Happy New Year!
Well, here we are, living through the final day of 2025, and most readers of this blog would agree that this has not been the most fabulous year in living memory.
That said, thanks to the Lords of Misrule* of the United Conservative Party and American social media, it’s been a pretty good year for a hitherto marginalized group of MAGA nuts, Christian nationalists, anti-vaxxers, and Alberta separatists who historically have occupied the most obscure fringes of Alberta politics.
One hopes that 2026 will see improvement in this regard, but as regular readers will understand, we have to look quite hard for reasons to be optimistic.
Better to end the year on a negative note, though, than to start the new one that way, so I want to note my two greatest disappointments in Alberta politics in 2025, if only in the hope we can do better soon.
The first has been the weak and disengaged performance of the Largest Opposition Caucus in Alberta History (LOCAH).
Those of you who bother to read the many comments under each of these columns will be aware there is a lively and respectful conversation among regular readers about how good or bad a job the NDP is doing. I have been admonished from time to time for being too critical of the party under the leadership of Naheed Nenshi, presumably out of concern that such talk might demoralize voters who despise the UCP more than they’re uninspired by the NDP.
Well, so be it. The job of a commentator – even a self-appointed one – is to commentate, is it not? So commentate I will!
From my perspective, NDP communications remain unfocussed, frequently uncritical, and even when vigorously attacking government missteps and harmful policies inclined to miss opportunities to put forward alternatives that would be popular with voters, presumably out of fear that these could then be countered by the UCP’s effective attack machine.
For just one example, here in its entirely is the NDP’s official response Friday to the recent death of a 44-year-old man while waiting for eight hours at Covenant Health’s Grey Nuns Hospital in Edmonton after experiencing chest pains:
“Sarah Hoffman, Alberta’s New Democrat Shadow Minister for Hospital and Surgical Health Facilities, and Jasvir Deol, MLA for Edmonton-Meadows, issued the following joint statement in response to the tragic death of an Edmonton resident after waiting hours in an emergency room:
“‘This is a terrible tragedy. We send our condolences to the family now grieving the loss of their loved one. This family needs justice, and we join others in demanding answers through a full and transparent review by the appropriate officials.
‘ERs across the province are overcrowded. The UCP’s health care cuts and chaos means this has become an unacceptable reality that Albertans have to put up with. More must be done to properly staff our hospitals, invest in our public health care, and ensure Albertans get the care they need — before another tragedy occurs.’”
This is all? This is sufficient?
For crying out loud, the first people the Opposition targets are unnamed “appropriate officials” instead of the government for reorganizing health care into a state of utter chaos presumably to make it easier to privatize, and the solution they demand is a “transparent review.” This is exactly what the UCP will promise! (With no intention of actually delivering, it must be added.)
Well, at least the statement acknowledges in passing that the government bears some responsibility for the mess. There is no attempt to debunk the UCP claims they are investing in public health care by privatizing it, though. There is only a vague generality about a need for more funding.
If we’re going to demand that the UCP “ensure Albertans get the care they need,” you’d think there’d be a suggestion or two about how this could be achieved – and a mention of how health care, relatively speaking, operated without crisis under the NDP.
Under Mr. Nenshi, the Opposition devoted 95 words to this tragedy, if you don’t count the incomprehensibly wordy headline. I know Ms. Hoffman. She is fighter and was Alberta’s best health minister in a generation. I don’t believe for a minute she thought this was an appropriate approach.
The NDP obviously needs to up its comms game, and up to now it’s been remarkably resistant to doing that.
As for my second big disappointment of 2025, it has to do with the chicken-hearted way that decent, thoughtful and honest members of the UCP Caucus and Cabinet have mostly sat silent while Premier Smith has led the government into utter chaos, violated democratic norms, picked vulnerable groups of citizens to bully, played footsie with separatists and outright traitors, and repeatedly ignored the wishes of Albertans as in her dogged campaign to grab and grift Albertans’ Canada Pension Plan funds.
There are such people in the UCP, you know. We might disagree with the policies they have supported over the years, but Tories, as we used to say, were never all motivated by greed or malice. I’d name names, but why give their own party base targets to shoot at?
