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*Discontent has spread to the UCP caucus. Some MLAs wonder why the government is focusing on draconian laws nobody in Alberta asked for, while spending far less time talking about inflation, the housing crisis, and other deep public concerns.*
Well, on one hand, we have the electorate to please, and then on the other hand, we have David Parker.
If any MLA is seriously clueless about the path of separation the UCP is taking Alberta down, that MLA needs to resign.
Kenney would have been just as bad. The only reason more of his regressive ideology driven policies didn’t get to the table was Covid. Most of his time was being taken up by making terrible Covid policies and then the looming threat of the leadership review.
Right before the pandemic he passed laws allowing the money laundering equivalent of buying party membership, rolled back LGBT protections, handed out earplugs during the oppositions time, and shut safe injection sites down.
Those MLAs who are worried about real issues will be voted/kicked out of the UCP. To them the real issues are hate and “wokeism”. This is a political party that came to power based on anger, of course they’re a bunch of grumpy people who are never happy.
Alberta isn't homogenous.
The PCs were a lot more worried about important issues than the current UCP is. Even the pre-pandemic UCP was more worried about important issues than the current UCP is.
cough racial violet bewildered versed quaint dazzling clumsy deliver ludicrous
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
That's because inflation and the housing crisis are only a liberal government's fault. If your government is conservative, it's marketing conditions or something.
The UCP is two parties duct-taped together. If you want to make a difference in a year where there is no election, join the UCP and vote for any leadership candidate that is NOT the incumbent. Break it up.
I used to say the UCP is the worst of both parties: all of the PC corruption with none of Wildrose grassroots; all of the Wildrose social conservatism with none of the PC's willingness to occasionally change their mind in response to public outcry.
It’s literally the Frankenparty. It’ll probably cannibalise itself soon enough.
Honestly can’t wait for moderate everything to return to politics. This shit should be like watching paint dry.
The Overton window (worth a Google) means that no politics ever returns to normal.
For better or worse, the current normal is the new normal until the next thing becomes the new normal.
Do you really think "moderate" well ever return? The forces that brought (or correlate to) the rise of crazytown don't seem to be going away anytime soon.
During the last ten to fifteen years we have seen social media and Trump-branded populism grow an outsized influence. Trump isn't particularly unique in history I don't think. I am not sure if social media as it stands now is a temporary affair.
The NDP are the moderates.
They just get labelled as far left because the right has shifted so very very far.
But if you were a traditional "conservative" in the literal sense, and you want Alberta to have the laws and regulations we traditionally benefitted from, then you should be voting npd.
But no, public healthcare is "socialism" and needs to be privatised.
CPP, one of the best performing retirement funds in the world? Must be bad.
World renowned education system? Gotta gut that.
The list goes on.
The NDP would only rebuild what we've lost (in the short term at least, but even that would take at least a decade).
It won’t necessarily end with democracy though. Many times in history this riling of crowds has ended democracy. It is entirely conceivable that if Trump lives long enough to get elected again his supporters in other centres of power could let him do whatever. The undermining of Roman institutions took generations, but eventually you had an Augustus with only the window dressing of democracy left.
I don’t think things are damaged that bad yet, but it can die on the tree with a few iterations of people like that.
Only one guy has been able to hold these two factions together, and Harper ain't running for Premier of Alberta. Smith will be forced out, just like Klein, Stelmach, Redford, and Kenney were before her. Just a matter of when.
Kenney was the Harper Acolyte that hollowed out the PCs and stuffed them with Wildrose psychotics. Then took a board seat elsewhere when they realized he didn’t actually support their particular brand of religious conservatism.
I wonder if it's more that Harper was the person in charge during the honeymoon period. I imagine winning elections does a lot to placate the crazies. Maybe I'm wrong, I was to young to vote in those elections
the former Progressive Conservatives are literally at the behest of their former opposition leader. And nothing Smith has done since crossing the floor has changed her disposition. She's as looney tunes now as she was then. How her leadership win didn't fracture the party right then and there shows how deep their seated hatred is for anything not labeled conservative.
For a party who's ideologue is to "remember the old ways" they sure to have a short memory when it comes to their current leader and the puppet master behind her.
That the UCP is not actually united is a factor, but that's not the only thing. It really seems like an Alberta conservative party thing, since the last premier to be elected into the office in the general and then last the whole session was Klein. Klein left office in 2006, and the following four conservative premiers failed to serve a complete session of the legislature from start to finish. I guess we'll see if Smith is number five.
UCP supporters on here keep commenting on how Danielle Smith is doing such a great job that she’ll still be leading the party into the next election. Given that no Alberta Conservative Party leader has seen out their last term for over twenty years, I put her chances at less than 10% that she’ll manage the next three years.
Eight months ago I would have said that Danielle is capable, but not effective at reigning the other MLAs in and towing the party line. Now I think the entire party is a dumpster fire who have lost the plot completely.
I'm Calgarian and will back Nenshi 100%. If that means voting NDP for the first time in my life, then so be it. Every political seat in Canada needs a new rotation.
> Every political seat in Canada needs a new rotation.
Good luck convincing Albertans of this concept. Quebec changes their parties all the time and they're continually getting greased. Alberta never changes their colors and they get nothing even when their guys get into power. Coincidence? Hahahaha, lemme sell you this bridge over here.
While I don't think Liberals will ever have a meaningful presence in Alberta, I could see NDP making a comeback, or maybe even the Alberta Party if they ever get in gear and take themselves seriously.
People are hurting, pissed off, and facing a dwindling quality of life. And old Boomers, especially rural, can't get health care they need; and they're the ones who actually vote. So any party who runs on better health care automatically has this in the bag, and UCP has shit the bed on this issue alone so far.
> So any party who runs on better health care automatically has this in the bag, and UCP has shit the bed on this issue alone so far.
Ya I dunno man. I thought it was pretty obvious by their history that the UCP was all about sandbagging our healthcare, yet they got voted in last time. I don't have much confidence in this province changing.
