This Week in AB
NDP releases leadership race rules
I’m not an old hat on leadership races, but since 2015 when I began to overindulge in all things politics, I have closely followed three federal races, five provincial races, including being on the ground or behind the scenes in two of them, and I’ve voted in six. Possibly seven — I don’t think I voted in the first UCP leadership race even though I was eligible.
I was still debating on the integrity of doing so back then, but I’ve reasoned it out in a way that works for me; journalists are not supposed to hold memberships because it can call personal bias into question. The thing is that I eventually admitted I’m not a good partisan anyway.
So, I met that challenge by holding a membership in all parties and objectively deciding which policies or candidates I actually preferred from each. Sure, some were “if you had to sacrifice your first born or choose between X and Y”, but I still felt better about participating than not.
Besides, no one has offered me a pension plan in exchange for my un-membershipped objectivity, so…
The NDP’s leadership race rules were pretty standard; entry fee ($60K), maximum spend ($500K), leadership election day is June 22, 2023 — the usual.
Then there was the membership requirement for leadership candidates — it’s only six months.
The thought that immediately popped into my head was: “who are they expecting to run that hasn’t had a membership for a year?”
Again, I only have, like, eight races under my belt (and the majority of them were conservative races) but having a membership for one year is, in my experience, the bare minimum.
So, I do believe that a former mayor is still considering stepping into the ring — don’t forget to buy a membership, Stephen.
Also expected to announce their candidacies are former Deputy Premier and Health Minister Sarah Hoffman, former Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley, and Edmonton MLAs Rakhi Pancholi and (rumour has it) David Shepherd.
One of the benefits of a leadership race is to build membership and interest in a party and there must be some (not previously alluded to) non-MLAs interested in the very real possibility of becoming premier.
In order to vote in the leadership race, you must have a membership by April 22.
I renewed mine already.
More partisan politics on the way?
Probably not a great sign that a definitive denial was seen as an admission but, they weren’t wrong.
In 2023, the UCP invited public feedback on the possibility of allowing declarations of political affiliation on municipal ballots. Searching for commentary on the matter results in seeing both preferences for and against.
On the one hand, it makes candidate selection easier if you like other people making decisions for you. You don’t have to go through the arduous process of finding out which representative will actually represent what you want because you’ve already decided you support a provincial party and you’ll take the party’s word that their choice is exactly the person who will do what’s best for you.
On the other, you suddenly have to wonder if a candidate’s loyalties may be to a provincial agenda rather than a community one and ask yourself if you really believe the provincial government cares if they sacrifice a few local representatives (and your needs) to help keep themselves in power.
I’ve previously pondered the benefits of removing party affiliation at all levels for the same reason.
Community needs aside, however — as I’m sure they would be — there are other reasons for encouraging party affiliation at the municipal level.
The obvious one is that conservatives feel they will benefit. Parties generally could also benefit in a similar way to the Republicans and Democrats in the U.S..
Americans register as Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to vote. Their legislators at every level — county, local, state, and federal — also generally declare their affiliation with few exceptions.
In a long-ago episode of the Strategists, Corey Hogan referred to it as a “feeder system” where people move up the ranks of elected positions.
We don’t typically think of it that way in Canada even though we do have some movement between our municipal, provincial, and federal levels.
Danielle Smith was once a School Board Trustee, Joe Ceci a City Councilor, Ralph Klein a Mayor; Jim Prentice was a Cabinet Minister in Harper’s government, Brian Jean was there, too. Oh, and so was Jason Kenney. It happens.
And while it might be a great thing for the province and/or the feds to exert some control over decisions made at other levels of government, they’re separate for a reason — different responsibilities have different priorities.
You’d think a province that reliably votes in opposition to the federal government would push back on the idea that a federal, or provincial party, deserves to have any say in the schedule of our garbage pick up. (P.S. it’s cheaper if they do it less often.)
Speaking of garbage… let’s talk about parental rights
Full disclosure, I’m a parent. I have four children aged 21 to 13. They’ve attended public school, separate school, and, something I couldn’t have said pre-pandemic, been home monitored for online learning.
I’m not going to lie, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing what they were learning and being involved in that but let me tell you, my youngest schooled me more than I schooled him.
I’ve also made a phone call to the school exactly one time throughout my kids’ education to ask wtaf? Granted, there was this “pronoun quiz” my youngest did in grade five that I was fairly livid about but I felt no need to talk to the school because he and I had a chat and, again, he was more knowledgeable than I expected on the subject.
He also has a transgender sibling but I really wasn’t sure he’d been paying attention.
Anyhow, I’m definitely biased on this topic because I let that child know that they were loved and eventually they came to me, as I would expect any child to do once they’re ready.
I don’t have “rights” as a parent, I have obligations to my child(ren).
The Canadian Charter offers me the “right” to choose what type of education my child receives — not whether they’re educated, but where. I have the “right” to choose public, separate, private, or home, and to decide if I want them to learn about their sexuality from a public nurse, special interest group, or offer my own two cents, too.
That’s the extent of my rights as a parent. I have privileges, as in, I can choose to teach my children about my personal values, or beliefs, and if I want to teach them the world is flat, no one is going to stop me. I wouldn’t, of course, because I don’t want them to embarrass themselves in front of their peers for my sake — the point is, I could.
Parental rights aren’t really a thing. Children have rights to education and to be cared for, and to become whomever they’re going to be. I stand by building a relationship of trust with kids and doing your best to respect them as individuals. I’m not an expert by any means, just an over-thinker who took the time to get to know four different people I helped bring into the world.
Canada
Federal Emergencies Act found to violate sections of the Charter
An actual conversation I had that day:
Me: the convoy bros will be jerking off all over the place now, I’m sure.
Them: that’s how I found out.
Me: they were jerking off all over Facebook?
Them: um…
For the record, I’m not poking fun at masturbation — it’s totally healthy; keep on keeping on — I’m extrapolating from a Jim Jeffries bit about how excited Americans get when performers hold the note for a little extra on “free”.
The federal government is planning to appeal the ruling, and for some odd reason, the Justice included in his decision a caveat that if there were mistakes in his one person ruling that he expected it to be addressed on appeal.
The use of the Emergencies Act itself was not found to be unconstitutional. Another odd moment was when the Justice’s decision included a statement that he would likely have supported its use at the time given the information they had available.
Basically, don’t get caught up in premature celebrations, you know, just in case.
Final thoughts
Another great read. Thanks Deirdre. Y'all gonna do a podcast soon? Id love to hear the three of you discuss the present giant pile of ...