Yet with the honourable exceptions of MLAs Peter Guthrie and Scott Sinclair – and it starts to sound as if Mr. Sinclair may be having second thoughts – nobody in the UCP Caucus or Cabinet has spoken up for Canada, for human rights, for common decency, for the verifiable benefits of public health care.
Mr. Guthrie, a former minister, is now the leader of the rebranded Alberta Party in the Legislature. Mr. Sinclair sits as an Independent. Both were kicked out of the UCP for being too independent minded.
Conservatives weren’t always cowards, cowed by the worst leaders in generations. Maybe some of the folks I’m thinking of believe they’ll have more influence if they remain on the inside. Frankly, I think we’re past that point now.
So, without principled Conservative voices of restraint, and without competent progressive voices of Opposition, where are we headed, Alberta?
3 AlbertaPolitics.ca blog posts on this year’s list of the most popular stories in The Tyee
I guess the last day of the year is an appropriate moment to brag about our successes. Other Alberta political bloggers do, so I hope readers will indulge me if I boast a bit as well.
Many of the commentaries published on this blog are picked up by The Tyee, a Vancouver-based online news publication that nowadays does a better job covering Alberta issues than many of our local news operations do. In addition to Yours Truly, The Tyee regularly prints stories by the likes of investigative journalist Charles Rusnell, author Andrew Nikiforuk, and respected political columnist Graham Thomson. I encourage readers to sign up for The Tyee’s free Alberta Edge weekly newsletter.
On Monday, The Tyee published a list of its best-read stories of 2025 – by British Columbians, and by all Tyee readers. I was delighted to see that three of my columns appeared on these lists, one of those on both.
*If that is an appropriate metaphor. It may not be, if one wants to be pedantic about it. But as turn of a phrase, it fits nicely with the zeitgeist. And if it’s good enough for a Nobel laureate with a wildly popular Substack, what the heck, it’s good enough for Alberta politics!
Happy New Year, David. 2026 will be a tumultuous year with a possible Alberta election in the offing. Based on decades of oil state politics and the ensuing voting behaviour by fellow Albertans, I do not hold any hope for change especially as you have so eloquently pointed out the reality of the anemic NDP. Sadly Albertans have never had much choice when it comes to political change – albeit people on the so called left have been left bereft and even when Notley became premier it wasn’t long before the world destroyers circled their wagons around the NDP and their agenda. However, Notley made sure teachers and nurses and so on were paid when the price of oil tanked, I know that the UCP would have decimated the Healthcare and education portfolios under the guise of fiscal restraint, but they have done so using ideological pretence. We took on debt but the UCP have not been able to reduce our provincial debt either, but they blow tax payer money on ideological ruinous shenanigans rather than support the public – ergo the UCP do not govern, but rather feather their own nests all the while sticking it to the average Albertan. And this will not change – Albertans have become accustomed to abuse and they seem to like it to the extent that many are more than happy in their delusion to destroy Canada.
I suppose the seniors can all go live on the street save those who are wealthy as it is for society in general – people are being left behind under this fascist UCP government and the general population is just fine and dandy with dystopia.
2026 will be a continuation of strife, chaos, suffering and despair with a callous population that is only focused on surviving as individuals, not as a collective group of humans.
The UCP and the MAGA group will continue to erode if not destroy democracy and despotism shall rule the day as is the current state of affairs.
If only the people in the NDP could organize themselves but they cannot so hoping for change through the NDP is probably a pipe dream – no pun intended.
Happy New Year!
I too would like to see more fire and fury from the Alberta NDP. I’d also like to see some of the UCP members grow a spine and stand up for their constituents rather than toe the party line. If we’re going to have chaos, we need criticism from both sides. Let’s make Hansard interesting reading.
One of the best reads I was fortunate enough to come across is Alberta Politics. I’d like to thank you and all (well, most) of those who comment. I look forward to, and learn something from, every new post.
Best wishes in 2026!
Good for you DJC! We knew you had it in you! Congratulations!
The NDP is clearly demoralized. And they’ve chosen the wrong tactics, or the wrong guy, or both.
The temperature in the room is boiling hot with separatism and they think warm milk will cool the tea.
If nothing else, the national disgrace over Alberta’s healthcare multiple failures should be a warning clarion as to what to expect if Alberta continues down its present political route. More privatization of social services always leads to more dead workers.
