The Chestnut Tree was almost empty. A ray of sunlight slanting through a window fell on dusty table-tops. It was the lonely hour of fifteen. A tinny music trickled from the telescreens. — George Orwell, 1984
There is no Chestnut Tree Café in Edmonton. There is no need. There is the Chamber of the Alberta Legislature.
Lesser Slave Lake MLA Scott Sinclair rose during Members’ Statements in the House yesterday to read an abject apology to his erstwhile United Conservative Party caucus mates for criticizing Premier Danielle Smith and for his brief flirtation with the idea of a Progressive Conservative restoration in Alberta.
“Mr. Speaker, it is one of the greatest honors of my life to represent the people of Lesser Slave Lake,” the MLA who nowadays sits as an Independent member for that riding 250 kilometres northwest of Edmonton began his soliloquy yesterday. Alas, he continued, “there are moments in this role I’m not proud of, in particular, some of the things I said about former colleagues and teammates in government.”
Readers will recall how Mr. Sinclair, the only Indigenous UCP candidate in the 2023 election, was banished from the party’s caucus just over a year ago for threatening to vote against Finance Minister Nate Horner’s budget on the reasonable grounds it wasn’t doing enough for his rural riding. (Isn’t that what Conservative parties always used to insist MLAs and MPs should be able to do?)
“Holding government to account is a fundamental part of our system,” he said. “But I was not elected as a member of the Opposition. I was elected as a member of the United Conservative Party, a team I was proud to be part of, and one that the people of Lesser Slave Lake supported.”
“I will always stand up for my constituents … but I regret how I chose to do that. At times, public criticism of the premier and the government, particularly around the budget, was a short sighted and passionate response.”
This is Alberta, so a hockey metaphor is always apt. “No individual performance, regardless of passion and emotion, wins championships or experiences success like a strong team does,” the former Junior A hockey player explained to his former seatmates. “I understand that for us to serve our constituents and best serve our province, we need to work and win as a team.
And there is only one team, it turns out. Last summer Mr. Sinclair briefly teamed up with rebel cabinet minister Peter Guthrie, who quit cabinet in February 2025 over how the premier was dealing with the former Alberta Health Services CEO’s allegations about dodgy contracts being pushed by government insiders and was expelled from caucus in April that year for demanding a judge-led inquiry into the allegations.
They talked bravely about jolting the PCs back to life as a provincial Conservative party that loyal Canadians could support. There was a positive poll and several opinion columns about what a great idea that would be. But that was then and this is now. The UCP maintains a legal death grip on the name Progressive Conservative. Mr. Guthrie soldiers on alone as the leader and sole MLA of sad-sack Alberta Party, lamely rebranded the Progressive Tory Party of Alberta.
As for Mr. Sinclair, redemption is possible and he has seen the light again. “With time and perspective I’ve come to better understand the responsibility that comes with those decisions in a Westminster system, and the impact they have, not just on the government but on the people we serve,” he said.
“For that, I’m sorry. What I failed to recognize a year ago is that this government is making record investments in northern Alberta. This government has provided critical funding for Highway 88, a brand new corridor with Highway 686, and for the protection of communities from forest fires in Lesser Slave Lake and all over the north for years to come.”
“My focus now is where it should have always been, building relationships, working constructively, and finding common ground to deliver real results for my riding,” he assured his former seatmates. “Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working with this government and supporting this premier as we continue to make progress for Lesser Slave Lake, the north and for all Albertans. Thank you.”
Message received. Humiliating self-criticism publicly delivered. We can expect Mr. Sinclair to be beamed back aboard the Mothership shortly, possibly even before the end of the week.
So the days are over when Mr. Sinclair would tell video podcast host Ryan Jesperson that “the premier is going to be held accountable for morphing the party from what was supposed to be a mainstream, big-tent party into a separatist party.” He has obviously made his peace with the separatists.
