“He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction,” King Solomon is reputed to have said, with the wisdom for which he was renowned.
Whether it was Solomon who said it or someone else, like maybe his mom Bathsheba, it’s pretty good advice, especially in the 21st Century’s gossipy global village.
So why wouldn’t David Parker, founder and according to Elections Alberta titular chief financial officer of Take Back Alberta (TBA), take it?
Surely Parker is a student of scripture if anyone in Alberta is – and even if he isn’t, his dad has a university degree in the topic.
After all, Parker promised Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on March 5 he would zip his lips and behave himself on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter after she publicly took him to the woodshed for insulting federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and his wife.
Yet, Saturday, Parker was back at it, tweeting as intemperately as ever about Elections Alberta, which he said has subpoenaed him “to appear before their investigation of Take Back Alberta.”
Now, it isn’t exactly news that Elections Alberta is taking a look at TBA, the faction of the United Conservative Party (UCP) that takes credit for turfing former Premier Jason Kenney and replacing him with Smith, who at the time was a far-right talk radio bloviator known for her advocacy of unhinged ideological causes and quack medical cures.
Back in mid-January, independent journalist Jeremy Appel reported that Parker had told an “emergency meeting” of TBA supporters on Zoom that he would refuse to co-operate with Elections Alberta’s probe of the group.
Leastways, Parker told his supporters, before he would co-operate with the office of the Legislature responsible for administering Alberta elections and enforcing the rules, it would have to be purged of all of its employees! Somewhere along the line, TBA registered with Elections Alberta as a third-party advertiser, a decision that Parker may now regret.
Appel added to his account of the Zoom meeting the caveat that Parker isn’t exactly known as reliable narrator, but since Elections Alberta is unlikely to say anything about what it’s up to till the dust has all settled, we’ll just have to take Parker’s word for it.
Anyway, getting back to Parker’s tweet, according to him, he has now been subpoenaed and ordered to meet with Elections Alberta next Friday at 1 p.m. in the agency’s nondescript office near the former Blatchford Field aerodrome in Edmonton.
“They are demanding that I release the entire list of donors to Take Back Alberta,” he complained. “This is a violation of the Elections Act, since the donors to Take Back Alberta were not donating for political advertising.”
One supposes this could be a point of legitimate dispute, but since none of us are privy to Election’s Alberta’s correspondence, it’s not entirely clear exactly what is going on.
That said, it certainly doesn’t help Parker’s case to reveal all this stuff. Solomon could have told him that – indeed, he may have done, if it’s really true it was the king who wrote the Book of Proverbs.
Be that as it may, Parker vowed, “I will not be releasing the names of our donors so that they can be harassed by left wing activists.”
“I am aware of over 50 complaints being submitted to Elections Alberta about collusion between the Alberta NDP and unions,” he went on – an interesting factoid that raises the question of how he knows about any complaints. “Elections Alberta has refused to investigate either the unions or the Alberta NDP,” he added confidently, also without providing evidence.
According to Parker, he’s been summoned “for simply teaching people how their democracy works and encouraging people to get involved.”
“In light of the rampant corruption at Elections Alberta,” concluded Parker, who seems to continue to harbour Caesarian delusions, “we will be holding a protest outside of Elections Alberta between 12pm and 3pm on March 22nd, 2024.”
It will be interesting to see how many of his supporters show up.
One has the feeling that Parker, having crossed the Rubicon when he publicly went after the Poilievre family, doesn’t really enjoy the support he thinks he does, and perhaps once did, within the United Conservative Party.
We don’t know, of course, if Parker received the subpoena yesterday, which happened to be the Ides of March, but given his well-known lack of impulse control on social media, it seems likely.
Will Mr. Parker soon have cause to say to Premier Smith, not so long ago his wedding guest, “Et tu, Dani?”
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