Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government isn’t even trying to fake it any more.
They bulled ahead in the Legislature yesterday with a scheme to dump the report of the Electoral Boundaries Commission and replace the bi-partisan body with a special select committee stacked with UCP MLAs to cook up a gerrymandered electoral map designed to guarantee the government an election victory whenever the next provincial election is held.
The measure to toss out the EBC report and hurry up with Texas-style gerrymandering passed 44 to 36.
With that detail out of the way, apparently clueless Leduc-Beaumont UCP MLA Brandon Lunty will be entrusted with the job of leading the committee to its predetermined conclusion and reporting back to the Legislature by Nov. 2, a timeframe that is technically known in Parliamentary terminology as a big fat hurry.
The fact Mr. Lunty had trouble last Thursday making a single talking point sound even vaguely credible obviously doesn’t matter – this train has already left the station and the government doesn’t give a hoot if we all know that the fixeroo is in.
The committee’s job is not just to consider redrawing the electoral map to include 91 ridings instead of the 89 the real EBC was limited to by the same Legislature, but to ensure that as many urban ridings likely to vote NDP as possible are divided into pizza slices with enough rural and semi-rural votes to ensure the UCP always wins.
So never mind Texas, in case you missed it, this is a significant part of the way Stephen Harper’s pal Viktor Orbán’s far-right Christian nationalist party managed to win four supermajorities in a row in the Hungarian Parliament before finally being tossed on April 12. In the process he became Hungary’s longest serving prime minister.
Naturally, the NDP protested mightily in the Assembly yesterday, but the government swatted aside the Opposition’s complaints with obvious contempt.
How did the two UCP-appointed members of the EBC come up with a set of maps for the entire province in two weeks, Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi asked Premier Danielle Smith. Ms. Smith responded with a characteristic head-wagging, arm-waving sneer: “The members opposite should take our AI Academy, because then they’d learn how to use the marvels of modern technology as well so that they can develop their own maps!”
Indeed. I absolutely believe they likely did just that. The prompt undoubtedly read something like this: “Hey, Grok, how do you gerrymander the $#&% out of Alberta?”
The irony, of course, is that the UCP probably won’t need to cheat to win an election next year. With its solid base in rural Alberta and enough supporters in Calgary to push it over the top in most elections, it is probably capable of winning a fair fight. It’s interesting, and significant, that it no longer appears willing to take the chance of losing control of the narrative leading up to its favoured separatist referendum next fall and whatever happens after that.
Speaking of which, Mr. Lunty, also charged with reviewing Citizen Initiative proposals, yesterday refused to let the proponent of last year’s the successful Forever Canadian petition make a presentation, despite a passionate appeal from former Progressive Conservative deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk.
It’s quite clear that the government intends to run out the clock on the Forever Canadian petition, signed by close to half a million Albertans, to keep it off the ballot in October and make way for an unconstitutional question by a separatist group allied with the UCP, which, even after a rule change designed to lower the bar for it under Alberta’s “citizen initiative” legislation, seems to be having considerably less success gathering signatures than the Forever Canadian effort.
In addition, as predicted many times in this space would happen, media reported yesterday that a study by the Canadian Digital Media Research Network has discovered a misinformation and disinformation campaign by mysteriously funded pro-separation “network of inauthentic YouTube channels posing as Albertan voices.”
The analysis “found roughly 20 channels working in a co-ordinated way, amassing nearly 40 million views while presenting themselves as grassroots commentary from within the province,” CTV News said.
Even if we don’t know who’s paying for it, though, it’s probably not necessary to sign up for the UCP’s “AI Academy” to have a pretty good idea where this dishonest digital slop is being generated.
Meanwhile, a commentary by former Alberta NDP premier Rachel Notley appeared in The Globe and Mail yesterday, arguing accurately enough that “the UCP is cheating to secure themselves a supermajority.”
In the article, though, Ms. Notley complained about how the Electoral Boundaries Committee she appointed in 2016 turned two strong NDP seats into one, turned another into a rurban pizza slice, and all but eliminated another in northern Alberta.
“The proposal was not one anyone could suggest had the best interests of the Alberta NDP in mind,” Ms. Notley wrote. “Nonetheless, I can say, with utter certainty, that at no time did I even casually consider abusing my power as premier or our legislative majority to reverse the work of the boundaries commission. We fully understood that an independent boundaries commission was as integral to our democracy as the election itself.”
The NDP, alas, paralyzed by its fear of igniting another Bill 6 brouhaha, failed to fix the errors obviously made by the 2016 EBC, as it should have.
