Populist conservative woman to lead Alberta further to the right

Earlier this week, I told you we don't normally discuss regional/local politics. Monday's Québec election had significance beyond the borders of la Belle Province, so we made an exception. We do so again for last night's election of Danielle Smith as the new leader of Alberta's so-called United Conservative Party, and thus the new premier of Canada's most America-like province.

Alberta is Canada's version of Texas, complete with flatlands, hoodoos, rodeos, cowboys and Indians. [Plus 1000s of Ukrainians! Ed.] Like Texas, Alberta's wealth comes in petro-dollars. People proudly drive gaz-guzzling pickups and SUVs. And they dislike the eastern elites and the federal government, especially when the two are combined in a nether orifice named Trudeau.

From 1935 to 2015, Alberta was governed by conservative parties, sometimes named Social Credit, sometimes Conservative. About 15 years ago, the Conservatives started fighting amongst themselves -- as conservatives do all too often -- about who was the more conservative, and a number of splinter parties were born, including the Wildrose Party (the wildrose is Alberta's provincial flower), whom Danielle Smith ran in 2009. She rejoined the Conservative Party in 2014.

A year later, against a divided -- right and righter -- opposition the "social democratic" (read: pinko) NDP took power, under Rachel Nutley, Alberta's first female premier. In response, a confirmed bachelor named Jason Kenney, who had been a minister in Steve Harpoon's Conservative federal government, succeeded in uniting the right in a new(ish) United Conservative Party, which defeated the NDP in the 2019 election.

Alas for Mr Kenney, the UCP didn't stay united very long. Mr Kenney was seen by many for what he was -- a member of that same eastern elite. When he went along with the Trudeau government's vaccine mandates and other measures to curtail individual freedom, and failed to stand up to the Liberals' attacks on the oil and gas industry, Albertans decided they'd had enough. 

Mr Kenney resigned the leadership of the UCP this past May after receiving only 51.4% in a leadership review vote, thus setting the stage for yesterday's election. 

Danielle Smith won a fiercely-fought contest on the strength of her promise to enact an Alberta Sovereignty Act, which would allow the Alberta government to not enforce federal laws. 

Mr Kenney called the idea "nuts". The proposed act is likely unconstitutional, but it's the kind of thing that Albertans, whose grievances are valid and run deep, want their leaders to do.

It would be the legislative equivalent of the now-ubiquitous "Fuck Trudeau!" flags seen across the real Canada, outside the immigrant cities of Vancouver, Montréal and (above all) Toronto.

One can argue that Mr Socks' Liberals are not to blame for the initial crash of the oil economy, which started before they took office. However, they have worked, and are still working almost single-mindedly to undermine any recovery.

They started with the cancellation of the Northern Gateway pipeline, then introduced several anti-energy policies, including Bill C-69, which makes approving resource projects more cumbersome, a tanker ban off British Columbia;s northern coast and the hated carbon tax. 

The result has been a significant decline in the fortunes of average Albertans. Any successful Alberta politician understands what has happened in Wildrose Country, and why. The Liberals and socialists are whistling past the graveyard when they mock the more hard-edged elements of Danielle Smith's message. A slightly more moderate version of her campaign will almost certainly resonate with large numbers of  voters in the next Alberta election, due on or before 29 May 2023. The Conservative Party of Canada, under its new leader, Pierre Poilievre, will be taking notes.

Does a "climate change" tax make sense?

And here's a thought posted in a "comments" forum by a reader of Canada's self-styled "national newspaper", the Groan & Wail.

Canada may need the Trudeau Liberals to take our economy to the abyss during another term before voters realize that social justice isn’t the most pressing issue in our largely peaceful country, that the coldest developed nation in the world may not be the best choice to lead the charge on climate change, that we will need fossil fuels for many years yet, that mass immigration is not a magic fix for economic malaise, that China really is our enemy, that the USA isn’t, and that common sense can be a wonderful thing.

Well said, anonymous reader! Sadly, the sheeple of Canuckistan seem to be even less endowed with common sense than those of, say, California. [Is that possible? Ed.]

VIDEO: The Rebel's May 3rd interview with Maxime Bernier

Ed. here. Some churl has e-mailed to say that WWW seems to be turning into the Max Bernier channel, or maybe the People's Party of Canada channel, because we've run several videos featuring Mad Max and Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson. Let me `splain. While most of our readers are in the Excited States of America, we do have a significant number from North of 49.

They tell us the lamestream media of Canuckistan seem to have agreed (or been directed by Justin's minions) to not give any airtime to, or even mention "Max Bernier's People's Party", as they call it disparagingly. The Sunday morning snorefests -- they have those in Canada too -- regularly feature Elizabeth May, "leader of the Green Party", which until Monday last was a party of one, i.e. Ms May. But do they ever invite M Bernier to weigh in with comments on such "non-issues" (as the meeja would have it) as immigration and climate change? Noooo.

So for those who are wondering where Max has been and if he's saying anything about the things that matter, here's a 49-minute conversation between M Bernier and David Menzies of TheRebel.media, in which they discuss everything from immigration and censorship to political correctness and the media conspiracy to demonize conservatives.