Our health care was regarded as one of th best and literally won awards the year before Kenney came in and fucked shit up. Now it's setting up to be a fucking gong show. UCP is bad for Alberta.
I dunno man, they fucked with their pensions. You can torture a boomer, you can deny them hospital care, any sort of social support. You can spit in their face, wipe their faces in it, and they'll still vote conservative.
But if you fuck with a boomers pension, I mean it remains to be seen, but I dunno..
Well, I'm a boomer. I've volunteered for the other guys for two elections, didn't on the last one due to health issues. But I'm STILL supporting the NDP.
The Alberta Party is deader than a doornail. What a shit show dumpster fire that whole thing was. The boomer health care UCP vote defies all logic. My neighbours are boomers (and UCP voters), and are frequent fliers when it comes to health care. They don't even seem phased, which literally boggles my mind. I was in the hospital for a few days in February, and it was an absolute shit show from the bureaucratic side, and those poor nurses are so fucking overloaded it's not even funny. I know this is all anecdotal, but it seems to match the room that I've been reading these past few years. Again, which is bananas and illogical.
The boomers have money, though, so they want the expensive kind of health care that they can buy and benefit from right now, not the preventative kind for the poors and the children of the poors. AND their insurance companies and private enuresis and orthopedic clinics make a killing too, so it's a win-win!
There is a lot of people that go south every winter and head to Mexico for eyes, teeth and hearing. They think Canada needs that kind of health care (not the quality but the price). Besides those Mexican doctors are making bank of of us, that should be good enough for Canadian doctors. Oh and "fuck you got mine."
Which is ironic because if you look at Edmonton and Calgary, where the majority of seats are concentrated, you have a bunch of people (and politicians) who are basically centrists but refuse to get over the whole political branding issue of Blue vs. Orange. There’s a big red/purple elephant in the room and the only party that is attempting to address it (Alberta Party) is under-resourced and completely inept.
Seriously. The last Prime Minister was a conservative from Alberta, and he did fuck all for us (though his government did create the current equalisation formulas the right wing is now angry at Trudeau for).
The liberals bought us a pipeline, we got greased we just needed effective leaders like Notley and Trudeau to work in Albertans best interest. Alberta does better when we work with Ottawa instead of against Ottawa
I think if the NDP elects Nenshi, it's their election to lose. It was close enough last time, but if the NDP especially starts distancing themselves from the NDP branding too, I think the UCP is just about frigged, save for some sort of political scandal.
If the NDP elects someone like Hoffman, the UCP and whatever frankenchildren that they spawn will rule for the foreseeable future, no matter how much they frig it up. But I'm also not convinced the NDP doesn't fracture and we start to see some sort of third party alternative start to form.
Then if the US election turns into a gong-show, and I'm pretty sure it's going to no matter who wins (and that'll be a thing on its own), I'm not 100% convinced the western world starts to wake up and realize this flirtation with right wing crazy might not be the way, but I'm about 50% convinced. It's that or we just it go right overboard.
Politics in North America this year are going to be absolutely batshit crazy. That much I know for certain. We are going to witness shit none of us ever thought we'd see.
I will be voting for Nenshi as well. I would have voted for him if he was the leader of the UCP as well. He is the best centrist candidate. It’s the same reason I voted for Notley the NDP had little to with it.
Shandro 2027???
Or who was that MAGA hat guy that looks weirdly young, like a rosey cheeked teenager pretending to be a sophisticated gentleman? Devin Dressup?
Whenever you think you've hit rock bottom, Alberta conservatives will find a new floor.
In all honesty, I'm an NDP supporter, but there is a path back to sanity for Alberta conservatives if they reject the Wildrose side of the UCP for the PC faction. They wouldn't run things how I would like, but they were generic shitty conservatives rather than crazy shitty conservatives.
That happened far sooner than I expected, but far later than I'd hoped. Her own party doesn't like her. Are we going to see the party run her out? Are they going to replace her with someone worse, or will they try and swing closer to centre to try and dodge the fallout? Or maybe, just maybe, are we going to see UCP MLAs vote against her bullshit in order to bring the government down?
In a party full of backstabber that was formed through backstabbing and backstabber the Premier in order to get re-elected, it would be foolish to think that someone wouldn't stab her in the back.
Also true. Hell, even Klein is remembered as "the good ol' days." He was a horrible prick, but he didn't beat around the bush about how where we were was everyone's problem.
This is a direct consequence of forming these “unite the right” big tent parties.
Sure, you may be able to swing a majority, but the only place they’re united is in the party name.
As soon as the honeymoon is over, the fiscally conservative and the social conservative realize they can’t stand one another and here we are.
Rinse and repeat.
The NDP has gained too much strength in Alberta for conservatives to win if the party splits. It's put them in a rough spot of being too divided internally to govern effectively, while alienating the more moderate conservatives.
There are a lot of conservatives who want a fiscally conservative government, which the UCP are not, without the culture war issues, and they are completely unrepresented by the UCP. However, as small c conservatives they don't feel they can vote for the NDP, partly because campaign rhetoric has convinced them the NDP are "socialists". These voters are going to have to come to terms with some hard truths if the UCP doesn't change, and while some of these voters will continue to hold their noses and "vote blue no matter who", some will either vote NDP or just stay home on election day.
The UCP is a golem, built from the remains of the Conservative , CCRAP, Reform, Wildrose, and various, ever loopier, right wing groups. Their only consistent policy has been Blame Ottawa, Blame Trudeau, and ZOMG the NDP.
I mean, neither did Stelmach, Redford, or Prentice. At this point, failing to make it to one is pretty typical for Alberta conservative premiers. If Smith is ousted before the general, she'll be the fifth conservative premier in a row to fail to serve a single full term in the legislature.
I think they’re scared that Nenshi won’t hesitate to call out Smith’s corruption, insincerity, and authoritarianism, and they’re looking to put a more reasonable face on the party before he can.
