Premier Danielle Smith and her education and finance ministers spent much of the day yesterday digging themselves deeper into the holes they started with their it’s-not-a-book-ban ban on books and their self-inflicted impasse in bargaining with the province’s teachers’ union.
With the book ban, Premier Smith and her army of social media bots apparently don’t seem to realize that if you’re accusing a school board of “vicious compliance” for trying to come up with a list of books that need to be banned in response to your own sloppily worded Ministerial Order, you’re revealing your own incompetence for all to see.
This is what happens when you order a reluctant third party to do a dirty job so you won’t have to face the music when the list of books to be burned (sorry, I meant banned) inevitably includes a title to two (or 50) that arouse controversy among educated people.
Yup, you get egg all over your face, and it’s going to take a while to wipe it all off, even if you did finally announce proof of medical coverage that doesn’t look like someone printed it on a dot-matrix printer.
Yes, tout le monde Canada is now laughing at Alberta’s authoritarian social conservative government for the fact Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale ended up on a list of banned books the same government ordered Edmonton’s school board to create, and they’re not going to stop laughing just because you try to blame the school board. The rest of the world will likely join in the chuckles later today.
“Edmonton Public is clearly doing a little vicious compliance over what the direction is,” Ms. Smith petulantly declared during the health ID news conference. (AlbertaPolitics.ca takes this as evidence that the premier reads our blog.)
“If they need us to hold their hand through the process to identify what kind of materials are appropriate,” she added sarcastically, “we will more than happily work with them to work through their list, one by one, so we can be super clear about what it is we’re trying to do.”
As previously noted in this space, it’s already perfectly clear what they were trying to do. To wit: to ensure the continued political support of evangelical parents of school-aged children, wind up homophobic and ‘anti-woke’ elements in the UCP base, and trap political opponents into appearing to defend pornography.
The error made by the Edmonton Public School Board was trying to comply with this ludicrous order in the first place, instead of telling the minister to get lost.
As prominent Edmonton lawyer Simon Renouf commented on yesterday’s post, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides’ order establishes neither goals nor standards, as it claims. “It imposes new, and objectionable, duties on school boards to do the government’s dirty work for it, that are well outside the Education Act.”
Mr. Renouf continued: “Surely any self-respecting school board (those not intimidated by Take Back Alberta agitators) should say: ‘Sorry, minister, we’re not going there. Banning books is not school board business. We hire professional teachers and librarians to select the books in our libraries, and we will go to court to assert our right – and obligation – to do so.’”
Alas, in Alberta as in the country to our south, there is an astonishing lack of institutional spine to resist the authoritarian impulses of our MAGA governments.
As for Mr. Nicolaides’ and Finance Minister Nate Horner’s lame effort at a morning news conference yesterday to pin the too-real possibility of a September teachers’ strike on the Alberta Teachers Association, it turned out to be a regurgitated version of the previous evening’s unconvincing press release.
There is something inherently hilarious about the spectacle of a couple of professional politicians, although in this case not particularly talented ones, accusing people who have real jobs of “playing politics.”
The response by Larry Booi, a former president of the ATA who the CBC tracked down on vacation in Nova Scotia, summed up the problem now faced by the government thanks to those two ministers’ uninformed meddling in labour relations – which like the operation of school libraries turns out to be an activity better left to professionals.
“These two ministers are spinning so hard that they’ve got to be suffering from vertigo today,” he told the Edmonton morning drive show’s interviewer. “When you can cast yourself as the protectors of the classroom conditions and you’re being complicit in destroying them over the last six years, that’s pretty something!”
“They finally recognized the need to address those classroom conditions,” Mr. Booi continued. “But if they don’t address the salary conditions as well, I think teachers should make no apology for demanding both.”
Danielle Smith expounds on her literary tastes
As also was predicted in this space yesterday, Premier Smith was none too happy with the EPSB’s proposed proscription as per Dr. Nicolaides’ orders of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, a book the premier has indicated in the past is more to her taste than Ms. Atwood’s oeuvre.
“I didn’t read Atlas Shrugged until I was 22,” Ms. Smith confesssed to an inquiring reporter, explaining a lot. “I had a friend in Grade 10 who read it. Maybe we should make it mandatory reading in high school, because it is a pretty influential book and I think it does really articulate how important it is that that we value our entrepreneurs and we value a free-enterprise economy.” Moreover, she added, it is “absolutely appropriate for school children of that age.”