Footnote: At the 36 minute mark of the video, you'll here David Menzies mention (on the subject of free speech and the CBC) the name of Don Cherry, featured here on May 5th: "Don Cherry for NHL Hall of Fame!". Check it out.

"Yellow vest" protests spread to Belgium, Netherlands... even Canada!

As is well known, the dream of every Frenchman [and Frenchwoman! Ed.] is to pay no taxes. Thus the plan of the government of Emmanuel Macron to raise the tax on fuel sparked a wave of protests which started a month ago and continued today in Paris and other French cities. The protesters have adopted dayglo yellow safety jackets as their uniform. Today some 125,000 "gilets jaunes" (= yellow vests) took to the streets to rally against the fuel tax, the high cost of living, and... wait for it... Emperor [President, shurely! Ed.] Macron himself. Here's a video clip.



In Paris today, 1000s of police used armored vehicles, tear gas and water cannons to "contain" demonstrators numbering over 10,000, by the estimate of the Ministry of the Interior. Some protesters set fire to cars and smashed windows. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said 1385 people had been arrested across the country. 17 law enforcement officers and just over 100 protesters suffered injuries.

Is this really just about having to pay a few cents more in taxes on gasoline? Mais non! The protests took place despite the government announcement on Wednesday that the fuel tax hike would be "suspended until furter notice". (Governments never admit they made a mistake, eh.) The demonstrators who turned out today broadened their list of grievances to include high living costs and economic reforms proposed by M Macron, which are seen to benefit business rather than workers.

And then there's the little matter of immigration, and how much more Islamization France can take before ceasing to be France. The big picture is that the majority of French citizens are sick, sore and tired of being governed by liberal elitist one-worlders. Speaking after today's protests had ended, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the time had come for a dialogue "to knit our national unity back together." He added that the Emperor [President! I won't tell you again! Ed.] would address the protests and their grievances "next week."

Readers in other countries may be thinking, "Hey, we have problems with our government too! When are we gonna get up on our hind feet? If the cheese-eating surrender monkeys can do it, we can too!" And so it has come to pass. The yellow vest movement has now spread across the globe. There were protests today in Belgium, France and... wait for it... even peaceful and polite Canada!

In the western Canadian province of Alberta, which holds oil in even higher regard than do Texans, there is huge resentment over the plans of the federal government (Junior Trudeau, Prop.) and the socialist provincial government to impose a carbon tax, in the interests of saving the world from climate change of course. There's also the anti-immigrant sentiment which Albertans share with their fellow citizens from coast to coast to coast.

Yellow vest protesters braved the sub-zero weather in Edmonton and Calgary today to let their governments know what they think about these insane liberal policies. (Not that their governments give a shit, of course.) The protests were free from physical violence, but the demonstrators spoke pretty plainly (for Canadians).

In Calgary, Allison Prentice told the CBC, "We are Canadian, we're not anywhere close to that kind of radical. I'm proud to be here and represent people who care about Canadians first." Others chanted "No Trudeau. No Trudeau!" outside of city hall. Some yelled "String him up!" Others yelled "traitor." Through a megaphone, one speaker said, "They hate our country and they hate our way of life," without specifying who "they" are. He didn't have to. Canadians know who their enemies are. Do you?

VIDEO: "Climate Barbie" has no time for "climate change deniers"

Walt's Canadian agents say they're enduring a never-ending winter. Mother Nature may skip spring and go straight to summer, they say... around June 20th. Global warming... HA!

Canada's Minister of the Environment and Climate Change [sic], Catherine McKenna -- aka Climate Barbie -- has no time for those "climate change deniers", as she calls them, who insist that global warming and changes in the climate are the result of human activity, which can be changed. She says so herself, in this interview with Evan Solomon on CTV's Question Period.



There, in a nutshell -- word chosen deliberately -- is everything that's wrong with the "progressive" policy on the environment. Climate change is junk science at best, a hoax at worst, and the liberals (and Canada's big-L Liberals) are in denial about that.

Canadians are moderate sheeple, not much inclined to rise up in protest against anything except the NHL, but the majority of them simply don't believe in climate change, and are opposed to their Liberal government's California-dreamin' carbon tax policy. Climate Barbie doesn't get it. In fact she doesn't even want to hear any dissent from politically correct liberal thinking. She says so herself. And her boss, pictured below, agrees with her.

Footnote: Why on earth does she (along with so many others of her generation) preface every utterance with "So..."? What is that -- kind of like verbal punctuation meaning "I'm starting to speak now!"? I don't get it! See "So, there's a new bad English fad", WWW 30/6/14.

Further reading: "Climate Alarmists Maul Inconvenient Polar Bear Expert", by James Delingpole, Breitbart News, 11/4/18. Susan Crockford is a polar bear expert with a message that climate alarmists don’t want to hear: polar bear populations are thriving and are certainly in no danger from thinning summer sea ice supposedly caused by ‘man-made global warming.’