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Alberta Politics

Fair Deal report a response to fringe separatist threat and distraction from UCP job cuts

The final report of the Fair Deal Panel was released yesterday. Here are my quick thoughts on the final report.

A reaction to a threat from the right: The appointment of the Fair Deal Panel was a direct response to a perceived threat to the United Conservative Party from the political right and fringe separatists following the re-election of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal Liberal government in October 2019.

The panel, which was announced by Premier Jason Kenney at the Manning Networking Conference in Red Deer, was a relief value to give frustrated Conservatives an opportunity to express their anger at the Liberals and a steering wheel to allow the Premier to control the political narrative around Alberta’s political relationship with Ottawa.

Kenney played a major role in the federal Conservative Party’s campaign against the Trudeau Liberals, with the premier even traveling to Ontario and Manitoba to campaign during the election, but despite all the bluster it appeared to have little impact on voters in those provinces on Election Day. The Conservatives did very well in Alberta, earning 69% of the vote, but saw their support decline in almost every riding Kenney campaigned in.

A federal Conservative landslide in Alberta is nothing new, it literally happens every four years. But the latest electoral division reflects an increasing feeling inside Alberta that the rest of Canada does not support the province’s energy industry and a growing feeling outside of Alberta that the province is a laggard on climate change and reducing carbon emissions.

Alienation and anger at Ottawa is omnipresent in Alberta politics, but the separatist threat that spooked Kenney seven months ago has largely evaporated and the crash in the international price of oil and the COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the importance of the provinces being able to work with a federal government for financial relief.

Fair Deal Panel meant to distract from the UCPs job cuts agenda: Creating external enemies and manufacturing crises is something that Kenney excels at. The focus on the Fair Deal report and its recommendations are meant to distract Albertans from the UCP’s political agenda closer to home.

Despite claiming to be obsessed with creating jobs, Kenney’s government has done the opposite by cutting tens of thousands of jobs in Alberta’s public service, schools, colleges and universities. A high-profile dispute with Alberta’s doctors, which included an incident where Health Minister Tyler Shandro yelled at a physician at the driveway of his home, has mired the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The UCP is also moving forward with plans to close and privatize Alberta’s provincial parks.

And it is expected that the Kenney government could soon introduce anti-union legislation and a $2/hour rollback of the $15/hour general minimum wage, directly targeting many of the low income service workers who have been praised as “heroes” during the pandemic.

Police and pension plans: There is little in the final report that the UCP government wasn’t already prepared to pursue or consider. Kenney has said that the government plans to implement or study 23 of the 25 recommendations in the panel’s final report.

Despite public opinion polls showing Albertans do not support replacing the Canada Pension Plan with an Alberta Pension Plan and replacing the RCMP with an Alberta police service, Kenney’s response to the panel report indicated the government was planning to study the two proposals. Both ideas are expensive and likely within provincial jurisdiction to implement, but the creation of an Alberta Pension Plan contradicts other proposals in the report meant to break down trade barriers and increase labour mobility with other provinces.

Equalization referendum: Kenney has spent much of the past year threatening to hold a referendum to remove the equalization article from the Constitution of Canada, so it was unsurprising to see the panel recommend it as well. The threat originated with frustration around delays with the expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline and the federal government’s purchase of the pipeline did not convince Kenney to abandon the pledge.

In its report, the panel admits that a provincial referendum will not have the power to force the federal government or other provinces to reopen the Constitution or renegotiate the equalization formula.

There is probably no scenario where Alberta, a province that is wealthier than most other Canadian provinces even during an economic downtown, will receive funds from a national equalization program. But the unfairness of equalization is a talking point engrained in mainstream Alberta that is not based in fact and is not going away anytime soon.

The panel suggests holding a referendum on equalization would “morally obligate” the federal government and provinces to negotiate amendments to the Constitution. The same argument has worked unsuccessfully for thirty-years on the issue of Senate reform, which the panel report also recommends the province continue to pursue through provincial Senate Nominee elections.

Hijacking the 2021 Municipal Elections: As I first wrote more than a year ago, it is no coincidence that the proposed referendum and the rebooted Senate Nominee election will take place on the same day as the municipal elections across Alberta, October 18, 2021. The timing of these two votes will be used to increase turnout by conservative voters in the municipal and school board elections in an effort to boost support for candidates aligned with the UCP.

Although they dominate in federal and provincial elections, Conservatives have less success at the municipal level where candidates campaign as individuals and mayors offices, town councils and school boards have been more likely to be populated with Albertans more closely aligned with the NDP or Liberals.

Candidates in Alberta’s previous Senate Nominee elections ran under provincial party banners or as Independents. Changes introduced in the Senate Election Act in 2019 (which the report incorrectly refers to as the Senatorial Selection Act, which expired in 2016), will allow candidates to be marked on as a ballot as affiliated with federal political parties.