This is the time to unite workers, not play mumblypeg with the opposition and hope they don’t stab themselves in the foot.
Ain’t nobody want to hear this, I know–but a democracy is only as strong as the citizens in it. Look south–that’s what laziness causes when the average worker doesn’t get out of their comfort zone, organize and fight for what’s right. This isn’t just a failure of political will–it was the lack of pushback from the citizens every time an American politician or president did something outside the law, or shoved another legal line a little bit more towards the goals of the oligarch class. It’s a result of letting the oligarchs manipulate the public against each other rather than fighting for a system of democracy and fairness for everyone . It’s the result of letting those same oligarchs manipulate the law then government by making bribery through election contributions, legal. It’s the poisoning of the information systems by letting those same oligarchs seeking to supplant political power by allowing them to concentrate all forms of mainstream media in their grasping hands.
Business and politics should serve the population. Not the population, serve them.
“Governments are either the servant of the people or the people will be the slaves of government”–Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Time for Neshi to catch up with the real situation. Is he compromised or controlled opposition? If not, he needs to start acting like it.
Well done and Happy New Year.
No doubt MLA Hoffman’s message was exhaustively vetted and parsed by NDP management to be sufficiently benign so as not to anger Smith, her Cabinet, caucus, Jeffrey Rath, Stephen Harper or Post Media. How else can you explain this mildly worded equivalent of a letter to the editor.
“This is all? This is sufficient?”
You know how it is, “We’re all so very sorry.”
////We’re so sorry, Uncle Albert
We’re so sorry if we caused you any pain
We’re so sorry, Uncle Albert
But there’s no one left at home
And I believe I’m gonna rain
We’re so sorry, but we haven’t heard a thing all day
We’re so sorry, Uncle Albert
But if anything should happen
We’ll be sure to give a ring
We’re so sorry, Uncle Albert
But we haven’t done a bloody thing all day
We’re so sorry, Uncle Albert
But the kettle’s on the boil
And we’re so easily called away////
Let the crocodile tears fall where they may. Is it time for another government “review” and some more obligatory phony hand wringing? Why yes it is.
Don’t forget, if the butter won’t melt just put it in the pie.
FoF
Your last report of 2025! Congratulations and thanks for being a voice of sanity and honesty in this UCP field of BS (let’s call it what it is), traitorous actions and just plain old fashioned lies. Day after day after day.
Hope springs eternal so I’ve heard. I still have faith in Naheed Nenshi and his team. He has a lot of experience in how to win elections. When the time comes he will have lots of ammunition to reacquaint Albertans with the incompetence, no deliberately destructive actions, of Smith and her minions.
Be that as it may, today we say adieu to 2025 and look forward to a 2026 loaded with happiness and good will for all.
Thanks, David, for the superior writing on the state of affairs this past year. Happy New Year, to everyone! (yes, I include those UCP MLA’s that sit on their hands and get paid)
Thanks for all you do David. Of all the maddening sh** happening in Alberta, the most frustrating of all is the anemic response by the NDP. They keep asking me for (more) money but they won’t get any until they get their act together. In the meantime I’ll have to find another outlet for my outrage energy.
Cheers – keep fighting the good fight!
The intent of Smith, LaGrange and the UCP
is to burn public health care, Medicare, to the ground. The consequences-the suffering and deaths- are of no consequence to them. There are many corporate players, including UCP members and ”friends” who are about to cash in big time, some have already as we know. More and more of our health care delivery and funds gets hived off to these corporate friends in private deals. Have you ever heard Danielle Smith, or anyone from the UCP stand up for the concept of medical care based on need, not ability to pay? Is a big battle looming with our federal government over Alberta violating the Canada Health Act principles? Is Carney
going to withhold health care transfers to Alberta as Smith puts her foot on Albertans necks and demands they “pay-to-play”? I’m not holding my breath. Public health care advocates in the provinces and territories are appropriately worried Ottawa will look the other way while Alberta “does its thing”, jeopardizing our national Medicare program. We’ve seen already, tragically, what happens as the very foundations of a public system get blown to bits, and health funds are diverted away from public facilities and programs into private pockets. I can imagine the hue and cry if The Feds were to curtail health transfers, giving Smith and her ilk more fodder for “separation”. All may not be doom and gloom for Medicare though- I did feel a spark of optimism with the new federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel’s statements that Canada will not be following the U.S. and RFK’s cracked public health policies. We need the ghost of Tommy Douglas to revisit, however, or even just another
Monique Begin to take the helm of Health Care in Canada. As the New Year approaches, “hope springs eternal”!
