United Conservative Party strategists are said to be in a panic about the possibility the federal New Democratic Party is pondering severing ties with the Alberta NDP.
Astute observers of Canadian politics say Avi Lewis has only been leader of the Parliamentary fourth party since Sunday night and almost everyone in the federal NDP is already sick of Mr. Nenshi, and that includes rank-and-file members in Toronto who didn’t even know there was an Alberta NDP.
The explanation for that is thought to be that while Toronto New Democrats hear about things the Alberta NDP says every now and then, they figure the initials must stand for something else in Alberta because a real New Democrat would never say stuff like that.
New Democrats being New Democrats, the conventional wisdom appears to be that if the former Calgary mayor who now leads the Alberta NDP had just waited until after Mr. Lewis had finished his victory speech to start complaining, they probably could have forgiven him. Now they’re thinking maybe they’ll have to show the party’s Alberta wing some “tough love.”
In addition, since Mr. Nenshi is already talking about breaking ties with the federal party, and apparently has even been focus grouping party names, federal New Democrats may find it less embarrassing to cut Mr. Nenshi loose first.
Meanwhile, UCP election strategists fear a formal NDP split could mean they’d have to stop blaming Mr. Nenshi for stuff Mr. Lewis said 15 years ago and go back to the drawing board to come up with completely new stuff that Mr. Nenshi didn’t say to blame him for.
The big problem for the UCP, lots of Alberta political observers agree, is that Mr. Nenshi very rarely says anything that doesn’t sound as if a Conservative could have said it five minutes ago, although his jokes are funnier than Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s.
Of course, finding a new name for the Alberta NDP would be a problem since all the good ones have already been nailed down at Elections Alberta by new separatist and far-right fringe parties.
“If they called it the CCF, their supporters might start making donations to right-wing legal nuisances, and they’re certainly not going to call it the Social Democratic Party of Alberta because that would be false advertising,” said a political scientist who cannot be named because he doesn’t exist.
This is, after all, your annual AlbertaPolitics.ca April Fool story, and absolutely nothing in it is true except for the bit about the Alberta NDP running party names past a focus group, which Mr. Nenshi let slip to television journalist Sean Amato. Some shit you just can’t make up!
I remember walking by that piece of broken glass. Not sure if they repaired it yet. It is April 1st, which is also Danielle Smith’s birthday. The UCP are the biggest joke in Alberta provincial politics. Danielle Smith is the biggest joke of a premier that Alberta ever had. She somehow managed to outdo Ralph Klein, who was quite bad. I noticed Postmedia is up to their usual antics again, by propping up the UCP and Danielle Smith, which is another joke. Their columnists still continue to lie about Naheed Nenshi and the NDP. A front cover ad was on The Edmonton Journal. This is what it said.
Focused on what matters TO EDMONTON.
THE UNITED CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS SUPPORTS INVESTIGATING IN SCHOOLS, TRANSIT, ROADS, HOSPITALS, AND CULTURE IN EDMONTON – MEETING THE NEEDS OF A GROWING CITY.
UNITED CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS LEADER DANIELLE SMITH
Danielle Smith’s signature was below that.
FILL OUT OUR SURVEYS
UNITED CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS.CA/SURVEYS
UNITED CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS
PAID FOR BY THE UNITED CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS
There was a QR code on this advertisement, and next to the United Conservative Caucus logo, there was a blue arrow, followed by an orange arrow.
The image of Danielle Smith on this advertisement was very off putting. She had a very pompous looking grin on her face. Is there an provincial election coming up? This is rather bizarre, because the UCP didn’t get any seats in Edmonton in the last provincial election, three years ago. Nor did the UCP provide any of those things for Edmonton. No new hospital was given for the south side of Edmonton. What investments in schools, transit, roads, and culture were there for Edmonton? Something is very suspicious with this.
The UCP’s Corrupt Care scandal, which is over half a billion dollars, is still being investigated, and it could easily topple the UCP. Also, the separation petition got its required amount of signatures, and Danielle Smith is letting it proceed, while Thomas Lukaszuk’s Forever Canada petition, which required more signatures, seems to be ignored by the UCP. A UCP MLA, Jason Stephan, was in support of the separation group, and Danielle Smith didn’t stop him. There are others in the UCP camp too who are separatists. Most Albertans are unlikely to support Alberta leaving Canada.
Due to a pointless conflict in the Middle East, where human suffering abounds, oil prices have shot up. Out come the giveaways by the UCP and Danielle Smith, because of these higher oil prices. Whatever election bribes the UCP throw around, I’m not going to fall into that trap. Empty promises have come from the UCP and Danielle Smith. So I wouldn’t believe these things from them, because I remember what happened the last time.
