Who knew the public would end up supporting 51,000 striking Alberta schoolteachers in spite of the United Conservative Party Government’s blithe gaslighting about the reasons for the labour dispute now entering its 11th day?
The answer to that question may not be clear, but we can be confident about who didn’t expect it to happen.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her United Conservative Party, that’s who.
Yesterday, faint hopes for a quick end to the strike sparked late last week by plans to resume bargaining between the Alberta Teachers Association, as the teachers’ union is known, and the Teachers Employer Bargaining Association, the stalking horse for the government in these negotiations, were dashed when negotiations appeared to fall apart.
In response, Finance Minister Nate Horner vowed on a radio program that the government won’t budge on its salary offer to the teachers, which the union’s membership has rejected twice in in votes on a mediator’s recommendations and a tentative agreement.
And the ATA published a news release saying it had presented a “serious, balanced and realistic proposal” to TEBA containing “a phased-in approach to achieving manageable student-teacher ratios, a fair counter to the government’s three percent annual salary increase offer, and new language designed to finally begin addressing the increasing complexity in today’s classrooms.”
Said ATA President Jason Schilling: “Now, we expect the government to respond reasonably, in good faith, and not through the media but at the bargaining table where these discussions belong.”
Well, good luck with that. Mr. Horner, naturally, is now dropping hints about eventual back-to-work legislation and no doubt making more draconian threats behind the scenes.
Despite the government holding most of the cards when it comes to propaganda, the Alberta public appears to be in a skeptical mood. Leastways, a poll last week by the Angus Reid Institute suggested that 58 per cent of Albertans sympathize with the teachers. Only 21 per cent of the respondents to the three-day online poll said they supported the government.
The pollster also said its results indicate that 84 per cent of respondents thought there were “too many kids” in Alberta classrooms, and 56 per cent thought the province’s teachers aren’t paid enough. Even 28 per cent of the UCP voters identified by the pollster were sympathetic to the teachers.
The UCP is doubtless in possession of its own polling data, which, judging from their silence about the ARI poll, may well say much the same thing. They also have to know that there were more than teachers in the crowd of 18,000 to 22,000 people who turned up at the Alberta Legislature on Oct. 5 to support the strikers. That may have been the largest protest demonstration in Alberta history.
Together, this strongly suggests the ATA’s messaging and advertising has been hitting the mark and even that Albertans are growing tired of the UCP’s reflexive use of MAGA-style attacks on teachers that sound like as if were cooked up in Republican boiler room on K Street in Washington. (Who knows? Perhaps they were.)
What was the UCP’s reaction to this situation? Well, also yesterday, they trotted out an announcement that Alberta would soon be issuing new automobile license plates on which Wild Rose Country has been replaced by an English translation of Alberta’s lame but venerable official motto, Fortis et Liber.
What’s more, Albertans will get to vote in a survey about which colour scheme they like the best. The slogan, however, is the same in all.
Strong and Free, of course, has also been adopted as a slogan by the Alberta separatist movement Ms. Smith has been nurturing, and is used as branding by the United Conservative Party.
Predictably – exactly as was no doubt intended – this riled up opponents of the UCP, helping to create another teapot tempest to distract from the growing list of disasters and scandals on the Smith Government’s watch.
Now, to be fair, Ms. Smith insisted this is not so. “There’s no distraction,” she said at a news conference about the new plates, looking delighted at the turn reporters’ questions had taken. “This is neutral language.”
“A license plate is more than just tin and paint,” she gushed. “It’s a business card for Alberta!” Presumably that means we can look forward to seeing a lot of Alberta business cards with duct tape over the UCP branding on them.
“There is no political ideology that owns the corner on Strong and Free,” helpfully insisted Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally, who seemed to think he is the only person in Alberta who can read Latin. (It’s sort of too bad Ontario got “Ut incepit fidelis sic permanet,” which a lot of us Albertans think as well.)
Talking fast, Ms. Smith fielded a reporter’s question about the strike at the newser with a stream of bafflegab on why her government is not prepared to put caps on the number of students in a classroom. She thinks there should be a cap on complexity instead, she explained, or perhaps exclaimed.
Reporter: “When you say a cap on complexity, what do you mean by that?”