“Conservatives weren’t always cowards.”
NDP neither.
Is Nenshi’s NDP in lockstep with the UCP on pipelines, oilsands expansion, and climate change?
Say it isn’t so.
Big difference.
NDP pipelines have smiley-faces on them.
Climate change under the NDP is kinder and gentler.
Wildfires roar softer. Ash-filled skies are a lighter shade of black.
In a NDP heatwave, your grandmother gives up the ghost with a faint smile on her face and a NDP flag in her hand.
Glaciers melt, rivers shrink, and lakes dry up silently like the NDP caucus.
“Q&A: Alberta NDP aimed to present government-in-waiting in 2025, says leader Naheed Nenshi” (CBC, Dec 30, 2025)
CBC: “Do you believe in the pipeline to the coast?”
Nenshi: “One hundred per cent. We built one. You know, you don’t get to be the mayor of Calgary without really knowing the oil-and-gas industry well. I had a front-row seat on how Trans Mountain got built.
“The memorandum of understanding that the premier signed with the prime minister — now we have a UCP-Liberal alliance. Who knew? — is a really good first step. But now, you have to roll up your sleeves. You have to work with Indigenous communities. You have to work with communities along the route. You have to have a route. You’ve got to work with private sector proponents who are scared about the price of oil going down and they don’t want to invest billions of dollars now.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/nenshi-year-end-interview-9.7025273
Yay, NDP!
What would we do without you?
The overall general idea and its purpose was described long ago. Substitute Albertan for American and the final result becomes indistinguishable:
“The argument of two parties should represent opposed ideas and policies, one perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can “throw the rascals out” at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy. The policies that are vital and necessary for America are no longer subjects of significant disagreement, but are disputable only in details of procedure, priority, or method.”
In a world of political rhetoric and ‘realpolitik’ the marketing professor was long ago trained in the art of those appropriate talking points that appeal to the movers and shakers in industry and the business community more generally . For example,
“Do you believe in the pipeline to the coast?”
“One hundred per cent. We built one. You know, you don’t get to be the mayor of Calgary without really knowing the oil-and-gas industry well. I had a front-row seat on how Trans Mountain got built.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/nenshi-year-end-interview-9.7025273
Where, “Controlled opposition is a strategy in which a person, group, or political party that appears to be in opposition to a ruling power is, in fact, secretly working for or being manipulated by that same power.”
Well Geoffery I forget if you live in Alta or not but from my limited experience in Wildrose Country and the many Albertans I know, I would say the basic Albertan doesn’t care a fig about Climate Change and maybe not even the Environment. Maybe that’s not correct and someone may have a better perspective but I see that as a fundamental problem with what you’re saying. I do not think any of us will live long enough to see a true environmentalist party elect even one MLA or MP in AB. Sad yes, but also undoubtedly true. I would be interested to hear viewpoints on that from Albertans.
Anyhow Happy Hogmany to ALL the posters and readers of AlbertaPolitics.ca. Enjoy the Solstice Season under the brief rule of The Abbot of Unreason.
Remarkable how watching your house burn down concentrates the mind.
I suspect Albertans care more about climate change the day after their house burns down, their community is forced to evacuate, their son suffers an asthma attack, or grandma has a heat stroke.
Public apathy underlines the need for climate leadership at the top.
Politicians need to use their bully pulpit to advocate for change, a just transition, and improvements in environmental education.
What we don’t need is government by poll. (Can’t accuse the UCP of that!)
During recent election campaigns, politicians strenuously avoided talking about climate change.
Should our leaders merely follow the parade? If so, they are not leaders.
Politicians need to be compasses, not weathervanes.
The mainstream media reports on wildfires and evacuations, but climate change is seldom mentioned.