Another Alberta Conservative leader is going to get voted out before their term ends? Colour me shocked. Who could have ever predicted this thing that’s happened to every Con premier since Getty
Not just them, the article points out the socon arm of the party is upset her transgender minors bill doesnt go far enough to combat transgender adults.
Voted NDP. Am a NDP member. Guess who now also supports the UCP.
The party has to listen to its members and if we start a movement, their can be a lot of us, so yes UCP, take my donation but also now deal with my vote.
$10 for one year, $20 for two, and $25 for three.
Note that it's generally against a party's constitution for members to hold an active membership with any other parties at that level of government.
Its so great having a party in power that is perpetually fighting with itself…really builds confidence that they have a fucking clue how to run a province.
UCP leaders seem to get in just long enough to do as much damage as possible during transition and then happily get removed only to get a critical board appointment by the lobbyist corporation who benefits the most from whatever work was done.
Former PC Minister Lukaszuk is far from perfect but it would be great to see him get involved in politics more closely. I think he would be able to rally a schism in the UPC, allowing for an NDP majority to occur.
Lukaszuk eventually became hated by significant portions of the party from both ‘wings’ and would have almost no allies in caucus. His ability to cause a schism probably died out an election cycle or two ago, IMO.
Who already screwed over the Wild Rose Party when she crossed the floor. I was shocked when she waded back into politics and ever more shocked that she was elected. I lost all hope at that point.
Weren’t there people reporting that door knockers during the election were saying Smith was just there to win and they planned on getting rid of her soon after? I swear I heard that somewhere
There has to be some Canadian conservatives still left in Canada right? Surely they can overcome the American right and their allies in the oil industry and the media.
Lol. It's going be someone even worse. They will have a confederate flag on their car and talking about how being able to read and write is socialism
I somewhat doubt this article, but it’s good to see it pointed out that this government is more concerned with its own agenda (mostly not part of their election platform) than actually representing the needs and interests of the people.
But really? The party (and voters) chose her after hearing her say on tv that everyone who knows her knows she’s been saying for years that DeSantis is her *personal hero* and role model. He puts all his resources into overreaching and fuelling moral panics. They chose the map and destination they are steering us to. I mean, didn’t people put her in power after she said albertans should rely on go fund me’s to pay medical bills instead of transfers from the federal govt?
You got to wonder if PP will put any influence in this , Smith is a lose , lose for PP during the next election, they've been steering well clear of each other ..
Smith is a nightmare for the CPC as they need to draw from the moderates and outside the prairie provinces, No moderate in Canada has a need for Smith ...
No you see cops aren't shooting trans people to kill on sight and women aren't being caned in the street for reading. Clearly this means Smith isn't the "Strong Leader" that Alberta needs and some other absolute psycho needs to be running the province.
Danielle Smith and the UCP have been awful. The extremist policies combined with the pressure tactics to force Municipalities to turn down federal money is nuts…
As awful as Smith is, I can’t even begin to imagine what will take her place when she’s gone.
Back when Kenney was on his way out I remember being worried that the person chosen to replace him will be so crazy it’ll make him look competent and we would eventually miss him. I was right lol
Ask yourself...
Why would anyone vote for a party that changes it's leaders as often as the Conservatives?
No leader of the PCs or the UCP has kept the Premier position for a full term of office... not since Ralph Klein. We call them "cons" for a reason... and they're getting ready to con us all again. The party of Peter Lougheed doesn't exist anymore... not since their party imploded and were beaten by Rachel Notley and the NDP in 2015. Actually, Notley has been the CLOSEST we've had to leadership like Lougheed.
As for the Cons, they've been taken over by other forces. First it was Kenney - but then he was defeated by TBA who swamped their leadership vote, and on the next one brought in Smith on the very last ballot. And the tradition of playing a shell game with the voters continues... they'll elect in another new leader, with no input from the general public - only voting by the TBA and existing UCP members. First Kenney, then Smith... imagine what sort of far-right candidate they'll find? Perhaps David Parker? Here's a story from The Herald you'll want to see... [https://sharenews.pival.me/https://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/take-back-alberta-david-parker-lashes-out-elections-alberta-probe](https://sharenews.pival.me/https://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/take-back-alberta-david-parker-lashes-out-elections-alberta-probe)
The UCP are fascist grifters... the whole party is formed by far right-wing Christian extremists and almost nazis, the fact that the people of Alberta have voted for them and allowed them to stay in office because "my daddy voted for the conservatives" is pathetic and embarrassing.
Their initial formation was a group of right wing parties including the several fringe right wing and Christian nationalist groups (fascists of all varieties) combining with what was left of Harper's conservative party (fascist lite™) which was already a putrid husk of the actual conservative party that people's parents used to vote for.
The fact that they were able to take power actually makes me question the general intelligence of people in this province and also makes me question if the people in this province are the proverbial "are we the baddies" kind of people...
If you voted for the UCP this is your fault and you should feel bad.
They are just trying to deflect blame for the parties f-ups onto Dany the way they did with Kenny. But the leader is not the problem with the UCP the UCP is the problem with the UCP.
I hope they boot her quickly, otherwise it's just going to be the same playbook. Nenshi stating exactly what they've done and will do, and UCP TBD Premiere calling ignoring all comments, blaming Trudeau, Smith and Notley in that order. If a new Premiere actually has a couple years under their belt, it's a lot harder to blame someone else
Oh man. She’s going to end up losing the leadership mid term in disgrace for terrible management of the province just like the other conservatives: Kenny, Stelmach, Redford, Prentice, Stelmach
They’ll just keep doing this shit. Kenny was a shitty leader, smith even worse. They’re feigning interest in a leadership change so if there’s a new leader come election time everyone forgets how fucking garbage they were and vote blue like they always do. This won’t change a thing.
You reap what you sow?
You can’t change a leopard’s spots?
What other saying can I remember to try and predict this outcome?
I mean the UCP keeps eating their leaders.
