🤣Honestly, when I joined SUBSTACK it popped into my head like it was planted. Possibly my British ancestor’s talking to me but according to Google it’s not. Seriously no idea though
It was Richard Warnica who tweeted about Byrne's company being involved as shown by an entry in the Alberta lobbyist database.
I rooted around there and found the database entry was linked to an initial report, I think, filed by the lobby firm a few days later. It had more interesting details: that the actual lobbying apparently took place on one day, June 19, and the member of Byrne's company who did the lobbying was Chad Hallman.
The article by Vickers who owns Cowboys was in the Calgary Herald on June 19. Unclear to me if Byrne's company had a hand in writing the article. I presume they disseminated it.
And that's presumably how numerous Conservatives decided to pile on Farkas soon after. He had criticized the provincial government lately, so they may have welcomed the excuse. They won't do that again in a hurry.
There's a palpable frustration embedded within this analysis, Deirdre, and it's totally legitimate.
Your breakdown of the Calgary Stampede noise bylaw controversy is a fantastic (and fantastical) case study for a non-Alberta reader. I actually heard this example analyzed on The Strategists a few weeks back, and it was eye-opening to hear (I know that doesn't make any sense - but it is appropriately fitting) how local governance succeeded precisely because it focused on practical, constituent-driven outcomes - very much like the dynamic I covered in my recent piece on the Mayor Mamdani's first 6 months in office. Yet, to your point, carpetbagger politicians instantly weaponized it for a quick, focus-grouped news cycle.
The robotic way Smith’s caucus rushes to shield her personality is incredibly reminiscent of the late-stage Boris Johnson era in the UK - the not-so-golden era of British politics. When Tory MPs repeatedly went on television and radio with an identikit, verbatim script that Boris "got the big decisions right" (Brexit, vaccines, Ukraine), it was a deliberate tactic to use macro-ideological (difficult to measure) milestones as a human shield to deflect from micro-level institutional failures and personal misconduct.
But as Westminster proved, that is a slippery slope. When a party replaces substantive policy with performance art to protect a leader, it clears the path for the ideological absurdity of a Liz Truss - a leader whose administrative depth was best encapsulated by screaming to a conference hall that importing two-thirds of our cheese "is. a. disgrace." (If you know, you know.)
When a political movement stops defending policies on their objective, administrative merit and starts intoning pre-packaged scripts, the electorate loses out. Things have become so detached from reality that we are seeing strange historical revisions on both sides of the Atlantic.
Today, you have voters on the left in the UK conceding that "love her or loathe her, at least you knew what Thatcher stood for", and Stephen Harper is increasingly championed for his quiet policy wonkishness. We desperately need to return to evaluating public performance on measurable output rather than personality, otherwise we will continue down this path where a now apparently avuncular George W. Bush gets a nostalgic pass.
Worst of all, at the rate we're going, we will end up looking back fondly on the heady days of Danielle Smith...relatively speaking.
So weird. I haven't heard that from anyone else so it might be a cache thing? Not that I know how to clear it but I've seen people who know saying that is something that has to be done sometimes haha
I refer to myself as roadkill on the internet. Haven’t had IT support in this house in nearly 20 years. I believe the last piece of advice from our son was - I’m not telling you your passwords again!
Cache, stash, bash. I’ll figure it out. I was just worried your essay was blocked
This government is an embarrassment. What a freaking mess, ALL the time.
🤣Honestly, when I joined SUBSTACK it popped into my head like it was planted. Possibly my British ancestor’s talking to me but according to Google it’s not. Seriously no idea though
Love the name by the way. Do you know the origin of the term?
It was Richard Warnica who tweeted about Byrne's company being involved as shown by an entry in the Alberta lobbyist database.
I rooted around there and found the database entry was linked to an initial report, I think, filed by the lobby firm a few days later. It had more interesting details: that the actual lobbying apparently took place on one day, June 19, and the member of Byrne's company who did the lobbying was Chad Hallman.
The article by Vickers who owns Cowboys was in the Calgary Herald on June 19. Unclear to me if Byrne's company had a hand in writing the article. I presume they disseminated it.
And that's presumably how numerous Conservatives decided to pile on Farkas soon after. He had criticized the provincial government lately, so they may have welcomed the excuse. They won't do that again in a hurry.
Yes it was-- it is not easy to keep up with all the ties...
There's a palpable frustration embedded within this analysis, Deirdre, and it's totally legitimate.
Your breakdown of the Calgary Stampede noise bylaw controversy is a fantastic (and fantastical) case study for a non-Alberta reader. I actually heard this example analyzed on The Strategists a few weeks back, and it was eye-opening to hear (I know that doesn't make any sense - but it is appropriately fitting) how local governance succeeded precisely because it focused on practical, constituent-driven outcomes - very much like the dynamic I covered in my recent piece on the Mayor Mamdani's first 6 months in office. Yet, to your point, carpetbagger politicians instantly weaponized it for a quick, focus-grouped news cycle.
The robotic way Smith’s caucus rushes to shield her personality is incredibly reminiscent of the late-stage Boris Johnson era in the UK - the not-so-golden era of British politics. When Tory MPs repeatedly went on television and radio with an identikit, verbatim script that Boris "got the big decisions right" (Brexit, vaccines, Ukraine), it was a deliberate tactic to use macro-ideological (difficult to measure) milestones as a human shield to deflect from micro-level institutional failures and personal misconduct.
But as Westminster proved, that is a slippery slope. When a party replaces substantive policy with performance art to protect a leader, it clears the path for the ideological absurdity of a Liz Truss - a leader whose administrative depth was best encapsulated by screaming to a conference hall that importing two-thirds of our cheese "is. a. disgrace." (If you know, you know.)
When a political movement stops defending policies on their objective, administrative merit and starts intoning pre-packaged scripts, the electorate loses out. Things have become so detached from reality that we are seeing strange historical revisions on both sides of the Atlantic.
Today, you have voters on the left in the UK conceding that "love her or loathe her, at least you knew what Thatcher stood for", and Stephen Harper is increasingly championed for his quiet policy wonkishness. We desperately need to return to evaluating public performance on measurable output rather than personality, otherwise we will continue down this path where a now apparently avuncular George W. Bush gets a nostalgic pass.
Worst of all, at the rate we're going, we will end up looking back fondly on the heady days of Danielle Smith...relatively speaking.
Shudder.
Deidre there seems to be a problem opening your latest post. Any idea why?
Bill
Even on the app?
Yes
Maybe try going in through another site— are you on BlueSky?
No. Thus is the only social media I do.
The screen just is white. Quite odd.
I’ll try a couple of other devices
So weird. I haven't heard that from anyone else so it might be a cache thing? Not that I know how to clear it but I've seen people who know saying that is something that has to be done sometimes haha
I refer to myself as roadkill on the internet. Haven’t had IT support in this house in nearly 20 years. I believe the last piece of advice from our son was - I’m not telling you your passwords again!
Cache, stash, bash. I’ll figure it out. I was just worried your essay was blocked