This may seem like an odd time to do that – right at the moment his old/new separatist allies have doxxed pretty much the entire population of Alberta. But, then again, one expects it was made pretty clear to him that it was now or never or the UCP would make sure he wouldn’t be the MLA for Lesser Slave Lake after the next election, which will likely be soon. Indeed, maybe the timing is the point.
Everything is all right, the struggle is finished. He has won the victory over himself.
UPDATE: Just before noon today, Mr. Sinclair announced on his Facebook page that, his ritual of public abasement now complete, he has been welcomed back into the bosom of the UCP. I don’t think anything more needs to be said. DJC
It seems to be an odd time for such a reconciliation. The UCP has proved so far to be a sturdier structure than expected, but at this moment there is a huddle around the deck chairs feel to it.
Like most parties in power, unity comes in part from the weilding of that power along with the resources and perks it can provide to molify discontent.
It is clearly good timing for the UCP to welcome back Sinclair now, although his contrition was a bit over the top. The UCP communications people must have had fun with preparing it. Perhaps it was the most fun they have had recently.
In any event, a more impactful scandal than the AHS one is brewing now and is about to severely buffet the UCP ship of state. Sinclair’s timing was not so great before when he left and it seems to me it is not so good now either. Although as Churchill once said, it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat.
This isn’t a surprise. Scott Sinclair shows he is only there for himself, and he doesn’t care how bad of a government the UCP are.
It was either a confession or Room 101.
“one expects it was made pretty clear to him that it was now or never ”
The timing certainly is beneficial to the UCP, given the current doxing scandal. It is both a welcome distraction from the doxing issue, as well as a public expression of confidence when the UCP really needs it.
“Election!”
(I hear i Tevye’s voice)
Every member of the UCP is a disgrace.
I just had a re-read of 1984. During the happy go lucky 80s to the 2010s the book seemed to me quaint, but a bit too rooted in the Stalinist/Fascist horrors of its time. Well I was wrong – it is indeed a timeless classic and well worth a read or re-read in our era as so much goes into the Memory Hole, we are always at war with Iraq/Iran/Eurasia, we have surveillance devices in all of our homes, and people in power who care only for power and are willing to make Winstons of us all.
Coward. But no surprise.
Was he threatened, or was he made a promise? Either way, He’s the one that has to look in the mirror every morning and justify his actions.
Jones: A bit of both, I imagine. DJC
Sad!!! But he will have to live with his most recent decision.
Indigenous persons doing UCP/Conservative things always confuses me unless …,
Apparently, even St.Bernard pups droll.
Drool? DJC
yep
As Keith Richards once said and I paraphrase, you aren’t selling out as long as you get enough money. This is the best job he will ever have. The problem is when you have your nose down there, don’t expect to smell roses.
“The bosom of the UCP”—the words bring to mind a Medusa-like creature with long tresses of writhing snakes.
Hello DJC and fellow commenters,
This speech is truly revolting. I have a feeling that maybe the UCP just may not be as popular in the next election No logic or reason that I can ascribe this feeling to. But I did predict that Trump had a good chance at success the first time around, against the odds according to the pundits. Maybe Albertans have been pushed too far to want to vote UCP in the next election. At least, I can hope this is the case.
This is a really sad example of ass-kissing, only second to Smith kissing Trump’s ass. The only reason Sinclair wants back in relates to the Electoral Map as drawn by the group tasked with that, removed his riding as it was from the maps and he would be out of job. This way he can get the maps redrawn which will include a riding for him. Really amazing what these UCP clowns will stoop to.
Unfortunately being Aboriginal or Inuit, or Scottish or any other origin doesn’t guarantee you hold up any form of morality or ethical behaviour. Mr. Sinclair prefers a warm well paid position in a rather tarnished government. Maybe his voters will mete him out a judgement, but alas I think that a faint hope.
It’s hard to quit that gravy train.
He can dress this up however he wants, being shut out of those plum committee appointments hits the wallet hard.
Going by what Jason Kenny had to say on P&Politics today, I’m of the opinion that Marlaina is rallying the troops for support.