There is no glory it turning this into another sanctimonious “moral victory” for the NDP. Ms. Notley would do better to acknowledge this failure to act as the grave error it was, and that many New Democrats knew it was at the time.
If it was not already obvious, Smith and the UCP are drunk on the power they got in a race they narrowly won in the last election, much like their MAGA role models.
I would argue when things started to turn against that US party was when they started to try fiddle too much with electoral boundaries. It didn’t happen immediately, but there was a strong push back as people realized the seriousness of the situation.
We can only hope that this will sink in with enough Albertans too over the next while.
The Alberta NDP and Rachel Notley weren’t power hungry like the UCP are. Also, the Alberta NDP and Naheed Nenshi aren’t power hungry. It’s crystal clear that the only way the UCP can obtain power is by cheating, or by being dishonest. In 2019, the Kamikaze affair was going on with the UCP. Prior to the last provincial election in Alberta, Danielle Smith and her UCP MLAs were selling Albertans false promises, and there were people who foolishly fell for them. Now, since the UCP are on borrowed time, because many people don’t like how they are governing, for a wide variety of reasons, we see the UCP resort to gerrymandering. It’s what dictators do. The Electoral Boundaries Commission is supposed to be nonpartisan, but the UCP and Danielle Smith changed that. Basically, the UCP detests democracy. They have shown that with bad bills, limiting the number of questions reporters can ask at press conferences, shutting down the Alberta Legislature, so there are very limited amounts of sessions, restricts how questions can be asked in the Alberta Legislature by MLAs, prohibiting by-elections, under Danielle Smith’s weak excuse of by-elections costing money, while stalling the by-election in Naheed Nenshi’s riding of Edmonton Strathcona (where Rachel Notley held her seat, previously), and in other ways. Danielle Smith and the UCP refuse to even acknowledge what Thomas Lukaszuk is doing with his Forever Canada petition, and won’t let him speak on it, because are showing their separation colors. The majority of the media outlets will not care, and they will continue to lie about the Alberta NDP and Naheed Nenshi. You won’t see Rick Bell, Lorne Gunter, David Staples, or any other columnists at Postmedia criticizing this. These columnists will publish lies about Naheed Nenshi and the Alberta NDP, prior to the provincial election in Alberta next year, just like the Postmedia columnists published lies about Rachel Notley and the NDP prior to the last provincial election in Alberta, which was a main reason for the Alberta NDP to be defeated to the UCP, three years ago. A shameful spectacle we have in Alberta.
There she goes virtue signalling her base with the All Jolson jazz hands again. Let’s go, Brandon?
Al Jolson
Yesterday I saw one of the more impassioned speeches from Naheed Nenshi I have seen. He even acknowledged the esteemed writer of this blog: “You know, David Climenhaga from St. Albert, who is always mad at me because I’m not left enough, says that this is just a plan to cheat, pure and simple.”
But the fact is very clear this is the sort of dictatorship not recently seen in this province or country. Even Doug Ford has some scruples as he is now backing out of buying himself a $29M jet, because of public outrage. This UCP government has absolutely no shame or scruples.
OA: Thanks for pointing that out. I’d missed it. If this was in the Legislature, it’s only the second time I’ve been mentioned there. For the record, I’m not mad at him because he’s not left enough. I’m mad at him because he’s not been aggressive enough. DJC
I feel he has been more aggressive recently, but still doesn’t get much mainstream media coverage. I feel part of that is because he doesn’t fit their preferred right wing narrative, but he is also not good at sound bites.
Long answers may have worked when he was mayor and got attention, well because he was the mayor, but as an opposition leader you have to work harder to generate coverage. Particularly in Alberta where there the mainstream media tends to often ignore or dismiss non right wing voices
You are not mad with him at all, angry no doubt but hopefully for the future of your blog not mad.
Soooo
Where are Albertans tearing down the house and marching on the capital to stop this madness? After all, it’s their democracy Deranged Dani is stealing…
…..
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………………….yuppers, still waiting here.
Yeah, I’m wondering when — or even if — the torches and pitchforks are going to come out …
“he irony, of course, is that the UCP probably won’t need to cheat to win an election next year. With its solid base in rural Alberta and enough supporters in Calgary to push it over the top in most elections, it is probably capable of winning a fair fight.”
I wonder if the UCP is expecting it will lose some support province wide as a result of their over zealous push for separation, so they will need the extra boost the gerrymandering will produce.
