Alberta
UCP rep tells Alberta high school student he should be taken over parent’s knee
So, who the hell is that guy?
Aside from being the arrogant and snippy emcee for the Alberta Next Panels — Danielle Smith’s separatist make-a-wish tour — Bruce McAllister is the Calgary-area point man and Executive Director of Danielle Smith’s “office” as well as the host of the United Conservative Party’s Alberta Update podcast with Danielle Smith. He receives a salary of $7,088 plus 12 per cent in lieu of pension benefits, minus applicable withholdings every two weeks.
In my neck of the woods — the provincial electoral district of Chestermere-Strathmore — he may be remembered as the former Wildrose MLA for Chestermere-Rocky View. To those with ridiculously good memories, he’s also known as (ONE OF! h/t to David Climenhaga for pointing that out!) the only Wildrose floor-crosser to win the PC nomination in his riding, after his only challenger, Jamie Lall, was disqualified from the race, bust still lost in the general election. It was a whole thing.
As the emcee for the Alberta Next Panels, Mr. McAllister has taken the liberty to insult Albertans for disagreeing with the content of the propaganda tour’s videos, or the topics themselves. He has not been forced to make an apology before, however. While the self-introduced high school student, Evan Li, was set to ask about a topic that is not approved at the Alberta Next Panels (audience members are only allowed to speak to the four topics, voice support for separation, or concur with the anti-Ottawa propaganda of the UCP government-funded videos), only some complaints were made about his microphone being cut off.
More hay was made over the dig McAllister chose to make afterwards.
Li: My name’s Evan Li, I’m a Calgary high school student, and like many high school students I’m concerned with what’s going to happen with the upcoming teacher’s strike which just an hour ago, they voted 89 per cent in favour of a striking.
McAllister: Evan…
Li: and my question is, why is the government handing out four (microphone cut)
(Stunned silence followed by boos from audience)
McAllister: here’s, here’s, here’s the thing, Evan. Evan, I applaud, I applaud you coming here to speak, I don’t applaud how you’re trying to speak, it’s not making any sense, so we’re gonna move along, mkay?
(Audience boos)
McAllister: I know you’d like some chaos but, your parents should turn you over (their) knee.
Clip on former bird site, BlueSky
Pretty ignorant retort, to be sure. I included the whole exchange because I also wanted to review Mr. McAllister’s claim that Mr. Li was “not making any sense.” It appears that Mr. Li was perfectly clear and Mr. McAllister chose to demean him by saying he was in some way inarticulate or miscommunicating his thoughts. It was both false and dismissive to claim he couldn’t be understood.
The next insult though, that a high school student should be taken over his parents’ knee, really drove Mr. McAllister’s denigration home.
As someone in my orbit noted, Mr, McAllister basically said to the young man “your parents need to teach you some respect.” Even though Mr. Li was not disrespectful in any way — aside from asking a question they didn’t want to hear — Mr. McAllister felt it necessary to cast a young man as a child who could be bent over his parents’ knee.
The Premier wasn’t too put out by her employee’s actions; she is a great defender against people being held accountable, after all. Instead, Ms. Smith claimed it’s really stressful having to get paid thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to not be a dick to people; basically.
In other words, Mr. McAllister is worth every penny she waves a magic wand to have the government pay him and he’s not going anywhere.
Well, at least the last bit has a ring of truth to it.
Teachers vote against government offer, again
As of today, the UCP is willing to fund parents to ensure they can pay for their kids to get daycare, even though they won’t fund schools to ensure the same kids get an education.
I have a 15 year old still in school. I’m not going to lie — he couldn’t hide the smile when he found out he might not have school on Monday. However, even though he’s only in grade 10, he saw what might become a hiccup: he’s registered to take forensic science next semester but has to pass Science 10 this semester as a prerequisite. Now he’s focused on how to stay on top of it if they strike.
As my kid is used to most things having a political story, I told him the one about the woman who benefited from well-funded public services and then became premier and decided to pull the ladder up after herself.
We talked about how shortsighted a government had to be to ignore our province’s future, like when our town was granted a new K-9 school, giving us four elementary and two junior high schools, but somehow didn’t think to increase the size of the only high school, too.
“Oh, so that’s why there’s classes in the atrium,” he said with an understanding nod.
I explained that smaller class sizes were the reason I didn’t mind that he and his siblings ended up in a Catholic school when we first moved here. It was about the Enhanced French program then, but the benefit was actually small class sizes because the separate schools can refuse to take students when they don’t have space, teachers, or staff.
I remember trying not to be offended when my daughter’s high school math teacher told me that he tried to impart to his students how lucky they were to be able to have so much one-on-one time with the teacher. It didn’t work because I knew that it was incredibly unfair that my kids were only able to access that benefit because my spouse’s parents had him baptized in the right church. That privilege didn’t last, though. My youngest did an extra two years at home for pandemic schooling and the school refused to take him back afterwards. No space, they said.
