Friday 27 October 2017

UCP Leadership: Won and Done?

As Albertans enter the final leg of a leadership race that has seemed to emulate American political theatre ad nauseam, let's take a moment to reflect on the past three months.  Yes, the leadership race officially began on July 22, 2017.  It feels longer because unemployed politician Jason Kenney, Fort McMurray-Conklin MLA Brian Jean and Calgary lawyer Doug Schweitzer have been campaigning for 15, 10 and 4 months respectively.  It probably also feels longer because as of today, the leadership race has been going on for three months and 5 mind-bendingly long days.

L-R Doug Schweitzer, Jason Kenney, MLA Brian Jean
Credit: LethbridgenewsNOW.com 
On a positive note, it is almost over and we will finally have the privilege of knowing who almost half of the UCP membership will choose to lead the united conservative party.  There's something old, something new and a veritable palette of shades of blue.

Doug Schweitzer made non-UCP members pay attention in the wake of Charlottesville when he called out Rebel Media's Alberta Bureau Chief for stoking white nationalism. It also garnered Schweitzer the title of "leftist" from said Chief.  Schweitzer ran a decent campaign as the "moderate conservative" and has attracted support from a number of former PCs who somehow believe he has a hope of winning the leadership.  While his campaign is almost as factually creative as Kenney's, Schweitzer's message of "new blue" moderate conservatism speaks to a broader general electorate who, after 44 years of electing progressive conservatives, may themselves be moderately conservative.

Brian Jean is the favourite among moderate conservatives from the former Wildrose camp (who are also likely former PCs).  Brian has been a staunch conservative, voting against same-sex marriage while an MP and strangling all effectiveness out of the phrase "will not increase your taxes" as the newly elected Wildrose leader.  He has mellowed somewhat since being elected to serve Albertans in the legislature and now takes a a more libertarian stance of "social issues only exist if we talk about them".  Brian Jean is in the unique position of having the party stalwarts turn on him in favour of Jason Kenney who, ironically, won the leadership of the socially progressive party. And if you haven't seen Kenney's number one fan, Campaign Life Coalition's, updated criticism of Brian Jean's voting record (here), you are missing out on basking in the intended consequence of social conservative back-patting.

And then there is Jason Kenney, self-styled as Alberta's Saviour.  The plucky young liberal from Saskatchewan, who realized he was instead a conservative, bragged about running from a Saskatchewan NDP government two full years before the NDP were elected there.  Kenney spread his doom and gloom clear across the province at the fiscally conservative cost of $1.5 million dollars; that's $250,000 per month or $1,347.71 for each of the 1,113 votes he received to become leader. Kenney has indeed accomplished something spectacular in winning the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta; where once a proud legacy of social progressiveness was an honourable badge of leadership, Kenney's personal brand of social stagnancy now tarnishes the legacy of a once innovative and forward-thinking party that helped Alberta become the economic envy of a nation.

While the votes are still being counted, side bets are being taken on how much of the vote Kenney will take on the first ballot.  In certain circles of people who know people, the numbers are as high as 65%.   There are few who believe the other two candidates have a chance against Kenney; some of whom have probably paid the $20 fee to be in the Palomino Room at the BMO Centre in Calgary on Saturday at 5:00 pm.  While there are few who believe a second ballot will be needed, it's still fun to imagine something interesting could happen.

Sunday 15 October 2017

Calgary Election: Where's the Political Line?

The long weekend brought a number of opinions on the municipal electoral races happening in Calgary.  The Canadian Taxpayer Federation released the responses to their questionnaire on October 3 and as near as I can tell, the responses they agree with are coloured green. Danielle Smith, former leader of the Wildrose Party and current host of QR770's mid-morning show in Calgary released a list of "Pro-taxpayer, conservative candidates as identified by listeners" and "Pro-union, progressive candidates as identified by the Calgary District Labour Council" on October 7.  To be honest, I find
the term "pro-taxpayer" misleading: taxpayer dollars have been wasted by conservatives.  To be fair, progressives have also wasted taxpayer dollars.

Credit:City of Calgary Twitter account
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That week was topped off with a report of an email from a Calgary developer who encouraged his employees to vote for the "conservative" choices.  The article notes that Nenshi is attempting to lessen the urban sprawl due to the increased costs for the city (aka taxpayers) associated with outward development; which is not good for a single-family residential developer.  Like too many complaints I hear about change, many want things to stay the same and seem to be unwilling to flex their innovation muscles.  If Nenshi wins, will this developer fold his business or will he look to become competitive in multi-family developments?  It's not as if he truly doesn't have an option.