Bob: I’m sure that’s part of it. And not just separation, but health care, sucking up to Australian coal magnates and suspending the civil rights of teachers too. DJC
I suspect there is also a bit of forward planning going on at the UCP. Eventually because of rural population loss the number of rural ridings must decrease. With it so goes the UCP government. This loss can only be prevented by this gerrymandering. Don’t expect to see a return to an independent boundary commission any time soon. Illiberal authoritarianism is now in charge.
Tired of government overreach? Sick of foreign oligarchs conspiring to poison our water? Foreign funding interfering in local politics?
Then find and sign Corb Lund’s Water Not Coal petition. Bringing together cattle producers, urban craft beer sippers, fly fishers, eco-terrororist granny cyclists, Oilers fans, retired mining engineers, ballet lovers, municipal water treatment plant engineers, bright young researchers, dog lovers, centenarians, churchgoers, animal rights activists, rural councillors. Heck, you can sign this one as a separatist. Corb Lund says the stubborn Dutchmen running the big greenhouses in southern Alberta’s food billion dollar food corridor are harder to approach (don’t want to offend local politicians I suppose), but I say talk to the consumers. Can’t sell contaminated produce. And Rebecca Schultz is stepping down.
There’s a table near you. Sundre, New Norway, Nanton, Beaverlodge, Taber, Cold Lake, Blackie, Athabasca, Coaldale, Hinton, Edson, Rocky Mountain House, Ponoka, Diamond Valley, Tofield, High River, Jasper, Canmore, Cayley, Vulcan, Wetaskiwin, Spruce Grove. Cochrane. Didsbury.
Sure, they’ll change the rules again. Of course they will. But plenty of time for conversation between neighbours in the meantime. About who’s really running the show and for whom.
https://www.waternotcoal.ca/sign-the-petition
The Conservative Government has always built election boundaries based on long term projection of other intended plans ,
And of course MP and MLA opportunities a plenty
Industries,Institutions is the first criteria ,funding or naive or willing bodies,can’t have too much attention for money laundering ,making it jagged is first success,mixing up Federal and Provincial money is imperative,infrastructure is important in making invisible lines ,rivers too
Private Industry is a jack pot for drawing election boundaries,and across that road is none of your business ,you must stay in those boundaries,no stepping over that invisible line
But the best is new letterheads ,”but the books”,new letterheads are imperative in drawing boundaries ,can’t keep those hockey rink electrical bills more then 7 years you know
Alberta knows “burn the books” rules
People are more in control if they are corralled to invisible lines
“If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. The will reject democracy.”
David Frum nails it, for once. Fancy that.
I have to disagree with your earlier assessment the NDP’s Bill 6, was a self-inflicted wound. Unlike pretty much every other business, farmers and ranchers were uniquely vulnerable to private law suits by injured workers. Bill 6 protected them by providing farm workers with WCB coverage.
In my experience, this NDP initiative was sabotaged by misinformation about Bill 6 spread in the farm community through Alberta Agriculture mandated Ag Check off groups. These groups are largely industry captured and collect tens of millions of dollars each year by making farmers and ranchers pay production taxes on every bushel of grain, cow, pig, or other product they grow.
This money maintains an extensive propaganda system throughout rural Alberta. Even before Bill 6 was introduced this system spread absurd lies about Bill 6, including the idea that grandma would need WCB coverage for the grand-kids before they would be allowed to gather eggs in Grandma’s hobby hen house.
One University of Alberta agricultural economist from the 1980s observed that Alberta Agricultural policy was top heavy and dominated by big business. It was true then and it is worse now. The self-inflicted wound was the Notley NDP doing nothing to change that, even after its flagship Ag policy to protect farmers, ranchers and their employees, was sabotaged by insiders.
Notley’s NDP went on to betray rural landowners on property rights, the clean up of oil field junk, and their failure to raise royalty rates on the oil and gas industry. Maybe if Nenshi and the NDP started to address some of that mess left for rural landowners by 40 years of conservative misrule, they would have a better chance of dislodging the collection of industry captured nostalgia buffs in the UCP trying to take us back to the not-so-glorious days of Social Credit.
I understand that the NDP are going to take part and send in two MLAs to add legitimacy to this farce. No doubt, NDP management have told the two to be polite and respectful and not make a fuss throughout this erosion of democracy. You would think by this point the NDP would be tired of being laughed at and treated like doormats by the UCP but apparently not. Imagine how the UCP would react if the roles were reversed.