The Frankenparty stitched together in 2017 by Jason Kenney from the Wildrose Party and the Progressive Conservatives has spawned a monster.
Hard-line Alberta separatists who were tolerated by Mr. Kenney and have for months been coddled by Premier Danielle Smith as a weapon against Justin Trudeau last night chose half or nearly half the new members of United Conservative Party’s governing board – one vote was too close to call and was being recounted.
It’s been pretty clear to anyone paying attention that separatist trouble has been brewing in the UCP for a long time. But since the start of the party’s annual general meeting in Edmonton Friday night, it’s been obvious to almost everybody – despite the premier’s effort to keep the topic off the agenda.
That was when AGM delegates booed Danielle Smith, for heaven’s sake, for cutting a pipeline deal with Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney. And it wasn’t just a few grumbles from the crowd, if you go by the clip that’s been circulating on social media, but sustained, prolonged, and loud jeering. Ms. Smith’s weird nervous laughter when the boos finally subsided was cringeworthy.
Yesterday during her speech to the AGM, Ms. Smith got both catcalls and standing ovations, but about the best that can mean from the party’s perspective is that its activists are roughly divided between committed hard-core separatists and other varieties of conservatives that may include covert separatists, the separation curious, vaccine conspiracy theorists, cryptocurrency bugs, and full-MAGA Trumpophiles who would still like to hang onto a Canadian passport just in case.
At one point in the speech, Ms. Smith said: “My friends, let’s not throw in the towel and give up on our country just as the battle has turned in our favour and victory is in sight!” Loud boos immediately erupted. She exclaimed: “It is!” Mixed cheers and boos followed half-heartedly.
So while they may love the “grand bargain” struck by Ms. Smith and Mr. Carney at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, that doesn’t mean they’re gonna love it at the Free Alberta Clubhouse in Gopher Butte.
And as the official favourite book of the UCP unequivocally states, “if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” Or, to put that another way: Something’s gotta give.
Mr. Kenney built the alliance with those people to engineer his double reverse hostile takeover of the Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties, purging “Red Tories” as a first order of business. Ms. Smith has nurtured it ever since she took over as leader.
You’ve read about Take Back Alberta, the UCP faction that pushed out Mr. Kenney in May 2022 when he proved not to be extreme enough for their taste and replaced him with Ms. Smith. Well, the Alberta Prosperity Project crowd that wants a Petrorepublic of Alberta is made up of essentially the same MAGA cadres, except that APP’s Jeffrey Rath is the new David Parker.
But now that Ms. Smith has reached an entente cordiale with the federal Liberals to do what the oil industry wants – which, her COVID-skeptical views notwithstanding, has been her primary objective since her days as Wildrose leader – the monster she and Mr. Kenney created has become dangerous to her, just as it was to Mr. Kenney.
And just when she’d hit upon a formula that might well work to overcome the popular anger that is bedevilling the UCP for corruption scandals, attempted pension hijacking, galloping health care privatization, vaccine rationing, and contempt for human rights with the use of the Notwithstanding clause to prove it, the separatists have reared their heads again.
Well, you know what they say: “If you’re gonna lie down with dogs, you’re gonna get up with fleas.”
“That activist base is well-organized and unafraid of toppling a party leader, as former Premier Jason Kenney discovered in 2022,” observed political commentator Dave Cournoyer on his Substack Friday. “That is the big reason why they get more attention paid to them by Premier Danielle Smith than any other premier has paid to a party’s membership in recent memory.”
“The UCP governs with its enthusiastic activist base of supporters in mind and it has been clearly reflected in recent government policies restricting access to vaccinations, banning electronic voting tabulators, banning books in school libraries, banning transgender health services and blocking transgender athletes from competing in sports,” he explained.
Postmedia political columnist Don Braid appeared to be almost beside himself last night over where this was all going to end up. “Smith put her heart and possibly her future into the pro-Canada plan,” he fretted. “If it fails, God only knows what happens next in Alberta.”
Possibly the destruction of the country, one imagines he is thinking, or, even worse, the election of the NDP!
Mr. Braid called the premier’s unwillingness to confront the party’s separatists in her AGM speech wise. Well, that’s one interpretation.
It means the UCP will continue to flirt with separatism, and separatists who have already proved they can remove the leader whenever they wish, will continue to use the UCP to achieve their goal.
If Ms. Smith won’t purge them, voters are going to have to – probably in the face of the most aggressive foreign interference in a democratic vote since the Brexit referendum on June 23, 2016.
