Do you have any idea how much I annoy people by being even remotely charitable to the United Conservative Party? On second thought, if anyone else does, it’s probably you.
I was worried that the New Democrats were going “chicken little” yesterday when I saw that they were gearing up for a court challenge against the UCP for gerrymandering the electoral map.
In my defence, I was very tired when I said that we don’t know for sure they are going to gerrymander the map.
That’s the other difference between me and opposition parties— I can be wrong sometimes without worrying that either I or my inability to read the tea leaves will become the story.
The thing is that I did give the UCP a little benefit of the doubt; just because they could do it, doesn’t mean even they would think they should.
We won’t get access to the map until it is tabled in the Legislature, currently scheduled for November 2. All we have to go on is what was said in committee and carving up areas where the UCP might have to fight for votes is, apparently, what’s coming.
UCP caucus votes to allow UCP caucus to gerrymander electoral districts
When Jason Kenney secured the most votes in Alberta’s history in the 2019 election, it seemed like he may have provided the best start to positioning the party as the next dynastic government. It might have happened, too, if not for a global pandemic... and the fact that the reactionaries were more invested in his party than he had adequately himself pr…
That was, of course, before they lost a by-election and couldn’t pull majority support for Danielle Smith’s vision to do something other than govern Alberta with her $100 million boondoggle of a referendum.
The by-election in Calgary-Shaw was both a surprise and a warning.
The referendum results told the UCP, in no uncertain terms, that they were in trouble.
And what they have thus far decided to do with that information is find a way to force Albertans to elect them anyway.
Much like they did by obliterating the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta and the Wildrose, it wasn’t about trying to earn the trust or support of Albertans, it was about relieving them of putting in the effort it would take to work for either.
Jason Kenney’s plan, quite plainly, was that if Albertans wanted to support a Conservative party, then they could only support one.
That it was supported by members encouraged to join both parties doesn’t make it more noble. I’m no longer in a charitable mood. In plain English, the purpose was to remove competition.
Danielle Smith took it one step further and made it illegal for any other party to call themselves “Conservative.”
And if that isn’t a glaring insult, I don’t know what is.
The Premier said it was so that voters wouldn’t be “confused” by seeing two parties with the name “Conservative” and not being smart enough to figure out which one they wanted to vote for.
Sure, Danielle, do you really believe that Albertans are so dumb that they’re just voting for whichever party claims to be conservative?
…
Anyway, the people Jason Kenney and Danielle Smith relied upon to secure their own success have been paying very close attention.
Double, double, toil and trouble
The Premier’s creepy forced cackling when Kathleen Petty asked if she relied upon separatists to win the UCP leadership aside, she absolutely relied upon separatists to make her leader.
It’s why she and the other two candidates (who had no hope of ever becoming UCP leader) went to the Alberta Prosperity Project’s debate, and four candidates who didn’t want to empower the separatists declined.
Yet, after burying their dreams of creating a distinct society filled with untold oil riches by actually calling the question, and then tapping out her own victory dance upon the grave, they’re not happy.
You know what? I don’t really blame them, either.
Don’t get me wrong; some of these people’s brains are entirely cooked. I’m fully cognizant of that fact. However, some of them had their brains cooked by people like Danielle Smith who saw an opportunity to play to their fears and insecurities and did it— for personal gain.
Those four long years ago, she made the Alberta Prosperity Project membership feel heard, valued and, above all, powerful. Dennis Modry and the APP were, she said, the “or else” that could bring Ottawa to its knees and force them to admit how wrong they were and always have been.
Something like that, anyway.
It isn’t rhetoric that plays to me personally but I’ve been in those rooms and it definitely plays there.
It’s why the separatists are currently working on their own plans to take over the UCP.
Not just because they’re angry, feel like they’ve been used, and taken advantage of, but because it’s so much easier to pull a Jason Kenney than having to collect signatures to start a party, or build a brand, or trust, or, you know, work to either meet people where they are or convince them to support something else.
Bootstraps be damned when power is within reach, amirite?
Fire burn and cauldron bubble
…a governing party that is confident in its ability to keep winning over voters doesn’t need to gerrymander ridings.
Though there are certainly some supporters who are fully behind this move, it may be not yet far enough removed from the feeling Albertans had in the lead up to the 2015 election that they were being taken advantage of by their government and couldn’t get rid of them.
Which is why, of all the things the UCP has done under Danielle Smith’s leadership that may have lost them some negligible support from those paying attention, the idea that the United Conservative Party may be intentionally making it harder for Albertans to hold them accountable could be a giant leap too far.
It also might blow up in their faces.
Women of ABpoli, “UCP caucus votes to allow UCP caucus to gerrymander electoral districts,” April 22, 2026
That the New Democrats promised they would launch a challenge to gerrymandered ridings is a good thing.
It’s good for Albertans and it’s good for Conservatives for exactly the reasons I outlined months ago: the democratic process allows us the opportunity to hold governments accountable.
The gerrymander has no purpose other than to make that one promise impossibility.
It is the United Conservative Party giving up.
They have nothing left other than brute force.
That isn’t “strong and free,” it’s weak and grasping.
The idea that this is where the party finds itself, where the leadership is— and I mean every one of them still supporting it— is disrespectful to every Albertan who put their faith in them.
It’s an abuse of power.
It’s a violation of trust.
It’s an affront to democracy.
And it’s up to us to stand against it.
Well said. I reacted when during the electoral district review in the spring, when Lethbridge East UCP MLA suggested eliminate Lethbridge West and East to put them in the 4 rural municipalities adjacent. Having lived in Lethbridge West, built 2 homes there. Started raising 2 sons there, the Only reason this view would be expressed is anti educated people as the U of Lethbridge is in Lethbridge West and education means non conformity to conservative traditional values and a more progressive voters, plus a generally younger population. Most rural folks have never heard the word gerrymandering but we will get a big dose of it next Monday. I have made an estimate of 60 UCP safe seats ( safe meaning mostly rural voters who never consider voting NDP) and 31 seats for NDP in Calgary and Edmonton. No Lethbridge, no Red Deer and likely no Banff. Criminals.
I’m so angry right now I won’t post lest I say something I truly mean.