I will leave readers with screenwriter John Rogers’ famously accurate assessment of the late Ms. Rand’s magnum opus: “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”
Look, honestly if Premier Ditzy has read Ayn Rand novels and considers them good philosophy texts, then I don’t suspect she has taken time to read Adam Smith, Plato, Hobbes, or Machiavelli.
That speaks to the amount of trouble Alberta is in. The current leadership is simply without adequate training in critical thinking to be able to lead the province to a better future. The UCP policy is an uncritical mess of wishes for a nearly non existent past.
Maybe she’s read Machiavelli’s “The Prince.” Maybe. After all, she’s said to have a degree in English from the U of C. Can anyone confirm?
More likely James Joyce, The Dubliners
Perhaps Tom Jones.
Typically we reserve Machiavelli for Humanism, it’s not core for English. And we all know Smith isn’t a human.
I can neither confirm nor deny that Daniellezebub went to university although Wikipedia states she has a BA. Neither can I confirm she read “The Prince” at university but likely not. It does have some long sentences in it. I am even dubious she read “Atlas Shrugged”. I think that notes from CBE Board meetings trash was the limit of her abilities.
Atlas Shrugged is a best a bargain bin romance with sexual assaults & ugly people justifying ugly behaviour by calling it a philosophy – which must be why miss “might have a BA but I never learned how to think well or independently” & yes, peodos deserve protection and we need more Whyte babies so we have to make girls dumb again.
As is a well known fact , child SA had gone down significantly because children have the words and the concept of bodily autonomy.
The VAST to the point of almost exclusivity % of child traffickers & SA’s are people who know them & why home schooled children are exceptionally vulnerable.
Teen pregnancy is way down & educated women are saying NO to kids & men who don’t want to be husbands and dads.
Kids need the words. Parents are frequently the danger not the safeguard to children . Children raised by a village are safer.
*Rand lived out her end years on Welfare so definitely did not live her values. So miss Dani is a super-fan of a Super Hypocrite … which is on type
Time for her to go
Maybe she would be so kind as to take PP with her
Wiki says she has BA degrees in English and economics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danielle_Smith
Err no, it’s been years since I read “The Prince” but I am pretty sure Machiavelli was sharper than Danielle.
Besides it is more a history or political science text. English majors …meh.
I find Smith’s choice of words here, “vicious compliance” and her comments that followed, quite interesting. Usually Smith’s communication is much more polished. She seems more than a bit rattled here.
If she is rattled, it could be because she realized she may be falling into a trap of her own making. By all means the schools and school boards should just hand her their lists and say ok if you don’t like them then you change them. At that point Smith and her Minister who both have an inclination to micro manage anyways will no longer have the cover of delegating and they will own this.
So far some of the media stories about this have been as Smith has wanted, mostly blaming the schools or the boards for these lists. However it may soon become clearer to those outside Alberta who is really behind all this. I suspect Atwood has figured this out already.
Sadly for Smith’s sometimes clever communications staff any good news about health care cards may have been swamped by this controversy. Of course the UCP book banning also has taken away attention from the teachers labour issue. This may be good for the UCP in the short term but Smith may have some splainin’ to do when parents are surprised in week or two to find out their kids may not be going to school.
Along with an increasing deficit, Smith may find this year there is a very early start to a winter of discontent for her.
So these godless gody types want to remove books discussing homosexuality from school libraries but they’re too chicken shit to do it themselves so they are trying to have school boards do it. That isn’t a school board’s job. School boards are elected by the general population and not by evangelical types only. These godless gody types are so involved with their self righteousness they have forgotten its not all about them and their religion. The premier and her cabinet minister might want to understand they were not elected to enforce the questionable values of a religious minority. For that they might want to take a hike to Florida or some other state.
So the premier announced she hadn’t read Atlas Shrugged until she was 22. So what? Was she a slow reader? Every time I picked up that book and others by her it was very uninteresting and seemed dumb to me. Never did read any of those books. Didn’t offer anything of interest.
