It looks like Tim Hoven’s campaign to challenge Jason Nixon for the United Conservative Party nomination in Rimbey—Rocky Mountain House—Sundre got off to a pretty good start last week at a rural community hall in the Central Alberta riding.
Leastways, a photo that turned up in my inbox shows the former Clearwater County municipal councillor addressing at least 80 people in the James River Community Hall, located about 14 kilometres straight north of Sundre.
We’re not talking about a densely populated region, so it’s probably fair to say that’s a pretty significant turnout—especially if you consider that just about everyone in the room likely voted for Nixon in in the 2019 general election.
Since Nixon is one of the most powerful ministers in Premier Jason Kenney’s cabinet, the UCP house leader, and Mr. Kenney’s de facto campaign manager for his effort to hang onto his job at his upcoming leadership review on April 9, this could turn into a major distraction not just for the honourable member for Rimbey—Rocky Mountain House—Sundre but for the whole party.
To add to the potential troubles faced by Nixon, who is environment minister, the Kenney Government has two reports on the future of coal development in Alberta awaiting release that are unlikely to please anyone but Australian coal magnates.
Hoven, who raises beef near Eckville, seems to have cleaned up his Facebook pages recently, but his Twitter account suggests he runs somewhere to the right—possibly quite a bit to the right – of Nixon, who’s not exactly flirting with the NDP himself.
As one of Hoven’s supporters wrote in the private Holding MLAs Accountable Facebook group that is the online home to the UCP’s rural rebels, “Jason Nixon is likely to replace Jason Kenney in any upcoming UCP leadership race. After the past two years we know this will not bring the change we need in Alberta. Jason Nixon simply equals Jason Kenney.”
So if Hoven’s insurgency is part of something bigger that appears to be afoot throughout rural Alberta, it could spell big problems for the UCP in the next general election if present trends continue and voters in Calgary start to turn to the NDP.
It almost certainly means this will be a bad spring for Nixon, who if he can’t find a way to beat Hoven, will probably try to find another way to ensure his challenger doesn’t have the opportunity to beat him.
As blogger Dave Cournoyer pointed out on Wednesday, the UCP has opened candidate nominations in four ridings with sitting members loyal to Kenney, and they’ve done it on a very tight time schedule with a Feb. 28 deadline for candidates to put their names forward.
This will make it difficult for candidates like Hoven to sign up new members in time for them to be eligible to vote in the nomination election.
If that doesn’t work, Nixon might try to find another way to get his challenger disqualified—say, by accusing him of campaigning with Central Peace MLA Todd Loewen, the first UCP MLA to call for Kenney’s resignation, who was banished to the Independent benches for his disloyalty to the leader in May last year.
If Nixon tries that, though, it’s bound to cause an uproar at Kenney’s leadership review in Red Deer, perhaps even casting shade on the vote.
Lawyer Paul Champ warns truckers to expect extended, expensive litigation
Meanwhile, Ottawa lawyer Paul Champ has warned truck owners still blocking streets in the national capital to brace themselves for extended and expensive litigation in his class action lawsuit seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages for the economic impact of their occupation of the city.
Champ launched the lawsuit on Feb. 4—before a national emergency had been declared and the truckers appeared to be firmly in the driver’s seat, being served coffee and doughnuts in their rigs by obsequious Conservative MPs.
That was then. This is now.
“It’s time to go home,” Champ said Thursday in a video aimed at truck owners as police started arresting protest leaders. “When you get home, I strongly suggest you hire your own lawyer. You get some independent legal advice.
“Don’t listen any more to the organizers,” he went on. “You’ve been led down a path that, unfortunately, is going to cause you some serious financial consequences.
“If you do get a lawyer, I recommend that you advise that lawyer to reach out to me. We’re prepared for those who contact us early to discuss early settlement. But if you don’t, make no mistake, this is not going to be over when the trucks finally leave, when the last car horn blares.”
Patrick Brazeau, loser in famous boxing match with PM, tweets his respect
Several times during the disturbing recent events in Ottawa, while far right opponents of Justin Trudeau indulged their obsessions with the prime minister’s appearance, former profession and fashion sense, I’ve cast my mind back to his famous 2012 charity boxing match with Senator Patrick Brazeau.
Never mind watching the fight if you don’t like that kind of thing, just listen to the soundtrack on the Youtube video. It could very well be a prequel to the way Trudeau will be seen as the dust from the “Freedom Convoy” crisis settles.
Yesterday afternoon, Senator Brazeau tweeted his respect for the PM. “I lost to this man 10 yrs ago. It stung, it hurt but in life, we have to respect our opponents. Don’t always agree with him but I respect him. … He’s our Prime Minister. Let’s support Canada!”
As an aside, here’s some advice from a fifth-degree black belt in karate: In a match between a karate black belt and a boxer, especially if he karate practitioner isn’t allowed to kick, you should bet on the boxer. You won’t win very time, but over the long run, you’ll make money.
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Nick Seebruch, editor
