Alberta Politics - started May 7, 2015

NorthReport wrote:

Let's get off the bullshit.

Why doen't we just focus on how much money the right-wing Alberta government cost taxpayers by not collecting the low oil and gas royalties that the Alberta was entitled to get to the tune of $13 billion dollars.

Good idea, but Ms Notley isn't quite done with this album-cover issue yet:

[url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/deborah-drever-assigned-homework-o... Drever assigned homework on women's issues by Rachel Notley[/url]

More dreck from dredging Ms. Drever's old social media accounts. I still think this has all been blown out of proportion but god help her that woman seems low-brow. If she was my friend on facebook I would have dropped her by now.

Maybe it's been blown out of proportion(see next post), but let's face it: ANY political operative worth their salary, no matter what their party, if presented with this kind of cyber-trail about an opposing MLA, would be doing their utmost to publicize it.

NorthReport wrote:

Obviously Notley was blindsided by this latest turn of events and it is to be expected - look at what happened in Quebec with a couple of the new NPD MPs. Most blossom but a few don't, eh!

Notley has handled this situation extremely well in all aspects. 

Rachel Notley is amazing. I think she's ready to be Prime Minister. She can do no wrong!

voice of the damned wrote:

So, how would you have handled the issue, Unionist?

Well, I'd start by expelling everyone from caucus who supports Netanyahu and supported the bombing of Libya and the regime in Ukraine.

Then, I'd ask some questions, like, "when did she do these postings"? I might have missed it in the media, but I can't find it readily.

Then, I'd have asked her about whether "gay boyz" was just a stupid brain-dead comment of the sort that countless youth make (in case you haven't noticed), or whether she actually harboured homophobic feelings.

Then, I'd have asked her if she wanted to retract that, or had reflected upon it, or what... and made some decisions accordingly.

How about you, VOTD - how would you have handled it?

Well, she didn't just say "gay boyz" in the sense of "people I think are goofy"(as in "that is so gay"), she posted it under a picture of Prentice and Dirks with hearts drawn around their faces, with the word-balloon from Prentice indicationg that he found Dirks sexually attractive. So, it was a defninite joke about homosexuality, not just some random usage of the word "gay".

And how would I have handled it? Well, I might give Ms. Drever the chance to explain herself to the public, before deciding to boot her out of caucus. However, personally, I can't think of any defense I would find acceptable besides that it was a send-up of homophobia. As you probably know from reading my other posts, I don't buy the defense of youthful immaturity. Not when we're asking the public to vote for the youth in question.

Thanks for the evidence that Drever is actually a true hardcore homophobe. I notice you didn't answer my other questions. It's apparently verboten to be a young person making the kind of stupid commentz every young person makes - but it's ok to be supporters of murder, aggression, and war crimes. And of pipelines and oil sands and christ knows what else is coming.

This is a really bad harbinger of what is to come. It shows that Notley (or, more likely, her cynically amoral handlers) is more concerned by image than substance. I note that she reached out to the billionaire oil barons the instant she was elected, to "reassure" them. When it comes to a 26-year-old woman democratically elected under her party's banner, her attitude is different.

Extremely discouraging prospects, if you ask me.

You think this is a good sign of things to come?

ETA: Sorry, I crossposted. You've answered my question. We appear to be on opposite sides of the trenches on this. Unfortunate.

re: the oil barons. The proper comparison would be if one of those oil barons was an NDP MLA, and made comments that flew in the face of what NDP energy policy is supposed to be. And yeah, I could seriously entertain an argument about kicking that guy out of caucus.

You don't have to respond to my questions about the NDP's criteria - whether their elected members support Israel's war crimes, or Canada's war crimes, or the Ukrainian regime, or pipelines, or the oil sands, ... Really, don't bother. Just tell me how Deborah Drever would have been banned from babble. Don't comment on Bev Desjarlais (who wasn't thrown out of caucus for opposing same-sex marriage), or Monia Mazigh, or Peter Stouffer, or Pat Martin, or Judy Wasylicia-Leis. Don't mention Paul Manly or Dana Larsen. Or all the NDP MPs and MLAs who have supported strike-breaking legislation.

We're on opposite sides of the trenches here.

Now is the time for the Alberta NDP to take courageous stands in favour of the people. Suspending Drever doesn't cut it. Notley should have asked Drever to reflect and reconsider - that's it. Suspending her is an act of sycophancy.

