Advantage? No, the Alberta Disadvantage

Advantage?  No, the Alberta Disadvantage

The latest annual survey suggests that food bank use in Alberta over the past five years the province has seen one of the highest increases in food bank use in Canada, up by 92.4 per cent.

 

Only Ontario (116. 8 per cent) and Quebec (109 per cent) have seen bigger increases.

 

-             Alberta food bank demand nearly doubles over past 5 years: report (Global News)

 

Gregg Wall (2-1-25)

 

When I first moved to Alberta one of the big draws as a retiree was the “Alberta Advantage” … writ large: the Alberta Advantage translates as a low personal tax regime, low cost of living, affordable housing, versus other Canadian provinces.  But over the course of the last five years, under a far-right United Conservative Party (UCP) government, I’ve personally watched many of these so-called advantages slip away.  Some would argue UCP leader and Alberta Premier, Danielle Smith (and her predecessor, Jason Kenney), took a chainsaw… Milei style… to those Alberta advantages.  To say that UCP through epic and often times, seemingly, deliberate mismanagement & sabotage has badly destroyed the advantage, so that it has become a disadvantage, is an understatement.  Alberta’s present government is exactly what happens when an oil lobbyist meets a Trumpian lunatic fringe, who appear most content when fed a steady diet of culture wars, hate, oil patch supremacy, Ottawa is evil, and Trudeau is Satan.  This group, the UCP party faithful, never seems to mind that they are being royally ripped off by the crime scene in Edmonton, UCP government corruption, and a dereg/neoliberal economy gone bad.

 

In short, the so-called advantage has become a huge disadvantage for the vast majority of the province (w/ huge advantages maintained for the wealthy, privileged, and powerful).  When we factor in the private sector tax of obscene profit taking, outrageous rents, corporate greed, monopoly price gouging, the complete lack of regulation on greed & monopoly, all combined with one of the lowest minimum wages in the nation… the advantages of a lower tax regime are cancelled out by the disadvantages of an untrammeled private sector.

 

Before we enumerate the disadvantages of Dani Smith’s government, it’s important to give a little more insight into an oil lobbyist’s thinking.  First off, Dani has the demeanor of a tyrant and imperiousness of a dictator.  Ms. Smith and clearly her oil & gas masters are so frightened of a future w/out oil & gas that they pushed a sovereignty agenda in the last provincial election (sovereignty being shorthand for succession from Canada).  Within the 2023 campaign sovereignty push, Premier Smith proposed American style privatized healthcare, interference in public education, a brand-new Alberta police force to replace the RCMP, she even pitched a localized Alberta retirement fund (the equivalent to a Texas Social Security plan, pulled out of the U.S. federal gov).  These extremist positions were so deeply unpopular with the voters they nearly cost Dani and UCP the election.  So, Dani ditched them … only to bring them back, once safely elected and returned to office.  So, this is who Premier Smith is: duplicitous, perfectly capable of throwing the voters under the bus, contemptuous of essential citizens and families, a fierce fighter of culture wars and “owning the Libs,” and seemingly, genetically & mentally incapable of running an effective economy and government for Alberta.  Dani even reneged on the sweetener used to get UCP elected, a tax cut pledge for citizens facing an affordability crisis… what kind of conservative does that at a time the province should be flush with oil royalties?  Ultimately, in the pecking order, UCP serves themselves first, big oil & gas second, multinationals third, and any rhetorical point or reorg that will keep UCP’s far-right base in line (no matter how insane or detrimental to the country and province, as long as there’s no expenditure of taxpayer money involved).  The other thing you should know is her approval rating at 45% and is one of the lowest in Canada among premiers. 

 

My American readers may know Dani from showing up on right-wing news networks, like Fox, in order to kowtow to Trump, in light of threatened tariffs & sanction… in open defiance of the united front presented by every other premier in Canada and the federal government.  So, w/out further ado, here’s what Alberta has devolved into & suffered under Premiers Kenney and Smith: 

 

UCP isn’t content with the standard graft and corruption in government, the legislature recently pitched loosening ethics and conflict rules (i.e. legalized bribery and political fraud). 

 

No bar is too low for UCP: Tossing red, bloody meat to her base, Dani and Team Fascism went on the war path against trans kids, a la Trump.

 

King Coal is back… after running off the future, tens of billions in renewables investments and tens of thousands of renewables jobs with delays, moratoriums, studies, & red tape… Queen Dani reached back centuries to make coal and strip mining great again.  So much for Dani’s pretense about being a libertarian. 

 

Family farmers & ranchers are concerned about coal mining, clean water, poison, and the damage mining could do to their farms, herds, and land.  But that’s okay, because middlemen, soaring costs, and utilities already put the squeeze on many of these farmers & ranchers with greater input costs, resulting in shrinking herd sizes, and wholesale prices that are higher but haven’t kept up with expense.   So, the little guy isn’t likely to be around much longer anyway.  Which apparently is just fine with Big Ag and UCP. 

 

Food banks… I’ve never seen so much news about food banks.  Yes, food bank foot traffic has nearly doubled in the course of five - UCP - years.  One in four Canadians live in poverty and the Alberta material deprivation rate is higher than Canada and neighboring BC’ rates.  Sweet.  How’s that far-right government working out for you, Alberta?  Meanwhile, the rich are getting richer.