Premier: “I dunno! I mean, that’s something that I hope we can talk to the teachers about, because that’s just a concept that my education minister has put forward, is, do we have to be a lot more hands-on in monitoring the complexity in a classroom? And there’s kids who have English language learning, there’s kids who are, um, on the spectrum, there’s kids who have behavioural issues, there are kids who are in wheelchairs, so complexity has a whole diversity of manifestations, and so that’s what I think, that’s what we’re hearing from teachers, is that, if, if every kid was in a particular range of ability, then they might be able to accommodate larger class sizes, but with inclusion and more complexity, they need more hands on deck, either smaller class sizes or more educational assistants, and we just think we need to maintain that flexibility to be able to assign, that’s why we don’t want the hard caps.”
Have you got that, people?
Well, if the premier is serious about wanting to talk to teachers about complexity in the classroom, there will be a golden opportunity the next time the ATA and TEBA sit down and try to have another go at bargaining.
Thanks for this article, Dave. I was thrown off by Minister Nally referring to Canada’s head of state, in the context of mentioning “strong and free” while delivering the speech from the throne, as the “King of England”.
Will: Well, He’s the King of Canada, too, of course. I’m prepared to forgive Mr. Nally for that one, which falls into the general category of “easy mistake to make.” Other things Mr. Nally gets up to are harder to forgive. DJC
Cheers, Dave. Just figured that a government minister might remember who he swore an oath to! Albertans getting offered a vote on the colour scheme but nought else seems par for the course for DS.
Yes, Smith had probably expected or hoped all her communications minions on the government payroll would be able to spin the blame for the strike on to the teachers. Oh well, but clearly it is not all their fault, given Smith’s difficulty in explaining complexity, or perhaps that is Horner’s fault as she seemed to be hinting. In any event it is funny to see Smith get caught up in her own web of obfuscation that she was trying to spin.
No doubt the UCP does need a good distraction now. However, despite how busy people may be voting for new license plate slogans I think they will still notice the teachers are still on strike.
Too bad some better slogans, like Loyal she remains were already taken by placee like Ontario, but I suspect Smith didn’t really want that one anyways.
She’s not a doctor, nor a medical professional. The definition of complexity inside the classroom has not been given defined parameters or definitions, so should a politician be able to explain something that wasn’t even addressed by the teachers or the ATA themselves? The teachers stated they have children with various complex needs that cannot be met in a traditional classroom without taking time away from the other students and at times, depending on the severity of some students’ disabilities, they can distract the other students from being able to learn. This is their sugar coated way of saying, “we want to go back to traditional classrooms and have students who have disabilities or other complex needs, taken outside the classroom for their learning needs.” If they actually worded it the way they’d like to say it, but won’t because it’s comes across as insensitive and discriminatory, I’d actually believe a but more of what they’re saying and possibly support teachers. As a parent of children with disabilities with varying complexity levels, I don’t and never did want inclusive learning. For what purpose? So all the other kids can see where my kids struggle? So the teacher has to choose what level of curriculum she’s teaching at and my children are left behind? Which is what happened. I forced schools to have my children repeat grades and eventually I withdrew my youngest child from the public school system and home schooled them, until they were caught up in various aspects and were confident enough to withstand the pressure of the public school environment.
So no, Smith didn’t mess up the way she said it. She said she didn’t know. The teachers don’t know. The ATA doesn’t know and because no one knows, she said, I’m paraphrasing here, “well, there will be a task force to help look into these issues, especially complexities inside the classroom and have them report back with their findings and a range of solutions that could address the outstanding issues.”