I knew the public system couldn’t deny him an education but I also wondered how he’d fare and whether they actually had space. I can tell you I have yet to have the pleasure of hearing one of his teachers marvel at how lucky their students are to get so much one-on-one attention.
I stand with teachers because it’s been my own experience, and also through my children, that teachers want the best for their students. They want their students to have access to the best resources and equipment, and help whenever they need it. They want their students to get the most out of their time in Alberta schools. They want their students to succeed.
I want that for my children, and the g-babies that are here already and yet to come. I want to ensure the next generation of citizens are better educated and prepared for whatever comes next and I want the government to make public education a priority. Not because I’m a voter, or a supporter, but because I’m a parent, I’m an Albertan and I care about the future of this province. And because I care about the future, I stand with teachers.
The waiting game goes on
Some curious sorts thought it would be interesting to see if Albertans might be interested in seeing the return of a Progressive Conservative party. Turns out, Albertans are interested.
Granted, voters are far more willing to consider alternate options in a hypothetical situation when they aren’t being asked to cast a ballot. Not to mention that the Alberta Party was hoping to hear back from Elections Alberta on their proposed name change by the end of September but they haven’t received it yet, so at this moment, having a PC party to vote for doesn’t actually exist.
Should an indication that Albertans want it back make a difference? The UCP has vowed to fight its return, claiming that it would be “confusing” to have a party that represents a Progressive Conservative perspective when the UCP doesn’t want it to happen, basically.
And if those numbers are right, you can see why they wouldn’t.
I’ll just repeat what I said to Courtney Thierrault a couple of weeks ago; what actually happened to the PCs? The party didn’t just fade away, it was stomped out by fiat. It didn’t die a slow death as people moved on, it was legislated never to rise again; just like they did to the Wildrose Party but there’s been two of those registered in Alberta since.
A poll is not an election; it’s simply a snapshot in time that tells us what people were thinking when they were asked about a topic they probably hadn’t been thinking about before. This snapshot tells us that Albertans are not happy with UCP today. Do with that what you will.
AHS procurement scandal pops up again
Danielle Smith announced that the special Judge-led inquiry her staff organized to look into whether there were some questionable procurement decisions made by other staff under the UCP government needs another extension. It’s not entirely surprising since during the spring sitting Justice Minister Mickey Amery was fond of saying the government had dumped tens of thousands of documents onto those investigating.
The Globe and Mail also reported that at least two of the staff members who were in charge of procurement at AHS had ties to a company with which they were awarding contracts, but there was no record that they had declared the conflict of interest to AHS. The company they had connections with is the same one that had an initially undisclosed share of ownership in proposed surgical facilities that had received abnormally high contract amounts, which is what drew the attention of former AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopolous — and spurred her own internal investigation into the matter — before she was fired from her role in January 2025.
The Honourable Peter Guthrie, who was then Infrastructure Minister, resigned from Cabinet due to Ms. Smith’s handling of the allegations, or refusal to act in the best interests of the Alberta public.
As of today, he is the only member of the UCP caucus to do so.
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In any other political world Spanky McCallister would have been fired immediately. Instead the UCP is watching in horror as an articulate and intelligent 18 year old rag dolls them across social media.
While that has caused a leak in the boat, the iceberg that may sink them is the teachers strike which has the potential to resonate with the public like the flight attendants did.
Frankly every panel member who failed to clap back and shut down McAllister should personally apologize to the student, personally.
An apology via twitter is an absolutely gutless way to apologize and again being frank he’s not apologizing he’s regretting getting caught and being called out.
Mrs Moretta again shows us how she values and protects kids by excusing McAllister. Fuck me Mrs Moretta can’t you for a moment break with your wacko policies and show an ounce of human kindness and properly apologize to the student?
While you’re at it perhaps answer his question publicly.
So let’s talk preloaded strike package from the GOA.
$150 per week for each student under 13. The math Mrs Moretta plays like this
-$150x480,000=$-72,000,000.00 per week. Or
72,000,000x4=288,000,000 per month
-say the 51,000 teachers share that instead $288,000,000/51,000=$5,647.06 that’s a serious raise.
Now let’s add in your preloaded course work and I’m guessing you’ve used a ucp approved supplier for at least $10M.
You had no intent of negotiating Mrs Moretta. You were intent on a culture war.
Now let’s talk parents and child care. That runs at least $20-25 hour so round up to $200/day, $1,000 week. Thank god for your generous offset of $150/week. You pay more to have your dogs boarded!
Protecting kids, educating the future versus playing to her base.
Mrs Moretta there are people who could really use the air you’re sucking up.