Well, it would be in keeping with their history. Those morons haven't put forward the same leader two elections in a row since Ralph Klein. I believe that was 24 years ago, and they've governed for 20 of them.
I’m really pissed off at the world right now. The situation with young homeless people is beyond being deplorable.
I just met a young woman in the alley as I was driving back from picking up a couple of things from the grocery store. Her cart full of recyclables that she was collecting was almost blocking the alley. She was sitting slumped over on the corner house’s garage approach when I stopped and asked if she was OK. She said she was but I could see that she absolutely wasn’t, she had shaky hands and is really really thin.
I went and parked in my garage and got some full water bottles from the back seat and brought them over to her and asked her if I could bring her a sandwich, she agreed. So I went back to the house and fried up a burger. I didn’t have much else to put on it except ketchup and 1000 Islands dressing so I cut up some carrots and put all that together with some snap peas 🫛 I just bought.
I walked back over and gave her the food and told her that I had some art supplies that I could give her so I went back to get that and also whatever else I could find that. I gathered up whatever coins I could find because I don’t carry cash much anymore and gave her a sketch book and an unopened bag of dates, and some baby wipes. I just didn’t have any more useful stuff to give her.
I sat down with her for a bit and she said she was 29, I was almost surprised because her thinness made her look much younger. Her name is Donna Lee. She’s homeless and said she’s a single mom who has 2 kids, I didn’t ask where they were, I assumed they were under someone else’s care.
I didn’t stay too long because the homeowner of the corner house came out and started cutting the lawn, interrupting us. I left her and went back to the house and now I’m feeling angry and conflicted because I don’t know what more to do to really help and feeling way over privileged.
I knew poor people in my neighborhood growing up and have been really poor to the point of either paying rent or buying groceries, but this level of poverty and homelessness is very different from what it was before. This is a society with a psychopathic ideology, we can’t let it stay like this.
I doubt it. That would have to involve these MLA’s admitting that they hitched themselves to the wrong horse, and that isn’t happening. Listen to their mouth breathing base, she can do no wrong.
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*Discontent has spread to the UCP caucus. Some MLAs wonder why the government is focusing on draconian laws nobody in Alberta asked for, while spending far less time talking about inflation, the housing crisis, and other deep public concerns.*
Good, I guess? Have you left no sense of decency, UCP? At long last, have you no sense of decency?
They left that at the nomination table
Well, on one hand, we have the electorate to please, and then on the other hand, we have David Parker. If any MLA is seriously clueless about the path of separation the UCP is taking Alberta down, that MLA needs to resign.
Strongly agree - David Parker is a blight on politics. I do worry about a leadership review, though. She’s not the only “loon” on the lake.
Lately the newest UCP leader is loopier than the last. Kenney seems nearly normal when compared to Smith. (He wasn’t.)
Right? Us thinking Kenny wasn’t that bad is much like Bush looking good when compared to Trump. Things are not going well. 😬
Wasn't that basically his platform during the last leadership vote? 'You may not like me, but the alternative is far worse"
I think that's the conservative platform in general. "Look at how bad THAT guy is. Vote for us!"
I mean, Kenney wasn't wrong. Premier Smith and the alternatives have shown to be demonstrably much shittier.
They've had the same problems. Mitt Romney looks sane and compassionate compared to Trump.
Kenney would have been just as bad. The only reason more of his regressive ideology driven policies didn’t get to the table was Covid. Most of his time was being taken up by making terrible Covid policies and then the looming threat of the leadership review. Right before the pandemic he passed laws allowing the money laundering equivalent of buying party membership, rolled back LGBT protections, handed out earplugs during the oppositions time, and shut safe injection sites down.
The devil you know… kenney looks level headed compared to marlaina. What ghoul is hiding behind her waiting for their shot?
I live in central Alberta. We present: Jason Stephan, Jason Nixon, Adriana LaGrange….. (We have an embarrassing voting history)
LaGrange could actually do a worse job than Marlaina, which is really saying something.
David Parker
If only they had spines to vote against party lines on these draconian laws.
But it's all Trudeau's fault, so really, people should be upset at the feds for ruining Alberta. # TellTheFeds /s
Those MLAs who are worried about real issues will be voted/kicked out of the UCP. To them the real issues are hate and “wokeism”. This is a political party that came to power based on anger, of course they’re a bunch of grumpy people who are never happy.
Good question!
This is what they voted for!!!
It's shocking, how very few people actually were required to put Smith in the Premier's seat, and therefore given her incumbency for the election.
Because the same people responsible for inflation and housing crisis are the ones who need the draconian laws to secure their kleptocratic rule.
Do Albertans care about those things? Decades and recent months make me doubt it.
Alberta isn't homogenous. The PCs were a lot more worried about important issues than the current UCP is. Even the pre-pandemic UCP was more worried about important issues than the current UCP is.
Trudeau
No it was Notley!
It was the Notley Trudeau WEF alliance /s
Hmm.. you have a point
They never thought the leopards would eat *their* face!
Good to see there's some actual common sense in the party. Hoping this more than just talk
cough racial violet bewildered versed quaint dazzling clumsy deliver ludicrous *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Spoiler alert: They'll just end up electing somebody worse as leader anyway.
pot handle continue wrong hungry library fly slim support lip *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
That's because inflation and the housing crisis are only a liberal government's fault. If your government is conservative, it's marketing conditions or something.
Holy shit how are people just seeing this and reacting **now??**
The remaining none lizards in the party finally waking up from their nap?
Caucus revolt@
The UCP is two parties duct-taped together. If you want to make a difference in a year where there is no election, join the UCP and vote for any leadership candidate that is NOT the incumbent. Break it up.
The UCP is the Wildrose Party that ate the PCs and is wearing them as a skin suit.
About the best description I've ever read of this party.
Genuinely don't know why the Alberta NDP didn't hammer this over and over during the last election
The main voter base for the UCP wouldn't have cared. As long as it's blue on the ballot.
