Alberta

Alberta

 

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, four days after announcing she won’t answer questions on her ethics investigation, says she will limit questions on all other topics.

Smith told reporters in Calgary Friday that she will only allow reporters to ask a single question at news conferences and not allow them the traditional followup query.

 

Asked why, she replied, “It’s an election, that’s why.

-       Alberta Premier Smith, with election looming, announces new limits on media questions, Global News

 

Pawlowski’s charges from the January 2022 Coutts blockade include mischief for inciting people to block public property at the border crossing. He was also charged under the Alberta Critical Infrastructure Defence Act with wilfully damaging or destroying essential infrastructure.

The admission that Smith was unaware of her inability to grant amnesty as Premier was also a red flag for the U of A political scientist.

“I think the fact that the Premier discloses her ignorance about how the Constitution works suggests that she wasn’t really well-prepared to run for Premier when she did.”

In the phone conversation with Pawlowski, Smith admitted that she couldn’t put undue pressure on the justice ministry and Crown prosecutors for fear of repeating the same mistake Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made with Jody Wilson-Raybould.

-    Alberta’s Premier says she asked about COVID-19 charges ‘almost weekly’, Global News

 

By Gregg Wall (April 15, 2023)

If you live long enough, you get to see it all. 

It’s why I pray for long life… I want to see it all.  And if you want proof there is a Goddess above, come visit me.  I should have been dead nine lives ago.  

My latest observation is the oligarchy is global, and like the eternal sea, the oligarchy’s politics is global.  My latest wisdom is the tricks being played upon Americans are the same tricks being played upon French citizens, by one very nasty banker.  And to drive that point further, examine Canadian Texas, Alberta.  Where a libertarian Premier, who was never elected, appears to be imploding and sliding off the rails right before our very eyes (due to corruption & stupid libertarian tricks). 

If history rhymes, then global politics, inexplicably & presently, often operates off the same playbook.  Just as Macron threatens the retirement age in France, the Republicans in the U.S. threaten Social Security; and just as a Texas governor suggests he’s about to free a convicted murderer, a White Supremacist, the Alberta Premier has been caught on tape, working with a right-wing extremist, to intervene against an independent judiciary and provide amnesty. 

The fun in Alberta doesn’t stop there, however.  Because Premier Smith and her predecessor, Jason Kenney, have done about everything imaginable to tear down Medicare for All, and replace it with, get this, American style – for-profit – health care.  I know, insane right?  Except there’s method to the madness, it’s the privatization scheme we see throughout the West. Where wealthy donors hook up with the government and privatize any and all services provided.  There’s just one problem, the alleged savings from privatization never materialize (the only thing that does materialize from privatization is diminished customer service, the gutting of labor, obscene profits for a privileged few, and the grossly overworked employees that get to keep their jobs for paltry wages). 

But wait, there’s more.  Just as public services are often looted and robbed to pay for tax cuts & welfare for the rich, Alberta’s Premier has decided that Big Oil & Gas should receive $20 billion in subsidies for oil & gas well cleanup & remediation.  Of course, these same companies… no few in number are swimming in profits, from manipulated oil & gas markets… are already on the hook for cleanup.  Talk about entitlement.  This industry receives every benefit imaginable, including, but not limited to, billions thrown at them by the Federal government.  Canadians, on the other hand, have to put up with price gouging at the pumps, paying presently 37% more, nationally, versus the price per liter on the eve of the pandemic, January 2020. 

But wait because the tricks don’t end there.  For the ultimate kick in the ribs, we have to visit the Alberta scheme where utility bills were cut back, but it was only a mirage.  That’s right, the unpaid portion of utility bills isn’t cancelled, but will eventually come due.  It’s sort of a layaway plan for heating and lighting.  Except there’s no package to look forward to, only a nasty bill.  Some Albertans, as reported by City News, have been slammed with $800 and $1500 utility bills.  And what did the conservatives do, they trotted out rebate checks covering a fraction of the bills due.  This all comes at a time when Albertans, indeed Canadians, are being crushed by food monopolies and higher fuel bills (which is particularly galling when we consider that Alberta is the oil & gas Mecca of Canada).  Meanwhile, utilities are scoring record profits.  And if you count on conservatives for anything, they won’t intervene or put a stop to corporate, monopoly, and utility donors gouging Alberta consumers.  Nor put a stop to these same entities’ hold on labor’s throat.

I could go on and on…. with the wheels falling off the Alberta Conservative party (UCP), the Premier has decided to shut down, or significantly limit, Q&A at press conferences for fear of compounding the party’s slide into the abyss?  Because she’s considering lawsuits and legal action, for defamation.  French President Macron hightailed it out of France, as the riots erupted; Premier Smith shuts down the press and press scrutiny, citing its election season.  Different moves, but pretty much the same result: a grotesquely indifferent and out of touch neoliberal leadership.  And is it any different in the United States, where the corporately owned MSM gives the two repugnant parties a pass; where the U.S. MSM allows endless culture wars, instead of insisting upon substantive debate & discussion on domestic and foreign policies, skyrocketing national debt, another banker bailout, and America’s oligarchy problem? 

The parallels and similarities, throughout the West, are alarming.

 

 

Fortunately, Alberta doesn’t do center-left politics, and the quintessential American choice of the lesser of two great, neoliberal evils.  But thankfully, we have a truly progressive party called the New Democratic Party (NDP). 

And the NDP, to date, has run an outstanding campaign on bread-and-butter issues that are hitting home, after Albertans have been run through the wringer by conservatives, libertarianism, monopolies, and utilities.   

The NDP has been hitting it out of the park (or driving the puck past the goalie?) by promising to preserve Medicare for All, negotiate with doctors & nurses to retain them, committing to tackle the cost of higher education, and promising to diversify & revive the economy.   Under Rachel Notley, the NDP comes off as a professional, well oiled machine.  Compared to Premier’s Smith’s litany of self-inflicted errors and crony government, the NDP seems like a breath of fresh air. 

Poor Premier Smith appears afraid to talk, her views are so antithetical to what most Albertans believe; Poor Premier Smith has increasingly found herself pivoting to NDP positions, particularly on health care.

Seems that most Albertans are not ready for a fling with bankrupting, American medical care, but notice the Premier hasn’t disavowed or disowned, from what I’ve read, privatized medical care.

At the end of the day, perhaps the biggest change a NDP government would bring is a return to greater ethics and transparency.  After UCP’s cronyism, libertarianism, opaque nature, radical right direction, and a brand new code of silence (or omerta?) … a step in the correct direction. 

Could Western governments, especially the United States, use a New Democratic Party?  Are we done with a failed libertarianism and global oligarchy that merely transfers wages and wealth to themselves?

Absolutely.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2023