So I’ve been watching an Australian youtuber called the Sloan Zone where he covers the shifts that happen in Australian politics more specifically WITH the Liberals (their version of the Conservative Party) and honestly I feel like something similar is happening with the UCP where the pillars keeping the party together are falling apart and we’re gonna see the Conservatives almost split back up into separate faction-like parties so we’re gonna see the UCP, The Alberta Republicans and (assuming they can get themselves out of legal hell) the Progressive Conservative Party through the Alberta Party
In short it’s gonna be a shit show of conservative parties forming from the absolute mess of this one coalition experiment
Kyle: I agree that may happen. However, don’t assume that, should it, conservative parties and their supporters will become much more comfortable with the idea of coalition governments. DJC
David I’m going to have to pay a visit to the “Free Alberta Clubhouse” in Gopher Butte, to see if you’ve hurt any of their feelings.
I have an observation, based on watching some of the Alberta separatists YouTube commentary. They seem to have a curious belief that they can pick and choose what they take in the way of Canadian “furnishings .” The seem to assume we Canadians might supply them passports, diplomatic service, customs union, agreement for pipelines, currency and more. But would we, is De Demokratic Republic of Dilbitstan worth the bother.
Maybe it’s time for Premier Ditzy to separate the Pricks from her pear, er party – with apologies to the late T.S. Eliot.
It is also time for Marlaina to realize that Confederation has supplied benefits to Alberta in the past (when the province went bankrupt in the 1930’s, and when Edmonton suffered a terrible polio epidemic in the 1950’s. More recently the Federal Government covered the cost of the TMX pipeline. I also never tire of pointing out at the time of the NEP, Texas’ oil based economy collapsed as badly as Alberta’s without even having an equivalent to the NEP.
And one last thought. Alberta does not have a distinct culture, unless a facetious argument can be made that Montana and Oklahoma do as well. Any way, I think I am best back to chewing on my straw of hay. I have never heard such foolishness.
If I may add a wee bit of levity to the trials and tribulations of Alberta representatives….
Pierre Poilievre has now replaced his “campaign manager ” with S.Outhouse…
How wildly appropriate LOL
I’m assuming that he figured
that Outhouse did such a great job for Marlaina, he’d appease his critics and use him instead of Jenni.
So, does this mean Marlaina is confident enough about her position that she won’t need a campaign manager? Hmmm?
Especially with her getting airtime on CBC– so anyone in Canada with nothing better to do on a Saturday morning could listen to the Alberta Premier going full on Maga-mode with her “woke ideological policies “.
Maybe the separatists were upset with her for meeting with the US ambassador who is touting the 51st bullsh*t and whom even Time magazine covered with his rhetoric….it’s too bad, so sad that they used ‘the Beaverton’ as their source .
I wonder if the Onion is going to follow up? LMAO
Mr. Outhouse may have a funny name, but he is highly competent. DJC
And Outhouse is a very common name in N-E PEI.
YYC: My late dad used to have a Dad Joke about a guy named Joe Outhouse who wanted to change his name. He was going to change it to Pete. He was sick of people asking, Whaddya know, Joe? DJC
And parts of Nova Scotia as well.
DJC— may I agree to disagree on his ‘competency’. If by competent you mean he is good at trying to get right leaning candidates elected ,I’ll give him that. His success rate though is mixed:
Marlaina-yes
Leslyn Lewis (as party leader)-no
Blaine Higgs (re-election)- no
Newly elected NL Premier Wakeham- yes , but with caveats.
Oct 28th
theindependent.ca / justin brake…
“PC’s tapping of controversial conservative stratagist,
sparks fear and ire.
My take on this is that a letter was sent to Mr Wakeham to reconsider his appointment of Mr Outhouse, due to his track record, which given the candidates that he has promoted all seem to have an anti “human rights”, specifically against the LGBTQ/ trans rights, sound familiar?
Given that he was once PP’s chief of staff, it’s fitting that he returns, bad pennies in the Con party always seem to find their way home… those common ‘cents’ haven’t figured out that they were fased out, so they recirculate in their own circles.
Though Outhouse being suddenly available to PP instead of the cushy job with Wakeham, says volumes in my books. Maybe he’s going to try and help Andrew Lawton as well.
I believe that the Forever-Canadian petition and the UCP’s recall petition has energized more Canadians that are tired of the Maple- Maga Reform/Cons.
And shout out to Marlaina for making the list. I’m pretty confident that the recall act is going to repealed now, the only unknown:the lame excuse for dropping it….
but I could be wrong.
