Did Danielle Smith’s separatist Alberta Next dog-and-pony show just go off the rails in Edmonton?
Sure sounded like it on the small screen. Apparently Edmonton isn’t Red Deer!
Despite the presence of members of the United Conservative Party’s MAGA base primed to cheer and boo in all the right places, it sure sounded as if Premier Danielle Smith’s separatist Alberta Next dog-and-pony show in Edmonton last night had gone off the rails.
In spite of moderator Bruce McAllister cutting off the mic when members of the public ignored the “town hall’s” carefully curated Alberta-Good-Canada-Bad agenda to say what they thought about what’s bugging them – for example, COVID vaccine rationing – the impression on the small screen sure wasn’t of a separatist love fest.
You’d almost think a lot of folks in Alberta’s capital don’t really want to wake up tomorrow living in a brand new Wild Rose petro-paradise policed by Ms. Smith’s answer to Donald Trump’s masked and brown-shirted ICEmen.
There were just too many folks shouting stuff like, “I’m a Canadian first!”
“I’ve been to Cuba and Vietnam,” said a member of the public, “and this propaganda puts their propaganda to shame!” (After that one, by the way, nobody shouted back, “Viva Danielle por siempre!” Not even the Alberta Prosperity Project types salted through the room.)
Maybe you can make it sound as if Albertans would love to give up their Canada Pension Plan for a Bitcoin-based petro-pension in Red Deer. Not in Edmonton, it would seem.
Asked early in the event if she would sign the Canada Forever referendum petition, Ms. Smith rambled for a while, but never answered the question.
Watching Mr. McAllister trying to get the rowdier elements if the crowd to siddown and shaddup, or Premier Smith trying to explain why charging Albertans for COVID-19 vaccines is a good idea and entirely the federal government’s fault, one could almost smell the flop sweat seeping through the screen.
Leastways, cries of “Knock it off!” and “Don’t be a jerk!” from the moderator don’t exactly give the impression that resistance is futile.
“The more barriers you put between people and their doctor, the more people will die,” said an emotional cancer survivor, to audience cheers. “My question for this administration is this: Why do you believe that you know better than every health care expert in this province and this country? Why do you think we should have to fight tooth and nail for our right to health care?”
That was the moment, if you ask me, that the Alberta Next locomotive left the track.
“I don’t want people yelling about health care and saying I’m not answering,” said the premier, shouting herself and ignoring her moderator’s effort to get the meeting back on the rails.
“When I got elected as leader in February of 2023 I signed an agreement with the federal government for a long-term, 10-year funding agreement, which committed to the principles of the Canada Health Act, which says no one can pay out of pocket for medically necessary care, which means doctor’s visits and surgical visits,” the premier continued in that carefully enunciated, shouty voice she uses when she’s really angry. It’s a tell.
“So we have a 10-year agreement, that is ironclad, with the federal government. That’s what I signed on to. That’s what we have committed to.”
You can’t hear it on the YouTube video recording, but just about then someone must’ve shouted about the UCP’s dangerous pay-if-we’ll-let-you COVID-19 vaccine rationing policy.
“The COVID shots were de-listed,” the premier retorted. “They were de-funded by the federal government! They were de-funded by the federal government. The federal government was paying for them for the last three years then they defunded them. And that’s why we have to make a choice about how to best provide those services to those who need them the most, without wasting $234-million, which is the amount of COVID shots so we’ve thrown away over the past three years. …”
Crowd: Disorder, inaudible shouting.
Premier Smith: “It’s not! It’s not bullshit!”
Crowd: More shouting.
Premier Smith: “It’s true!”
Crowd: Shouting.
Premier Smith: “It’s absolutely true!”
Crowd: Shouting.
Premier Smith: “We have made RSV shots available to those who need them. Others have to pay out of pocket $300. Shingles shots are paid out of pocket. Yellow Fever shots are paid out of pocket. There are lots of different types of vaccines that are paid for out of pocket. We’ve got the right balance! Now that we have to pay for it. Because the federal government defunded it. Contact the federal government! If they wanted to continue funding it, then they wouldn’t have saddled us with an additional $134 million. So that’s, that’s one of the things that we’re adjusting to. And I will also say 87 per cent of Albertans chose not to get the COVID shot last year!”
Crowd: Mixed boos and cheers.
That’s enough of that nonsense. You can watch last night’s gong show for yourselves if you’ve got the patience. Just remember, as the premier didn’t: If you’re explaining, you’re losing.
UCP EV endorsement proves short-lived
Sounds like Premier Smith has reconsidered her apparent call on Ottawa Tuesday to end those tariffs on Chinese-built electric vehicles if that’s what it takes to resume canola shipments to China.
Whoops! Must’ve upset somebody in the UCP’s influential MAGA pickup truck crowd. Or maybe Pierre Poilievre. Remember: ICE also stands for Internal Combustion Engine!
At any rate, yesterday, so-called Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz got crackin’ and published a statement saying Alberta wasn’t going to accept no stinkin’ federal EV mandate.
“The federal government must face the inevitable and abandon the unrealistic, ineffective and unwanted EV mandate before it kicks in next year,” yadda-yadda, Ms. Schulz proclaimed.
Ottawa needs to listen to Albertans, she concluded. Even when they’re saying contradictory things at the same time.
HSAA and AHS reach tentative agreement
Meanwhile, also yesterday, “Alberta Health Services and the Health Sciences Association of Alberta have reached a negotiated settlement for a new collective agreement,” said Finance Minister Nate Horner in a statement of his own. “The partnership between the two parties is a testament to the importance of these health care professionals and the services they provide to Albertans, and our health system,” he enthused. Readers are advised, however, to wait to see if the health care union’s members vote to ratify the tentative agreement.
Judge OKs court review of separation question
No one should be surprised that Mr. Justice Colin Feasby of the Alberta Court of King’s Bench has said he will permit the province’s Chief Electoral Officer to get the court to rule on whether a separatist group’s referendum question violates the constitution.
Despite the UCP’s opposition to the judicial review going ahead, it was pretty obvious from the wording of the government’s own “citizen initiative” legislation that Gordon McClure was on solid ground. Here is respected arbitrator Andrew Sims’ commentary on the decision.
The CBC reported that Justice Feasby said the next hearing will be on Nov. 15, with a ruling expected before the end of 2025.
It's following her Orange Heroes moves, keep adding new acts and changing the dial so no one focus on all the real scandal and corruption as she awards her cronies!
There’s a reason why so few Albertans got their vaccines last year. Making public healthcare a federal issue is ridiculously short-sighted. If nothing else, she should see that employers lose $$ when staff are ill.