“UNITED CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS SUPPORTS INVESTIGATING IN SCHOOLS”
Did the EJ ad really say “investigating”? Or is that a Freudian typo on their part? Or a typo on yours?
Jerry: I missed that. I’m sure it said investing. Just the same, it’s probably true as worded Especially since there are so many woke Green Marxists there. DJC
Happy April fools Day to all. While I did enjoy this year’s version, the one last year was in my view a classic!
Nenshi is a lost cause. He’s done nothing productive to stop Queen Dani in her quest to become monarch of the province with her band of roving separatists gutting the joint because he can’t get out of his own head long enough to go downtown and march with the working peons the NDP claims to represent.
He’s playing as a conservative liberal so what’s the point of him, really?
April Fool’s joke or not, chucking him out or him absconding from the federal NDP would be an asset, not a detriment.
Alberta’s not special…well at least not in the way it thinks it is.
B: The problem isn’t Naheed Nenshi. It’s a media that is practically subservient to the UCP, while lying about the NDP and Naheed Nenshi. The media lies about Rachel Notley too, which is why the NDP were defeated in the provincial election, 3 years ago. If the media would wake up and challenge the UCP and Danielle Smith for their major mistakes, it would be different. When it came to the by-election for Edmonton Strathcona, Danielle Smith intentionally held it off until the very last minute. Danielle Smith has reduced the Alberta Legislature sessions to almost nothing, which doesn’t help either. In the Alberta Legislature, Danielle Smith is asked tough questions, and she has a hard time answering them. When she can’t face scrutiny, she isn’t in the Alberta Legislature. The Alberta NDP can have any leader they want to, and it doesn’t matter, because the media will never acknowledge them in any proper way, while supporting the UCP.
Well that was a very convincing story! I fell for it almost until the end when there were some clues it was not quite so.
I suppose I should have first looked more closely at date at the top, hiding in plain sight as they say. It is also partly a sign of the current times when so many previously unbelievable things are happening now as to be credible news stories. I particularly like the line about his jokes are funnier than Smith’s. So I hope there is some different, better occasion to reuse it again.
Bottoms up!
P.S. Is that a Golden Cat™ necklace for the April Fool?
Thanks DC for this wonderful wake-up. Now if it were just likely that NN was retiring for, say, a health reason and was replaced by Corb Lund or Heather McPherson then this storm might abate and peace would reign across the NDP realm.
Now about Noemi Klein’s hubby….
Some of the centre-left Culture Warriors might need to be educated re. how in the 1970’s the National Farmer’s Union was a vital progressive force here in central Alberta. And that’s part of our history and not an April Fool’s joke!
Also, maybe we can hear more about “his” mother-in-law — the admirable disability activist and film maker, Bonnie Klein!
Might I suggest the United Cooperative Farmers of Alberta. The initials, being UCFAP might be close enough to UCP to confuse voters. The name also somewhat resembles an earlier predecessor to the NDP.
Oh yes, good one. The best April Fool’s columns are the ones with a bit of plausibility. It’s unfortunate that we have to put “this is a joke” statements in them so the Snowflakes don’t get upset.
On the serious side, the ABNDP should be more worried that Nenshi is leading them to fringe party status than what Avi Lewis might do. I wish Rachel had stayed around long enough for a competent successor to be set up, maybe avoiding something like Nenshi happening.
Mickey: Almost everyone was taken in by Mr. Nenshi’s appeal as a guy who “knew how to win in Calgary.” I can’t recall if he started his campaign on this date – which is also Danielle Smith’s birthday, appropriately enough – but he might as well have. As for April Fools on AlbertaPolitics.ca, I think my best was published on April 1, 2014. https://rabble.ca/politics/canadian-politics/alison-redford-set-to-sue-alberta-government-wrongful-dismissal/ Everyone believed it, even though it was patently ridiculous. DJC
Apparently there have been meetings of the provincial NDP movers and shakers from BC, AB and Sask about forming a Western Canada coalition to distance themselves or maybe even separate from this federal party nonsense.
We’re not sure about Nunavut since Ms. Idlout bailed to the Liberals.
Seriously, Mr. Nenshi has called the party Alberta’s New Democrats from day one. He refuses to call it the Alberta NDP.
Now, it is not up to the leader to break with the federal NDP, but the Convention.
Alfredo: Vote NO to make him GO! DJC
Kneedippers! Kneedippers!
David:
When I realized today’s date you really Lucy-and-the-footballed me with such a dandy idea.
Could call it the NNNNDP –after all, the majority of Canadians often identify themselves and their country by what it is not.