Hard caps won’t work because they may leave a child without an institution able to accept them due to not having space. Children are legally required to be in school as a minor. So if enrollment jumps for various reasons within one school board’s jurisdiction, building a new school instantly isn’t possible and neither is turning those children away. They have a duty to accommodate. By removing or reducing complexities in the classroom, teachers should be able to focus easier on the students they have, leaving room for the enrollment jumps, as they happen and providing school boards time to gather information on enrollment and reporting their needs to the province for additional portables and teachers that year or the following year. If hard caps are put in place, teachers will be set in stone on not going over that number for any reason, which sets everyone up for failure before a collective agreement is even signed. As educated professional that teach education, they should understand this and they should understand the importance of doing research and how to do it, since they teach this very thing, especially at the junior and senior high school levels. If they don’t understand it or don’t agree with it, then I’d question their qualifications to be an educator. Their behaviour right now mimics the complex nature of ADHD with impulsiveness. They want something and they want it now, consequences be dawned, but when those consequences happen, only then will they realize their mistake. Then their agreement will be up and they’ll fight for changes again based on their mistake, but they won’t admit their mistake. The way I explain adhd is like two extension cords that aren’t quite connected fully, so energy/information flows through those cords, but at the connection only some of it makes it across. Some jumps across, some flows across and some doesn’t cross at all. The sporadic jumps are impulsive in nature. Treatment (meds, therapies, diets, routines, etc) may help alleviate some characteristics, but it will never be gone. In the case with the teachers, ATA and the government, research and a task farce is the treatment for their impulsive behaviour. It will bridge the gap in the disconnect between the two sides and provide concrete data on what the issues are in each school board, why and viable solution options. It’s not a quick fix and all educators should be happy this is being done because it’s extensive, laborious and will be mentally draining on those involved, due to the emotions of individuals they’ll need to communicate with. Currently, thee adults have proven that they cannot keep their emotions in check or behave in a socially acceptable manner in which they’d request of their own students or their own children at home if they have children. If their child said they wanted or needed this and the parent/teacher said they’d look into it, would they be okay if their child then had a fit or argument over it? No. They’d say, I just said I’d look into it and I will. Once I do, then I’ll let you know the details and we can go from there or if they’re younger, let me check with so and son’s parents and I’ll get back to you if you two can do that.
Everything requires research, even if it’s minor, such as looking up prices and checking to see if you can afford it. The way the ATA and teachers are behaving, seriously makes me question if any of them should be teaching our children or if this is the reason our society has transitioned to having a sense of entitlement.
Straight out of Ralph Klein’s book. That’s how the UCP operates. Teachers, as well as nurses get treated like absolute garbage, which causes worse problems. No doubt, the UCP wants private education getting as much money as possible, and wants private for profit healthcare. License plates are the next big distraction. We also get to see how the MH Care (Corrupt Care) scandal gets taken care of by Danielle Smith. That may be very ugly, and there are only so many detractors the premier can use, before she goes down with the sinking UCP ship.
Putting “a cap on complexity” sounds suspiciously eugenic in intent. Groups of people are inherently complex, so there’s only one direction that can go.
David: I had the same thought when I heard the words come out of her mouth. DJC
How is the current education system preparing children for a world in which AI will be ubiquitous? It is not. Indeed, attachment to the internet has resulted in a vicious society whereby war is waged daily between ideological lines. Schools alone cannot make up the difference between isolation and togetherness. People spent an inordinate amount of time on their devices, alone in their heads, their thoughts, while the world turns. The youth of our time are not engaged in community because the Margaret Thatcher like UCP do not believe that community exists. No, UCP support silo thinking, convoy gatherings, and weaponizing the insanity that is fascist religion – just as people did in 1928-1939 Germany. To think that we are preparing our children for the future is nuts given the changes that are happening. No, we are preparing a future generate who are completely subservient to the UCP branding and thinking. So forget raising children to be good citizens; we are raising an army. Most employment opportunities will not exist in 10 years, so the children who are presently learning lessons drummed up in the 1950’s are being deliberately left behind. And the teachers? While many are dismayed at the UCP, many more fully support the UCP. Alberta is a place full of UCP. The UCP should initiate an overhaul of the current Alberta curriculum since it does not meet the needs of the students who currently attend public schools. However, the UCP people turn to book banning and religious theocracy as part of an Alberta education. Welcome to 1938 Germany. As the Earth warms and future generations (ie. students) will be alive to live in a largely uninhabitable environment the UCP happily and stupidly do nothing but offer old ideas that have been proven over time to be unworkable – they are masters of incompetence and purport egoism and hubris rather than agents of collaboration. Ever heard of drought? Alberta is already in extreme drought. Just wait, in 75 years when the glaciers are melted and the Bow and North Saskatchewan rivers run dry what will the UCP offer as a solution? Build another pipeline! Any planning for that eventuality? Not on your life will a UCP admit that global warming is a problem. Between AI and the destruction of the planet, children face utter misery and the so called adults in the room are looking the other way – the way to unmitigated suffering and death.
