Alberta
The Race to the Bottom Bill passed with minor amendments
Bill 54 passed with a couple of amendments: specifically, that Elections Alberta will have two years to finalize sanctions against anyone breaking elections laws, instead of the previously proposed one year — which is still less than the current three years they have — and that no question can infringe upon Treaty and the rights of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people.
That should mean there can be no referendum on separation, period.
Tragically, we have a premier who is heavily influenced by a bunch of morons who are willing to risk the economic prosperity of our province to own the libs. Spoiler: they have the means to leave now, and they will still have the means if this hurts Alberta; they just need your angry uncle who never got a break to vote for it, too.
No one needs to take my word for it; there are former Quebeckers who lived through an unsuccessful attempt, or you can look at the “success” of Brexit, which was mostly just successful in damaging trade… and they aren’t even land locked.
First Nations groups have decided to revive their 2022 court challenge of Danielle Smith’s Alberta Sovereignty (within a united Canada) Act. The challenge was paused after filing the statement of claim in the hope that a resolution could be found.
“We waited for consultation, waited for some participation. We waited for some respect. None of that happened,” lawyer Robert Hladun told Global News.
All in all, 19 different pieces of legislation were passed in the spring session, many of which have been panned as ideologically costly, rather than beneficial to a majority of Albertans.
Luckily for the UCP, Albertans are really mad that Mark Carney led the Liberals to more seats than his opponent — whose skillset can be summed up as “totally hates Trudeau as much as we do” — and they aren’t concerned about what the province does or doesn’t do, so long as they have “conservative” in their party name.
AHS scandal update
As Danielle Smith unleashed the separatists to take away headlines from her alleged involvement in covering up the corruption in her office, things are still boiling under the surface. The interim report from her office’s commissioned investigation is due at the end of May and they should expect the findings to be worse than what they want to admit to the public. Keep in mind that they get the inside track on what that investigation comes up with a month before the final report, which is due at the end of June.
Globe and Mail’s Carrie Tait dropped another bombshell on that Monday. There was always a loose end with the Premier’s Chief of Staff: if Marshall Smith was putting pressure on former AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopolous to approve contracts that would benefit Sam Mraiche, why? Essentially, there was a matter of whether pressure was being applied to Mr. Smith, because most people don’t risk their careers out of the kindness of their hearts.
As it turns out, Mr. Smith was renting a home from Mr. Mraiche’s sister between August 2023 and August 2024. As we know from Ms. Mentzelopolous’ statement of claim, August 2024 was when she really started to dig into her investigation into contractual irregularities.
Relying on the good graces of someone else for shelter can put people into precarious positions. I’m not a real estate speculator, so I don’t know exactly how this all works; maybe it’s completely normal to buy a home for $1.6 million and rent it out for one year before turning around and selling it. I’ve never received $614,000,000 in government contracts before either, so, we’re talking about a financial decision-making process that is quite foreign to me personally.
Mr. Smith is also suing the Globe and Mail, as well as Ms. Mentzelopolous, for defamation.
The Premier will have the interim report from her own investigation by the end of this month, which will give her some time to make decisions before the full report is released to the public — originally promised at the beginning of July.
Ms. Smith said during question period on May 7 (page 3253) that Judge Wyant “can get whatever documents that he needs. He can take whatever time he needs. If he needs more money, he can ask for more money. None of that has happened, and as a result, we are going to see a result of this report by the end of June.”
At least, it hadn’t happened yet.
Recap of Oral Question Period
The Assembly has risen until October, but the final week ended with an exclamation point.
This excellent member’s statement from Scott Sinclair on Wednesday is a must watch. I’ve been very complimentary of Airdrie-Cochrane MLA and former Minister of Infrastructure, the Honourable Pete Guthrie’s work since he became independent and this statement from his seat mate really stood out as well.
With the destruction of the Progressive Conservative parties at both the federal and provincial levels, and the tendency of those who remain in the conservative parties (and some of the progressive options) to demand a rigid complicity from members, the outcome does not bode well for a population that generally requires some flexibility.
Both former UCP members have spoken out against the requirement to follow the leader if that leader is stomping on principles, and Albertans, rather walking with them. And who didn’t hear the possibility of another party in Mr. Sinclair’s voice?
It just adds to the potential benefits of the UCP calling an early election.
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