All about the Recall
If Danielle Smith gets rid of recall, her base will get rid of her
Being an arrogant conservative politician in Alberta isn’t difficult; though if you’d asked me to bet that the UCP would become as arrogant as they did before even completing their first term, I’d have lost it with flair and not a penny to spare. I still remember pre-Premier Jason Kenney saying that if returned to government, conservatives would be “humble”. Gosh, those were good times.
One of those promises, of course, was to finally appease the Wildrose base and give them the recall legislation they had been fighting for but no government had been stupid enough to enact. In the wake of an “accidental government” however, a ridiculously self-assured Premier Jason Kenney— surrounded by a smug caucus— served it up on a silver platter.
As has been a long-practiced sentiment in Alberta, the governing party dismissed the possibility that its opposition had much support to speak of. They would take no advice from a party who was rewarded with the title of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition and governed as if they didn’t have anything to add on behalf of more than 770,000 Albertans who had sent them into the Legislature. With few exceptions, the governing party relegated the opposition, and those who supported them, to the equivalent of second-class citizens who didn’t deserve representation for their voices. The governing party had “a mandate” to do anything they wanted, after all.
This is Wildrose policy, though, and I don’t believe the membership would thank Danielle Smith for putting guardrails on it. They wanted this legislation to hold MLAs accountable to any standard they wished. Any standard at all.
The Wildrose believed in imposing direct democracy on a system of representative democracy and they do not care if it takes down a caucus member the UCP likes, or a Minister the Premier likes. They are all replaceable. Every single one of them; even the Premier.
It is why I expect they will seek to disqualify petitions rather than update the recall legislation; at least for now. The former Wildrose leader has experience in trying to lead the base towards mainstream Albertans and I believe that as leader of the UCP, Danielle Smith understands exactly how much length she has on her leash.
New petitions approved
After the UCP told at least 40,000 Albertans their right to advocate for their 750,000 students no longer existed, the governing party said they were super surprised at the problems teachers were complaining about because they, as government, didn’t have any of this information.
This is because former Premier Jason Kenney came from the Stephen Harper school of avoiding government accountability. He learned that when you want to ignore a problem, the easiest way is to refuse to collect the evidence. It’s the simplest explanation why the UCP, under his leadership, stopped collecting the data on class sizes, and denied funding to schools based on actual enrollment. They decided they’d use an average of three years ago instead, as if they were funding office supplies instead of Alberta’s education system.
A majority of Alberta children attend public schools and it stands to reason that parents probably don’t support squeezing resources that directly impact their children’s education, learning experience, and future. The fact that recall petitions are being launched in the midst of the teacher’s strike seems relevant to this.
On the heels of the recall petition for Minister of Education Demetrios Nicolaides in Bow River is… the rest of them.
Paperwork has also been submitted for Calgary-East MLA Peter Singh, Calgary-Shaw MLA Rebecca Schulz, Red Deer-North MLA Adriana LaGrange, and Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken.
Last week, I admitted that I don’t think recall legislation should be used in this way but I also can’t deny that this is precisely what the UCP created it for — they just expected it to be used willy-nilly against NDP MLAs instead. Therefore, I must accept whatever enjoyment can be found in watching them itch over it. I legitimately don’t, and did not, make the rules.
We do need to be real about this though; a successful recall petition does not guarantee a UCP seat will flip.
If an MLA is successfully recalled, the governing party will call a by-election and they will run a new candidate.
In a way, it’s actually an additional selling point to get signatures because it can still be used to send the governing party a message: Albertans hold the power.
Signing a recall petition is not an indication that a person no longer supports the UCP, or that they won’t vote for another UCP candidate; it simply means they want to remind the governing party that they can decide to send an MLA packing any time they choose. I believe the Premier put it best when she said it was about holding MLAs accountable in between elections.