Alberta Strong and Free? What an asinine slogan. Alberta is a geographical location; it is not strong it is a place, a location, full stop. Free? How is Alberta free? Free from what? And attached to what? Strong and Free means no allegiance to anything, just being “strong” and “free” which is meaningless fluff. By the way there is always someone or something faster, stronger and more useful than the former – a lesson UCP do not understand – they are not alpha, they are substandard. The substandard, mentally ill malignant narcissists (UCP) are running the show of horrors (the public stage, ergo Alberta) and the audience is not paying attention. Why are UCP not paying attention? They are amusing themselves to death.
I’m mad and sad and angry at things too, Ai existential angst etc.
But “the children” are not “presently learning lessons drummed up in the 1950’s” – even considering the UCP near-fascist nonsense.
The challenge for teachers has always been how to educate their children for a future we can barely anticipate – which is why reading, math, communicating, critical thinking, social skills, team work, and learning-how-to-learn is the basis of every curricula.
The kids (will be) alright.
Unfortunately, I think the credible authors that have written about a narcissism epidemic ( unhealthy , increasing self centredness ) in society are correct.
And it’s people with those personality traits gaining power, that are the problem, in my view. If you think about it, the polarization is desirable. Thank goodness they have opposition. The opposition will have to stay determined and persistent though. I have faith that a good number our youth will understand right from wrong and we’ll get through. I’ve known some incredibly insightful and principled children.
I also believe our modern societies need to be educated as to personality traits- especially those that highly narcissistic types display. The old “ judge not” needs to become “assess carefully” and Maya Angelou was correct- “when they show you who they are …… believe them the first time”. ? I think her advice is valid in today’s world. It’s no frivolous “saying”.
Doesn’t Marlaina have anything more important to do? She should be embarrassed by yet another obvious attempt at distracting the rubes, but she won’t be because she has no shame and she knows distraction works. The UCP propaganda arm over at the Sun newspapers will probably splash it all over the front pages and that will be enough to get those pesky teachers and parents out of the headlines for a day at least.
Wouldn’t it be great if little Nate and the rest of the UCP clapping seals legislated the teachers back to work and the teachers ignored them? I hope the teachers stay strong and don’t roll over like the AUPE did.
Ah yes, let’s blame it on the kids. According to Smith, classes need to be smaller because today’s kids are flawed, mentally ill/learning challenged, ESL, disabled, in wheelchairs, name-that-drawback not because it’s the right thing to do if we’re actually interested in providing decent public education to every child. Not when we’ve got a private school plan to sell.
We all know what happens when you give a government “flexibility” in policy–they do as little as possible and stick their fat hairy toes over the line inch by inch until someone notices enough to cause a public furore then claim they didn’t mean it and have no idea how that happened and what’s the big deal anyway since it was going great until some complainer started complaining?
Mike Harris and Stephen Harper were masters of this tactic so Dixie Dani learned from the best.
Leaving no one to ask the obvious question, “How did it get this bad in the first place–under your leadership–Ms. Smith?”
My neighbour’s granddaughter, in Calgary has a class size of 71. My granddaughter, also in Calgary, has a class size of 52. How does anyone learn in conditions like these?
DS has always supported private education and privatization over all. Just go back to her days on the CBE and her platform, when she was with the Wild Rose Party.
Horner’s CBC interview last week, suggesting class sizes don’t matter to outcomes, made him seem like an academic pedantic – exactly the bell that UCP supporters reject with Pavlovian anger.
The thing I find so infuriating about the UCP on the teachers strike is exactly what Jason Schilling says. Instead of negotiating in the media, Nate Horner should keep his mouth shut and let the negotiations happen at the table. This appears to be a very feeble attempt to sway the public away from supporting teachers and siding with the UCP, which is not working very well.
Also true to form, Smith wants to review (and no doubt edit) the Corrupt Care Scandal Report, before it goes public so she can remove anything embarrassing.
Again with the treasurer’s commons of “we have no money” theme, it was announced yesterday that the UCP are going to spend $27M to fix the Edmonton Butterdome. The list of big ticket items the UCP is spending on, where supposedly no money exists keeps going and the narrative gets thinner and thinner. Maybe someone needs to tell the UCP that people are actually watching and the are noting how bad the gaslighting has become.
The ATA posted an infographic that shows that the government could free up half a billion dollars per year by ending taxpayer subsidies to private schools.