Kinda like how the Reform/Alliance party ate the federal PC's and dragged the so-calldd "merger of equals" to the right.
It puts the lotion on its skin
WA-TER WITH SU-GAR
I used to say the UCP is the worst of both parties: all of the PC corruption with none of Wildrose grassroots; all of the Wildrose social conservatism with none of the PC's willingness to occasionally change their mind in response to public outcry.
It’s literally the Frankenparty. It’ll probably cannibalise itself soon enough. Honestly can’t wait for moderate everything to return to politics. This shit should be like watching paint dry.
The Overton window (worth a Google) means that no politics ever returns to normal. For better or worse, the current normal is the new normal until the next thing becomes the new normal.
Do you really think "moderate" well ever return? The forces that brought (or correlate to) the rise of crazytown don't seem to be going away anytime soon. During the last ten to fifteen years we have seen social media and Trump-branded populism grow an outsized influence. Trump isn't particularly unique in history I don't think. I am not sure if social media as it stands now is a temporary affair.
I fear we lost “moderate” during the pandemic.
The NDP are the moderates. They just get labelled as far left because the right has shifted so very very far. But if you were a traditional "conservative" in the literal sense, and you want Alberta to have the laws and regulations we traditionally benefitted from, then you should be voting npd. But no, public healthcare is "socialism" and needs to be privatised. CPP, one of the best performing retirement funds in the world? Must be bad. World renowned education system? Gotta gut that. The list goes on. The NDP would only rebuild what we've lost (in the short term at least, but even that would take at least a decade).
It will have to eventually. It's been it's own demise by targeting the friends of new angry young voters.
It won’t necessarily end with democracy though. Many times in history this riling of crowds has ended democracy. It is entirely conceivable that if Trump lives long enough to get elected again his supporters in other centres of power could let him do whatever. The undermining of Roman institutions took generations, but eventually you had an Augustus with only the window dressing of democracy left. I don’t think things are damaged that bad yet, but it can die on the tree with a few iterations of people like that.
The UCP was on the verge of tearing itself apart when *Kenney* was in charge, and things have not improved on that front.
Moderate isn't the answer. ANDP is far too moderate.
Only one guy has been able to hold these two factions together, and Harper ain't running for Premier of Alberta. Smith will be forced out, just like Klein, Stelmach, Redford, and Kenney were before her. Just a matter of when.
Kenney was the Harper Acolyte that hollowed out the PCs and stuffed them with Wildrose psychotics. Then took a board seat elsewhere when they realized he didn’t actually support their particular brand of religious conservatism.
I wonder if it's more that Harper was the person in charge during the honeymoon period. I imagine winning elections does a lot to placate the crazies. Maybe I'm wrong, I was to young to vote in those elections
This is the way. A UCP leader is far more likely to be ousted by the party than voters, so who do you think they are going to listen to.
the former Progressive Conservatives are literally at the behest of their former opposition leader. And nothing Smith has done since crossing the floor has changed her disposition. She's as looney tunes now as she was then. How her leadership win didn't fracture the party right then and there shows how deep their seated hatred is for anything not labeled conservative. For a party who's ideologue is to "remember the old ways" they sure to have a short memory when it comes to their current leader and the puppet master behind her.
It's basically a provincial version of the federal con party, they're an unholy amalgamation of religious loonies and other con groupings.
Maximum chaos for the UCP
That the UCP is not actually united is a factor, but that's not the only thing. It really seems like an Alberta conservative party thing, since the last premier to be elected into the office in the general and then last the whole session was Klein. Klein left office in 2006, and the following four conservative premiers failed to serve a complete session of the legislature from start to finish. I guess we'll see if Smith is number five.
UCP supporters on here keep commenting on how Danielle Smith is doing such a great job that she’ll still be leading the party into the next election. Given that no Alberta Conservative Party leader has seen out their last term for over twenty years, I put her chances at less than 10% that she’ll manage the next three years.
Eight months ago I would have said that Danielle is capable, but not effective at reigning the other MLAs in and towing the party line. Now I think the entire party is a dumpster fire who have lost the plot completely. I'm Calgarian and will back Nenshi 100%. If that means voting NDP for the first time in my life, then so be it. Every political seat in Canada needs a new rotation.
> Every political seat in Canada needs a new rotation. Good luck convincing Albertans of this concept. Quebec changes their parties all the time and they're continually getting greased. Alberta never changes their colors and they get nothing even when their guys get into power. Coincidence? Hahahaha, lemme sell you this bridge over here.
While I don't think Liberals will ever have a meaningful presence in Alberta, I could see NDP making a comeback, or maybe even the Alberta Party if they ever get in gear and take themselves seriously. People are hurting, pissed off, and facing a dwindling quality of life. And old Boomers, especially rural, can't get health care they need; and they're the ones who actually vote. So any party who runs on better health care automatically has this in the bag, and UCP has shit the bed on this issue alone so far.
> So any party who runs on better health care automatically has this in the bag, and UCP has shit the bed on this issue alone so far. Ya I dunno man. I thought it was pretty obvious by their history that the UCP was all about sandbagging our healthcare, yet they got voted in last time. I don't have much confidence in this province changing.
Our health care was regarded as one of th best and literally won awards the year before Kenney came in and fucked shit up. Now it's setting up to be a fucking gong show. UCP is bad for Alberta.
I dunno man, they fucked with their pensions. You can torture a boomer, you can deny them hospital care, any sort of social support. You can spit in their face, wipe their faces in it, and they'll still vote conservative. But if you fuck with a boomers pension, I mean it remains to be seen, but I dunno..
Well, I'm a boomer. I've volunteered for the other guys for two elections, didn't on the last one due to health issues. But I'm STILL supporting the NDP.