Now if Smith and co. want to talk porn, well there is enough pornography in Alberta they could do something about: improve the health care system, COVID vaccines for free, children going hungry in Alberta, lack of funding for seniors care, working conditions for people, affordable housing. Even as a kid didn’t think porn was bad or what was considered porn in the 1960s. What I thought was pornographic were families who didn’t have enough to eat or kids who came to school in dirty clothes, little kids whose parent might take off for days, the dad down the street who was abusing his wife and drinking up his pay cheque or some adult having sex with a child. Yes, if dani wants to deal with porn, she can start with child porn and the sexual abuse of children–deal with it, offenders in rehab and jail and the children provided with on going mental health services.
You are so right
What do you figure the end result of the book bam will be the closing of school libraries, and laying off of librarians? Solves so many UCP headaches, lets them swing their authoritarianism and saves money.
There are few, if any, Teacher Librarians left in Alberta’s public schools.
So Premier Smith has read Atlas Shrugged. I have tried to read it three times but the writing style is so terrible I can never get past the first page. Also, apparently “religious texts” are excluded from this banning. What makes a text “religious”?
JJ: Perhaps Atlas Shrugged is a religious text. DJC
I think it’s more likely she sees herself as Dagny Taggert, I mean railroads…. Maybe her husband is a big fan too. Crazy to me a fully grown adult is still carrying around their unformed naive opinions as biblical fact. I guess a lot of people do it.
Such a trash book. The definition of a “philosophy” book for dumbasses. “Here let me spoon feed you my crackpot ideology like you’re a baby bird without a thought in your brain”.
Btw, just remembered that Danielle spent most of her childhood living in subsidized housing, much like Rand lived off welfare when she was writing the fountainhead. Subsidies for me, housing crisis for thee, hey Danielle ?
Rand was a lifelong advocate for smoking as well, which killed her stupid ass; one recalls that you don’t have to dig very far to find Danielle arguing that smoking is good for you, actually.
The fact that anyone takes this complete charlatan seriously at all blows my mind. She’s easier to see through than the water in lake Louise.
Bird: Like you, obviously, I too have read Atlas Shrugged. It is a terrible book, but I was able to read it all due to occasional moments of unintended levity. The characters’ ridiculous names are a high point. I can understand why impressionable youngsters like Ms. Smith at 22, apparently, are impressed by it – it has a certain propulsive energy – like a passenger train derailing on a high bridge. It’s hard to look away. Readers brave enough to try will notice that a lot of the female characters wear a particular kind of high-waisted gown that Ms. Rand must’ve thought was devastatingly sexy. If one looks at Dagni/Dani’s Facebook account, it’s hard n ot to notice that the premier often wears the same kind of couture, which to my eye looks frumpy and dated, when she attends Republican events south of the Medicine Line. However, it’s still a free country. Ms. Smith can wear what she likes. The problem is her ideology and her policy agenda. DJC
The book has some merits. For example, it very accurately portrays the collapse of a once-stable and prosperous society fallen into the clutches of irrationalism and crony-capitalism. As we can see unfolding below the medicine line, there’s a lot of Jim Taggart’s what think they’re Hank Reardon.
DJC, indeed it is a religious text for Marlaina. It’s the Bible for her ideology. But what is so disturbing is that Albertans continue to shrug — no matter what Smith does or says, no matter how stupid, inept and vicious she is, Albertans shrug it all off. I suggest a revised update of this dumb novel: Alberta Shrugged.
For these people it is a book sent by God himself , whatever their God is.
Look around & realize Alberta is in REAL TROUBLE with unskilled extremist facist politicians posturing, spouting, never listening.
Your insight matches mine. Don’t forget about corruption.
Ayn Rand, huh?
That angry Russian-Jewish-atheist émigré, who wanted to make it big in Hollywood, wrote a few okay screenplays, some ponderous short stories and books, before deciding to found her own philosophical society? That cranky old crone who was of the belief that all laws were idiotic, and the pursuit of one’s libido was the highest calling? The geriatric sociopath who ended up grudgingly collecting her social security cheques, as she passed deeper into the depths of insanity and final demise?
Never heard of her.
Lol. Made my day.
All true. I had to be tipsy to finish Atlas Shrugged
It is true, sane Canada is pointing and laughing, heartily, at Alberta.
I fear that Smith et al’s MAGA politics is alienating more Canadians every day, to the point that many are close to saying “Kick the bums out! Let ’em go to hell (or America) their own way!”
Another reason the sensible people need to fight back against Smith, David Parker, and the various separatist/ USA wannabes. We need to convince Canadians that we’re loyal to Canada–NOT to Donald Trump!