May 5?
Oct. 5. Fixed. I MAY have been typing too fast last night. DJC
My internet research suggested 2000 people marched in Edmonton for May Day 1935; 2.4% of Edmonton’s population which probably just beats the 20,000 that protested this year.
So often we suffer, to our cultural detriment, from recency-bias; lots of our grandpas and grandmas (or maybe our mums and dads) were passionate civic minded hard-asses.
PJP: As noted, my use of May instead of October in that post, which can generously be called a typo but which I think of as some kind of weird mental hiccup while writing at speed, was in error. The comparative demonstrations, I think, all of which took place in Edmonton, were the brutally suppressed Hunger March in 1932 (estimated at 12,000), the anti Iraq War demonstration in in 2002 (12,000), the Bill 11 protests in 2000 (11,000), Greta Thunberg’s visit to Edmonton (10,000), and the 2024 education support workers demonstration (10,000). Crowd estimates are always controversial, and often vary widely for the same event. The Edmonton Police Service estimated the Thunberg turnout at 4,000, which is preposterous. I was there and based on my own count it was far higher by the time the mass of people got to the Legislature. The same organization estimated the 2002 Iraq protest at 12,000, which I personally think was a little high, but what the heck, I’ll go with it. The Calgary Herald once estimated the crowd at an AUPE event where the union served more than 2,000 hamburgers and hotdogs as “a few dozen.” Well, they must’ve been hungry, is all I can say. DJC
I know that govt funds go to private/charter schools but do Christian colleges like Concordia, Burman or St. Mary’s also get $ ? In the affirmative, why isn’t there a stronger public outcry? Why are my tax dollars supporting these examples of religious indoctrination?
Well because Maga says so and the rest of us swallow it. That is Alberta alright.
Of course they do, you forget where you live ? Also students can qualify for
Alberta student loans for these institutions which is another stream of tax dollars
Did anyone else think Danielle Smith might be scheming up a way to remove children with challenges from classrooms and from education altogether? This wouldn’t be the first time in history the disabled were singled out for special treatment. Danielle Smith has many dangerous ideas and this might be one of them. Reference Kenny Fries’ opinion piece in the New York Times from Sept. 13, 2017.
Tin and paint? Does that describe the Tin Man or Premier Smith? Oh, sorry: licence plates.
Some Albertans will be doing everything to preserve their existing licence plates for as long as possible. Other Albertans are wondering which UCP donor will be getting this lucrative contract. We can only imagine. Will it cost us $80M for partial delivery? Yet others might get creative with reflective paint. As long as the numbers are visible and unobscured, I don’t believe there are any grounds for law enforcement to enforce anything related to slogans. This is not legal advice. I guess we’ll find out.
If this government does force teachers back to work as seems likely, parents can count on class sizes growing to the point that double-decker desks might be in order. Either that or the decks will have to be removed altogether. You can only cram so many kids and desks into a classroom. Will there be an extra chair allocation in school budgets, or will those have to go, too? On the other hand, it also seems likely that teachers will no longer volunteer to coach sports teams and extracurricular clubs, or organize graduation ceremonies and proms, or collect sex education permission slips or police pronouns and righteous names, or cull literature from school libraries and classrooms or any of the other things they do now outside of instructional time. There won’t be anyone to rat on girls who might not be girls on sports teams because there won’t be any girls’ or boys’ sports teams. That will leave the minister of tourism with little to do, as it’s his portfolio that maintains the rat list. Teachers may not have all the cards but they have some important ones. Who’s the Joker?
Some good information. FYI. There was a typo re: the date of the education rally in Edmonton. It was October 5, not May 5th.
Tersa: Lately I’ve frequently taken to typing May for all 12 months. No idea why. Anyway, thank for pouting it out, and it’s been fixed.
D
Maybe your brain flipped upside down while you were Down Under lol (just kidding).
Could be, Jerry. I seem to have put a typo in my comment about a typo. I probably need more sleep. D
I have been doing a slow burn about the UCP setting up the kids in our public schools for a “fail”. They have no good faith in bargaining with our teachers’ union any more than flying to the moon. Like health care, anything “public” gets trashed, while corporations and everything private or for-profit gets the field tilted their way. Limits on class sizes? Patient-nurse ratios? Wait times for ER’s? Forget about it! I’ll bet the swanky private schools in Calgary have class size limits. I’m willing to bet, also, that they all have HEPA filtration so their little darlings don’t get Covid, and their own nurse to make sure every entrant is properly vaccinated.