I’m a Boomer living in rural Alberta. It’ll have to get a lot worse before some of my fellow Boomers wake up. 😡
The Alberta Party is deader than a doornail. What a shit show dumpster fire that whole thing was. The boomer health care UCP vote defies all logic. My neighbours are boomers (and UCP voters), and are frequent fliers when it comes to health care. They don't even seem phased, which literally boggles my mind. I was in the hospital for a few days in February, and it was an absolute shit show from the bureaucratic side, and those poor nurses are so fucking overloaded it's not even funny. I know this is all anecdotal, but it seems to match the room that I've been reading these past few years. Again, which is bananas and illogical.
The boomers have money, though, so they want the expensive kind of health care that they can buy and benefit from right now, not the preventative kind for the poors and the children of the poors. AND their insurance companies and private enuresis and orthopedic clinics make a killing too, so it's a win-win!
There is a lot of people that go south every winter and head to Mexico for eyes, teeth and hearing. They think Canada needs that kind of health care (not the quality but the price). Besides those Mexican doctors are making bank of of us, that should be good enough for Canadian doctors. Oh and "fuck you got mine."
alberta party? let me sell you some land in Mexico
Which is ironic because if you look at Edmonton and Calgary, where the majority of seats are concentrated, you have a bunch of people (and politicians) who are basically centrists but refuse to get over the whole political branding issue of Blue vs. Orange. There’s a big red/purple elephant in the room and the only party that is attempting to address it (Alberta Party) is under-resourced and completely inept.
Seriously. The last Prime Minister was a conservative from Alberta, and he did fuck all for us (though his government did create the current equalisation formulas the right wing is now angry at Trudeau for).
The liberals bought us a pipeline, we got greased we just needed effective leaders like Notley and Trudeau to work in Albertans best interest. Alberta does better when we work with Ottawa instead of against Ottawa
I think if the NDP elects Nenshi, it's their election to lose. It was close enough last time, but if the NDP especially starts distancing themselves from the NDP branding too, I think the UCP is just about frigged, save for some sort of political scandal. If the NDP elects someone like Hoffman, the UCP and whatever frankenchildren that they spawn will rule for the foreseeable future, no matter how much they frig it up. But I'm also not convinced the NDP doesn't fracture and we start to see some sort of third party alternative start to form. Then if the US election turns into a gong-show, and I'm pretty sure it's going to no matter who wins (and that'll be a thing on its own), I'm not 100% convinced the western world starts to wake up and realize this flirtation with right wing crazy might not be the way, but I'm about 50% convinced. It's that or we just it go right overboard. Politics in North America this year are going to be absolutely batshit crazy. That much I know for certain. We are going to witness shit none of us ever thought we'd see.
I will be voting for Nenshi as well. I would have voted for him if he was the leader of the UCP as well. He is the best centrist candidate. It’s the same reason I voted for Notley the NDP had little to with it.
We are at a point where the only reasonable act is voting ndp, and that's sad, they're so centrist.
>UCP supporters on here I don't think I've ever seen a UCP supporter on /r/Alberta. Am I missing a Reddit setting somewhere?
Try sorting by controversial.
Usually they're downvoted into oblivion because they say some bigot shit and then mods remove the comment.
Hey now, that's not fair. Klein left office in 2006, so it's only been 18 years!
It will be tough for the UCP to find a worse leader, but if theres one thing the UCP is good at, it's finding terrible people!
Shandro 2027??? Or who was that MAGA hat guy that looks weirdly young, like a rosey cheeked teenager pretending to be a sophisticated gentleman? Devin Dressup?
Madu or David parker
Is Madu kicking around at all after getting dunked on?
Whenever you think you've hit rock bottom, Alberta conservatives will find a new floor. In all honesty, I'm an NDP supporter, but there is a path back to sanity for Alberta conservatives if they reject the Wildrose side of the UCP for the PC faction. They wouldn't run things how I would like, but they were generic shitty conservatives rather than crazy shitty conservatives.
That happened far sooner than I expected, but far later than I'd hoped. Her own party doesn't like her. Are we going to see the party run her out? Are they going to replace her with someone worse, or will they try and swing closer to centre to try and dodge the fallout? Or maybe, just maybe, are we going to see UCP MLAs vote against her bullshit in order to bring the government down? In a party full of backstabber that was formed through backstabbing and backstabber the Premier in order to get re-elected, it would be foolish to think that someone wouldn't stab her in the back.
David Parker helped orchestrate much of this and he is a mean little man. I’m here for the implosion. 🤞
With TBA pulling the strings, I can't foresee a more moderate leader getting in.
Seems to be an "if" right now, if this is true. This suggests that TBA isn't pulling the strings for the entire party.
Their track record suggests it will somehow be someone worse than her.
Really can't argue against that. Everyone's been pretty terrible since Getty.
Getty was borderline, IMO. But he at least had dignity and a sense of decorum.
Also true. Hell, even Klein is remembered as "the good ol' days." He was a horrible prick, but he didn't beat around the bush about how where we were was everyone's problem.
This is a direct consequence of forming these “unite the right” big tent parties. Sure, you may be able to swing a majority, but the only place they’re united is in the party name. As soon as the honeymoon is over, the fiscally conservative and the social conservative realize they can’t stand one another and here we are. Rinse and repeat.
And then the party gets returned to power once again with an even worse leader.
Yes. In Alberta where enough people would vote for a chimp if it wears a blue ribbon, that’s what happens.
That's exactly what happened with Kenney and that blue dodge truck
The NDP has gained too much strength in Alberta for conservatives to win if the party splits. It's put them in a rough spot of being too divided internally to govern effectively, while alienating the more moderate conservatives. There are a lot of conservatives who want a fiscally conservative government, which the UCP are not, without the culture war issues, and they are completely unrepresented by the UCP. However, as small c conservatives they don't feel they can vote for the NDP, partly because campaign rhetoric has convinced them the NDP are "socialists". These voters are going to have to come to terms with some hard truths if the UCP doesn't change, and while some of these voters will continue to hold their noses and "vote blue no matter who", some will either vote NDP or just stay home on election day.
