So, let me see if I’ve got this straight … The people who vociferously supported the occupation of downtown Ottawa by truckers and others blasting air horns 24/7 and spewing filth on the streets of the nation’s capital for 32 hellish days …
Who thought it was OK for the Ottawa occupiers to threaten local citizens going about their business because they had the temerity to wear paper medical masks to protect themselves from COVID-19 …
Who called for the overthrow of our democratically government because they don’t like the fact the prime minister used to be a drama teacher …
Who threatened and insulted health care workers throughout the pandemic for their role in public health measures to control the spread of a deadly virus …
Who encouraged the border with the United States to be blocked for 17 days at the cost of $220 million to the Alberta economy because they were mad that the U.S. required truckers crossing the border to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and they wanted to own the Libs …
Who acted like the men who stockpiled weapons at Coutts, plotted to murder police officers, and dreamed of turning the border into Canada’s Alamo were heroes …
Who have a meltdown and threaten violence every time they hear about a drag queen reading a story to a kid in a public library …
Who habitually insult women in politics on social media in the most degrading terms imaginable …
Who spit “woke” at anyone they disagree with …
And who say the only way to deal with a democratically elected government they disagree with is to shoot their way out of it …
Yeah, those people.
So, have I got it right that those people are now in a full-blown swivet because three protesters showed up at one of Danielle Smith’s news conferences about nothing Thursday for about one minute, held up amateurishly scrawled signs, and shouted “hospitals are not for sale” a couple of times?
If you share the view that this is a major assault on democracy, you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t take you seriously.
If you’re one of Premier Smith’s ministers or United Conservative Party (UCP) caucus members and you think melting down about this is a great way to get voters to forget about the folly that spews forth daily from Smith’s mouth, you’ll pardon me while I do a facepalm.
If you’re one of the so-called “journalists” from right-wing websites that get the nod to toss softball questions to the premier, it’s not the big own you think it is to discover one of the protesters is a union member.
And if you’re a regular reader of this blog, I hope you can forgive me for the occasional rant like this.
I mean, seriously, you just can’t make this stuff up. And, since this is Alberta, you never have to.
Smith promises to cut camping fees for the elderly; reconsiders plan to privatize hospitals
The topic of the Thursday’s briefly interrupted newser in Calgary, by the way, was Smith’s meaningless promise to “make life more affordable for seniors in Alberta” by … wait for it … knocking 25 per cent off their camping fees, registry service fees, and medical driving exams. (But you’ll have to pay full price for the cab home form the doctor’s office, presumably, if you fail the exam.)
Well, even without yesterday’s tiny protest, that wasn’t likely to distract from the burgeoning unease about Smith’s recently resurfaced big idea of letting private bidders contract to run public hospitals, which she also promised Thursday not to keep.
“You should judge me based on what I do,” Smith said – not what she said she would do, or could do, or should do a short time ago. In other words: Trust me …
Speaking of recent embarrassing clips, there was another one of Deputy Premier Nathan Neudorf saying that Albertans should have to pay a fee to visit an Emergency Ward.
“Maybe if someone had to pay for that, they’d think twice about going to the emergency for something that is not an emergency,” said the MLA from Lethbridge-East at a candidates’ forum in his riding on May 8.
NDP raises another $1 million in first 10 days of campaign
Meanwhile, the NDP reported that it had raised an additional $1 million since the Alberta election was called on May 1.
As of May 10, the party had raised another $1,030,166 from 12,563 donors since the election call, the party said in a short statement to media. There were 5,430 new donors in the first 10 days, 4,567 of them from the Calgary area, the NDP said.
“With our health care and our pensions at stake, Albertans know how important this election is,” said NDP leader and former premier Rachel Notley.
NDP achieves gender balance in candidate slate
The NDP also said yesterday it has now nominated candidates in all 87 Alberta ridings, 44 women and 43 men. “Of the slate of candidates, 24 are racialized,” the party said in an email. “This reflects the true diversity of a modern day Alberta.”
“Our party believes that for the government to reflect the diversity of our province, it must intentionally seek to build and run a balanced slate of candidates,” Notley said. “This has always been core to our beliefs, and experience shows it leads to better decisions around the Cabinet table.”
The UCP has also nominated 87 candidates, only 19 of them women.
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