So, about that early election all of political Alberta has been certain for weeks will be called this spring – forget about it, it’s not going to happen, Premier Danielle Smith insisted yesterday.
“We’ve got a mandate that we want to execute over the next two years, and we intend to continue doing so,” Ms. Smith told reporters at a news conference after Taber-Warner MLA Grant Hunter was sworn in as environment minister to replace Rebecca Schulz, who announced on Friday she was quitting cabinet immediately but would hang around as MLA for Calgary-Shaw until May.
Ms. Schulz’s bombshell announcement set off a frenzy of speculation that the timing of her final departure meant May was when the much anticipated spring election would be called.
Not so, the premier said, reciting the same talking points in response to the same question from several reporters.
“We have fixed election dates in this province for a reason, and our fixed election date is set for Oct. 18 of 2027, and the whole reason we have fixed election dates is so people have certainty and can do their planning,” she averred in self-righteous tones.
“That would be one thing. The second thing is, we have had hundreds of thousands of newcomers come into the province in the last number of years, and so we’re in the middle of an Electoral Boundary Commission that is adding two seats. We want to make sure people have proper representation.”
“I’m not quite sure why everyone is so anxious to rush to an election,” she added with a snicker. “The credible polling I’ve seen suggests we do very, very well in an early election.”
That credible polling, of course, is only available to paying customers, so those of us in the hoi-polloi just have the usual rumours to go on. But a credible poll that we’re allowed to see is sure to be along eventually.
Still, Ms. Smith’s responses to the questions reporters were asking made clear that while the formal election campaign may not start any time soon, the War on Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi beings immediately, thanks to the eruption of another leaky city water pipe in Calgary and a boil-water advisory for thousands of citizens in the province’s most-populous city.
“You know, Calgary had years where they were having a much higher level of water leakage than any other municipality,” the premier barked indignantly. “They were having 20-per-cent leakages out of their water system, and yet, after the floods for 10 years, they didn’t bother to do any investigation on the water main?
“You have to ask the question, well – huh? – who was the mayor after the floods of 2013 until he has decided to retire? And that was Naheed Nenshi!
“So when you look back on who is ultimately politically responsible for making sure that taxpayers of Calgary are having this critical infrastructure invested in, they have a water utility run by the City of Calgary, and all of this should have been identified early, so that now subsequent mayors are not having to deal with it.”
This line doesn’t exactly come as a surprise. UCP online bots and members of the party’s right-wing-media support network have been making the same argument since the water started flowing – a bit of a stretch, maybe, but quite possibly an effective one with Calgary voters if they’re not too worried about the chaotic state of health care or misuse of the Canadian Constitution’s Notwithstanding Clause.
This presumably means either the UCP is really worried about Mr. Nenshi, or they’re not worried about him at all.
The appointment of Mr. Hunter as minister of environment and protected areas certainly doesn’t suggest that the environment or protected areas are high priorities for the UCP.
Indeed, in response to another reporter’s question, Ms. Smith made it clear her government will be pressing ahead with the Grassy Mountain open-pit coal mine she so badly wants, notwithstanding fierce opposition from Southern Alberta farmers and ranchers, normally part of the province’s rural conservative base.
“There were four mining projects, as you recall, that were considered advanced mining projects that were allowed to continue on through the process,” she told the reporter. “And Grassy Mountain was one of them.”
She went on: “We heard loud and clear that, beyond these four advanced projects, Albertans just simply do not want mining development …” That, of course, is not what the UCP has been hearing. What Albertans seem to have been saying, loudly and clearly, is that they don’t want any coal mines in the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies. But the UCP is doggedly determined to see the Grassy Mountain mine developed, and they have plenty of explanations, few of which make much sense.
As for Mr. Hunter, the premier said, he’ll be focusing on unwanted immigrants (in this case, zebra mussels), water issues (not involving wine, as befits his riding deep in Alberta’s Book of Mormon Belt), and new water transfer and tailings pond policies (uh-oh!).
If you happened to tune on the government’s website in at 11 a.m. yesterday expecting the news conference, you instead would have seen an amateurish home video of the ceremony during which Mr. Hunter and Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Justin Wright often seemed unsure of where to stand.
Mr. Hunter, as a member of cabinet, was sworn in by the lieutenant governor; Mr. Wright, who replaced Mr. Hunter as chief government whip, came up short and got the justice minister.
That was all very amusing, but ultimately not as informative as the recording of the newser that soon replaced it on the government’s web site.