Advance Polls are Open!
The countdown to rid ourselves of this daily frustration that is an impending province-wide vote on whether to stay in Canada or start the process of making life more difficult for everyone— courtesy of Premier Danielle Smith— is finally in the single digits.
I voted on the first day, October 13, and posted about the experience with a simple “Stay in Canada. No to the Nine.”
Of course it triggered separatist supporters.
Their echo chambers and safe spaces have been telling them no one is voting to stay. Apparently, some have convinced themselves that because I voted… they don’t get to? If I’m entirely charitable, maybe they meant that my not supporting a full-on, economy-destroying, victimhood-laden, separation referendum meant they wouldn’t have the opportunity to vote in one.
Dry your tears.
Remember that Danielle Smith is challenging the court ruling that said she couldn’t just use a citizen-led petition as authority to push a separation referendum on Albertans without actually doing her job.
Out of one side of her mouth, she hasn’t entirely given up on the separatist cause just yet.
Speaking of which; what’s in store for the UCP?
Like the SUN’s Rick Bell, I was also in attendance for Danielle Smith’s remarks at the True North Nation event in Calgary on Saturday.
I didn’t write about it because it didn’t give me anything to write about. It was a typical Danielle Smith speech where she said the NDP was bad and asked people to support her in continuing to do things they don’t like since things are going swimmingly under this new Prime Minister.
She claimed she would vote to remain and also offered up a reminder that a new leader can pivot and deliver what voters want, like Prime Minister Mark Carney. She also said that if a party can elect a leader who can do a 180, it means they could also reverse course.
Just like a provincial party leader.
She didn’t add that last part. After her speech, a few others around me did, though.
The Premier said that she hopes everyone will decide to stay in the tent lest an NDP government get elected.
Out of the other side of her mouth, she has said that there will not be another separation referendum while she is Premier.
Some people around me weren’t thrilled with the idea of waiting 15 or 20 years, like Quebec, until they can do this again. One admitted he’d probably be dead by then because, as with the majority of other events I’ve attended like this, the room skewed retiree age.
At the same time, they offered, the idea of maintaining unity just to re-elect the UCP didn’t seem like a real path forward either, when the alternative might give them an opportunity to build a real independence movement. Again, time is getting short for some of them.
The younger (than picking out their retirement village) of those among them suggested a better idea is to continue building their numbers within the UCP so that the premier will have no choice but to do what they want.
Whether that’s Danielle Smith or someone else who is jockeying for the position (*cough* Keith Wilson) is really the only thing up for debate.
They already had the majority of the small number of people who will purchase a membership in a political party and show up to be counted.
Even before the Premier gave them a solid year to organize, fundraise, and collect (or purchase) voter data, they were already a majority of the passengers in the vehicle that is carting around the United Conservative Party.
The easiest thing to do would be to let Danielle Smith carry them through another general election where she can make all the promises that she leads a moderately eccentric conservative party and then replace her when they only need a fraction of the votes to elect someone else who isn’t restricted by “promises” they made to win a general.
Easy peasy.
Edmonton Mayor Knack considers taking Premier Mayor to court
If UCP supporters in rural Alberta who are currently fighting their municipal councillors over data centres needed a reminder, Danielle Smith will infringe upon municipal authority whenever she chooses.
Any old time she chooses.
UCP supporters in the largest cities have been blessed to receive the UCP’s intervention when it comes to speed cameras, bike lanes, public transit, noise bylaws, and now, infills.
Municipal elections were held just over a year ago, during which anti-infill candidates were not elected.
The Premier held a press conference on someone’s front lawn last week to tell council they will repeal municipal bylaws regarding infills after they hold a sham of a public hearing.
Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack told the Edmonton Journal that the Premier’s directive (which has yet to be released in legislation) puts council in conflict with the Municipal Government Act no matter what they do next.
