The UCP is one step closer to reshaping Alberta

Whether that's a good thing depends on who you ask.

Photo from a post by Jason Markusoff on BlueSky

The UCP has chosen a new electoral boundary commission, headed by a former Alberta Justice who has been a UCP donor. They’ve selected Monte Solberg, a former Conservative MP, as well as a politically active individual from rural Alberta who offered up a recommendation that Calgary ridings should be sliced up and smashed together with more rural voters.

The NDP says that Mr. Solberg’s conflict of interest is worrisome because he’s currently lobbying the Finance Minister, whose riding was recommended to be deleted by the majority report. Finance Minister Jason Nixon, MLA for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre, disagreed with the majority report’s recommendation, shockingly enough.

I’ve understood why Conservatives are not screaming from the rooftops about this but I have struggled to put it into words. Partly because it’s infuriating but also because I have to be in a particular frame of mind to be exceptionally charitable about things I would rather pepper with profanity.

It also required me to take a walk down memory lane.

I’ve written snippets here and there about what happened in Alberta in 2015. Maybe I’ve written this exact thing before. It bears repeating because in order to explain why Danielle Smith and the UCP’s assault on democracy is receiving little pushback, I have to start ten years ago. As I’ve done in the past, I will do my best to keep it free from snark because no matter how much I disagree with the sentiments, they are very real to those who have them.

Even for me— I went from enjoying the show to looking around at everyone else’s reactions very quickly.

I had never watched an election night before May 5, 2015. It was my first one and I was fielding messages from friends and family outside of Alberta wondering if the Progressive Conservatives were really going to be defeated— by the NDP. I remember there was a hockey game on that night as well and I was banished to the basement.

The election was called for the NDP and I went to bed in a bit of a stupor. The next day, I donned an orange tank top as tribute even though I hadn’t voted for them. I was so naive.

On the way into work, my radio station of choice— X92.9— was playing two songs on repeat; “Orange Crush” and “It’s the End of the World as We Know It”, by REM. I was still in a bit of a daze. A 44-year dynasty, the only provincial government I had ever known in my lifetime, had been ended— by the NDP. Incredible.

When I arrived at work, I discovered that my two office mates shared none of my enthusiasm for change. Everything would be horrible now, they said. Everything was going to go downhill. It was the end of the world as we know it.

But I felt fine.

The feeling didn’t last long. Rural Alberta— who was entirely fine with electing representatives who would not be in government— was dumbfounded. Then they were angry. There was joy as well, but around my home in rural Alberta, if it existed there at all, was silent. Mostly, I watched from afar.

People knew that rural Alberta preferred to vote conservative but it wasn’t something that was in your face— unless you were bold enough to be a candidate for a non-conservative party. To hear former candidates tell the tales, putting your name forward as a candidate for a non-conservative party was asking to be shunned. If you had a business, customers would stop showing up. It was literally “Conservative or bust”.

Yet, rural Alberta is still the place where you can count on your neighbours. Rural Alberta was the birthplace of the United Farmers, rural Canada was the birthplace of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, all of which folded into something we now know as The New Democrat Party. Under that banner, rural Saskatchewan (and by that I mean “all of it”— IYKYK) was the birthplace of universal healthcare. Rural takes care of its community and it was once a place where they used their collective weight to make sure the government shared that responsibility, too.

The former still exists. The latter…?

I don’t claim to really know that kind of community. I live in a town surrounded by rural, as I have most of my life. I was raised in a smaller town, population 2,200. We had a convenience store and a Lucky Dollar. Until I was in my teens, we only had one gas station. I now live in the metropolis of small towns with a population of 14,000. We have three actual grocery stores and eight gas stations. We also have traffic lights; which means we have traffic. It has far outpaced my level of patience with other drivers, to be sure.

Between the years of 2015 and 2019, things changed in rural Alberta. People were more than angry— they felt betrayed. Perhaps by the rest of the province, in the same way they feel betrayed by voters east of Manitoba when the Liberals get elected, but betrayed nonetheless. Danielle Smith had them wrapped around her little finger when she claimed she would govern for rural Alberta. It was something Jason Kenney could never do. He had his blue pickup truck and he said all the right words but he was far removed from his Saskatchewan experience by the time he came back to lead Alberta away from the dark side. Not that Alberta Conservatives cared overmuch; he united the right and that’s all that mattered.

Of course it wasn’t just rural Conservatives who lined up behind Jason Kenney; it was urban, too. Alberta has been touted as the Conservative Heartland for as long as I can remember; and I get it. Most of my ancestors were farmers. Many in my extended family had acreages in rural. Some raised show horses. Did that make them “ranchers”? One had turned some of his land near Sundre into a campground that was used by local schools and also for family reunions. I’m actual cowboy-adjacent but just once a year— like Stampede.

I add this for cred. Well, cred-adjacent.

I was raised by conservatives. I was influenced by conservatives. Before I moved out to Kananaskis and met people from all over Canada, the UK, Poland, and Australia— and then did a stint in the U.S.— my world was much smaller but I know it well.

What happened to Conservatives in 2015 went far deeper than simply having a new government.

There was a legitimate feeling of having their entire identity ripped away from them. It wasn’t just the Conservative identity, or the sense of belonging in the Conservative Heartland; the ground shifted beneath their feet. They no longer knew what to expect. This feeling wasn’t just prevalent in rural, it was felt by Conservatives all over Alberta.

Anyone who isn’t a Danielle Smith or UCP supporter feels it now. Without examples, without any arguments as to why it’s different, it’s that same feeling. Just the feeling of uncertainty and unpredictability and who will be targeted next. It’s the same feeling and it doesn’t matter who or why. That’s the feeling they had when the NDP formed government.

That feeling is why the UCP’s goal of reshaping the electoral boundaries in this province isn’t raising red flags for everyone.

I’ve argued that it should— rural was the first to reject the Progressive Conservatives when they got far too big for their britches and a gerrymandered electoral map will ensure they never get the opportunity to oust a government that follows the same path. Yet, a Conservative leader they don’t like can be replaced; a governing party they don’t agree with has obstacles; like violating their Conservative principles to become a member and have a say.

I’ve heard that before; the exact same but different.

In any case, the reason Conservatives aren’t stepping up to defend democracy is because they don’t think a situation where a non-conservative government can never win is a bad thing.

Worse, it’s a good thing. It will show everyone who ever disagreed with them. Everyone who told them their feelings didn’t matter will have to suck it up because look whose feelings don’t matter now?

This is the Conservative mindset in Alberta right now.

There was an NDP government in Alberta and it was jarring. Then there was another Liberal government in Ottawa and it was worse. Again. And again. And again. Rubbing it in their faces that what they want doesn’t matter to anyone else.

You can’t put logic into it— it’s just feelings. Big feelings.

And this is why they’re being complacent in the face of the most incredibly undemocratic moves by their provincial government.

It’s not supposed to make sense, it’s just trying to explain what the opposition to it is dealing with. In order to reach rural, and Conservatives, anyone who is trying to do so will have to understand what they’re up against… and plan accordingly.

God speed.

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