Canada General Discussion (2019-)

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Alberta also declared a State of Public Health Emergency yesterday. They're following similar measures as Ontario so far.

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Alberta MLA Todd Loewen has resigned as UCP Caucus Chair and issued an open letter calling on Premier Jason Kenney to resign. It would appear that the UCP caucus revolt against Kenney is gaining more momentum.

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*snip*

Loewen's resignation letter is fairly scathing.

Another MLA, Dave Hanson (Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul), posted on social media this morning echoing Loewen’s comments. Both are former Wildrose MLAs for whatever it’s worth. They were also both signatories to the recent(ish) letter opposing more covid restrictions. And they both endorsed Brian Jean back in the UCP leadership race.

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Update: After an emergency caucus meeting, the UCP caucus voted to expel MLA Loewen, as well as longtime thorn in Kenney’s side MLA Drew Barnes (who, as a fun fact, is the last MLA from the Wildrose’s 2012 wave(-ish) remaining in the Leg) from caucus. The vote was not by secret ballot; the members had to send their votes to the UCP Assistant Deputy Speaker.

To add to the hilarity, someone was leaking live updates to Derek Fildebrandt’s Western Standard throughout the meeting.

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I’ll just leave this here...

https://twitter.com/btaplatt/status/1398107737159049216?s=21

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For those who haven't seen yet, Jason Kenney has drawn another round of public rebukes from caucus members for his response to criticism for being pictured having an unmasked and undistanced dinner with senior cabinet ministers and staff (on the balcony of the infamous room which was to have been former Premier Redford's "Sky Palace." Included amongst this latest group are Leela Aheer (UCP Deputy Leader; Minister of Culture, Multiculturalism and Status of Women; MLA for Chestermere-Strathmore) and Rajan Sawhney (Minister of Community and Social Services; MLA for Calgary-North East) - two of the three women of colour in Kenney's cabinet. Brian Jean has also, unsurprisingly, come out calling for Kenney to resign.

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Rachel Notley must be the happiest woman alive.

She would be happier with Kenney still in office. With the most unpopular premier in Canada gone and a new one coming in, there is the potential for UCP  recovery with a change of image.

I think Notley was the favourite against Kenney since his caucus (and party membership, evidently) was bound to revolt, but I wouldn't be quite so fast to annoint her even if a Wildroser is due to be Kenney's replacement. I'm hardly well versed in Alberta politics but surely the UCP has somebody competent enough to hold their coalition together?

I see the conditions for the NDP sweeping Calgary/Edmonton as present no matter what happens in the UCP leadership race since, whoever wins, be it Jean, Danielle Smith, etc., is guaranteed to be to Kenney's right, a fact which is just gonna give Notley even more room to appeal to swing voters in general &, really, 2009 Alberta Liberal-2012 PC-2015 NDP-2019 non-NDP voters in particular; polling already shows the NDP leading in Calgary, the Kingmaker of Alberta, no matter the UCP leader.

Without making a prediction for the ultimate election outcome, as a Calgarian in an inner suburban riding that the NDP likely needs to win in order to form government, I have seen them organizing here on a scale that dwarfs the 2015 and 2019 elections. This was a riding that the NDP struggled to get 5% of the vote in before 2015, and now we had a contested NDP nomination featuring lawn signs and everything.