Yesterday, I was on the radio chatting about the year that was and the year that’s coming, and the host asked me what was on my Christmas wish-list for Alberta politics.
This year in Alberta was definitely a disaster, under Danielle Smith and the UCP. It's a continuation of where they were before. They made Albertans foot the bill for a shiny new hockey arena for Calgary, so they could get votes in that city. $1.2 billion is flushed down the drain. $80 million squandered on Tylenot. Nationalizing Dynalife, at an unknown cost. Preston Manning was gifted $253,000, and a $2 million expense account, to make a Covid-19 report that is very out of touch with reality. The most expensive power rates in Canada, thanks to economic witholding. More tax cuts, that will deplete the province of much needed revenue, in the onset of collapsing oil prices. Carbon capture and storage is being pursued, despite Danielle Smith being in staunch opposition to it before. Rewarding has been Conservative politicians to redo AHS. Promoting the risky APP, that was left off of the provincial election campaign on purpose. A fruitless trip to Dubai. More coal companies are suing the provincial government for close to $11 billion, because of backtracking on contract agreements with them. Eroding democracy with Bill 8. Breaking ethics rules. Bullying municipal politicians. Inadequate response to Covid-19. Making poverty in Alberta grow. Letting the environment suffer. More senseless fights with the federal government, to detract from the UCP's numerous failures. This is quite the naughty list for the UCP. One Christmas wish that I'd like is that the UCP are gone from power. People didn't realize how much better the NDP were.
RStar is another blunder from the UCP. $20 billion is being squandered on it. The gas tax break is way beyond $1 billion. Inadequate Legislature sittings. Lie after lie, with Danielle Smith. Fighting with the federal government, instead of working with them. Cutting red tape, which led to the second largest E-Coli outbreak in Canada's history, making so many children suffer. There are so many things that make the naughty list for the UCP. I just hope this is the last time the UCP are in power. We definitely were better off with Rachel Notley.
Are we surprised, not at all. This government lead by Smith has governed by deceit even before they were elected. We were shocked by the weekly proclamations requiring walk backs before the election. The difference now is the govt stands behind everything she utters. They are still planning to legislate everything that most Albertans didn't want, and refused to campaign on. Only to claim they were given the mandate to go ahead when elected. I doubt Smith sees Albertans' as her priority, more like an obsessive obstacle who are feeling their security evaporating like methane from abandoned wells.
Thank you for this newsletter which is exactly as I am feeling. In 2024 we need to really start protesting this gov’t and its draconian policies. I feel that across Alberta and especially in Edmonton we must come out every week like we did back in the Klein Bill 11 days. We helped to make him blink. We must do it again with Premier Smith.
Here's my take on what will happen. Danielle Smith's healthcare meddling, and the APP will make Pierre Poilievre and the CPC end up in defeat. The UCP will dump Danielle Smith like a cold potato. Ralph Klein was talking about some 3rd Way healthcare reform, and this included private for profit healthcare being considered. Coincidentally, a federal election was on the way. The CPC got defeated. Ralph Klein got punted from his leadership of the Alberta PCs, with a 55% approval rating from the party members. Sticking your foot in your mouth can't pay off. Danielle Smith will learn the hard way, once again. It's doubtful that she will finish a full term as premier.
Another excellent article Lisa. This wish really makes one hope Santa is real. But Danielle Smith's stocking is hung in the Legislature with care, hoping her new legislation will grift her and her party this year ... and every year after. The health of their bank account is all matters. A lobbyist knows their master - and its not the people of AB.
I too wish for a functional health care system, and am grateful I no longer have to work in it.
A second wish would be a big lump of coal in Danielle Smith's and Adriana La grange's stockings this Christmas. Except the UCP likes coal, so maybe it wouldn't be seen as a bad thing.
This is my statement...WTF....and is there anything that can be done legally and yes they are attempting to kill citizens . Are we a third world country .
I agree. The premiere flies too much by the seat of her jeans!
I have interacted with AHS 811 for 2 potentially serious issues. In October they referred to ER at Foothills. Last week they said, "Do not go to emergency. We will get you a Zoom call with a family doc" The visit to ER took cum 4.5 hrs. The Zoom with the Dr. took cum 1.5 hrs. SO I think 811 is working so Danielle please DO NOT Eff with it! PLEASE
Okay, everyone on this blog, especially its owner, take note of this “anonymous”. He is obviously a disruption agent. He is implying things I did not say and clearly do not support. He or she is very likely being paid by precisely these “phony conservatives” he talks about.