If anything, UCP supporters who wanted recall legislation enacted should sign a petition out of principle. They should want to test whether if it’s even possible to successfully recall an MLA. They have nothing to lose because they’ll still get the chance to vote for the party they want to represent them in the end.
Again, there’s no guarantee that seats will flip, but there’s also a chance they might. In light of the fact that the UCP has chosen to ignore half the province out of some misguided sense of invincibility, I’m okay with watching them trip over themselves to try and stay in line with their rapidly shifting goalposts.
That’s a “you” problem
Many people who have mentioned this next bit have also admitted they get frustrated and even that they might use inappropriate language while venting about some perceived or actual slight they felt they didn’t deserve.
It’s every customer service professional’s nightmare: someone is a total dick to you and then you get busted acknowledging that fact.
When Minister of Arts, Culture, and the Status of Women, Tanya Fir, was responding to voice messages from constituents who were unimpressed about her supporting the UCP’s use of the notwithstanding clause against teachers— or the proposed use of it against healthcare for trans kids, or privatization of healthcare, or underfunding public education… well, the “why” she was receiving a bunch of vitriol on her voicemail isn’t entirely clear— she recorded more than just the response.
During one of the callbacks, she mistakenly didn’t disconnect and her conversation afterwards was also left on the voicemail. It included the moment she referred to the next person she had to contact as “the next motherfucker”.
Worse still, Ms. Fir’s next call was to someone with a substack.
He’s much more forgiving than the UCP would be if an NDP MLA was caught on tape saying anything of the sort. He’s even much more forgiving than I’m about to be, and I still have someone whinging about something I said to them a year ago.
It doesn’t matter how shitty a person is to you, it doesn’t matter what else was going on in your life that allowed their sniveling prickishness to actually get to you; it doesn’t matter because if you take it to the next level, you’re the one who is wrong.
It no longer matters if Tanya Fir didn’t deserve the tirade of vitriol she got for helping her party use the notwithstanding clause to take away teacher’s right to strike for five years, or if she’s tired of hearing about how children should have access to supports for their education, or that they shouldn’t have to wait in an emergency room for 10 hours, or that trans kids deserve to be treated like people, too. Again, the reasoning behind the calls is unclear.
Yet, as Mr. Firby recounts, Minister Fir was emotional (about getting caught) and used a sample of messages in defence of her assumption that he, too, was a “motherfucker”. Because she didn’t mean him, if she was faced with being accountable, apparently; she was just overwhelmed by mean people and decided to treat everyone as if they, too, were being mean to her.
I’m sorry, but that’s not excusable.
Minister Fir wasn’t complaining about the “last” motherfucker she had to deal with, she was projecting that sentiment onto the “next motherfucker”. Mr. Firby didn’t claim to have left her a message replete with profane commentary yet, insofar as Ms. Fir was concerned, whomever was next was just “the next motherfucker” on the list.
There was no differentiation between those who had left awful messages and those who were calling to register their disappointment or dissatisfaction. To Ms. Fir, they were all just some “motherfucker” she had to deal with as part of the thankless job she does taking away people’s rights and defunding public services.
We all complain about assholes. I’m fine with that— fuck those people. However, if you legitimately consider everyone who disagrees with you to be the problem, I’m 95 per cent certain that’s a “you” problem.
Final thoughts
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Leadership requires respect for your constituents, not just your base, as well as the ability to inspire them to better lives collectively
The ucp, full fail
Wonderful essay Deirdre - thank you again for the clear eyed take on the execrable UCP - As one of the “mothrtfuckers” out here, I am so enjoying the slo-mo petard hoisting recall petition efforts are inflicting on UCP MLAs around the province.
It’s among the sweetest examples of what the late John Crosby observed as “self inflicted rat bites” in current day Canadian political history. Go Alberta Go!
I’m breathlessly waiting/hoping for the filing of recall papers for Premier Measles herself’ in Brooks-Medicine Hat.
What a Christmas prezzie that would be!