What if you are interested in trying to keep provincial or federal politics out of municipal decision-making?  Do you believe provincial politicians are concerned about how often your garbage is picked up or whether there should be increased transit routes or fees?  That's not their job and it's not the concern of provincial political parties either.  Just like your candidate for school trustee would like to "fix math" but has zero opportunity to do that unless they are also an experienced educator and working on curriculum; in Edmonton.  However, the conservative students count slate has received a lot of press.  Should Calgarians pay less taxes or should they be assured their tax dollars are benefiting their communities?  Conservatives have misused tax dollars and so have progressives but do you know who doesn't?  Good people.

Municipal elections offer citizens the one opportunity within our levels of government to vote for the best person; the opportunity to choose a person who will represent your needs at the community level.  How are your taxes spent?  What types of developments do you want in your community?  Can you purchase your first home in the community?  How about your first family home?  What about aging within your home community?  What recreation, transit and community gathering options are available?  These are the concerns addressed by city councilors.

Credit: Sam Hester @calgaryhester
So what are the options if you were hoping to vote for a good representative for your ward who didn't have any provincial/federal party-affiliated endorsements?  The list below outlines candidates who you might want to look closely at if you are not seeking to stack your municipal council seats with people who may be more susceptible to provincial/federal influence over community members.

(Note: I just read a lot and write about politics, the choice is yours. This list is solely my opinion based on the candidate platforms and provincial/federal party-affiliated endorsements. I also ignored platforms claiming one would fight for lower taxes but keep or increase service levels; it's an unrealistic proposal and I was annoyed at having my time wasted reading it.)

Mayor: Andre Chabot, Naheed Nenshi
Ward 1: Coral Bliss TaylorCole Christensen
Ward 2: Christopher MaitlandJennifer Wyness
Ward 3: Connie Hamilton, Ian McAnerin
Ward 4: Blair BerduscoSrinivas Ganti
Ward 5: George ChalalTudor DincaHirde Paul JassalBalraj (Raj) NijjarAryan Sadat
Ward 6: Alex Columbos, Esmahan RasaviSanjeev KadGrace Nelson
Ward 7: Margot AftergoodDean Brawn, Druh Farrell
Ward 8: Carter Thomson, Evan Woolley
Ward 9: Gian-Carlo CarraBoss Madimba
Ward 10: Ray Jones, Salimah Kassam, Issa Mossa, Michelle Robinson
Ward 11: Robert Dickinson, Janet Eremenko, Linda Johnson, Keith Simmons
Ward 12: Shane Keating, Mackenzie Quigley
Ward 13: Kay Adeniyi, Adam Boechler, Mark Dyrholm
Ward 14: Sorry to hear about your lack of options.

Wednesday 4 October 2017

As the Legislature Turns

As of October 4, 2017, there are officially three independent MLAs in the Alberta Legislature; former NDP MLA Karen McPherson became the second MLA in the past few weeks to sit as an independent after Rick Fraser resigned from the UCP caucus on September 21.  Derek Fildebrandt, MLA for Strathmore-Brooks resigned from the UCP caucus in August over an expense scandal but that was simply to take heat off of the party.  Add to this the lone MLAs from the Liberal party, Dr. David Swann, the Alberta Party, Greg Clark, and Richard Starke who was granted permission to remain a PC MLA for Vegreville - Lloydminster, and you have a very different set up in the legislature than was elected in 2015.

Speculation about where the independents will go has been going on since Starke refused to become a UCP MLA and became deeper when Fraser resigned.  With the addition of Karen McPherson, some, like Cory Morgan, are predicting a surge to the Alberta Party.  If Morgan is correct, though, we should see a number of NDP MLAs outside of the provincial capital also taking on independent status in order to give themselves a chance at re-election.

Not to be outdone by allowing media a moment to focus on someone else, Jeff Callaway, UCP leadership contender also resigned and, unsurprisingly, endorsed Kenney.  Callaway sent out an email blaming Brian Jean's staff for attempting to intimidate him.  Yes, Callaway pointed the finger, take your guess of which one, squarely at Brian Jean; if you can't beat 'em, smear 'em.  All of this is meant to drive hundreds or thousands of voters away from Mean Jean and into the welcoming arms of Jason Kenney, who also had his detractors today.

If you happened to miss the reports of a terror attack in Edmonton over the weekend, news is starting to come out about the suspect who was taken into custody that night.  In a unique twist, the driver of the truck was an asylum seeker from the U.S. whose petition was granted under Jason Kenney's watch as Immigration Minister back in 2012.  My expectation would be the connection matters much less to those who don't support Kenney than those who do, which is an unfortunate side effect of fear-mongering to your base.

So for those of you keeping track, while Callaway may have earned some points for Kenney by dragging Jean and his supporters through the mud, his base might be a more put off by the idea that a potential terrorist was allowed in under his term.  To Kenney's credit, or lack thereof, he blamed the Liberals, the NDP and Obama (yes, Obama) for Canada granting asylum to a man who was ordered to be deported from the U.S.  And quietly we lay down wondering what the hell is going to happen in Alberta politics tomorrow.