I quote; “As with anywhere else in Canada, they need to forget about NDP as a vehicle for change. They need to form a new political party committed to popular socialism and to actually gaining power. They also need to grow the backbone to be able to protect each other, which is especially important in Alberta.”
So what is so striking to me in this post is the "public" part of the health message - almost as if some of the things we associate with individualized care also depend on communitarian actions, like vaccinations. If only there were some Canadian tradition of community-oriented spirit within the public sphere - but I am reliably told that Red Tories are dead, and Agrarian Socialists disappeared with the Crow Rate. Tant pis.
Hello,Lisa Young. I also do a substack blog. I am not trying to maker money out of it. I just like having it. One advantage of it is that when I want to comment on something, I do not have to keep rewriting stuff I have already written. https://adultsincharge.blog/2023/12/17/the-alberta-syndrome/
I grew up in Alberta. I escaped, but I still have relatives there, visit occasionally, and follow the politics. I say that a big part of the problem with Alberta is there is never an effective opposition to the crypto nazi weirdos who have ruined the province for nearly a century. I do not understand this attachment to the useless NDP.
Tim Rourke: How are the NDP useless? Rachel Notley was the closest thing we had to Peter Lougheed. Phony Conservatives and Reformers in Alberta were the ones who ripped us off of our oil and tax wealth, losing us hundreds of billions of dollars, did very pricey shenanigans, that cost us a lot of money, destroyed jobs, left a massive infrastructure debt, that is around $40 billion, left a big mess of the public healthcare and public education systems, with senseless cuts, drove utility prices sky high, with deregulation and economic witholding, made poverty levels soar, and desecrated the environment. Peter Lougheed was not impressed with these phony Conservatives and Reformers. The, right, sensible, and truthful thing to do is to not blame Rachel Notley and the NDP for the horrible mess that these phony Conservatives have done in Alberta. Doing the opposite is living a lie, and Alberta isn't benefiting from the damage that these phony Conservatives and Reformers are doing.
Notley NDP is useless because, um, it is of no use. Lougheed was no use either. If he was 'not impressed' by reformer types, why did he not dismantle their system during the 15 years he was in office? In many ways, he strengthened it.
Tim Rourke: Reformers weren't in power in Alberta, when Peter Lougheed was premier. He did eliminate the Reformers, who were the Social Credit Party. Phony Conservatives and Reformers were in power in Alberta, when Peter Lougheed had ceased being in power, and they did so much damage. Rachel Notley has even been compared to Peter Lougheed, by former MLAs who were in his cabinet. When someone is calling Rachel Notley and the NDP useless, they are justifying the corruption that the UCP are doing. The UCP are phony Conservatives and Reformers, who have done major screw-ups that have cost us a lot of money, and harmed many people. Peter Lougheed warned us against these types. We were much better off with Rachel Notley and the NDP.
I was living in Alberta when Lougheed was in office. I know what things were like for the old, poor, and sick. I became chronically ill in that time. I had huge trouble accessing health care and social assistance. Uncle Peter was right in there with the crypto fascists in fighting medicare and the Canada Assistance Plan. The only thing he diverged with them about was with trying to make Alberta independent.
He was a big stooge for the oil and gas biz.
You talks as though there are good and bad types of conservatives. Or that reformos are anything but conservatives who are not personally wealthy and think they should be.
As for NDP, I have had opportunities over the years to look inside their operations, in Alberta,Ontario, and federally. What they are is a Judas Goat operation, designed to draw in any socially progressive impulses and dissipate their energy, to prevent any serious change. It is controlled from within by some kind of clique who will never allow members to get any real control. They really hate it when the party wins an election in spite of itself. It messes up their plan.