Do politicians and media have any responsibility to lead on the issue? Part of a politician’s job is to sell party policy to voters.Politics is hard work. Politicians must work at it. Don’t wait for voters to come to you.
That’s one reason we have government in the first place. To take a longer view. To think of future generations, not just the current electorate. Intergenerational responsibility. To investigate, to inform oneself, and respond to serious issues not necessarily at the top of the public’s mind.
“Politics is the art of the possible.”
So we are told by party apologists and defeatists.
No. Politics is the art of persuasion. Cars do not sell themselves. Progressive policy including sane climate policy does not sell itself either.
Politicians sell new ideas and policy change to voters all the time. That’s the job.
If you do not want that job, don’t run for office!
Politics is the art of the necessary. Anybody can do the politically expedient. Anybody can govern by poll. Anybody can follow the parade. Anybody can pander to industry.
True leaders do what is necessary, even if unpopular. They persuade people to follow.
No politician or political party in Alberta could fail to fully support a pipeline to the West Coast and expect to win even a single seat. It wouldn’t matter what their other policies were, this is the sine qua non of #ABPoli. It’s the price of entry into the political conversation here. It’s like a Québec politician failing to support their language laws.
The question then becomes, which pro-pipeline party do we vote for, the one that supports workers’ rights and offers good, honest, stable governance? Or the one that is tearing down everything we have built in this society and wants to pull Alberta out of Canada?
Those are the choices facing Albertans today.
Jerrymacgp wrote: “No politician or political party in Alberta could fail to fully support a pipeline to the West Coast and expect to win even a single seat.”
Notley wasn’t elected on pipelines. In fact, the NDP’s 2015 platform explicitly opposed dilbit export pipelines:
“The PCs have squandered Alberta’s resource wealth. They have done this by neglecting our opportunity to invest in value-added processing and refining – investment that would create more jobs in Alberta instead of exporting them to Texas. … Through these policies, we’ll reduce our province’s over-dependence on raw bitumen exports and create more jobs with more upgrading and processing here, rather than in Texas.”
In 2015, the AB NDP did not campaign on pipelines. The NDP was not elected on a pipeline platform. Notley won the 2015 election without pushing pipelines.
Under Notley, the AB NDP turned itself into the petro-progressive pipeline party. Reversing its position on export pipelines.
No mention about pushing the TMX pipeline in NDP Election Platform 2015. Much less buying it.
Boosting pipelines during their first term did not secure the NDP a second term.
Pandering to Big Oil did not help the NDP. Conservative voters and O&G boosters united behind the real O&G party, and the NDP lost by a landslide in 2019.
A pipeline project became the rallying flag for Albertans, whose sense of grievance against Ottawa burns eternal. Fuelling the right-wing rage machine.
Is the Nobel laureate Chris Hedges? Thanks for all the great commentary all year long. When I’m surrounded by nut cases, it reminds me there are sane people nearby. Happy New Year.
Best wishes for the New Year to you, David! Thank you for all your work covering the Alberta political scene.
I, too, have frequently been frustrated that the NDP is not doing a better job of getting at the deplorable record of the UCP. However … there are two important factors to take into consideration in its defense: 1) The two major Alberta ‘newspapers’ don’t actually cover what the NDP is doing and, instead, have chosen to focus on pro-UCP opinion. So, there is ‘if a tree falls in the forest’ aspect to any protest or announcement the NDP might make. (I live in rural Alberta and can report anecdotally that there are a great many out here who have never even heard of the ‘corrupt care’ scandal.)
2) Smith Derangement Syndrome: Histrionically reacting to all the awful things the UCP is doing isn’t going to work – as terrible, anti-democratic and downright frightening as much of its legislation is. Have a look to the south. The Democrats have spent the last ten years telling us Trump is crazy. Trump is a fascist. Trump is venal. Trump is a deplorable human being unfit to serve, and so on and so forth. The result of all this vigorous criticism is that he has been elected twice.
Then the NDP have to get out of the mainstream bubble and do interviews with podcasters and YouTubers who cover politics. There’s a few Canadian ones that will have him and even American soft left shows. How does anyone think Mamdami won? Even Trumpy went on Joe Rogan to clinch the deal.
