Report highlights UCP's unnecessary interference during Jasper fire
It’s become quite common for politicians to claim that someone else (other politicians, media, critics, etc.) is trying to “politicize” any situation they don’t want to deal with. Some politicians are more adept at throwing this shade than others. To me, there is a distinction: situations that require political action are “political”, and situations that do not require input from a politician (or another level of politician) but have one forced upon them are “politicized”.
Danielle Smith took to the opportunity to immerse herself in the tragedy during the election because it allowed her to duck questions about videos showing her musing about not wearing a poppy because government policies “ruined it” (the sacrifice of Canadian soldiers?) for her, and claiming that Canadians getting vaccinated during a global pandemic were akin to followers of Hitler.
Asked about the report at an unrelated presser, Ms. Smith demanded an apology from the municipality, who neither wrote the report itself nor the column in the Toronto Star. In a statement released on the site formerly known as Twitter, Ms. Smith claimed the report, and coverage, “appears politically motivated.”
To be sure, “politically motivated” is demanding an apology from the Town of Jasper for something they didn’t write, but they complied because when your boss demands you start blowing smoke, you pucker up. They raved about how the province provided supports both during and after the fire, specifically noting that they did their job. It was a nice little statement that simply ignores the point about provincial interference, which in itself was a politically expedient decision made by the UCP to shield the leader from answering questions about the incredibly stupid things she believes.
In Ms. Smith’s estimation, a “fair and balanced” report would have spun issues to instead detail "a very successful example of unified command,” despite the fact that it’s not what interviews with those involved determined.
We’re all on the edge of our seats wondering how the Premier’s self-commissioned report into her government’s interference into AHS investigations of procurement fraud will play out now, aren’t we?
Segue Queen
If we had been at all uncertain whether the untested allegations by former AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopolous of political interference against Ms. Smith’s staff and Ministers had any validity, Globe and Mail journalist Carrie Tait has discovered she’s being stalked by certain shady figures ostensibly looking to uncover the sources for her reporting on the UCP’s malfeasance.
Someone also managed to make calls that appear to be coming from her name and phone number; something that can be done with a software program. I remember this from the times I phone banked for political parties or candidates. You just log into the program on the computer, and then you can make calls from your personal phone, but it registers on the call display as the campaign office name and number. Those CRA scammers from a few years back used similar software.
Turns out, that was discovered when Ms. Tait received messages from people she’d supposedly called. The one flaw with this system is that you can only possibly scam them if they answer the call. If they just message back, or even phone back, they’d get Ms. Tait herself, instead of the scammer. Whoops.
There are also some characters in this developing story who are known and unknown. Someone is feeding the version of the story they want out there to a couple of guys in Ontario; James diFiore of Blackball media, and David Wallace, who claims to be a conservative “fixer”. It’s an intentional workaround. They’re making what one might consider “highly questionable” claims that few reputable outlets would, which of course is the point.
The fact that Carrie Tait is being stalked is one thing. Motivation for the stalking is unknown but one cannot deny that the effort to intimidate Ms. Tait, and anyone who would meet with her, is obvious.
If the simplest explanation is the most likely, someone isn’t happy with Ms. Tait’s reporting. People who would be unhappy with Ms. Tait’s reporting — much of which focused on the alleged procurement fraud within AHS and the involvement of once-private citizens at its heart — would be Danielle Smith’s governing party, current and former political staffers, as well as those “once-private citizens.”
Danielle Smith, Premier of Alberta and a woman who once wrote for a local newspaper, claimed that it was “none of (her) business.” Ms. Smith has demonstrated in the past that she only has the capacity to express empathy for those she agrees with. You could bet your oil and gas royalties that if the same thing were to have happened to a Rebel media personality, Ms. Smith’s response would have been entirely different.
Happy anniversary to Danielle Smith’s claim that headlines and rhetoric “creates elevated risk“ for conservatives to all who celebrate.
Were your pockets deep enough to get an invite to this private event?
The event is not publicly available on the UCP’s website and appears to be “invite only” but that’s not the strange part.
Elections Alberta states that political donations are capped at $5000 annually for “any combination of political parties, constituency associations, prospective candidate associations, (and) candidates.”
Individuals ordinarily resident in Alberta
Corporations that carry on business in Alberta and are not prohibited*
Alberta trade unions or employee organizations
Groups with members from any of the above
And they’re all eligible for a tax receipt.
Except the private invite that is not publicly accessible claims corporate donors won’t get one.
Strange, right?
UCP sends cease and desist to former UCP MLAs
Last week the United Conservative Party sent a cease and desist to the Honourable Pete Guthrie and Scott Sinclair over their intention to reclaim the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta. As Jason Kenney had the foresight to restrict anyone from reclaiming the party names exactly as they were at the time of destruction.
Political observers may be aware that although there is no “Wildrose Party of Alberta”, we do have the Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta, as well as the Wildrose Loyalty Coalition.
That the two former UCP MLAs may be restricted from reclaiming the PCAA, neither the UCP nor the legislation can prohibit a similarly named entity from forming as they hold no claim (and cannot due to wide usage) to the words progressive, conservative, or Wildrose.
Last week, we began discussions with the Alberta Party, who reached out to us and expressed openness to collaboration. We've since agreed to move forward by expanding their board to include some of our team and initiating steps towards a name change via Elections Alberta, which will reflect a renewed progressive conservative alternative in Alberta.
As part of this process, we're encouraging those who wish to support this effort to purchase a membership. While more details will follow, the short version is that this will allow us to pursue formal changes through a Special General Meeting (SGM) later this summer. The goal is to incorporate "PC" or "Progressive Conservative" into the new party name.
Email from PC Alberta, July 22, 2025
The good news is that it should be simpler than what the UCP had to do, and easy enough to use Progressive Conservative Alberta (or PC Alberta), as the UCP cannot restrict the use of any of those words in whatever order they wish; and they can keep the shirts.
Smirks
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The worst part of the Trump story from the US is how many politicos have taken it as an example rather than a cautionary tale. Premier Smith cow-tows to the Trump administration on the one hand and on the other she cow-tows to the 5000 TBA contingent. In her wringing of those hands, integrity, honesty and good governance become fiction while outright lying, distraction and anti-science become government practice.
I want to stop living in shock and dismay about this government. I need to do something.