Tim Rourke: Peter Lougheed didn't do that. Ralph Klein damaged the public healthcare system in Alberta, with his brutal cuts, so that he could get it privatized. As a result, people died. Peter Lougheed cabinet ministers even supported Rachel Notley, and would never support the UCP, because they know that Danielle Smith is dishonest and unethical. Reformers aren't Conservatives, and Peter Lougheed knew that. Reformers destroy jobs, they don't create them. Reformers cheat us out of our oil an tax wealth. Our core public services get destroyed by Reformers. Very pricey shenanigans happen with Reformers. They only care about themselves and their rich friends. There is nothing sensible about that. The UCP are not a Conservative government whatsoever. Peter Lougheed would never support that.
The healthcare system in Alberta has now gone through three cycles of being built up and broken down. When medicare originally developed in the 1960s, the Manning Socreds went along with it as a way keep people from demanding socialism. The screw heads always hated it. If you examine their rhetoric, their real problem is that money is being spend to keep people alive they think should die. The disabled or the elderly, no longer productive peasants.
After Manning, the screwheads got control and started attacking health care. The Lougheed bunch came in partly on a promise to protect it. The worst thing about Lougheed was that he kept allowing the MLAs to vote on policy. So when the screw heads left Socred land and infiltrated conservatives, another spell of attacking the old, sick, poor began.
When the Canada health act passed, and a real opposition developed because of the attacks on health care, the conservatives backed off on it. Then Ralpho the Bozo got in, started another attack. Again, opposition developed, including law suits. Again, the screw heads were dragged off the health system.
Stelmach reorganized the system and got it working right. The NDP did not do one useful thing for health care in four years. Since 2019 the system has been under attack again.
The worst thing is that the screw heads have learned more cunning ways of attacking health care, and screws from other provinces are picking up on it.
The worst thing about the usual NDP approach to health care is that it is all about protecting union jobs, not the rights of patents. In fact, you should be reading my piece on that, too. https://timrourke.substack.com/p/canadian-medicare-defenders
This year in Alberta was definitely a disaster, under Danielle Smith and the UCP. It's a continuation of where they were before. They made Albertans foot the bill for a shiny new hockey arena for Calgary, so they could get votes in that city. $1.2 billion is flushed down the drain. $80 million squandered on Tylenot. Nationalizing Dynalife, at an unknown cost. Preston Manning was gifted $253,000, and a $2 million expense account, to make a Covid-19 report that is very out of touch with reality. The most expensive power rates in Canada, thanks to economic witholding. More tax cuts, that will deplete the province of much needed revenue, in the onset of collapsing oil prices. Carbon capture and storage is being pursued, despite Danielle Smith being in staunch opposition to it before. Rewarding has been Conservative politicians to redo AHS. Promoting the risky APP, that was left off of the provincial election campaign on purpose. A fruitless trip to Dubai. More coal companies are suing the provincial government for close to $11 billion, because of backtracking on contract agreements with them. Eroding democracy with Bill 8. Breaking ethics rules. Bullying municipal politicians. Inadequate response to Covid-19. Making poverty in Alberta grow. Letting the environment suffer. More senseless fights with the federal government, to detract from the UCP's numerous failures. This is quite the naughty list for the UCP. One Christmas wish that I'd like is that the UCP are gone from power. People didn't realize how much better the NDP were.
Thank you for your precise accounting on what this government is about.
RStar is another blunder from the UCP. $20 billion is being squandered on it. The gas tax break is way beyond $1 billion. Inadequate Legislature sittings. Lie after lie, with Danielle Smith. Fighting with the federal government, instead of working with them. Cutting red tape, which led to the second largest E-Coli outbreak in Canada's history, making so many children suffer. There are so many things that make the naughty list for the UCP. I just hope this is the last time the UCP are in power. We definitely were better off with Rachel Notley.
Are we surprised, not at all. This government lead by Smith has governed by deceit even before they were elected. We were shocked by the weekly proclamations requiring walk backs before the election. The difference now is the govt stands behind everything she utters. They are still planning to legislate everything that most Albertans didn't want, and refused to campaign on. Only to claim they were given the mandate to go ahead when elected. I doubt Smith sees Albertans' as her priority, more like an obsessive obstacle who are feeling their security evaporating like methane from abandoned wells.
Thank you for this newsletter which is exactly as I am feeling. In 2024 we need to really start protesting this gov’t and its draconian policies. I feel that across Alberta and especially in Edmonton we must come out every week like we did back in the Klein Bill 11 days. We helped to make him blink. We must do it again with Premier Smith.
