, not the other way around. Which is, of course, why she won’t get the votes.
https://www.bonniecritchleyindependent.com/
https://www.drumhellermail.com/news/36890-critchley-vies-for-battle-river-crowfoot-seat
Print the flipping picture of the horse already!
Emily: Good point. She flew briefly onto my radar and then off again. Will update the list next time I write about this. DJC
Well said, Emily.
It has been so nice, since the Federal election, to not have seen Poilievre’s face and not heard his whiny, angry voice on the news every evening.
Black hat gang!
And my community was gone
I think the biggest threat Poilièvre will face in Battle River-Crowfoot is not losing per se, but not winning by a sufficiently overwhelming majority.
If he pulls off a traditional Alberta rural conservative supermajority, his position as CPC leader is probably safe. If he doesn’t, if his win is markedly narrower, it might not be.
My daughter lives in that riding. She told me she wouldn’t vote Pollievre for dog catcher in a 1 cat town. I snorted my coffee.
Having a respite from Skippie’s “broken” rhetoric is pleasant. I commented to my wife that his lack of legal protections from slander etc because he is not a member of parliament is a bonus from his Carleton loss. Pity it highly probably won’t be repeated in Battle River.
Though I do wonder if the lack of the “broken bullshit” is due to his loss, or the Conservatives doing some post-election reassessment.
What’s with the belt buckle? Is ‘No Seat Pete’ engaged in a ‘mine is bigger than yours’ contest? And I just have to say it – All Hat, No Cattle!
Maybe it’s a signal to ordinary Canadians that if the wearer becomes PM it’s vote-for-the-buckle-and-tighten-your-belt.
Out here in Alberta…the bigger the buckle, the deader the prick.
Cosplay cowboy/WWE champion, or is that champignon? Meanwhile, his wife is posing with an apple and a book, either as modern-day Eve of The Bible or MAGA-North Melania. Hard to say. I’ll leave it to social media.
Abs– I would imagine the apple is in reference to Skippy demeaning the BC reporter and insuing “merch” sales that the Mrs was proudly proclaiming “how do you like them apples” …while simultaneously promoting a made here locally family business printing them.
Imo, the expression “some people have no shame ” comes to mind, and Maga-north Melania is spot on.
Hello DJC and fellow commenters,
I wonder how Mr. Poilievre will deal with being a federal M P from Alberta in tandem with the work that Danielle Smith is doing to persuade her base to support her plan to balkanize Canada by creating a desire for Alberta to separate.
I have discovered, anecdotally, that some ordinary people here seem to hate recent Liberal prime ministers as individuals and believe that the Liberals want to “shut us down” . I think they mean that they believe that the federal Liberals want to prevent Alberta from producing any oil or gas. They are also totally unaware that the federal government bought the pipeline and twinned TMX.
I am not sure how anyone could miss the fact that the federal government spent more than $21 billion dollars to twin the pipeline, but they are completely unaware of it.
Since a number of Albertans do not appear to be aware of the news, I wonder how Danielle Smith and the UCP and, presumably, previous provincial governments have
persuaded citizens that the federal government wants to completely destroy the oil and gas industry in Alberta. Perhaps, the so-called “news” channels they watch and listen to are actually propaganda intended to encourage Albertans to vote for specific parties which benefit from providing spin without facts. I really don’t know. And why is this spin so successful in place of information and facts?
@Christine,
It’s not hard to fathom. The working class has been buffeted by claims of who is “working in their best interests” by two major parties whose sole reason for existence is to be the Wizards of Oz, manipulating them behind a curtain for the interests of Oligarchs and Big Capital.
Both have gutted unions, gutted any social services they passed the last time they were in office and none of them are actually willing to stand up and say, “We’re gonna tax the rich so we have enough money to ensure social cohesion and the welfare of the people” Once in awhile they throw out a crumb.
So along come the Maple Magas and say, “You’re poor in a wealthy country because this country failed to create a business climate! (even though that’s *all* they’ve been doing) You are being screwed by the government (true) and only Biggest of Bigly Corporations (that are our real bread-n-butter bosses) can Save You!”
While the same duopoly does everything in its power to shut up, disenfranchise, sublimate and infiltrate any organization that actually *does* have their interests in mind.
At least the Maple Maga’s announce the problems. They fail to say there had a huge hand in creating them and have zero intention of rectifying them.
Kind of like announcing the diagnosis of an infection in your leg. You feel relieved that you know what’s wrong and instead of giving you antibiotics…they shoot your cat and hand you a bill for the bullet.
The black hats say it all.
Mark Carney leads Pierre Poilievre in net favourability by 70 points! His Libs lead the Manning-harper Reform Party by 12 points. Keeping an unpopular twerp like Poilievre at the helm – after losing to Carney in the recent federal election in which he also lost his own seat – is nuts. I’m surprised Parson Manning and his henchman harper allowed him to run. It means either the CONs will be led into the next election debacle by a confirmed nasty inflexible loser and harper’s attack dog Jenni Byrne or by a relative leadership newbie – and Jenni! Either way, I’m good!
