It has been an absolute pleasure to watch the two former UCP members in the Alberta Legislature since they became independents. One thing that never fails to drive me mad is how the governing party rebuffs questions by saying they “won’t take advice from” or “won’t listen to” the opposition with some version of “Albertans rejected your party” as justification.
While they may not have formed government, enough Albertans sent them back into the House to have that insult lobbed at them every single day, which indicates that — despite their protests — Albertans want the governing party to listen to more than just their side of the House. I’ll give credit to the timely question on Wednesday from Jason Stephan, Red Deer-South, which asked “who is the boss of Alberta?” Mr. Amery, Calgary-Cross, responded “Albertans”.
Not “conservatives”, nor “people who voted UCP”, but “Albertans”.
This is why it has been a relief to have other voices who can’t be taunted with “you’re not conservative” (which shouldn’t be an acceptable reason to ignore them anyway).
Airdrie-Cochrane’s Pete Guthrie, the former Minister of Infrastructure, who resigned from his cabinet position because he couldn’t convince his colleagues that people named in the allegations of political interference should not be left in their roles while investigations proceeded, has continued to call out his former colleagues, and the premier, for ethical lapses.
While he’s only adding one voice to an opposition that has been hounding the government on this question since the allegations became public in February, his voice has more weight because no one accuses him of partisan motivations. It’s an attack that has been awarded far more consideration than it ever should have been.
Mr. Guthrie’s new independence takes that stick away. It should also caution those sitting on the government side of the house that they don’t want ethical government to become a partisan issue because from where I’m sitting, that isn’t a point in their favour lately.
On Wednesday, Scott Sinclair, the member from Lesser Slave Lake who was expelled from the UCP after stating he would not support a budget that did not address healthcare access in his riding, used his member’s statement to highlight how partisan-based rhetoric is a disservice to Albertans.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This Premier has done me a great service by removing me from a UCP party I no longer recognize. This new hostile version of the UCP is not the party of Lougheed or even Ralph Klein, not even close. It’s become a party of absolutes – either you blindly support this Premier, or you aren’t conservative – with a leader that says she believes in freedom, but only if it’s the freedom she believes in, a leader that demands obedience and silence instead of welcoming critical thinking and transparency.
Mr. Speaker, I respect democracy and that Americans voted for President Trump, but the second he mentioned Canada becoming the 51st state, he crossed the line for me. Albertans have been waiting too long for a Conservative in this province to say it, so I will. I’m conservative, and I love being Canadian. I’m conservative, but I respect treaty rights. I’m conservative, but I’ll never join the United States.
Mr. Speaker, a lot of issues that are hurting our province are self-inflicted and separate from Ottawa’s failures. The UCP government must take care of their own sandbox before we continue to blame everything on Ottawa. It should be fair to say as a conservative that I don’t like Justin Trudeau, but I also don’t like Donald Trump. Both things can be true, just like we can be angry with the federal government but still love this country. We need to re-establish a political climate where we can disagree with someone and not hate them.
Mr. Speaker, I’m sure lots of Albertans feel like there isn’t a party that speaks to them anymore, but we can do better. Folks want a steady hand, a government that promotes unity, not division, one that will reduce spending and balance budgets, a boring government with leadership that’s focused on common-sense governance, not on becoming a celebrity or a podcaster.
I’m ready for a change. I don’t know what it looks like, but there has to be a better option than this. Mr. Speaker, I’m an underdog from northern Alberta, I’m still conservative, and I will always be a man in the arena.
Party politics
After Derek Fildebrandt was kicked out of the United Conservative Party in 2018, I noticed a marked difference in his behaviour in the Legislature. He stopped playing to laughs from his caucus mates and started sounding like someone who represented his constituents instead of the party.
It was the MLA he became after his expulsion that made me wonder if parties were worse than I already thought.
I came to dislike parties before that, though some might say I started poking around at a bad (or “interesting”) time. I started writing in 2017; just in time to get a front row seat and watch Jason Kenney torpedo the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta into a septic tank of Wildrose/Christian Heritage, and then spend the next couple of years trying to make the pieces stick together so he could put the lid back on.
Later that year, I found myself on Kerry Cundal’s leadership campaign for the Alberta Liberals, and in the room in Red Deer for the “what’s next” meeting with disaffected renewal PCs. I was on the Leadership Election Committee of the Alberta Party for their 2018 leadership race, on the floor for the UCP’s inaugural convention, the NDP’s annual convention, and the founding AGM for the Freedom Conservative Party.
When I say I don’t like political parties, I mean every single one of them. I once thought political parties were some sort of reflection of the population — a large swath of people providing the checks and balances on a political party. Unfortunately, I discovered that they are at best three dudes in a trench coat making all the decisions, or, at worst, just the leader and their henchmen strong-arming everyone else.
When Jason Kenney, after the inaugural convention of the UCP in 2018, disregarded some of the contentious issues the membership placed on the agenda, and passed, said “I hold the pen on the platform”, it was a testament to both his political acumen and his leadership — but it was also a sign of more problematic dissent he would face, fully, at his leadership review four years later.
It was, however, the party Jason Kenney built. He rounded up all the dissatisfied conservatives who were tired of “progressive” policies (especially when faced with a provincial government without the name “conservative” in it) and brought them together to secure his leadership of the PC party. However, thanks to more than a generation of blaming “Ottawa”, and the fact that every bad actor has realized how easy it is to push those buttons here, Mr. Kenney was never going to get that lid back on.
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue?
I suggested on Monday that perhaps Mr. Guthrie might consider future opportunities that his public display of integrity has opened up for him, and then Mr. Sinclair raised his voice as well — and I’m okay with that, too.
I know a lot of conservatives who have never supported a “united” party. I know conservatives who refused to support Danielle Smith. There are others, however, who support both because it gives them a chance to get closer to power. Maybe there are those who support a united left for the same reasons.
Personally, I miss the group who sat in the Legislature from 2015-2019. I miss the liberals, and the Alberta Party, the PCs, and even (some days) a few of those old Wildrosers who hadn’t had a taste of power yet but were darned good in opposition. I especially miss the ones who would never had stayed silent if these ethical lapses were seen by an NDP government.
And yes, it looks far worse when two of their former caucus mates have stood up against it. It makes you wonder how many are still trying to make sense of it and how many are just bad actors following the leader.
Danielle Smith is now going to allow a few of those bad actors the opportunity to get their separation referendum in front of the people of Alberta. She claims it’s to avoid a split of the “United” Conservative Party, because “she doesn't want to see the Alberta separatist movement grow into a large, mainstream political party.”
Who’s going to tell her?
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Finally an article that explains that the UCP in not the former Progressive Party of Canada. Your insight is so refreshing and right on point in my opinion.
Ahem, "a septic tank of Wildrose/Christian Heritage," is so much more concise than every other description I've put together. Noice.