Personally, I am not opposed to sending Smith and her ilk into permanent exile for that treacherous antics. America is a fair choice, but I’d prefer sending them to Indonesia and demanding they swim to America.
ICE, ICE, Baby.
With respect to LaGrange being missing in action noted a few days ago, I noticed she was in the background as Dingy Smith was trying to explain her views on books being banned. I am amiss as to why Anne of Green Gables was not on that list?
Then the Finance and Education Ministers dog and pony show of trying to spin the blame for the deadlock in negotiations on those bad teachers and have the public against the teachers, when it really is the Government dictating what they want rather than negotiating in good faith. The comments that the Government will look at a lockout and or back to work legislation before the teachers have taken any action is exactly what wee would expect from Dingy Smith. It is very clear the UCP would rather dictate than negotiate. Being long overdue it is time for the Alberta public sector unions to send a very loud message to the UCP that this dictatorship is not acceptable.
I tend to agree with you, David, that the school boards should have collectively folded their arms, declined the ridiculous directive, and said, “Or, what?”. But yet, the situation as it is now- where people can actually identify with books on the UCP “hit list” that were written by literary icons and such- this highlights better the fanatic religious zealots’ control over our government. And another thing, don’t we elect our school boards? So, who is Nicolaides to override their compact with the electorate? Maybe he needs to read more books on “democracy”? Where did he get his degree again? Aside from all that however, I like Mr. Renouf’s expert and objective opinion. Take them to court.
Sometimes the government appoints school boards—like when elected Calgary School Board member Danielles Smith made ordinary proceedings a partisan platform for obstructionism of such dysfunction that the ProgCon government of the day decommissioned the whole board and assumed its responsibilities for the remainder of its term.
But, yes, otherwise government delegates those duties to an elected school board.
The Take Back Alberta death cult has co-opted Alberta school boards so drunkard David Parker can use them for malign purposes.
Smith is now promising to deport foreigners and is promoting Separation from Canada and the gullible rural Albertans, mostly seniors, in Vermilion couldn’t be happier.
She loves what Donald Trump is doing and like her pal Pierre Poilievre wants to be like him. Their supporters don’t care about the billions of dollars the Convoy Truckers and the Trump tariffs have cost us, that’s how stupid they are, isn’t it?
Taking a quick troll through UCP social media sites this morning, it appears the Alberta digital wallet could turn out to be a bigger issue than ticking off Atwood fans. Lots of comments about Smith trying to track citizens for the WEF and even the odd (in more ways than one) post that the digital wallet is the first step towards implanting chips in all Albertans. It isn’t going over well with Stormy Danielle’s far right conspiracy obsessed base.
I don’t think it’s just the far right anymore. I was middle of the road, and never a conspiracy theorist but one cannot ignore the fact that the billionaires of the world have gotten that way in very short order. The Alberta connection is closer than one might think. Lax regulations, no oversight and corruption have created a faucet for tax dollars to flow into the pockets of a few. It keeps going up. Money laundering, ponzi schemes, carousel schemes, corrupt police and courts. The world is very small and the connections much closer than most realize. Now we pay tax to those oligarchs (or else) and Smith doesn’t (can’t) even pretend to hide it
According to Angus Reid polling this summer, Smith’s approval rating is the highest since becoming Premier in 2022. When people say, “this isn’t Alberta”, yes it is! We have moved past, “cruelty is the point” to “cruelty is the priority”. Expect these idiotic moves to increase exponentially as we get closer to the election in fall of 2027.
JE: There is reason to distrust Angus Reid (the entity, not the man) as a medium of accurate information. That said, it is true that AR has picked up on a real phenomenon. I don’t doubt that if an election were held tomorrow that the UCP would be elected, despite their obvious malice and incompetence, which is matched by the Nenshi NDP’s naivety and passiveness. But not, perhaps, by the sort of margin AR would have us believe. DJC
Is Nenshi passive? or afraid? There is reason to be. The oligarchs aren’t playing around. Jagmeet Singh had his life and family threatened. Honest journalists are being bought out or threatened. Smith can be brazen, incompetent or anything she wants to be because the backing of the corporate underworld is not just financial. Or maybe she too is afraid
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the NDP was leading in the polls halfway through the previous (UCP) government’s mandate. And then they lost.