@VOD - well you identified Prentice correctly, but the other Tory in the picture is not Dirks, it is Ric McIver (aka Dr. No). Given the juxtapostion of the two images, I am assuming the posting is about a year old... from the PC leadership race (Dr. No came in second [11.7%] behind Prentice). This is also the time that Dr. No was under fire for his ongoing support and participation in the so-called "March For Jesus" - an event organized by the professional martyrs and just short of rabid homophobes of Art Pawlowski's little cult. [If you want more details, google "March For Jesus Calgary" and open the Calgary Herald, and follow the links inside the main article that comes up.] Dr. No finally caved in to pressure to disassociate himself from the most extreme homophobic positions of the march's organizers.

A generous interpretation of the posting by Ms. Drever would be the it was an ironic invoking of homophobia - of course since there is no special font indicating irony or sarcasm, we will never know for sure.

As someone purposefully ignorant of social media [no facebook account, no twitter account, no instagram] it is unclear to me if she is the one who posted the image, or if her comment (both of which can be seen at the linked CBC story) was a reaction to it. Perhaps someone who is more familiar with the services can clarify that.

@Unionist - you are aware, I hope, that Alberta remains an province and is not directly involved in international issues? I really hate to interrupt your [s]drive by smears[/s]  rants by introducing a note of reality, but the ANDP are highly unlikely to have staked out positions on the record regarding support for (or opposition to for that matter) Netanyahu, the bombing of Libya or the regime in Ukraine... of course, given the ethnic make-up of large parts of the province, there is probably at least a sentimental bias in favour of the Kyiv government.

As to the comments regarding the tar sands and pipelines, I am quite sure the party Ms. Notley is currently leading will ultimately be successful in pissing off both the lickspittles in the province who seem to think that any attempt to regulate and control the oil industry is a sign of a coming apocalypse and the chicken littles who seem to think that failure to shut down every single well, extraction plant and pipeline will result in another apocalypse (strangely enough, not the same one as the other camp).  Obviously existing party policy seeking a moratorium on further expansion is going to alienate both camps. Heaven forbid that an elected government that ran on a platform of being pragmatic go so far as, you know, actually being pragmatic.

Thanks for commenting though, I find your insights into Quebec informative... the ones on Alberta, not so much.

And really, wouldn't that list of yours have more relevance if Rachel Notley had been the person responsible for deciding the fate of all those people? As far as I am aware, none of them are members of her caucus.

Oh, by the way, when you say that suspending Drever is "an act of sycophancy", sycophancy toward whom, exactly? People who dislike homophobic humour? Because that's a group I am happy to call myself a member of, and I do expect a bit of kowtowing on that.

One possible inconsistency that I'm not sure anyone's mentioned is between how Ms. Drever was treated pre-GayBoyz, vs. how she was treated after. It seems that when the issue boiled down to the supposedly misogynistic album cover, the best solution(in Notley's view) was for Drever to stay in caucus, while becoming better informed about womens' issues. But, for whatever reason, the GayBoyz posting was the straw that broke the camel's back, and the previous solution of enlightening herself was no longer sufficient.

NDPP wrote:

Hours after the election closed the NDP scrubbed their website of candidate profiles and platform. Just in case someone may wish to compare what they said with what they did, here's the trust web archive to the rescue:

http://web.archive.org/web/20150423162547/http://www.albertandp.ca/platform

 

I just checked and the platform is still on the Alberta NDP's website:  http://www.albertandp.ca/platform

Swearing in has happened, cabinet announced. Cabinet has gender parity (not certain if that is a Canadian first or not, definitely a first in Alberta).

• Joe Ceci - Finance/President of Treasury Board
• Sarah Hoffman - Health/Seniors.
• Kathleen Ganley - Justice/Aboriginal Affairs
• David Eggen - Education/Culture and Tourism
• Margaret Mccuaig-Boyd - Energy
• Shannon Phillips - Environment and Parks/Minister Responsible for the Status of Women
• Brian Mason -  Infrastructure/Transportation
• Deron Bilous - Municipal Affairs, Service Alberta
• Lori Sigurdson - Innovation and Advanced Education/Jobs, Skills, Training & Labour
• Rachel Notley -- Minister of International and Intergovernmental Affairs
• Oneil Carlier - Agriculture/Forestry
• Irfan Sabir - Human Services

@ NorthReport - 20, 4 women (20% of cabinet)

@ David Young...  no word yet, I would not be surprised to see either Mason or Eggen as house leader though. Same applies as to who will be speaker.

ETA: there is some chit chat around having Dr. Swann serve as speaker - he would have significantly more experience than any of the Wildrose members... but I would tend to put that under the heading of idle speculation.

Thanks Policywonk... missed the announcement about Mason - local media has been overly concerned with rehasing Drever's social media antics.

David Young wrote:

Is there a Wildrose M.L.A. whom the NDP would be willing to allow serve in that position as they would be far more familiar with Legislature rules than a newbie in the NDP caucus?

 

They were down to around 5 sitting MLAs when the election was called