The key to understanding the Alberta Legislature’s fall agenda is knowing that almost everything on the list trotted out yesterday by United Conservative Party House Leader Joseph Schow is there to keep the party’s far-right fringe happy with Premier Danielle Smith at least until next month’s annual general meeting.
So whether it’s trying to control who can run for public office in local elections, making it hard for professional associations to discipline members for “matters unrelated to their work,” or legislative changes to allow the government to set up that provincial police force almost nobody wants or continue the dismantling of the public health care system, most of the planned bills cited by Mr. Schow during a news conference yesterday seem intended to mollify the party’s extremists.
Understandably, most of the reporters at the newser were focused instead on what the government’s going to do to end the province-wide strike by 51,000 public, Catholic and francophone schoolteachers now entering its third week, and when it’s going to do it.
On that topic, Mr. Schow was uninformative, bobbing and weaving to avoid giving any clear information. However, Premier Danielle Smith and Finance Minister Nate Horner have both already dropped plenty of hints that if the Alberta Teachers Association won’t knuckle under to the government’s contract demands by the end of next week, they’ll legislate its members back to work.
It rather sounded as if Mr. Schow hadn’t been given the details of how that is going to unfold, but, informed or not, a couple of quotes from MLA for Cardston-Siksika and minister of jobs, economy, trade and immigration in addition to his duties as UCP House Leader were hardly necessary to see what’s coming up Highway 2.
Even if the government passes legislation to force the defiant teachers back to work, it will take a while to make it happen, so look for that story to still be around when Lieutenant Governor Salma Lakhani reads the Speech from the Throne on Thursday.
As for the rest, well, we can probably expect the promised Regulated Professions Neutrality Act to try to make it illegal for professional associations to discipline members for hateful speech or advocating quack medical cures. Freedom, ya know!
As to what the government has in mind for its effort to keep unserious candidates from running for public office, that remains to be seen.
Calgary Herald political columnist Don Braid bashed out a quick column yesterday worrying that what Mr. Schow described as “steps to bring clarity and transparency to the election process” would mean “somehow filtering candidates, deciding who can run and who can’t.”
Anything is possible with the UCP, of course, but this seems unlikely to me, if only because it would not please the fringiest elements of the party base that Ms. Smith appears the most anxious to keep sweet.
Moreover, actually interfering with the ability of candidates, no matter how unserious, to run in any election would likely run afoul of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And, remember, the Notwithstanding Clause, which Ms. Smith is forever threatening to employ, cannot be used to override a citizen’s right to vote or to be a member of the Legislature.
Mr. Schow vaguely hinted it might have something to do with the federal by-election in Battle River-Crowfoot last August where the ballot was flooded by supporters of the Longest Ballot Committee. That was a nuisance, alright, but this is Canada and federal by-elections do not come under provincial jurisdiction.
Political blogger Dave Cournoyer suggested that it’s more likely the UCP plans “to close the big loophole that allowed Paul Hinman to create the Wildrose Loyalty Coalition and Art Pawlowski to create the Solidarity Movement Party and get recognized as registered parties by Elections Alberta in 2023.”
This is a rule that allows any group to form a political party by, as Elections Alberta puts it, “endorsing and ensuring candidates are nominated in at least half of the electoral divisions in Alberta for a general election.” In other words, you can avoid most of the hoops required to form a party merely by nominating candidates – without actually bothering to get them to run.
Well, we’ll see, I guess. Mr. Schow was not exactly informative about how this would work when Mr. Braid tried to coax him to drop a few more hints.
“Other changes proposed this session will increase labour mobility by streamlining approvals for internationally trained professionals to work in regulated professions,” the government’s news release said. Professional associations may not take that in good grace.
The UCP AGM is scheduled to take place Nov. 28-30 in Edmonton.
Commentary on municipal election results will have to wait
As a result of the province’s ridiculous and expensive policy of banning the use of ballot-counting technology on the apparent grounds the UCP’s MAGA base thinks they’re U.S.-style voting machines, your blogger expects to be fast asleep long before sufficient municipal election results are available to write any sensible commentary.
Like many of you, I will be awaiting the results from Alberta’s big cities, and of course from here in St. Albert where I reside, with anticipation. Just like the rest of you, alas, I’ll just have to wait as long as it takes.
Yes, a slightly modified version of a well known old saying explains Smith’s UCP meeting predicament: sometimes you have to dance with the one who brung you.
Lest we forget Smith only narrowly won the UCP leadership and the last provincial election was way too close for comfort for many Alberta conservatives. If they were to be honest, many would probably still say she makes them nervous and uncomfortable, so she can only stay in power by keeping the extreme part of the party that is her real base of support, happy and motivated. Fortunately for her, she seems quite comfortable, perhaps too comfortable, continuing to do this.
It is possible that after the UCP meeting she will take her foot off the gas and try to sound more moderate, but I sense this lady’s really not for turning. Besides I suspect she actually enjoys micromanaging and controlling as much as she can. It was fine for her to be a libertarian in theory years ago, but being in power has seldom made anyone become more libertarian. I doubt she dwells on any contradictions of this much. After all so many things that require her attention and action now, regardless of how trivial or best left to other levels of government to deal with.
However, I’m also fairly sure her extreme supporters do not want her to crack down on non serious candidates, if for no other reason that this could often be them. So for her sake, it would be good to better clarify this soon lest there be a messy feud on the dance floor.
all these plans sound like they came from trump and his maga crowd. Its about restricting who can run and in a manner who can vote.
When a member of a profession decides to pontificate on a subject in such a manner it brings the whole profession under a micro scope. Having teachers or medical professionals coming out as saying sex with children is just fine does not fall under the category of free speech. Nor does having a person in a professional organization spewing hate and racist comments do any one any good. On the other hand, if this law passes and people start carrying on as if they were maggots the public may decide they don’t want these associations any more because they don’t do anything any how and that maybe the reason smith is proposing this new game rule.