Having attended both the clown party gong show on the 14th and the NDP town hall on the 28th, I ‘m not sure Smith would win again. If we have an election about separation, she will lose big time.
Nor would I call Nenshi naive. He called Smith a liar several times on the 28th, and backed up his assertions. If anything, he sounded like polite version of Pollievre, but without the gaslighting, and offering real solutions. That said, will he raise his media profile and convince enough voters? I dunno.
I literally asked him if he had signed the Forever Canada petition yet, and he said he couldn’t for “technical reasons”. “Which are what?”, I asked. His reply, because he is an MLA, if Lukazuk’s petition succeeds, he would be essentially voting twice. Once by signing, and once as an elected representative. Not entirely sure if that really is a legal, or even ethical issue. But I did asked him to state so publicly.
Just taking a ‘flyer’, maybe those who chose these books to be banned are doing so to place the ‘government’ experts [commonly known as ‘politicians’] in the untenable position they find themselves in. Good play!!
Marlaina hates teachers and uses her puppet ministers to demonize them at every opportunity. She knows that the vast majority of Albertans will happily bash unions instead of wondering why there is always money for UCP junkets, but never any for front line workers. Just wait for the wailing from parents when the UCP-orchestrated teacher lockout is spun by her as “greedy unions”. Note too that the UCP gave themselves generous raises behind closed doors. Always plenty of money for UCP and their cronies; never any for front line workers, disabled Albertans or public health.
I can remember reading some Ayn Rand book when I was probably 14 or 16. IIRC, I got to about page 35 before pitching it in total disgust, it was so ridiculous. I lived in the country and it was a 10km trip to our tiny public library so I usually struggled through whatever I had to read. Not so for Ayn Rand.
It is not a good sign if a 22 year old fails for an Ayn Rand book.
Not only falls for it at 22 when she had to have been studying for her BA in ENGLISH, but then carried on with those assumptions without question for the rest of her life. I just remembered there’s a character in that putrescent book that works in a Diner too, which character from Atlas Shrugged is she cosplaying as anyway ?
Didn’t she read any other books ?
Bird: Dagny Taggart, I’m pretty sure. Nowadays I call her Dangny/Dani. DJC
I found it was the most turgid brain sucking waste of time to read Ayn Rand novels
Not ‘Jack’ Horner photo caption – too funny!!!
It’s about time that people started fighting back. It might seem just a silly back and forth with the government over books but the underlying message is very real. It’s a bit terrifying how close to The Handmaid’s Tale not just Alberta, but the country and the world have become.
Whether Smith believes in the philosophies of Ayn Rand or not, it is peddled for the purpose of feeding a very hungry monster. It’s all about the money. And that monster does not recognize political boundaries. Unfortunately too many of us either drank the kool-aid, or wandered along in sheepful bliss, and now live in a world that too closely resembles Russia
As I think I mentioned, I have called Mr. Horner Doug, Jack and Nick in the past two days while typing on autopilot. Not sure if there’s a Nick Horner. Probably. DJC
If Trump stays longer than the time he is allowed to, we will be worse than Russia
While waiting for the big time personal pay out, the full time hypocrite and part time libertarian (“To me it comes down to choice. I am not interested in imposing my views on anyone any more than I’m interested in having their views imposed upon me,” she explains.”) and fully automated actress certainly knows how to make a small time acting role stand out for all that it is worth,
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/tips-to-make-your-small-acting-role-stand-out
using one of the all time favorite tactics,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_of_the_children
The people who have control over most everything in this world, control the money. They are neither fanatical nor are they religious. The opposite in fact. They are calculated. They are intelligent, power hungry criminals that amuse themselves by playing on the average citizen’s gullibility.
They are far more likely to borrow from L Ron Hubbard. They understand how to play upon people’s emotions and religious beliefs to gain a desired outcome. They know how to manipulate through social media. Why do you think we only ever here about gay rights and abortion during elections? They don’t care if gay people want to marry. Most of us don’t. But it sure creates a distraction and is something easy for a lot of people to fixate on.
Too many from the far left AND the far right play into their hands. The criminals don’t actually have a side.
Libertarian? I think it’s safe to say that even the criminals are learning that it doesn’t work. Unfortunately a lot of Albertans have bought into this and put their eggs into that crooked basket.