Now whether that is because there are some conservatives who are privately outraged over the data breach, or their phones are ringing off the hook from ticked off constituents who are also inundating the offices with emails it’s hard to say. But with the privacy commissioner also investigating and 500+ cease and desist orders by Elections Alberta issued, it’s become more difficult for the Premier to brush this scandal aside.
The irony of her trying to get the speaker of the house to sanction Naheed Nenshi for not advising the government of wrong doing is so d’rumpian it’s frankly embarrassing in my opinion.
I’m sure that she was hoping that this was a one day Alberta story and I won’t try to speculate on what she is going to say on P&Politics tomorrow.
If it wasn’t so early in the day, I’d get the popcorn out. I guess it would be too much to ask, if David Cochrane asks her some tough questions; like why she’s doing the “Canada Strong” meeting, especially with Mr Hoekstra, Mike Pompeo and the head of Breitbart news in attendance. (more foreign interference?)
Now there’s a bunch that believe in Canada’s sovereignty. Seems like the only one missing is Parker doing another photo op with Skippy, after all it has been a few yrs… publicly that is., before Skippy was ‘forced’ to stop and ‘change’ himself by the Liberal elites. My oh my.
To quote Mr Poilievre …” even Dr Seuss couldn’t solve that riddle “.
They let the Poop-Cookie Lady back in after booting her out (“Lady” is the UCP euphemism for “Cookie-Monster”)–but naturally that’s because the 2023 general election is over, but when it was still happening the party was afraid the Poop-Cookie UCP candidate might cost the UCP votes right across the province for saying as few as one alt-gender-identity school kid in class is like putting a little poop in the cookie dough–so she was properly kicked off the UCP campaign.
It was a “Lake-of-Fire” stupid thing to say and Danielle Smith had already been burned as leader of the Wildrose Opposition for being slow to condemn that Wildrose candidate’s homophobic comment during the 2012 general election campaign, and for being ham-handed when she finally got around to it. Smith had been forecast to become the first Wildrose premier but was burned by the “Lake of Fire”comment, so in 2023 Smith made sharp-sure to jump on the poop-cookie remarks right quickly and eight-six the Poop-Cookie candidate. However, there was a palpable whiff of disingenuousness when the UCP didn’t nominate a replacement candidate, effectively ensuring the Poop-Cookie candidate would win her seat as an Independent. Few were surprised when, after serving a suitable probation of voting with the UCP, the Independent Poop-Cookie MLA was invited to join Smith’s caucus, now as the UCP’s Poop-Cookie MLA, suggesting the party never really had a problem with the Poop-Cookie candidate using school children as props for her odious alarmism.
At least it showed Danielle Smith could actually learn something from her political and psephological mistakes –although it did cost Alberta two parties of the right for it to sink in. Obviously she coulda done better.
Scott Sinclair was booted from the UCP caucus under different circumstances. Recall the Poop-Cookie candidate made her faux pas in the middle of an election campaign when it was still uncertain whether the NDP or UCP would win. While it wasn’t a good look for the UCP, it was only for a very short while, and dumping her could be spun to indicate the UCP was getting tough on bigotry and turning the page on “Lake-of-Fire”; in that sense it presented a fortuitous opportunity. Mr Sinclair, in contrast, was already elected when he got excommunicated and the undisputed UCP majority still had most of its mandate to go. The party had no worries about what voters thought of the rookie parliamentarian’s stand against his own party nor the budget he challenged so dramatically. The loss of one rookie MLA, no biggie. He initiated so it was easy to make an example of him for the sake of party discipline.
The UCP might have been cultivated its first indigenous MLA more profitably in smoothing the party’s often strained relationship with First Nations, but one of such subtle nuance that the rashness of Sinclair’s stand perhaps obscured the opportunity to make that kind of longterm investment. The immediacy of keeping party discipline informed the summary decision that he broke the deal, the one every party-affiliated candidate makes, the deal with the party that bankrolled his successful candidacy, and the consequence had to be the same as any party would do if it didn’t see any mitigating uniqueness about the defendant.