I’ll tell you David, my heart broke these last couple of weeks, seeing kids dragged around Canadian Tire by their exasperated dads, and traipsing behind their mothers’ grocery carts when they should have been in school. It’s absolute, can I say this here, bullshit. I went in to a fast-food place one day last week and there was a young boy hanging around the counter. I thought maybe he belonged to a family eating there but there was just me and a couple of construction workers who eventually left. The woman working the counter came to the boy and I could see by the look in her eyes that she was his mother. She rummaged in a little change purse and gave him a couple of coins, he left the building, and on my way out I could see him happily skipping back from the coffee shop next door with some treat he bought himself. I tell you, I just about wept. These are the families the UCP is beating down on. You think they can afford tutors? How many underage kids are home alone right now while parents are out making minimum wage somewhere? The UCP MLA’s need a good kick up the wazoos from their constituents. Like, families aren’t struggling enough right now? Right now there’s our neighbours’ nice young teenager home by herself, while her parents are working. She is very bright and in an academic program in the public high school. I had her for tea the other day and she is beside herself, worried about all the school she is missing. Do you think the UCP gives a hoot? Not a chance. I think every parent, and grandparent and everybody who has benefited from public schooling (which is everybody) should join those teachers’ rallies and pledge to vote this government out at the first opportunity.
Can I share this comment on FB. Its very moving
I don’t need a new license plate. I need a Doctor.
Agreed!!!
“May 5” should be “October 5″…
Greg: Yes. Thanks. It’s been fixed. DJC
“an English translation of Alberta’s lame but venerable official motto, Fortis et Liber.”
Ah yes Latin . . .
One must never forget and always appreciate the truthfulness of the other confidential official slogan of the UCP and their separatist stooges, that is, inter urinas et faeces nascimur. Come to think of it, it would also make for a great license plate business card for this province, because the truth is what it is.
” inter urinas et faeces nascimur”: I got my O level in Latin in England many years ago and, amazingly, remembered enough to be able to translate that diamond immediately. How well it describes the present predicament for students enrolled today in the Alberta public school system under the tyranny of the UCP.
About the teachers strike and no strike pay. Teachers on average pay $1422.00 in union dues per year. The last strike was in 2002 and they were ordered back to work by the Government.
Currently there are about 46000 teachers times $1422.00 equals $65.4 million in dues per year and let’s multiply that by 10 years, comes to $654’120’000.00. Sure the dues were less 10 years ago, but the last strike was in 2002. So no strike pay, what happened to the $654 million? The ATA President, Jason Schilling annual salary is reported to be around around $140.000 and then there is the union executive staff are they all forgoing there pay cheques in support of the teachers?, not likely. And just to be clear, I am have no use for the UCP gong show.
In what world does running a large union cost zero?
Teachers voted to authorize ATA to pay for all teachers health benefits – to cover dental, meds etc.
Just because the public doesn’t know doesn’t mean there is malfeasance.
And this kinds of “just asking” feels a lot like trolling.
Yes they are also going without pay until teachers are back to work.
This brings to mind that at times, the ATA seems a bit squeamish to act like a labour union. It didn’t set up a strike fund, and isn’t picketing its workplaces. It has also remained outside the Alberta Federation of Labour.
If you look at the union of which I am a member, and which also employs our host, we had a strike fund ready to go in the event we didn’t get an agreement last April, and were all ready to picket hospitals and health centres all around the province.
I also fully expect that if the other two health sector unions currently contemplating job action — AUPE’s Auxiliary Nursing unit (LPNs & Health Care Aides), and HSAA (allied health professionals) — do walk off the job, they will have strike pay and will be picketing.
I don’t like to seem like I’m slagging another union for its decisions, democratically arrived at as they are, but ATA’s are puzzling.
International Teachers’ Day was October (not May) 5. Like hundreds of other folks, I was proud to stand for children, education, and teachers outside the office of the MLA for Red Deer South. I believe someone purporting to be his parent called in sick for him. As usual, he was MIA.