I listened to part of pollster and former federal Liberal strategist David Herle’s interview with Outhouse on his The Herle Burly podcast. Outhouse originally became active in politics as a Liberal, but shifted over to the Conservatives because of his anti-choice, pro-forced birth views, which became no longer welcome in the Liberal Party. And between stints as a Conservative backroomer, he’s also served as a Baptist minister from time to time.
So I think it would not be a stretch to label him a social conservative.
I didn’t finish listening to the pod because there were others that I wanted to listen to and never got time to go back to it.
I heard that around 4000 attended this UCP AGM event. Not a stellar turnout, by any means, but regardless of that, if these people can make very unpopular decisions for the whole province, that is scary. Despite that, I don’t think the issues of massive corruption involving Danielle Smith and the UCP, have cleared them. They aren’t walking away from them unscathed. The MH Care (Corrupt Care) scandal is still there, and the investigation isn’t over yet. Danielle Smith has this pompous nature about her, and an overinflated ego. Pride cometh before the fall, which is also in Scriptures. There are too many issues plaguing the UCP, which is why they won’t last. All of these fringe elements in the UCP are going to help fracture the party even further, and from there, the entire party will collapse.
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18. Although Fowler’s Modern English Usage says it’s OK to abbreviate the passage by eliminating the bit about destruction. DJC
I don’t know, I think I’d phrase it more like this; ‘Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat’.
David Climenhaga: There are different Scripture verses that can fit the UCP’s very appalling leadership, which is actually a lack of.
Anon: A lack of … ? I can think of a number of ways to fill in this blank. But I await the completion of this sentence with interest! DJC
Only in Alberta……..can a fringe minority pretend they hold power inside a provincial party cobtrolled by O&G bigwigs……this joke and fact always ages well…….old and white and pretending they are always right…..the big tent for everything Maga eh?…….Only in Alberta…..pity
One of my good friends in Edmonton, a life-long conservative (of the pro-business type) who came from a conservative family, actually voted for the Liberals in the last federal because he doesn’t like Poilievre (this a ‘hell freezes over’ move for him). Certainly, that Carney is really an old fashioned Progressive Conservative (of the Peter Lougheed, Joe Clark, or even Brian Mulroney type) helped his decision. Plus pretty much anytime we talk about Alberta politics he shows his absolute contempt for Danielle Smith (he even told me that he might even vote for the NDP, a ‘when pigs fly’ moment).
All this to say that a lot of yesterday’s Alberta Progressive Conservative supporters are still out there and absolutely disgusted at what has become of the conservative movement in Alberta.
I don’t compare him to the old federal PCs, so much as to the very pro-business Liberals of the Chrétien-Martin era, or the late John Turner.
Remember, those of us with longer memories know that Trudeau the Younger was quite a departure from Liberals of the past. I don’t even think his father was as far to the left as the son was.
That’s the great thing about the current division of the hoi polloi into the woke and Maga. Neither poses any threat to the plutocrats and drives the shrinking centre back into the corral of the fading patricians. The attempt to establish the climate change war economy to preserve their power the way WW2 did has been derailed by the Chinese and Rooskies, so they’ve doubling down on the old divide and rule business. The most dangerous game.
Yes, Smith seems to be having some trouble keeping together the various factions of far right wing social conservatives, extreme right wing separatists, right wing fringe anti vaxers and so on. How many right wings can one party have before it becomes too unstable to stay aloft?
It has also become clear over the last while that the UCP does not represent the views of typical Albertans. Of course in any party the people who show up for a meeting are the most motivated, ideologically or otherwise. Despite Smith’s strong communications skills it was hard to present this meeting as one of a happy family in line with the views of most Albertans. The booing of what Smith was trying to present as a big accomplishment must have been particularly unsettling for her. It may have been a miscalculation to announce the pipeline agreement just before this meeting, although to be fair the timing of this was not up to Smith alone.
I suppose when your coalition is comprised mainly of disgruntled radio talk show listeners with various beefs and conspiracy theories, it is going to be hard to keep everyone happy and together. It may now be a party made up mainly of the anti social. Smith seems to have managed to somehow handle Parker, at least so far, but Rath is another new and perhaps bigger challenge for her.
Now the remaining more sensible fiscal conservatives must be looking at this early Festivus of grievances and wondering how the heck they get off this ship of fools. Actually a couple of MLAs already have and are trying to revive the more moderate PC brand. This may also be when Albertans really notice Smith and her team seems to be unable to assert control over her unruly collection of party members.
Smith won the leadership by assembling this collection, but it seems despite her best efforts to modify them, they may now be turning on her too. Oh if only the UCP listened to it last leader’s comments about the dangers of giving certain people too much power.
“Jeffrey Rath is the new David Parker.”