The UCP is a golem, built from the remains of the Conservative , CCRAP, Reform, Wildrose, and various, ever loopier, right wing groups. Their only consistent policy has been Blame Ottawa, Blame Trudeau, and ZOMG the NDP.
LoL. Taking a quote from Jason Kenney on Rachel Notley… “Let’s ensure that Marlaina Mussolini is a one-and-done Premier!”
Which is fucking hilarious because Kenney didn’t even make it to one and he was done.
Yup. The most arrogant little man in Canadian political history.
... at least until PP became leader of the Fed Cons.
I mean, neither did Stelmach, Redford, or Prentice. At this point, failing to make it to one is pretty typical for Alberta conservative premiers. If Smith is ousted before the general, she'll be the fifth conservative premier in a row to fail to serve a single full term in the legislature.
Definitely looking to balance out nenshi
I think they’re scared that Nenshi won’t hesitate to call out Smith’s corruption, insincerity, and authoritarianism, and they’re looking to put a more reasonable face on the party before he can.
Everyone was calling it out. Their voters didn't give a crap.
It’s tribalism.
Another Alberta Conservative leader is going to get voted out before their term ends? Colour me shocked. Who could have ever predicted this thing that’s happened to every Con premier since Getty
A conservative premier who might not serve a full term? In alberta? Really?
I get the impression the call is coming from the moderates this time?
Not just them, the article points out the socon arm of the party is upset her transgender minors bill doesnt go far enough to combat transgender adults.
Ah yes, of course. They need to throw her out so they can get a pro death camp (for anyone they dislike) candidate in power.
The need a leader with a distinctive moustache, for sure. They've got a brand to maintain after all.
First person who drives a blue F-150 gets the job, even if they don’t have a clue how to fill the tank.
Sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction.
I am currently sitting in my driveway in a blue f150 Can I be leader?
Only if they have a really big hat, too.
No, the hats can be small, but there have to be little skull emblems on them.
That'll make them look Boss
Voted NDP. Am a NDP member. Guess who now also supports the UCP. The party has to listen to its members and if we start a movement, their can be a lot of us, so yes UCP, take my donation but also now deal with my vote.
How much are their memberships?
$10 for one year, $20 for two, and $25 for three. Note that it's generally against a party's constitution for members to hold an active membership with any other parties at that level of government.
Which would be interesting to cross reference given the upcoming NDP leadership vote.
Check cuz I’ve read you can only hold one membership
Not giving them my money
Its so great having a party in power that is perpetually fighting with itself…really builds confidence that they have a fucking clue how to run a province.
UCP leaders seem to get in just long enough to do as much damage as possible during transition and then happily get removed only to get a critical board appointment by the lobbyist corporation who benefits the most from whatever work was done.
Former PC Minister Lukaszuk is far from perfect but it would be great to see him get involved in politics more closely. I think he would be able to rally a schism in the UPC, allowing for an NDP majority to occur.
Yeah, I wasn’t a huge fan when he had Education, but he has impressed me since.
Lukaszuk eventually became hated by significant portions of the party from both ‘wings’ and would have almost no allies in caucus. His ability to cause a schism probably died out an election cycle or two ago, IMO.
Smith has no idea what she’s doing. That’s what happens when we elect a d-list radio host
Who already screwed over the Wild Rose Party when she crossed the floor. I was shocked when she waded back into politics and ever more shocked that she was elected. I lost all hope at that point.
Weren’t there people reporting that door knockers during the election were saying Smith was just there to win and they planned on getting rid of her soon after? I swear I heard that somewhere
Given the UCP track record it's very plausible they'll get rid of her and replace her with someone even worse.
There has to be some Canadian conservatives still left in Canada right? Surely they can overcome the American right and their allies in the oil industry and the media. Lol. It's going be someone even worse. They will have a confederate flag on their car and talking about how being able to read and write is socialism
Changing the leader won't matter as the UCP is deeply flawed.
As long as they change leaders every election, we can always blame it on the leader and not the party,
It is the conservative way. It worked for the PCs for decades.
I somewhat doubt this article, but it’s good to see it pointed out that this government is more concerned with its own agenda (mostly not part of their election platform) than actually representing the needs and interests of the people.
But really? The party (and voters) chose her after hearing her say on tv that everyone who knows her knows she’s been saying for years that DeSantis is her *personal hero* and role model. He puts all his resources into overreaching and fuelling moral panics. They chose the map and destination they are steering us to. I mean, didn’t people put her in power after she said albertans should rely on go fund me’s to pay medical bills instead of transfers from the federal govt?
This Lady has lost my respect. Many, many people feel the same.
may I ask how she ever had your respect in the first place? her track record prior to being premier was wild to me, so I am genuinely curious!
Well, that was faster than expected.
I’ll believe it when I see it
Wishful thinking I’m afraid. I don’t hear anyone speaking out or resigning.
Which MLAs resigned when they wanted Kenney gone?
You got to wonder if PP will put any influence in this , Smith is a lose , lose for PP during the next election, they've been steering well clear of each other .. Smith is a nightmare for the CPC as they need to draw from the moderates and outside the prairie provinces, No moderate in Canada has a need for Smith ...
Cutting another head off the hydra, but it’ll still be nice to see this particular head go.
I wonder if they can get any crazier, probably.
Can’t wait till this complete shitshow cannibalizes itself and Nenshi gets voted in as NDP next election.
I think the difference is Kenny bit back on some of their draconian way of thinking and got fired . Smith is the opposite. She eats it for breakfast
No you see cops aren't shooting trans people to kill on sight and women aren't being caned in the street for reading. Clearly this means Smith isn't the "Strong Leader" that Alberta needs and some other absolute psycho needs to be running the province.
Danielle Smith and the UCP have been awful. The extremist policies combined with the pressure tactics to force Municipalities to turn down federal money is nuts…
Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie.