Neil: Thanks. It’s been fixed. The older I get, the more every month looks like May when I’m typing. DJC
Wishful thinking, perhaps? Skip right over winter and land in spring again? I’m all for that.
So with 51,000 teachers in Alberta, that’s a lot of people who could potentially collect signatures on the petition to stop provincial funding of private schools. And the longer they remain on strike, the more incentive they’ll have to do just that. Plus, time to organize events, etc. If the UCP was smart (cue eye rolling), they’d get the teachers back to work ASAP. Or are they going to drag this out until the legislature is sitting again in hopes the NDP will look bad if they vote against back to work legislation? Hmmmm. I’d say the petition is more of a concern than ‘owning’ Nenshi. BTW, can’t wait to sign that petition! Bring it on.
An article published by Calgary Herald on October 6, 2025 (updated Oct. 8) states that taxpayer paid per student spending for private schools is expected to reach $544,000,000.00 by 2027-28, or, a 30% increase in three years.
$461 Million is the current amount allocated to private schools.
Ontario provides near nothing for private schools, which still exist in that province.
Alberta has the lowest per student funding for public schools of any province in Canada.
Please read the entire article. It’s informative.
A citizen’s petition is underway in Alberta to end taxpayer money for private schools.
Oh!—those darn caps!!
Who can forget that Sopranos episode when a young man in a fancy Italian restaurant refuses—for a moment— to doff his baseball cap? The late James Gandolfini, playing the role of mob boss Tony Soprano, gives one of his patented looks and that’s all it took to convince the young man not to make any trouble.
But even in reality those darn caps are troubling in too many ways, especially these days when magnified by MAGA—as an American tourist found out when she was upbraided by uncharacteristically unapologetic passersby for wearing her red “Make-America-Great-Again” cap during her post-51st-state visit to Canada (indeed, uploads of MAGA-hatted Americans being refused service at eateries all across the USA are becoming increasingly popular on social media). If the boot were on the other foot, US citizens trying to cross the border into Canada while wearing a MAGA-cap would feel it in their backsides as they’re turned away with threats of deportation and imprisonment (in Afghanistan, without due process, of course)—if they ever try to enter Canada again (Maple MAGAnauts, too, might find it difficult to get back into Canada with their F-Trudeau caps on). Travelogues and travel agents are advising border-crossers into the USA to SCRUB THEIR PHONES —in all caps, naturally. Ever heard about the Canuck who was turned back from airport pre-clearance when US border guards perused stuff on his smartphone? Everybody thinks it was because he had one a them “fat-face” caricatures of JD Vance in his photos, but it was actually his “I-[heart]-NY” cap that flagged him as a suspected rapist, murderer, radical-Antifa terrorist, and job-stealing frostback with forty tons of fentanyl in his carry-on. It’s just a good job the CFL doesn’t hafta send the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to any cross-border football games! BEWARE THE CAPS!!
But I should think the UCP would be for rather than against “hard caps”—what with all the fallout from the teachers’ strike hailing down on Danielle Smith’s cabinet: ink-bottles, Bibles, leather straps, pointers, chalk-brushes, pencils, books, teachers’ dirty looks and, of course, dunce caps. Perhaps cabinet is sufficiently hard-headed by nature… (“Perhaps”, Scotty? D’oh! What was your first clue?) …or possibly by nurture.
The teachers’ strike might blow the lid off patented UCP blitheness yet. Then just watch all that repressed hatred, resentment, and spite come pouring out: Hard caps on class size—grrrrr! Carbon emission cap-and-trade credits—hissssssss!! Cap on bitumen production—arrrgh!!! Carbon capture—huh?…
No twelve-gallon Stetson for Minister Nally; instead, a one-pint, “I’m-With-Stupid” ball cap with the arrow below the “Fortis et Liber” motto of Alberta’s Royal Arms pointing to the wearer’s top-knot underneath. He seemed not to know that our ‘Caput Status Nationalis’ is, in this context, King of Canada. Oh, well, omnia scire non potest quis, I guess… But surely he would know the motto for the Royal Arms of Canada—“A Mari Usque Ad Mare”—which is probably invoked in opening prayer at every UCP cabinet meeting so’s to rile ministers into a hot froth over the feds’ alleged taunting persecution of their landlocked province. One wonders if Smith quite understands ‘Quod licet lovi, non licet bovine’: in attempting to distract her cabinet from the biggest protest ever seen outside the Assembly (in support of striking teachers, of course), she’s diminishing tactics meant to distract voters from her government’s perfidious scandals and suspected criminal acts. By Jove!— Quam stultum fit?