Here's my take on what will happen. Danielle Smith's healthcare meddling, and the APP will make Pierre Poilievre and the CPC end up in defeat. The UCP will dump Danielle Smith like a cold potato. Ralph Klein was talking about some 3rd Way healthcare reform, and this included private for profit healthcare being considered. Coincidentally, a federal election was on the way. The CPC got defeated. Ralph Klein got punted from his leadership of the Alberta PCs, with a 55% approval rating from the party members. Sticking your foot in your mouth can't pay off. Danielle Smith will learn the hard way, once again. It's doubtful that she will finish a full term as premier.
Dumped like a cold potato? That’s a new one.
Another excellent article Lisa. This wish really makes one hope Santa is real. But Danielle Smith's stocking is hung in the Legislature with care, hoping her new legislation will grift her and her party this year ... and every year after. The health of their bank account is all matters. A lobbyist knows their master - and its not the people of AB.
I agree. The UCP is beholden to their corporate masters and to TBA.
I too wish for a functional health care system, and am grateful I no longer have to work in it.
A second wish would be a big lump of coal in Danielle Smith's and Adriana La grange's stockings this Christmas. Except the UCP likes coal, so maybe it wouldn't be seen as a bad thing.
One more thing Lisa thank you for being our health minister . Sure would like to know tho if these ministers are vaccinated
This is my statement...WTF....and is there anything that can be done legally and yes they are attempting to kill citizens . Are we a third world country .
I agree. The premiere flies too much by the seat of her jeans!
I have interacted with AHS 811 for 2 potentially serious issues. In October they referred to ER at Foothills. Last week they said, "Do not go to emergency. We will get you a Zoom call with a family doc" The visit to ER took cum 4.5 hrs. The Zoom with the Dr. took cum 1.5 hrs. SO I think 811 is working so Danielle please DO NOT Eff with it! PLEASE
Okay, everyone on this blog, especially its owner, take note of this “anonymous”. He is obviously a disruption agent. He is implying things I did not say and clearly do not support. He or she is very likely being paid by precisely these “phony conservatives” he talks about.
Go and read my freaking post at https://adultsincharge.blog/2023/12/17/the-alberta-syndrome/
I quote; “As with anywhere else in Canada, they need to forget about NDP as a vehicle for change. They need to form a new political party committed to popular socialism and to actually gaining power. They also need to grow the backbone to be able to protect each other, which is especially important in Alberta.”
I note that life expectancy has been on the decline since approx 2012. About 2016 nationally.
Whatever they are doing in Albaturda and we in Canada is counter-productive.
Thanks for the walk in the incongruities of public health care in Ab. Be as healthy as you can & minimize use of healthcare is my takeaway.
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise
So what is so striking to me in this post is the "public" part of the health message - almost as if some of the things we associate with individualized care also depend on communitarian actions, like vaccinations. If only there were some Canadian tradition of community-oriented spirit within the public sphere - but I am reliably told that Red Tories are dead, and Agrarian Socialists disappeared with the Crow Rate. Tant pis.
Hello,Lisa Young. I also do a substack blog. I am not trying to maker money out of it. I just like having it. One advantage of it is that when I want to comment on something, I do not have to keep rewriting stuff I have already written. https://adultsincharge.blog/2023/12/17/the-alberta-syndrome/
I grew up in Alberta. I escaped, but I still have relatives there, visit occasionally, and follow the politics. I say that a big part of the problem with Alberta is there is never an effective opposition to the crypto nazi weirdos who have ruined the province for nearly a century. I do not understand this attachment to the useless NDP.
A mistake; should have linked to the substack version https://timrourke.substack.com/p/the-alberta-syndrome
Tim Rourke: How are the NDP useless? Rachel Notley was the closest thing we had to Peter Lougheed. Phony Conservatives and Reformers in Alberta were the ones who ripped us off of our oil and tax wealth, losing us hundreds of billions of dollars, did very pricey shenanigans, that cost us a lot of money, destroyed jobs, left a massive infrastructure debt, that is around $40 billion, left a big mess of the public healthcare and public education systems, with senseless cuts, drove utility prices sky high, with deregulation and economic witholding, made poverty levels soar, and desecrated the environment. Peter Lougheed was not impressed with these phony Conservatives and Reformers. The, right, sensible, and truthful thing to do is to not blame Rachel Notley and the NDP for the horrible mess that these phony Conservatives have done in Alberta. Doing the opposite is living a lie, and Alberta isn't benefiting from the damage that these phony Conservatives and Reformers are doing.