What do ya know, if PP hasn’t become a parachute politician (like Smith btw), after losing his job in his own riding. In the real world, this skill-less unemployable bum would be on the street, where he belongs, looking for work. But in his privileged orbit, he will continue to drink wine and champagne while spitting on those beneath his station in life.
The same couid be said of the recent victor in Edmonton Strathcona.
Except for the fact that Nenshi wasn’t rejected by his constituents, necessitating the “need” to be parachuted into a completely different province. Apples and oranges bud, but thanks for trying.
Let’s do the math for Dani……5 million Albertans funding O&G…….or 42 million funding O&G……lets let Canada’s banking sector decide as they always do anyway…….Bye Bye Smith……and Happy Canada Day forever…….
Wouldn’t you like to know what the guy was paid to give up his seat? It was huge I bet, don’t you? Reformers certainly look after their pals and don’t give a damn about anyone else. You can bet he will win easily with all the ignorant Albertans more than willing to help him, they don’t care about how he made such a fool of himself during the election even Donald Trump told us he didn’t like him.
Alan: I don’t know what he’s been paid. That would be illegal and it depends how scrupulous the varies parties are. Accordingly I think we have to assume that he has not been paid. That said, I’m sure promises have been made. DJC
I understand why Pierre is in a hurry to get back to the house. He needs to defend his leadership within the CPC.
Even so I believe that running in an Alberta seat is a huge mistake. It will put him between a rock and a hard place in the coming months. Short term gain, long term pain.
Danielle Smith will use him, run circles around him, and then spit him out. The only plus is that it will make for lots of entertainment value. I can only hope that common sense prevails among the movers and shakers in the CPC. Cut the losses, cut Poilievre loose. Rebuild with a new leader who can unite instead of divide. Someone who places the Party and the caucus above his or her extremely fragile ego that has to be satisfied each and every day at the expense of alienating potential allies and supporters.
I am interested in this Bonnie person. We don’t have to agree on everything, just the main things. I would love to see her elected.
Democracy in action — for once!!!
I’ve said it before in these pages, Carney will rue the day that he expedited the return of that sociopathic twerp. Hope everyone is ready for another election less than a year from now because lil PP WILL try to bring the government down at the first available opportunity. Right now Carney is the frog and lil PP is the scorpion in a live action version of the old fable.
It’s been decades since I lived and worked in Alberta, for the past few decades only touching down at Calgary airport on milk-run flights which afford me serial chronography of the city’s impressive growth—really infill of its huge geographic area not so long ago bald prairie. But we West Coasters still feel the glow of Alberta’s ionizing—or, perhaps, aspirational—political radiation, Petro-princes’ presumptuousness emissions, and premier Danielle Smith’s MAGyna-ray bursts enough to know the whole nation does as well. And you can watch it on any medium you want.
It’s only all the more interesting that Pierre Poilievre yellow-striped it back to the land of his apprenticeship as a teenaged conservative ink-monkey, back to the source, back to Alberta, the kryptonite of Canadian federation in order to get elected back into the HoC as leader of the Opposition; he is as yet merely the leader of the Conservative Party since losing his Ottawa seat of two decades which he had won handily hitherto—seven times in a row, in fact—until 2025, of course, when his constituents elected the Liberal instead by a considerable margin. An embarrassing capper, certainly, to also singlehandedly blowing a big 20-point+ CPC lead in just a few months, and an appalling campaign that pushed so many Dippers to tactically elect a Liberal prime minister, their message is loud and clear: even lefty voters would rather suffer a centre-right government under the Blue Liberal Mark Carny than the far-right one PP offered.
The general pattern holds: the nonCPC vote ratio is usually between 60:40 and two-to-one, the CPC only ever besting that by 1-point, the first time in 2011—at least for the first 24 hours after election day—, the second time in 2025, but this time excluding its leader, the hapless Poilievre. But the notorious conservative habit of firing leaders who don’t win power will be broken if PP wins the Battle River-Crowfoot riding, as he certainly will, and becomes Opposition leader for an exceedingly rare second time (it’s worthy of a trivia question: has this ever happened to a federal Conservative leader before?)
The rush to fit PP up this way looks knee-jerk, not just for the speed of affecting a contingency (that would be moot for any other Conservative leader who lost cher own seat, never mind the whole election), but precisely because it looks more desperate than it probably needed to by rocketing red-faced to the safest conservative seat in the country; it smells like the work of PP’s most loyal faction.
His only hope of surviving a party review, scheduled for next January, is to get back into the House ASAP. He’ll have five months to show Canadians whether he intends to be a productive parliamentarian or an election candidate incessantly stumping like tRump did during his own 2000-2024 Medina. But it’s nothing short of conspicuous that Carney is in as big a rush as the PP faction to get his rival back onto the television from the HoC. One wonders if Alberta conservatives are the least bit embarrassed that their premier churlishly refused the same courtesy to NDP leader (and now leader of the Loyal Opposition) Naheed Nenshi whom Danielle Smith kept out of the Assembly for as long as she legally could.