Since some of those UCP cabinet ministers just might yet get a chance to actually make some of those new licence plates, now is probably a good time to apply for vanity inscription because “UCP • CAPUT” is sure to become very popular very soon. After all, Avis matutina vermen accipit, right?
OCULOS IN VIAM TENE, MANUS IN GUBERNACULO, my Alberta friends (with apologies to Jim Morrison).
Is she not a wonderful corrupt, deceitful, disgusting whatever?
Of course nothing touches her because they lie as much as they can. Propaganda galore and nothing much helps to dethrone them. The RCP, just like they did with Jason Kenney is going to take 10 years to investigate the health care corruption and by the time they are done, she will be long gone and enjoying her Bahamas account.
We certainly like to be proud of our democracy but to me it is a shit load of nothing.
By the way her twin mind in Ottawa now wants Justin Trudeau to be jailed. I thought they should first jail him for his contribution to the convoy coup. Unfortunately in our wonderful democracy we do not even jail traitors like Tamara Lynch or Barber, never mind second clowns like Poilievre.
It seems to me the ATA has had ads on TV for many months about how underfunded the schools are. Don’t the UCP watch TV? I bet lots of Albertans do.
I find it odd that no one is talking about the fine folks in Nicolaides’ riding starting a petition to recall him.
https://recallnicolaides.ca/participate/
Cathy: Apparently I’m the only guy in Alberta who covers stuff like that. It’s not because it’s not important. I hope to get to it if the UCP firehose of stupid policies doesn’t overwhelm me. DJC
The perception, and it’s quite right, is that Queen Danielle is happily childfree and doesn’t give a hoot about parenting, or kids, or anything else. She’s about as shortsighted as leadership can be. You voted for this, Alberta.
Hello DJC and fellow commenters,
It was 1971 when Mr. Justice O’Byrne, of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench, in Chambers, required that a child with disabilities be given an education in Alberta. Until then, school boards in Alberta were allowed to continue giving these children exemption after exemption from being in school, pursuant to a section in the legislation, I think it was the School Act. Parents of a child in the County of Lamont went to court demanding that their child receive an education in a publicly funded school. That is when the decision was handed down.
In addition, what does Danielle Smith expect, that a child suddenly becomes less complex? Her explanation is total rubbish. It doesn’t make sense.
As the parent of intelligent children with learning disabilities, I find Danielle Smith’s ignorance and lack of rational comments exasperating. Maybe she wants to go back to the pre-1971 days in Alberta. I think that, fortunately, that is impossible.
Danielle Smith doesn’t seem to care at all about children.
Yankee Doodle Dani seems to have forgotten a cardinal rule of politics; when you mess with peoples kids, they tend to get really angry. Multiply that by SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND. As a childless adult it probably doesn’t come up very often, and it’s clear she holds them with a certain level of disdain, however; most people love their kids and want the best for them. Like a good education. You know like her folks did when they pulled strings to get her into the school of public policy to be mentored by Tom “child pornography is just pictures” Flanagan. Yeah he said it, look it up.
Honestly I hope the kids are out till Christmas; and that it’s the end of Smith, Horner and the whole UCP clown show.
https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/ex-harper-advisor-tom-flanagan-fired-from-cbc-after-saying-theres-nothing-wrong-with-viewing-child-pornography DJC
I’m happy to see that ATA has started using “Strong and Free” in their responses to the government’s attempts to bully them!
Wow… you all are a bunch of crazy misinformed leftists/ communists. Please move to Manitoba. As a parent, I am not mad at the UCP, but the union and school boards. The union collects $72 million a year in union dues… not sure for what. And school boards are mismanaging funds. Also, I remember when the Alberta NDP were in power (2015-2019), referred to that period as ‘the rise of the specialist’ because so many teachers were removed from classrooms and promoted to middle management positions. As a result, both class sizes and workload grew, meaning that when Covid hit, students and staff were already struggling. To suggest that the problems in public schools are just a matter of funding, is to grossly oversimplify the very real issues.
Good luck in your echo chambers and hope you give Nenshi a hug today!