The UCP might claim it is the demonstrated uniter of conservatives of every stripe by readmitting Sinclair after having already done so for the former Independent Poop-Cookie MLA. Ousting the rookie MLA from Lesser Slave Lake served, on his way out, the purpose of disguising the abiding divide between TBA, the dominant, radicalized faction, and the recessive moderates. He might do double service on his way back in if the UCP wants to make nice with Alberta FNs. The timing could be right as the separatism debate has put the province and Treaty FNs at loggerheads once again. But if it were really true that the UCP was genuinely interested in reconciliation, Sinclair’s criticism of the budget might have been uniquely forgiven given he was the first and only indigenous MLA elected to the UCP caucus. It could have been presented as the party’s commitment to tolerance, maybe even of free votes in the Assembly which the partisan-right sometimes gets all wistful about. This time Danielle Smith’s highest priority is keeping her party united, not Alberta FNs and certainly not Albertans’ health and education. (I’m thinking of a Bryan Adam’s number, my Alberta friends, paraphrased: Everything she does she does it to you…)
I heard Smith blithely claim her minster of the Rupert pipeline was on the blower with BC FNs on the northwest coast and the MOU is all good– which immediately made me wonder about her related claim that Alberta’s FNs were all on board with the Rupert MOU too. Ordinary British Columbians like me know how strong coastal FNs’ opposition to pipelines really is and how formidable their legal position is compared to FNs with treaties like in Alberta, so I’ll take Smith’s Alberta FN claim with a large grain of salt. I’m not sure if Sinclair figures in the UCP’s indigenous calculus, but it probably wouldn’t hurt now that some Alberta FNs have filed lawsuits against the very idea of secession. Smith’s thinking reconciliation, alright, just not the kind Sinclair’s namesake recommended on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Sinclair’s calculus obviously wasn’t so good, but his stated remorse is probably genuine (“abject” is a good word for it), but his well prepared apology sounds like he’s been coached after being coaxed into rejoining. On balance the effort probably has neutral effect on election potentials.
Is the UCP really as united as its name suggests? After all, it still manages to hang together despite its history of volatile factionalism that nearly killed the hatchling party before it fledged, very nearly tore the young party in two over vaccinations during the Covid pandemic, that cost its first leader his job halfway through its first mandate, that allowed Danielle Smith to return from an all-too-short political exile after she helped destroy two parties of the right, that slowed erosion of its supporters to successfully hold the NDP to the largest Loyalist Opposition in Alberta history in 2023, and is currently straining critical binder-twine to the max over provincial secession.
Can’t deny it’s quite a feat keeping a party like that united. Just how does Danielle find the time in her busy day to ensure her party always looks clean and fresh? She uses UniCon™–now with 51% more TBA and whitening power for even the toughest laundering jobs. Survey shows more voters are saying: “Danielle Smith, I think I’ll keep her!”
All is not perfect though. Half the Smith&Parker Gang done shot hisself in the foot just as the posse from Elections Alberta rode into town . The separation debate is intensifying –perhaps a relieving distraction from scandal and factionalism but possibly also covering plainly calculated moves by Carney who appears to be relocating the MOU goal posts without Danielle’s permission. Doubtless she still feels the sting of boos she got when she announced the MOU (as if it were a done deal) at the party AGM. And she was recently cornered by news media into stating unequivocally that she herself prefers Alberta remains part of Canada–as risky thing to say given the separatist TBA faction has cowed her entire caucus into omitting their own preferences and retains the power to boot even a premier out of the party. Which just might save her from completing a trifecta.
Now that would be something to see: two Independents, formerly UCP MLAs and cabinet members, looking across to their erstwhile party colleagues enjoying their majority, their prodigal son, and their Poop-Cookie MLA. Would Peter Guthrie, leader of the one-seat Progressive Tory Party accept Danielle if she wanted to cross the two feet of floor between her backbench seat and his?