It doesn’t matter if you are libertarian, monarchist, communist, democratic, liberal, conservative, etc – the needs of society will always remain the same. The libertarian will live in his walled in castle, next to his neighbor with his walled in castle, but then complain that the streets outside his castle are full of potholes. Is he going to pay to pave just in front of his house? No. He will talk to all of his neighbors, do a collection and pave the whole street. Water, sewer, garbage, etc. There is a name for these collections: taxes
There is always a tipping point. When the ultra rich start running out of low income surfs who can’t afford to live, well then they will eventually have to pay more to house, feed and clothe them. All this while simultaneously starving their customers.
History repeats and every revolution looks more or less the same across any regime.
The important word in any of this is democracy. We need to get back to the middle because that is the only place we survive. We will always waver off centre one way or another but we need to find our way back there. We need to stop being distracted by the manipulations that lead us too far either side.
The criminals have also managed to integrate into the (legitimate) corporate world to such an extent that even honest citizens seeking honest investment find themselves compromised and without an exit.
What the average citizens who have supported the criminal capitalists need to understand is that the criminal money machine feeds from the bottom up. While it was feeding from the bottom a lot of people in the middle were benefiting and didn’t see the danger. Now we have a poor class with no hope to climb out and towns across Canada going broke. The middle class need to wake up and look over their shoulder. I am optimistic they already are. The millionaires of the world are started to chime up in concern. Turning things back is very daunting. We need leaders brave enough to tax the ultrawealthy. But that does come with health risks.
Conspiracy comments about the WEF are not unfounded. You don’t have to be an economic genius to recognize (it’s too out of control to not see now) that what has transpired for years on a global scale is essentially insider trading. There’s a reason Carney put the breaks on his book about economics. And he was Harper’s economic advisor.
These manipulators have also heavily invested in the tech world and probably already own all of our information. We need to start looking at the bigger picture. Those that have invaded Trump’s inner circle (not just Trump) should concern us too. What is happening in Alberta is not isolated to our province. But positive change can start here. It has to start somewhere
“I am not interested in imposing my views on anyone….” Hoo boy, does that mean what I think it means? Does Danielle Smith, Alberta’s lord and mistress under God, or somebody, truly NOT want to impose her views on us?
Then whose views is she imposing? She’s sure as hell imposing SOMEBODY’S views, harebrained and half-baked as they are. So WHO IS PUTTING THIS STUFF IN HER HEAD?
So ridiculous. As in, worthy of ridicule. Books don’t impose anything, they’re just sitting there. They must be engaged with. How is this not you imposing your views on the rest of the province Danielle ?
“Edmonton Public” (someone watches David E. Kelley TV series and thinks fiction is real life) knew exactly what it was doing: “viscous compliance”. Not certain if this is maple syrup or boogers, they stuck their fingers in it anyways because it was inevitable. And here we are, covered in sticky goo.
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/viscous#:~:text=Viscous%20means%20sticky%2C%20gluey%20and,don%27t%20flow%20very%20easily.
Maybe we SHOULD teach Ayn Rand in public schools, say in grade 11. How about this?
“Did Atlas Shrug? The psychology and politics of Ayn Rand, her fiction and her fans.”
And, for grade 12:
“Atlas vs. Freud: Freedom or psychosis? Case studies in social malignancy.”
Alberta never stops embarrassing themselves on the world stage……Useless Clown Party…….watch as the next bunch of dummies show up to BERTA NEXT in support of the circus show………the movie “Idiocracy” is the new reality on both sides of the Alberta Montana border………thanks DC……always spot on…..
What is next?
Perhaps a book burning event on the Legislative grounds. Hosted by Danielle Smith, Minister Nicolaides, her Cabinet members, and of course the usual contingent from the anonymous TBA group.
Perhaps Guy Fawkes day would be appropriate for the event.
The NWT Edu ministry decided two years or so to walk from their decades long curriculum association with the Alberta Ministry of Edu.
No surprise. The re-aligned themselves from a curriculum perspective with the BC Ministry of Edu.
I bet NWT edu offiicals are now very thankful that they made the switch. No doubt NWT parents of school age children feel the same way! I certainly would.
UCP to supply the weiners and marshmallows?
I wonder who suggested she read Atlas Shrugged? Her university classmates Levant or Anders? Her professor Tom Flanagan?
I expect Nenshi had better taste.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danielle_Smith#Early_life_and_education
So Queen Danielle resents the “vicious compliance” that’s gonna force her to actually review the banned-book list, huh?