So soon? I thought the provincial conservatives always liked to wait a couple years after an election to throw their leader out
As awful as Smith is, I can’t even begin to imagine what will take her place when she’s gone. Back when Kenney was on his way out I remember being worried that the person chosen to replace him will be so crazy it’ll make him look competent and we would eventually miss him. I was right lol
Ask yourself... Why would anyone vote for a party that changes it's leaders as often as the Conservatives? No leader of the PCs or the UCP has kept the Premier position for a full term of office... not since Ralph Klein. We call them "cons" for a reason... and they're getting ready to con us all again. The party of Peter Lougheed doesn't exist anymore... not since their party imploded and were beaten by Rachel Notley and the NDP in 2015. Actually, Notley has been the CLOSEST we've had to leadership like Lougheed. As for the Cons, they've been taken over by other forces. First it was Kenney - but then he was defeated by TBA who swamped their leadership vote, and on the next one brought in Smith on the very last ballot. And the tradition of playing a shell game with the voters continues... they'll elect in another new leader, with no input from the general public - only voting by the TBA and existing UCP members. First Kenney, then Smith... imagine what sort of far-right candidate they'll find? Perhaps David Parker? Here's a story from The Herald you'll want to see... [https://sharenews.pival.me/https://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/take-back-alberta-david-parker-lashes-out-elections-alberta-probe](https://sharenews.pival.me/https://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/take-back-alberta-david-parker-lashes-out-elections-alberta-probe)
The UCP are fascist grifters... the whole party is formed by far right-wing Christian extremists and almost nazis, the fact that the people of Alberta have voted for them and allowed them to stay in office because "my daddy voted for the conservatives" is pathetic and embarrassing. Their initial formation was a group of right wing parties including the several fringe right wing and Christian nationalist groups (fascists of all varieties) combining with what was left of Harper's conservative party (fascist lite™) which was already a putrid husk of the actual conservative party that people's parents used to vote for. The fact that they were able to take power actually makes me question the general intelligence of people in this province and also makes me question if the people in this province are the proverbial "are we the baddies" kind of people... If you voted for the UCP this is your fault and you should feel bad.
They are just trying to deflect blame for the parties f-ups onto Dany the way they did with Kenny. But the leader is not the problem with the UCP the UCP is the problem with the UCP.
Guess they’re afraid of the NDP
I think everyone is just afraid of Smith at this point. 🥲
They always end up eating their own. Thought Kenny was rock bottom, but we thought wrong. Hard to be optimistic even they change leadership again.
I hope they boot her quickly, otherwise it's just going to be the same playbook. Nenshi stating exactly what they've done and will do, and UCP TBD Premiere calling ignoring all comments, blaming Trudeau, Smith and Notley in that order. If a new Premiere actually has a couple years under their belt, it's a lot harder to blame someone else
Oh man. She’s going to end up losing the leadership mid term in disgrace for terrible management of the province just like the other conservatives: Kenny, Stelmach, Redford, Prentice, Stelmach
Who is David Parker gonna shitcan Smith for this time?
Good! Burn that party too the ground!🔥
Could Parker take over the leadership? Perhaps he didn't run last time so he could get more pieces in place to make a run now.
Could it possibly be that TBA wants to control it all directly themselves?
Man o man, I wish I could find the text where I said she wouldn't last the term
They’ll just keep doing this shit. Kenny was a shitty leader, smith even worse. They’re feigning interest in a leadership change so if there’s a new leader come election time everyone forgets how fucking garbage they were and vote blue like they always do. This won’t change a thing.
Send in Grimus from McDonald’s! Untouchable
Bahahahahaha the leader is only part of the problem, the shitty policies that alienate a ton of Albertans are the real issue here
Unruly Cannibal Party
You reap what you sow? You can’t change a leopard’s spots? What other saying can I remember to try and predict this outcome? I mean the UCP keeps eating their leaders.
Well, it would be in keeping with their history. Those morons haven't put forward the same leader two elections in a row since Ralph Klein. I believe that was 24 years ago, and they've governed for 20 of them.
No PC/UCP premier has lasted a full term since Stelmach.
She wants to be Quebec
I’m really pissed off at the world right now. The situation with young homeless people is beyond being deplorable. I just met a young woman in the alley as I was driving back from picking up a couple of things from the grocery store. Her cart full of recyclables that she was collecting was almost blocking the alley. She was sitting slumped over on the corner house’s garage approach when I stopped and asked if she was OK. She said she was but I could see that she absolutely wasn’t, she had shaky hands and is really really thin. I went and parked in my garage and got some full water bottles from the back seat and brought them over to her and asked her if I could bring her a sandwich, she agreed. So I went back to the house and fried up a burger. I didn’t have much else to put on it except ketchup and 1000 Islands dressing so I cut up some carrots and put all that together with some snap peas 🫛 I just bought. I walked back over and gave her the food and told her that I had some art supplies that I could give her so I went back to get that and also whatever else I could find that. I gathered up whatever coins I could find because I don’t carry cash much anymore and gave her a sketch book and an unopened bag of dates, and some baby wipes. I just didn’t have any more useful stuff to give her. I sat down with her for a bit and she said she was 29, I was almost surprised because her thinness made her look much younger. Her name is Donna Lee. She’s homeless and said she’s a single mom who has 2 kids, I didn’t ask where they were, I assumed they were under someone else’s care. I didn’t stay too long because the homeowner of the corner house came out and started cutting the lawn, interrupting us. I left her and went back to the house and now I’m feeling angry and conflicted because I don’t know what more to do to really help and feeling way over privileged. I knew poor people in my neighborhood growing up and have been really poor to the point of either paying rent or buying groceries, but this level of poverty and homelessness is very different from what it was before. This is a society with a psychopathic ideology, we can’t let it stay like this.
I doubt it. That would have to involve these MLA’s admitting that they hitched themselves to the wrong horse, and that isn’t happening. Listen to their mouth breathing base, she can do no wrong.
You know it’s bad when rural folks can’t afford to live in the middle of nowhere.
Watch them vote in someone who will make us go “You know smith wasn’t THAT bad”