 

Despite Canadian Oil & Gas making up only 3.2% of national GDP, and despite Alberta & Canada burning for five consecutive summers … more recently, see the town of Jasper (I believe some of these folks may still be living in tents in January, as Dani does Florida on a taxpayer funded holiday?) … you wouldn’t know it from UCP’s constant rhetoric extolling the virtues of Oil & Gas.  Oil & Gas/Fossil fuels, of course, is a deadly fuel source that: murders one in five; gobbles up $7 trillion in subsidies per annum; corrupts entire governments around the globe, including propping up dictatorships; and is responsible for endless conflict, murder, and wars in the Middle East.  But somehow, that all gets excluded from UCP rhetoric and the local news & weather report.

 

Healthcare crisis… Premier Dani has that covered.  In the land of universal care, Dani has managed to sabotage and destroy this public service, by: endlessly haggling with doctors and administration; doing several reorgs & administrative shuffles; shutting down medical facilities, due to a lack of staff; and of course, the ubiquitous privatization schemes.  UCP was even running off medical staff during the pandemic… when doctors and nurses were killing themselves for an aging public.  No, you can’t make this up.  Dani and UCP seem to conveniently forget that the taxpayer pays for these health services (even as she promotes and pushes the abortion that is American privatized healthcare).  Instead, UCP and Dani’s wealthy donors treat government & tax revenue as their personal piggy bank.  And the wait list for surgeries and the deaths waiting for surgeries, grow and grow.  Sounds a great deal like the chronic NHS mismanagement in the UK: grossly underfund public services and transfer taxpayer wealth to the elite.  

 

Children’s Tylenol scandal, during the pandemic … yes, UCP has that covered to the tune of $80 million.  It’s another incident where UCP sought to own the Ottawa Libs, failed miserably, and further mired UCP in corruption, kickbacks, & free hockey tickets.  Increasingly, standard operating procedure?

 

Dani's recent stay in Florida… where she shmoozed with The Donald and GOP potentates, America’s high & mighty, in the hopes of getting a special deal for Alberta crude (as Trump tears up his own trade deal with Canada/Mexico & threatens tariffs).  Canada is not the source of America’s catastrophic trade deficit (nor is Canada the source of America’s Fentanyl or Immigration problems); but rather, every administration from Reagan forward beat the tambourine and sang the gospel for Free Trade.  Now, the Trumpster is attacking Canada, China, and Mexico… w/ a Tariff Tax to be borne by U.S. citizens… and Dani?  Well, she betrayed Canada, openly defied the Federal gov and every other Premier in Canada, and her appeasement campaign, Neville Chamberlain style, as of this morning, predictably FAILED.  The Don, against the counsel of most economists, is rolling out the tariffs anyway.   If Dani can’t run Alberta, what business does she have conducting Canadian foreign policy?

 

Massive overcharging on utility bills running into the billions, some of the highest rent increases in Canada, soaring basic needs & food prices making food a luxury item… you’ll find it all here, along with the United Conservative Party’s “market-based solutions.”  Someone forgot to tell Dani and Team Greed there are no market-based solutions when markets have been eliminated by the lack of competition, financial engineering, M&A, private equity, BOC easy money policies, and a failure to regulate greed, monopolies, and parasitic C-suites.  Monopolists and shareholder value never seem to worry about the drag effect obscene price gouging and greed takes out of an economy.  How rapacious behavior kills opportunity, mom & pop businesses, and entrepreneurship.  Alas, Dani doesn’t appear the least bit concerned.

Out-of-control insurance premiums… welcome to Alberta, where a relatively low tax regime is met with a private sector hand in your purse or wallet around every street corner.  

 

And of course, I could go on.   

 

 

 

 

Despite all these disadvantages, Premier Smith says the magic words “Ottawa” and “Trudeau” and her hardcore political base of support dutifully rallies, seemingly oblivious to the fact that so many Albertans are becoming poorer by the minute.  Interestingly, what are these folks going to do when Trudeau is gone… so many of them have their identities wrapped up in hating Trudeau, suspending critical thinking, denying the reality that surrounds them, as Dani and UCP crush and ruin the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of Alberta citizens (including, yes, her rural base of support).  This is a pool of voters that seemingly has selective amnesia… Dani can do no evil, while the Liberal government is entirely malign (despite the reality that Trudeau and Libs are extremely pro- O&G). 

 

And yet, there’s no escaping the inevitable conclusion.  On every single level imaginable… economically, morally, politically… Premier Smith has failed the great people of Alberta.  Nobody deserves this level of failure, greed, incompetence, nor Dani’s defiant sneer and stand your ground attitude.  One wouldn’t wish Dani on Canada’s worst enemies, not even the Trump administration.  Odd, that no one thought to make her an offer, on the American side, after she spent weeks sucking up to GOP party grandees in Florida and the States.

 

At the end of the day, Dani appears to have picked up Trump’s playbook of Chaos Rule, running the economy and government into the ground, and gaslighting and lying to the public that something is being done, when what is being done is only making matters worse.  And so far, it’s worked for UCP, but Alberta is hurting, its citizens are hurting.  The so-called advantage is long gone.  The only question that remains is how much longer will Alberta put up with the chaos, incompetence, and failure that is UCP rule? 

 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2025