Still, even if/when PP wins his Alberta seat, the rush to get it so soon after the shock of losing his Ottawa seat risks further embarrassments, not least by picking one of the safest Conservative ridings in the whole country for his by-election. Of the last eight elections it had the highest popular-vote share and corresponding margin share in the nation five times, and never fell behind third place). In 2025 CPC MP Damien Kurek won Battle River-Crowfoot with over 82% of the votes (3rd-highest vote share nationwide), but is it a good look for PP if he wins Kurek’s sacrificed riding somewhat, or even substantially below that number? —say with “only” 51% or even with a plurality that this exceptional contest might well produce? I win’s a win, I guess, but one can’t be blamed for thinking Poilievre risks a political death of many cuts and would be foolish to blow off any of them while circling the maelstrom around the baleful, bituminous brown eye of Alberta kryptonite. Sleep with one eye open.
Then there’s the sticky question of Alberta separatism which the Smith&Parker Gang unhelpfully cranks up another notch almost every day, Brown-K Poilievre must never, never lay eyes upon, smell, touch, or taste as federal leader lest his super-slogan powers fail him.
All in all it appears the PP faction perceives itself in bigger trouble than maybe not all his MAGA supporters realize. The stage for this passion play is ready, with an all-star cast that includes the prodigal son returned from the frozen Eastern-Bastard heart of traditional Toryism, the unlucky horseshoe, Danielle Smith, instrumental in the deaths of two parties of the Alberta right, working on a third—and maybe even a forth if you count the CPC as one—, Donald F tRump who Canadians should really thank while boycotting his country’s products, and Mark Carney, grinning like a Cheshire Napoleon. It almost seems a conjunction of astrological ducks-in-a-row that indicate PP has been played into this situation. Possibly by everybody.
‘There is a period of waiting in the wings—often a very long period—for all the great leaders whose entrance on the scene seems to us a most crucial point in the course of a mass movement. Accidents and activities of other men have to set the stage for them before they can enter and start their performance . “The commanding man in a momentous day seems only to be the last accident in a series.” ’
—Eric Hoffer, The True Believer, 1951
DJC and Alan and any other inquiring minds…..
CTVnews – May 10th
” Pierre Poilievre loss impacts 2 Parliament salaries ”
(I’m trying to condense for key highlights *)
“…both say the decision to step aside is temporary, but have not elaborated…..
“While waiting for by-election, both will be facing a substantial hit in the pocketbooks ”
“PP is facing the loss of his parliamentary salary….”
” Before the dissolution of government ,PP was receiving $309,700/ MP’s base salary of $209,800 and $99,900 as leader of the opposition. ” (plus Stornoway benefits)
“After the writ was dropped PP lost his top-up pay, but MP’S are paid up to the day before the election ”
“If members don’t get re-elected….access to an allocated $15,000 to help them reestablish themselves…”
” after losing his riding PP loses his HoC salary, but would be entitled to $154,850 in severance…..”
“….since he is unlikely to claim the $15,000 to reestablish himself.,” (he’d much prefer being the Stornoway Squatter on the taxpayers dime)
“According to the rules Kurek will NOT qualify for a severance…”
“By ‘stepping down’ Kurek is foregoing his salary of $209,800
but gets paid until he submits his official resignation….”
“Kurek is also quitting before he qualifies for an MP pension ,which requires 6yrs of service…”
” when pressed again, the Cons said PP would not take his severance . Given that he expects to be back by this summer…..(S.Fisher)”
” Fisher did not answer CTV queries asking if the party will subsidize their leaders salary or if they intended to provide financial assistance to Kurek…”
– ———————————-
Also, according to social media, there was “2” GoFundMe accounts started from Kurek, for his ‘noble’ gesture. The fact that only $20 was raised on 1 was …..quite telling, imo.
So Damien gives up a $200k+ salary, a lucrative government pension; all the taxpayers money that went into getting himself elected and all the volunteers who worked on his campaign , to now cost the taxpayers another $1.5+m , plus more volunteers time to help get the Carleton Castoff elected in his riding, because the Cons didn’t want to take a chance on any other riding, or any other MP that didn’t want to bamboozle the constituents that voted for them.
And we are left to believe that the Cons did all this because of deep moral principles….the same way that they have no qualms about taxing people ( a more correct term) by getting them to spend all their hard earned money on hats, tshirts etc. just like d’rump does on top of their contributions.
—hey all you ‘cowboys/ cattle ranchers, that city slicker cosplayer cowboy is fleecing you and you’re letting him do it.
I saw a recaptioned picture of Skippy munching the apple…
It read—- worm eats apple—HUH!!