David Parker was briefly disguised as Peter Parker (aka Spiderman) in black during his former phase of giving speeches on downtown plazas about how the right could take over school boards.
Now we have a Spiderman v. The Cowboy for supremacy over Alberta. We’re living in a comic book, while Danielle Smith leads the hokey pokey.
Can we expect a sudden Carrington Event coronal mass ejection to disrupt the power dynamic with a boost to Parker’s Spidey powers? Stay tuned for tomorrow’s adventure in the sad, sorry, stupid, unstable petrostate of Oilberta. Meanwhile, let’s ban some books and even certain specific words. Whatever you do, don’t look at the many and vast corruption scandals unfolding in front of your eyes.
I’m tired of villains. Can we please be the heros we want to see in the world and toss the lot of these carpetbaggers?
‘If you’re going to lie down with anti-vaxxers, you’re going to wake up with measles.’
Or Human Papillomavirus (HPV).
Interesting article in the UK Telegraph this morning. An American economist has spoken the quiet part out loud and declared Brexit an unmitigated economic disaster for the UK. He writes that the ruling Labour Party doesn’t want to talk about it and anger the Leave voters, who refuse to admit they were wrong. The economist says that’s because Brexit was never about the economy – it was about sovereignty, immigration and taking back control. Sound familiar? Unfortunately, the residents of Gopher Butte, Alberta don’t read the Telegraph.
Watching that clip of Danielle Smith with the weird smirk and strangled laugh as she was booed brought to mind Jason Kenney. I pictured him sitting back with his bottle of Jameson’s and muttering ‘I told you they were lunatics!’
I thought even before the booing incident in her speech she seemed nervous. But the weird smirk confirmed the impression, especially with the peculiar squeaky voice moments.
Mr. Yeats may have hit the nail on the head when he wrote and I paraphrase, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.” It is not likely that the centre will hold.
“A house divided cannot stand” – A. Lincoln. One can hope the next development is a messy clown party civil war. The monster of a Frankenparty has already “killed” it’s creator, now would be good time for the “monster” to wander off to the Arctic and perish.
As for a “winning formula”, I don’t think so. TMX did jack for Rachel Notley. Smith has far more liabilities than Notley did, and a pipe dream promise in an MOU is even less useful politically than one which actually put steel in the ground.
What will rid us of this pox of a government is remembering it’s transgressions, which are legion, and exercise your sovereign right, whether at a general election, or by signing a recall petition.
And above all, remember this simple heuristic: if an UCP politician is awake and their lips are moving, you are probably being lied to.
Gerald: Not to be a pedant, but … Mr. Lincoln’s famous use of that phrase, of course, was inspired by the words of the Guy whose pronouns, He/Him, are always capitalized, in the Gospel of Mark. DJC
Lol I am most definitely not a Bible scholar, and certainly not a believer… consider the quote a paraphrasing.
Isn’t Jeffery Rath an American? And now he’s trying to break-up Canada and Albertan’s are listening to him. He’s not working in anyone’s interest except his own and those, that want to strip Canadian resources to Make America Great Again. This is scary stuff and Albertans are not paying attention. “If you’re not outraged, your not paying attention.!”
Jones: I have no idea about Mr. Rath’s citizenship. I have wondered if this might be the case. Among the few policies mooted about by Mr. Trump of which I personally approve is the suggestion that the United States should eliminate dual citizenship. Go for it! That would force Sudeten Americans with two passports in Canada to chose which country they wanted to be from. Under those circumstances, Danielle Smith’s policy of forcing us all to list our citizenship on our driving licenses might serve a more useful purpose than depriving residents of public health insurance. DJC
I support that dual citizenship be eliminated. It’s caused me stomach sick to see a conservative party leadership contender having dual citizenship and he wanted to the Prime Minister of Canada.
Peter: We are in accord. To be fair, though, Mr. Scheer was not the only candidate for prime minister with dual citizenship (U.S. and Canada). Thomas Mulcair and Stephane Dion (both France and Canada) did as well. So that’s one for each major party. While Australia allows dual citizenship, Australian MPs are forbidden to be a citizen of another country. DJC
I’m not sure about Rath but Cameron Davies of the Alberta Republican Party is a former US marine. That alone should be enough to kill his political (ie separatist) ambitions. As for Rath, presumably he would have taken an oath of service to queen/king and country before joining the law society. Being openly seditious should result in full dishonourable disbarment for life but hey, that’s just my opinion.
Your photo of Jeffrey Rath is archetypal, the same shadowy character that appears on Don Braid’s columm. Could it be the same character with an impending disciplinary hearing before the Law Society?