It’s more like compliance with a vicious regulation. It’s inspired by Old Testament religious teachings, enabled by 19th century attitudes like “spare the rod, spoil the child” and “children should be seen but not heard.” It’s strengthened by fear, of parents losing control of their kids’ attitudes, of their kids’ lives, of their kids’ obedience.
I have no doubt Danielle Smith is fully on board with this. Either (low probability) she genuinely believes in “parents’ rights” or (high probability) she’s desperate for support from the Radical Religious Right, aka Take Back Alberta. Oh, about that:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/social-conservative-groups-expand-training-for-prospective-alberta-school-trustees-1.7615098
I read somewhere (CBC? Didn’t bookmark it, too many to track already) that two “parents’ rights” groups have claimed responsibility for Smith’s book-banning rules. I wonder how many Albertans actually think this is a good thing. I wonder how many truly feel threatened by the whole trans/ gay/ lesbian thing.
I wonder where the money comes from to support these extremely-special-interest groups.
Aaand, here we go again with the performative politics. No substance, no style (unless partially-coherent blather is a style) and no sense. The statement by Nicolaides and Horner is a classic case of the old tactic called “Blame the Victim.”
Somehow, I strongly doubt that the ATA really did suggest “that a contract with fewer teachers would save money and that funding could be funnelled into even higher salaries.” After years of practically begging for smaller class sizes, it’d be self-defeating for teachers to say, “Oh, hey, just don’t hire so many newbies, there’ll be more money for us survivors.”
Self-defeating? That’s self-destructive. I do hope the ATA will release select quotes from their counter-proposal to answer this outrageous claim by Nicolaides & Horner.
There’s only reason that Smith, Nicolaides & Horner,* and the UCP in general, get away with this. Albertans don’t bother to remember what politicians DO, versus what they SAY, for more than one day—or until the next overwrought press release, whichever comes first. Under Danielle Smith, the Performative Queen of Con Grievance, it’s usually the next overwrought press release.
*To say absolutely nothing about Adriana LaGrange.
By parentage I’m “russky,” “polock,” “uke,” “garlic eater” and “nazi,” as defined by the 13 year olds at my junior high in Alberta in the 1980s. Some kids were really bugged and fights broke out.
Sort of reminds me of Premier Smith and this current government.
A bunch of junior high schoolers vying for attention, popularity. And power. And money. And favours.
Until people start asking questions. Or facts prove they lie. Or competent, honest people challenge their hair-brained ideas.
This flip flop type of what they call government is their main strategy of hiding incompetence.
The world is not laughing about this one because unfortunately these have been so common that the team is already known as a total joke.
Danielle Smith loves the petulant smile this time to pass the responsibility to the Education Board. She and her clown education minister did not dare to create the list themselves and test the flip flop waters. It is so much easier to just pass the buck.
“we will more than happily work with them to work through their list, one by one, so we can be super clear about what it is we’re trying to do.”
The school boards should accept that invitation.
Looks like the Edmonton list of books came right out of Florida and the other southern States that favour book banning.
Pat: Only in a sense. It comes out of the rules that the UCP sent to school boards when they asked them to do the government’s dirty work for it. The only problem is that the Edmonton School Board ignored the nudge-nudge, wink-wink part. DJC
A quick look in the “They may be accessible to students in grades 10 through 12 if the content is developmentally appropriate for the student accessing the material” list shows Orwell’s ‘1984’.
Speaking of which … ‘It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. Of course the great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, but there are hundreds of nouns that can be got rid of as well …”
Mr. Nicolaides and the Premier incompetent? Perhaps. They’re both definitely a hack.
Hey, Margaret Atwood tweeted this blog! Thanks for the books, Ms. Atwood.
Margaret Atwood has a new story about the Empress and Her New Clothes.
https://x.com/MargaretAtwood/status/1962219345448218647
Abs….Thanks for the link, saved me trying to post it..
Margaret Atwood just put Marlaina’s book ban order on the burn pile and ‘singed’ her and Nicki BIG TIME!!! LMAO
BRAVISSIMO!!
So why are we concerned with what D. Smith “likes” as literature. Everyone enjoys different genres, and literary styles. Why take options away from students who are equally if not more discerning?
Teach kids/students to accept good literature and if it has concepts to which they or their families do not espouse, don’t read it. Pretty simple really.