At the rate things are going Alberta is going to be the laughing stock of Canada How stupid can the UPC be, well if I look at Alberta’s history some of those politicians were just bad shit crazy and it looks like Smith and co may just out crazy them
Basically, the UCP and Danielle Smith have a full blown dictatorship. Sooner than later, this will blow up in their faces. Their corruption, extreme wastes of money, and the deterioration of public services isn’t doing Albertans any good.
Calgary has a new mayor excreted by the Manning Institute. But he has come to terms with liking outies and innies, so, you know he’s cool.
If you’re referring to Jeromy Farkas, he appears to have moderated his views since he was the designated Reformer on Calgary’s city council. I see him as one of those unfortunately too-rare creatures: a reasonable conservative.
I can’t help but see this all through the lens of the teaching profession in light of the times and being of the ilk myself. Forgive me.
Can we expect now to see more independent schools with LMIAs in place? Will our modern Mr. Keegstras be able to retire with a full pension this time?
Also, are you referring to Mr. Schow and Rob Anderson’s persuasion when you say ‘keep them sweet’? Giving me the icks anyway, having had the full southern Alberta experience.
I do want to shake the whole lot of the NDP with perhaps the exception of Ms. Irwin. Do they not understand that we are fighting, not for the FORM public education takes, but its very existence? Yes, the youtubes are folksy and kind and rambling but not quite there.
There’s a better interview circulating. Gil McGowan explains the eventualities to Markham Hislop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8j-LpHVlF0
Emily: To keep someone sweet colloquially means to keep them on site. I don’t know anything about Messrs. Schow and Anderson’s persuasions, other than their support for a dangerous ideology, whatever you may have in mind. None of my business anyway. DJC
I apologize. I should not write innuendo when things can be said plainly.
I associate the expression ‘keep sweet’ with the church of the Latter-day Saints. The words in this context have been attributed to Rulon Jeffs, to mean that women must practice absolute submissive obedience to men. There is no need to rely on a sensationalist Netflix docuseries; the principle, if not the exact term, is documented well in those nice little anecdotal collections of local history of say, towns like Raymond and Cardston.
You’re right, it is none of your, or my business where elected officials and politicial staffers tithe their salaries. It becomes our business only when church doctrine shapes public policy, when the convictions of a small but powerful group determine our access to reproductive rights in the province for example, or underwrite the removal of the Charter rights of a small, vulnerable group to gender affirming healthcare.
Jared Wesley reminds us that pluralism contained in an ivory tower is fragile. We need to enfold the populists into our ranks, and test their arguments by fire, not ice, in order to come to a true plurality.
I am very leery, and weary, however, of the well-funded, obscure grassroots groups that seem to have such a throttle-hold on rural Alberta.
Some very odd things occur when women in politics adhere to fundamentalist, misogynist principles. Thinking of Rachel Thomas eulogizing Charlie Kirk in the Canadian Parliament.
The Christian Reformed Church of Canada, on the other hand, is currently debating whether to cut ties or not with its American sister church ie. the one that spawned such bright lights as Betsy deVos and Pete Hoekstra.
Profuse apologies for another rant. That derailed fast.
That’s interesting, Emily, and thanks for the explanation. I am not, nor have I ever been, a member of the LDS church, although I do pay attention both to its evolving doctrine and its increasingly horrid right-wing politics. (And this from the crowd that founded Zion’s Co-operative Mercantile Institution!) I kid you not, I wrote a freelance story in 1992 for the Salt Lake Tribune about how Canadian Mormons were going to vote in the Charlottetown Accord referendum. (The shocking news, from the Tribune’s perspective, was that it didn’t look like they were all going to vote the same way! This earned one of my two front-page bylines on an American newspaper. The other, about a chicken-hearted police dog from Calgary, was also in the Tribune.) I am aware that Rulon did use that phrase in the context you mention. To tell you the truth, though, I wondered if this was about some other kind of preference, like the allegations that are being made this week on social media about U.S. House Speak Mike Johnson, something that I think is extremely unlikely in the case of Mr. Schow. I am relieved. DJC
One of the trends now increasingly prevalent in the Benighted States is the “fetal personhood” movement, pushed hardest by Evangelicals. It has become the philosophical underpinning for all sorts of anti-women legislation and court rulings in that country. There’s an in-depth discussion on this in a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, of all places. (I’d attach it to this comment if this platform had an attachment feature).
I’m sure there are right-wing Evangelicals and Catholics here in Canada wanting to push Canada along that road, although the judiciary in this country is nowhere near as political as that south of the border.
Marlaina won’t hesitate to use the notwithstanding clause to further her contempt for teachers. She never intended to bargain in good faith with them and hoped that Albertans would pile on when she demonized teachers for wanting fair wages and reasonable class sizes. Instead, many Albertans have voiced support for teachers and a healthy public education system. She will probably flee the country on a taxpayer-funded junket at the earliest opportunity to avoid having to answer any questions. I hope teachers ignore the blatantly unconstitutional legislation.
@djc
What do you think will happen to the clown partie’s legislative agenda if the Forever Canada petition succeeds? I’m fuzzy on what will happen – a vote on a policy? Would that be a confidence vote?
And what would happen at their AGM, given that there are 10 or 11 separatists in that caucus of fools?
Gerald: If there is a way to block it, they will try to find it and implement it. If there is not, they will call an early election. Those are my predictions. DJC
If (and it’s a REALLY big if) the ABNDP can make an early election call into an anti-separation campaign, we could rid of the clown party fools … I am almost hoping she is stupid enough. After all, the floor crossing debacle ranks up there.