TENET: It is the same person. DJC
I think he ditches the hat when he attends a hearing, so he can look more like a respectable lawyer.
Valerie: I expect a judge would tell any man not in uniform who wore a hat in the courtroom to take it off. But maybe I’m just revealing my age. If you asked me, I’d say they should all be required to wear wigs. DJC
I was thinking of this photo of him; https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/judge-to-proceed-with-review-of-alberta-separation-question-1.7608741
I once saw Myron Thompson sitting in a courtroom but I forget if he wore his hat, probably not.
I agree they should wear wigs, preferably like the ones Mozart wore in “Amadeus”.
He’ll need to do more than ditch the hat when he has to explain his fees he dispensed in the Tallcree agreement:
“The Court heard an Appeal from the Review Officer’s Decision with respect to the Tallcree First Nation’s (“Tallcree”) contingency fee agreement (the “Agreement”) entered into with Rath & Company and their former counsel Jeffrey Rath (collectively, “Rath”). Pursuant to the Agreement, Rath was entitled to 20 percent of the $57.5-million-dollar agricultural benefits settlement payment from the Federal Government to Tallcree.”
It looks like he’s done pretty well so far in confederation. I wonder why he’d want to become (again?) a Yank?
What I find offensive in that photo is that he’s wearing a poppy. He wants to break up the country for which more than 118,000 Canadian have given their lives (yes, yes, I know, the righteousness of some of those conflicts, including the First World War, can be debated, but that doesn’t detract from the sacrifice of individual soldiers, sailors and airmen). He has no business wearing that symbol honouring our fallen.
Keep in mind that Australia’s bank account is beholden (nay, almost totally) to the Queen of Coal. This is quite different from Canada where obviously oil and gas is well over 50% of our revenues but other industries (manufacturing, electricity, food products) contribute mightily to our balance sheet.
Growing up in Quebec in the fifties (OMG, how time flies) EVERY single house was heated with oil. Today it’s around 7.5% and those are mainly remote buildings without a supply of electricity.
So, would Alberta’s separation really upset Canada’s economy? Yes, of course, but perhaps only for a few years before many sources of electricity (hydro, atomic, renewables) step in and generate more clean money (oxymoron Pierre) for us to spend on education, health and housing. Sorry Danielle but you are done.
I grew up in Victoria in the 1950s and 60s where every house was also heated with oil, and many still are, even though there is now a gas line. DJC
” . . . or, even worse, the election of the NDP!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKcAYMb5uk4
1. It is a true political theater of the absurd where a marketing/business professor could be both characterized as a “socialist” and be continuously invented in the minds of certain paranoid individuals as some sort of a threat to the business class, corporations, the owners of capital, and the very social structure itself.
Mr. Nenshi has long ago adjusted himself to the current economic/social structure and has thoroughly internalized its values, beliefs, and attitudes that is the system of social and economic power. He would not be where he is if he had not acted in the desired fashion, that is demonstrating the appropriate conformity and obedience to that same power structure. So it is simply the case that,
“Alberta Official Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi told reporters inside the legislature Thursday that he welcomed the MOU and pointed to his party’s role in building the Trans Mountain pipeline. “Alberta’s New Democrats know what it takes to get a pipeline built. We’ve done it before. This deal is the first step. It’s necessary, but it’s not sufficient, and we have a lot of work left to do,” he said.”
2. The separatist fiasco is simply Manning political philosophy 101:
https://www.speakers.ca/2016/12/when-populism-threatens-to-blow-drill-a-relief-well/
3. Of dogs, fleas and blurred lines, see for e.g. :
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/coronavirus-cure-claim-1.5506187
I don’t know, I think I’d phrase it more like this; ‘Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat’.
Emily—Dani in wonderland?? She could play a number of the roles as I see it. And in the meantime the clock IS ticking for both her and her hero.
No, figured it out! She’s Della, to Carney’s Jim in the Gift of the Magi, exchanging worthless gifts. Except Carney has read the story-he said so in his own book. Buying social capital.
Although, Danielle would be forgiven for feeling as if she fell into ‘The Necklace’ instead. For one perfect night, she was the belle of the ball…
They want to seperate???? If they leave Canada, B.C. certainly would not have to deal with them about any pipeline and we could tell them to take their oil tankers somewhere else. Of course having to have a passport to go to Sask. if driving would be a drag, but such is life. They would most likely be swallowed by the U.S.A. within a decade. Given Smith’s attitude towards health care, Albertans could kiss their current system good bye.
Do recall a line, “we all hang together or we all hang”.