It’s sure starting to look as if Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Minister Dale Nally’s “international mission” to Kentucky’s Bourbon country has taken on a life of its own, as sometimes happens in politics.
In the latest chapter, the NDP Opposition in the Legislative Assembly informed us yesterday in a news release that “Alberta taxpayers appear to have been stuck with the tab for a failed UCP candidate married to a ministerial chief of staff who accompanied Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally on his September 2025 trip through Kentucky’s bourbon country.”
Doing a little more digging through the government’s expense records, the NDP Caucus discovered that Gary Davidson, a former UCP nomination candidate and physician with controversial views about COVID-19, was along for the ride, presumably by merit of being the husband of Pam Davidson, Mr. Nally’s chief of staff.
According to the minister’s office, however, Dr. Davidson paid his own transportation expenses, The Canadian Press reported. The government also said no alcohol was paid for by taxpayers.
The $5,400 transportation expense for the group’s ride with Sip Tours to the Michter’s, Woodford Reserve, Whiskey Thief, Maker’s Mark, Heaven Hill, Jim Beam, Angel’s Envy, Rabbit Hole, Kentucky Peerless, New Riff and Wenzel distilleries has been labelled a “booze cruise” by the Opposition.
The entire trip to Kentucky – flights, accommodation and sustenance – cost Alberta taxpayers more than $20,000, government records show, prompting the NDP to repeatedly demand in the Legislature and in statements like yesterday’s news release that the participants pay back the cost of the 11-stop distillery tour.
“This was a booze cruise, plain and simple, and it is unacceptable that the government charged taxpayers for the travel of the spouse of a political staffer,” said Gurinder Brar, the MLA for Calgary-North East and Opposition critic for Mr. Nally’s portfolios, in the NDP Caucus news release.
To make matters sound worse – remember, as noted in this space on Sunday, in public life, expenses should not only be reasonable, they must appear to be reasonable – the NDP said Dr. Davidson wasn’t listed in the government’s pre-trip briefing binder by name, but only as an “additional guest.” Members of the Opposition Caucus said they recognized him in social media photos as the former UCP nomination candidate and Red Deer physician.
“Records obtained through an access-to-information request suggest the government rolled the additional guest’s transportation costs into the expenses claimed for the official delegation,” the release said. (Presumably the transportation referred to by the NDP here is just the road trip through Bourbon County, the Kentucky county where the famous whisky distilleries are located.)
“Nally, his chief of staff, his deputy minister and the additional guest travelled together in a chauffeured vehicle between distilleries,” the news release continued. “Despite there being four passengers, the booking instructions directed that the costs be split among just three people: ‘Total cost for the day to be divided between the three names above.’ An invoice from Sip Tours, a Kentucky bourbon tour company whose slogan is ‘You Sip. We Drive,’ shows no separate payment by Mr. Davidson.”
“The released records contain no evidence that Mr. Davidson reimbursed the government for his share of the expenses, estimated at approximately $2,000 CAD,” the NDP news release also stated.
According to the NDP, Mr. Nally and Ms. Davidson filed expenses for the $5,400 rideshare cost. The NDP continues to demand that the minister pay back his share of the ride.
The NDP Opposition has also been targeting Mr. Nally, the MLA for Morinville-St. Albert, for the government’s botched introduction of new drivers’ licences with MAGA-inspired citizenship markers and bearers’ Alberta Health numbers displayed on them.
As for Dr. Davidson, the former chief of emergency medicine at the Red Deer Regional Hospital, sought the UCP’s nomination in the Red Deer-South riding in 2019.
In 2021, Alberta Health Services condemned Dr. Davidson for what it called “completely false” statements that the government exaggerated the severity of COVID-19 in hospitals during the pandemic’s fourth wave.
In 2024, after Danielle Smith had replaced Jason Kenney as Alberta premier and UCP leader, she put Dr. Davidson in charge of a “task force” figuring out if “the right data” were collected by AHS and public health authorities as they struggled to cope with the pandemic.
Globe and Mail journalists Alanna Smith and Carrie Tait reported on April 23 that year that Dr. Davidson was allowed to pick the other members of the group, which was given a $2-million budget. Members included additional physicians who challenged the consensus on public health during the COVID crisis.
Last year, Dr. Davidson spoke at a controversial anti-vaccine town hall in Calgary hosted by Calgary-Lougheed MLA Eric Bouchard and his constituency association. The town hall called for the government to suspend COVID vaccinations for pregnant moms and some youths.
Ms. Davidson, by the way, was the top vote-getter in the UCP’s “election” to serve as Alberta’s representative in the Canadian Senate in 2021.