Young people don’t watch mainstream media. The amount of viewers would fit in a teacup compared to the massive audiences of YouTube livestreams and interviews. Plenty of them who hate Trump would be thrilled to have the Canadian viewpoint. Whoever is doing media for the NDP is failing, miserably. Dozens of American politicians have been elected on doing those shows because the MSM in the USA doesn’t cover them.
Until the NDP do this, I will have a wary eye to them as being merely controlled opposition who either do not want to win, or are the puppets of the same oligarchs that run Smith. Or at the very least, too incompetent to read the room. Why would I trust someone with the environment who’s so technically un-savvy they can’t turn on a camera and a mic?
The DNC screamed about Trump. What they did not, and are not doing–is providing an alternative.
They’re the same party of corporate shills, warhawks, genociders, carpetbaggers, Imperialists and inside traders they’ve always been. They shoved two candidates down the throats of the American public without a proper democratic process and both of them lost to Trump when the citizens threw a brick through their window.
They don’t hate Trump’s policies, they hate that he’s bombastic.
That’s why they lost.
Happy Hogmanay!
As I watched the pipers marching down the Royal Mile in Edinburgh today, followed by Vikings with torches, I am reminded that we are heading into battle here in Alberta. Do we stand up and fight these UCP/APP/US invaders, or are we a bunch of weak-kneed quislings? I know what I will do. Do you?
If you haven’t gone out to sign a recall petition for your UCP MLA, I encourage you to do so now. Sign the defund private education petition, too, while you’re at it. The people at the petition tables are quite friendly. But remember, this is just the first step in standing up for our democracy. Ignore the danger of the f***ists running Alberta at your own peril. We cannot stand by or stand down at this critical juncture. There’s no participation award. Stand up and fight back or lose everything. Alberta is in grave danger. I wish it were otherwise, but wishes do nothing. We must take action. Fear loses. Courage wins.
I resolve to speak up, stand up and take action.
I’m not sure if you count me among your admonishers, but I am coming to your conclusion that the NDP opposition under leader Nenshi has become has not done an effective job of pouncing on the UCP and laying out a far more positive vision for the future. They’ve also spent too much time asking for money.
But, the issue you have pounced on — the failure of the health system to help a man in his mid 40s suffering from heart failure — may not be the issue to over-dramatize. The sad event may have been a direct result of the neglect by our current government, but it’s harder to draw that line than, say, the influenza epidemic being a fairly clear result of provincial negligence.
I had a brief discussion with a person in the health field about this event. This person is certainly not a supporter of the UCP, but he did point out this event could well have been the result of a triage miscalculation — the type of mistake that could be made under any conditions, although a crowded waiting room would make it more likely.
In my simple way, I just want to add a bit of nuance to the debate.
I do appreciate the effort you put into this blog, the impact you have on political discourse, and I congratulate you on the recognition of your efforts in the Tyee. The best for 2026.
Cowards – an appropriate description of the roughly half of UCP MLA’s who are not separatists and/or anti-vaxxers. Looking at you, Brian Jean! I’d add Rebecca Shultz, if she hadn’t just resigned from cabinet. Effective May 2026. Guess that means an election in April 2026. More UCP MLA’s to follow Rebecca in handing in their resignations? As for the NDP, I thought they were a much more effective Opposition in the legislature, but their hard work is not reported in MSM for the most part. As a party member, I’m impressed by the organizing and outreach that’s going on behind the scenes. My hope is that they decide to focus the campaign not on the UCP batshit crazy stuff, but rather on a promise of stable, boring government. We’d all like a bit of that right now. Happy New Year! Support The Tyee!
Yes, in many ways 2025 was really not a great year, but the seeds for this were mostly sewn before this year. Trump won election in 2024 and the pressure for Trudeau to resign was building in late 2024 and became relentless after his Finance Minister resigned in mid December 2024, which was bad news for the CPC and also the NDP.
So, I now hope the seeds of discontent which are now becoming obvious with even mainstream media writing critical articles about the state of health care under the UCP will lead to more positive things in the upcoming year. It would be nice if the opposition could word things better or be more forceful or eloquent, but the reality is generally governments defeat themselves, rather than the opposition.
Trump, as well as Smith and her gang are now well on the way to doing just that. Kenney for all his shortcomings, was at least politically astute enough to try prevent the lunatics from taking over his party. Now they are clearly in charge and increasingly out of step with what concerns most Albertans.