“As per provincial rules under the MGA, I am required to go into a public hearing with an open mind,” he said. “They are issuing a directive that says how I have to vote. If I don’t follow the directive, I’m in violation of the directive. If I do follow the directive, I’ve gone in without an open mind. That would again put me in violation of the MGA.”
“Either way, every member of council will be in conflict of interest. If they have a desired outcome, they should just do it. I don’t think they’re following the law and I think we need to actually take this to the courts.”
You would think that a level of government that has basically curated their entire personality around rejecting interference from another level of government would “get it.”
Then again, you’d think that voters who had to endure governments they didn’t like wouldn’t be so keen to allow interference when they do like the one in power; lest that same attitude be mirrored by one they don’t.
In my ideal world, people would think about that even a fraction of how much I do (no matter which party they support).
This Thanksgiving, I am thankful
As my family filled the house this weekend, I was thankful. As I almost tripped over one of the now-mobile twins, and my eldest grandbaby who is barely much bigger, I was thankful (for them and that I neither stepped on them nor fell on my face).
And as the government of Alberta ad for their referendum appeared during the football game, I was thankful that I knew their questions were garbage.
I am thankful this referendum is almost over and for the slight reprieve we may be able to enjoy afterwards— no matter how short-lived.
Above all, though, I was thankful that Canadians elected a Prime Minister who has never thought our country was “broken.”
I’m thankful that he is working with the most incompetent Premier in the country and addressing the concerns she said she had. I’m thankful that he earned her respect not with slogans or gotcha moments or because he has the same colour banner that she does (and she said at the True North thing that she will still vote for the guy polling at 30 per cent anyway), but because he’s doing his level best to listen and respond to her concerns while trying to keep our country in the black.
Too many of our political class hails from Ontario, arriving so angry at being the odd ones out that they had to come to Alberta to get high on the grievance fumes.
Then there’s Prime Minister Mark Carney, an Albertan who’s proud of what our province gave him. Be they memories or opportunities, we have an amazing legacy that I think we should be more thankful for, too.
We can’t ignore the walking, talking prairie oysters today but most of us grew up without knowing any of them. Probably because they didn’t live here yet.
I’m very thankful that I live in Canada but I am proud to call Alberta my home.
Final thoughts
Thanks to everyone who reads, shares, and becomes a free subscriber! Becoming a paid subscriber not only supports my work but makes it possible for me to report from places you don’t want to go. You know the ones. To those who already do; I’m thankful for you, too.
Damned if I didn’t buy chicken milk too!
There’s a grace I cribbed from a friend of mine. He thought it had its origin in the Koran but I couldn’t find it there. It’s an appropriate way to celebrate thanksgiving!
May we each be given:
Enough happiness to keep us content,
Enough trials to keep us strong,
Enough sorrows to keep us human,
Enough hope to keep us happy,
Enough failure to keep us humble,
Enough success to keep us eager,
Enough friends to give us comfort,
Enough enthusiasm to look forward,
Enough wealth to meet our needs,
Enough health to enjoy life.
And may we each, in our own way, give thanks for the blessings we may receive.
Bill
My wife is obsessed with The Phantom of the Opera. She rented the movie over Thanksgiving weekend and had it on loop.
Sure it’s a classic, but after the fifth viewing, I came to the conclusion that the Phantom is little more than a whiny, self-pitying drama queen who lives in a dark basement, blames everyone else for his problems, and demands absolute devotion while threatening to blow everything up - only to ultimately let Christine go because his entire grievance was a self-manufactured tragedy.
(I mean, despite his disfigurement, he was still Gerard Butler. “This..is..Opera!”)
Having long read your posts, I’ve now come to the conclusion that the Phantom could be the perfect allegory for Alberta separatists: brooding in the basement of Western alienation, nursing an outrage that’s largely in their own heads, and constantly threatening to leave the country in a grand, dramatic exit that never actually happens.
Dahhhh dah dah dah dah dummmm… inside their minds.🎶