To quote Jeremy Culhane in his Tucker Carlson impression on Saturday Night Live, “what’s going on? What are we doing?”
UCP House Leader and Minister of Jobs, Economy, and Trade Joseph Schow held an end of session press conference Thursday to gaslight anyone who has the misfortune of trying to cover Alberta politics.
The UCP is focused on affordability, he said. The NDP is focused on separatism because they don’t have a plan, he said. Albertans are worried about putting food on the table, paying their mortgages, and maybe having some money left over… to save for a vacation, he said.
United Conservatives cut taxes to save a dual-income family where each person makes over $60,000. They could be saving $1500 a year. Alberta has the lowest taxes in the country and the best investment climate, Mr. Schow added.
It really is a wonder why anyone would be struggling with affordability when his UCP government has done so much.
Mr. Schow wasn’t done.
I just want to say that we have not started this separatist conversation. The people who started this separatist conversation are the federal Liberals and the NDP caucus who have bolstered them up for the last decade.
Despite all the work that we have done, despite the leadership of our premier, many Albertans still feel disenfranchised and marginalized by this federal government.
The word “we” is doing a lot of work for a guy whose political party laid out the welcome mat for Alberta separatists. It’s putting in overtime for a party whose leader mused hours later that she would consider using the notwithstanding clause to try and get that separatist question in front of Albertans anyway..
Mr. Schow suggested that people look at Hansard and see who says “separation” more because it definitely wasn’t anyone from the United Conservative Party.
The Minister doesn’t have to tell me twice.
Despite the fact that the UCP’s Red Deer South MLA, Jason Stephan, who begged Albertans to sign the separation petition so they could have a separation referendum this fall, and the UCP’s Bonnyville-Cold Lake constituency association president who filed the separatist question with Elections Alberta, and the UCP Cabinet and caucus who voted in favour of every change to legislation to make it easier for the separatists to get their question in front of Albertans, the UCP is absolutely not talking about separatism.
Whoever said “actions speak louder than words” probably wasn’t a politician; or at least not a politician in a majority government.
“She won’t last long.” ~ UCP volunteers on the doors in Calgary, 2023
It’s probably not ludicrous to think that this is the hill Danielle Smith will let her (Alberta) political career die on. It’s certainly not a stretch to say that while she obviously enjoys the attention and free stuff afforded to a Premier who isn’t bound by ethics or shame, she doesn’t seem to excel at the work part.
The Premier has proven that she doesn’t believe in libertarian values like small government or freedom from government, nor conservative priorities like fiscal responsibility or stewardship.
In fact, throughout her career in politics and as a talking head, the only thing she’s managed to be consistent about is a right wing wish list that every Alberta premier before her has had the good sense to reject.
Ms. Smith is not similarly afflicted.
Before she was premier, I heard her ask why more conservatives don’t think like she does but it was rhetorical; not a question she was actually interested in asking and certainly not one of which she was looking for an answer.
I’ve also mentioned that in following along with her public diary after she left 770, I learned she and her husband had decided they were retiring in Panama (and they were going to get so much free stuff!). It’s the single reason I’ve always said that she wasn’t concerned about ever having to deal with the consequences of her actions as Premier; she had one foot out the door before she ever threw her hat into that race.
To me, her bid for leadership was a gamble she was only marginally invested in. The timing was acceptable, and it didn’t matter if she won or lost. She already had other plans and if it didn’t work out, it wouldn’t make a difference.
Conservatives did not trust her. The rest of Alberta didn’t either.
It’s why there were so many rumours swirling around what UCP volunteers were saying at the doors in Calgary; conservatives won’t vote for a non-conservative party if they’re angry but they will stay home. In 2023, the battleground was Calgary and every volunteer knew they needed every vote.
So, they said things like “we don’t like her either— she won’t be around long.”
And it’s possible that always was, and still is, the plan: let her implement every unpopular policy they’ve been dreaming of and if she has to be tossed so they can win another election, then so be it.
I can see her caucus being on board with that.
Every UCP MLA would be safe because they can just oust the leader; it’s worked fantastically for generations in Alberta— why would it be any different this time?
Theoretically, the difference would be that the party isn’t the same one they were part of— or welcome in.
I remember talking with a former PC MLA after the 2018 UCP convention and she said she didn’t recognize most of the people there. Oh, that’s right, because Jason Kenney purged them. I’m sure he thought he was doing his party, and himself, a favour.
He got rid of the gatekeepers.
He told them not to let the door hit them on the way out and they didn’t. The UCP today isn’t even the party that Jason Kenney built— but it exists because of the party that Jason Kenney destroyed.
This is why I learned to hate political parties
It’s a pyramid. On the bottom, members at large. In the middle, volunteers, elected members, and above them a board, then an executive. Sometimes, a leader sits on top. However, the leader (if they’re lucky) has support from the board and some volunteers, and hopefully the membership at large. If they don’t? They won’t be leader very long.
People who showed up to support a candidate were once called “two-minute Tories”.
People who show up to support a candidate on election day are called voters.
Screw the party.
Parties don’t work for voters, and they certainly don’t work for the public good.
Political parties are mechanisms for fundraising and control. They’re a private club where people feel useful and important so long as they are useful and important to the party.
And they can be changed out like a baby’s diaper.
I stopped listening to MLAs a long time ago because I realized that they have no individual power or influence. The people who show up— to vote, or make policy— they are the ones who actually make the political party.
The UCP is being (if it hasn’t already been) taken over by separatists and their separatist-curious friends. They will influence policy and be able to take out a Premier if the mood hits them.
Yet, they cannot be held accountable.
If their candidate of choice loses, they are replaceable. An incumbent means nothing without the right sign colour, or party name beside theirs on a ballot.
Jason Kenney wasn’t trying to build a separatist party but that’s what the UCP is turning into because that’s who is showing up.
And in the end, all that matters is a brand people will support without knowing anything about who is actually making decisions.
Do with that what you will.
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Good for you for keeping it pro. I don't have to in the comments, so I'll say it (repeating someone wiser than me wink wink).
Schow is a douche.
Unfortunately Schow is the intellectual in Cabinet 😉 at least the ones allowed to talk. Orwell showed us how words can explain anything. And to mix novels it's interesting how the most equal pig prefers a more southern climate.