I predict in 2026 Smith will own the mess she has created with health care, with its useless and ineffective reorganizations and using AHS as a piggy bank slush fund for friends who run businesses in private health care. Also lets not forget the problems are not just emergency departments in big city hospitals, but rural hospitals where services or restricted or hours have been limited. So a lot of older rural voters are being impacted by Smith’s mismanagement of health care as well and most do not want an Alberta Pension Plan or a referendum on separation either.
The only question that remains for me is whether the UCP will go down in 2026 due to recall votes or an election, or they will somehow manage to delay their downfall until after that.
I wonder if the NDP’s lacklustre performance under Nenshi might reflect his background in municipal politics, where the role of the “loyal opposition” is not institutionalized, and where political disagreements are usually settled behind closed doors. Certainly the party has not mounted the kind of vigorous responses that the UCP government’s bizarre antics warrant.
It’s worrisome that, with the Smith faction emitting noises suggesting a snap election may be in the cards, the NDP remains stuck in cruise control (at 15 kilometres an hour below the speed limit).
The danger, of course, is that this ongoing display of timidity and weakness will a) embolden the UCP wing nuts, b) suppress overall voter turnout, and c) drive some despairing voters to the Alberta Party or other such empty political shells.
The NDP “braintrust ” had better get their workbooks on and figure out how to remedy this problem ASAP.
I recently saw Nenshi in a CBC year end interview. I thought he was thoughtful, had good ideas and he was well spoken. I can only hope, that he becomes more passionate about his message and he needs more focus on getting the message out. He needs to light the fire and start fighting for Alberta. Where’s the “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” attitude, that Albertans need to see so they know he’s in their corner. Our corner. Smith’s time is up and we need a party that has our backs.
Excellent summary of a truly fast moving and sad year in politics. The late Queen Elizabeth II had a two-word Latin expression that summarizes the last twelve months (annus horribilis).
You then raised the question of the total absence of ethical UCP MLAs. Even if one is generous and gives some consideration to an MLA’s education and occupation prior to being elected, it is nary impossible to imagine such a large group of individuals with so few displaying kindness and empathy.
Well the answer to that rests with Ms. Smith’s American colleagues. The UCP can (at low cost and short timelines) copy Trumpian messages of hate and disrespect. Team Nenshi needs to be freshened up now.
Q. Why is the UCP just like Staples?
A. Because everything is black and white and so easily copied!
thinking UCP MLAs.
Your comments have been biased and ignore the crucial facts that the UCP has been systematically destroying health care as well as other services to promote Americanization of our healthcare system. In addition Smith has betrayed Alberta by putting on a gong shoe she called the Next panel. Your comments have continually demonstrated your lack of understanding of what True Albertans want.
Not sure who you’re responding to, Richard. Ronmac, I’m guessing. DJC
The UCP does not care about Alberta.
The UCP’s laziness caused a tragedy.
The Alberta NDP will get accountability.
The feeble attempts the UCP makes pretending they can run this place properly are weak and sad.
The UCP is unfit to lead Alberta: Corrupt, lazy, incompetent, greedy.
Vote Alberta NDP.
We work for you.
The end.
*respect each voting area- their needs
A comms release my self, an admirer of Franklin Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson would release.
The UCP is using MAGA Republican American communication tactics.
The UCP know they are losers. The meanness will get more personal and invasive, more vicious.
NDP, do not fall for the ‘please like me’ stuff.
They hate you and wanted a one party system in Alberta 16 years ago.
Almost success Jason Kenney in 2020. It is so close now.
NDP, focus on what Albertans want. Relentlessly. Never stop fighting for all of us. And our future.
Canada strong.
Another excellent post to wrap up 2025, congratulations DJC. Carry on commentating…
Thank you, Mickey. A very Happy New Year to you! DJC
My deep gratefulness to you, Mr. Climenhaga for keeping us informed of what happens in Alberta politics. Best wishes for the new year.
NDP lost my confidence the time they claimed to have managed a successful royalty review on oil and gas, which produced little change. Just wonder if the NDP MLAs are there for fulfillment of gainful employment or for the people of the province.