Notley NDP is useless because, um, it is of no use. Lougheed was no use either. If he was 'not impressed' by reformer types, why did he not dismantle their system during the 15 years he was in office? In many ways, he strengthened it.
Yeah, I think I’ll take a pass on your blog. But thanks. Bye.
Tim Rourke: Reformers weren't in power in Alberta, when Peter Lougheed was premier. He did eliminate the Reformers, who were the Social Credit Party. Phony Conservatives and Reformers were in power in Alberta, when Peter Lougheed had ceased being in power, and they did so much damage. Rachel Notley has even been compared to Peter Lougheed, by former MLAs who were in his cabinet. When someone is calling Rachel Notley and the NDP useless, they are justifying the corruption that the UCP are doing. The UCP are phony Conservatives and Reformers, who have done major screw-ups that have cost us a lot of money, and harmed many people. Peter Lougheed warned us against these types. We were much better off with Rachel Notley and the NDP.
I was living in Alberta when Lougheed was in office. I know what things were like for the old, poor, and sick. I became chronically ill in that time. I had huge trouble accessing health care and social assistance. Uncle Peter was right in there with the crypto fascists in fighting medicare and the Canada Assistance Plan. The only thing he diverged with them about was with trying to make Alberta independent.
He was a big stooge for the oil and gas biz.
You talks as though there are good and bad types of conservatives. Or that reformos are anything but conservatives who are not personally wealthy and think they should be.
As for NDP, I have had opportunities over the years to look inside their operations, in Alberta,Ontario, and federally. What they are is a Judas Goat operation, designed to draw in any socially progressive impulses and dissipate their energy, to prevent any serious change. It is controlled from within by some kind of clique who will never allow members to get any real control. They really hate it when the party wins an election in spite of itself. It messes up their plan.
Tim Rourke: Peter Lougheed didn't do that. Ralph Klein damaged the public healthcare system in Alberta, with his brutal cuts, so that he could get it privatized. As a result, people died. Peter Lougheed cabinet ministers even supported Rachel Notley, and would never support the UCP, because they know that Danielle Smith is dishonest and unethical. Reformers aren't Conservatives, and Peter Lougheed knew that. Reformers destroy jobs, they don't create them. Reformers cheat us out of our oil an tax wealth. Our core public services get destroyed by Reformers. Very pricey shenanigans happen with Reformers. They only care about themselves and their rich friends. There is nothing sensible about that. The UCP are not a Conservative government whatsoever. Peter Lougheed would never support that.
Why don't you read what I wrote, here? https://timrourke.substack.com/p/the-alberta-syndrome I know what went on in the eighties with Lougheed. I was there, essentially fighting for my life.
The healthcare system in Alberta has now gone through three cycles of being built up and broken down. When medicare originally developed in the 1960s, the Manning Socreds went along with it as a way keep people from demanding socialism. The screw heads always hated it. If you examine their rhetoric, their real problem is that money is being spend to keep people alive they think should die. The disabled or the elderly, no longer productive peasants.
After Manning, the screwheads got control and started attacking health care. The Lougheed bunch came in partly on a promise to protect it. The worst thing about Lougheed was that he kept allowing the MLAs to vote on policy. So when the screw heads left Socred land and infiltrated conservatives, another spell of attacking the old, sick, poor began.
When the Canada health act passed, and a real opposition developed because of the attacks on health care, the conservatives backed off on it. Then Ralpho the Bozo got in, started another attack. Again, opposition developed, including law suits. Again, the screw heads were dragged off the health system.
Stelmach reorganized the system and got it working right. The NDP did not do one useful thing for health care in four years. Since 2019 the system has been under attack again.
The worst thing is that the screw heads have learned more cunning ways of attacking health care, and screws from other provinces are picking up on it.
The worst thing about the usual NDP approach to health care is that it is all about protecting union jobs, not the rights of patents. In fact, you should be reading my piece on that, too. https://timrourke.substack.com/p/canadian-medicare-defenders