Injecting a federal party like the Conservative Party of Canada and its resources into a provincial vote being held during a municipal election will muddy the waters during the municipal election, forcing equalization and federal issues into local campaigns that usually focus on local issues. With the federals Liberals having abandoned their Senate caucus and the New Democratic Party continuing to call for Senate abolition, it is unlikely that the those parties will have any interest in participating in the Senate election, leaving the Conservatives to collect voter data and drive conservative voters to the polls.

Perhaps the best example of how the Fair Deal report is a partisan political document and not a serious effort in public engagement is this map found on page 52 of the report.

The map on page 52 of the Fair Deal Panel final report.
The map on page 52 of the Fair Deal Panel final report.

Framed as an East versus West political crisis over satisfaction with Canada, the map excludes British Columbia, where 60% of respondents to the Angus Reid Institute survey in January 2020 said they were satisfied with “the way things are going in Canada.”

The map also wedges Manitoba into the western bloc by listing that province’s dissatisfied number when the survey showed that 54% of Manitobans were satisfied.

So I fixed the map.

An edited version of the map on page 52 of the Fair Deal Panel final report.
An edited version of the map on page 52 of the Fair Deal Panel final report.

The only two provinces where a majority of survey respondents were unsatisfied are Alberta and Saskatchewan, which also happen to be the only two provinces where a majority of voters supported the Conservative Party of Canada…

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Daveberta Podcast

Episode 37: Return of the Leg and in the Federal Election Red Zone

Along with guest co-hosts Lianne Bell and Chris Henderson, Dave discusses what to expect from the United Conservative Party and New Democratic Party when the Legislature reconvenes on May 21 and how the cabinet and opposition critics will match-up this session. We also talk about how federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and Conservative leader Andrew Scheer could fare in the October 2019 federal election.

And we answer some great questions from our listeners, ranging from what implications will the immanent federal election campaign have for Alberta politics to how to encourage your MLA to focus on issues that were not brought up during the election campaign?

The Daveberta Podcast is a member of the Alberta Podcast Network powered by ATB Financial. The APN is asking podcast listeners to participate in their annual listener survey, so please do so if you are so inclined.

You can listen and subscribe to the Daveberta Podcast on Apple PodcastsGoogle PlaySpotifyStitcher, or wherever you find podcasts online. We always love to feedback from our listeners, so let us know what you think of this episode and leave a review where you download.

You can also comment on the blogFacebook or Twitter or send us an email at podcast@daveberta.ca.

Thanks again to our talented producer, Adam Rozenhart, for making us sound so great.

Thanks for listening!

Photo: Lianne Bell and Chris Henderson as we recorded this episode of the Daveberta Podcast. 

Categories
Alberta Politics

Alberta Conservative MPs face nomination challenges ahead of 2019 election

At least three Conservative Members of Parliament from Alberta are expected to face challenges for their nominations ahead of the expected 2019 federal election (news of two of the nomination challenges was first reported by Ryan Hastman in the latest episode of The Daveberta Podcast).

Calgary-Forest Lawn

Moe Amery
Moe Amery

Former Progressive Conservative MLA Moe Amery is challenging Deepak Obhrai for the federal Conservative nomination in Calgary-Forest Lawn.

Obhrai was first elected under the Reform Party banner in 1997 and ran for the Conservative Party leadership in 2017.

Amery served as the MLA for Calgary-East from 1993 until he was defeated in the 2015 election by New Democrat Robyn Luff. He ran twice before he was first elected, placing second behind NDP MLA Barry Pashak in 1986 and 1989. Amery defeated Pashak in 1993.

 

Edmonton-Wetaskiwin

Mike Lake
Mike Lake

Gordon Francis is challenging four-term incumbent Mike Lake in Edmonton-Wetaskiwin.

Lake was first elected as the MP for Edmonton-Mill Woods in 2006 and was challenged ahead of the 2015 election by Leduc County Mayor John Whalen and former Edmonton police officer Moe Banga. Banga was disqualified from the nomination and was soon after elected to Edmonton City Council in the Ward 12 by-election called to replace outgoing Councillor Amarjeet Sohi (who was elected as the Liberal MP for Edmonton-Mill Woods).

Francis is on the board of the Leduc-Beaumont United Conservative Party association and was previously involved with the local PC Party Association.

Yellowhead

Jim Eglinski Yellowhead by-election Conservative MP
Jim Eglinski

School principal Robert Duiker is challenging incumbent Jim Eglinski for the Conservative nomination in Yellowhead. Duiker is the principal of Rocky Christian School, an alternative program in the Wild Rose School Division located in Rocky Mountain House. He is the former president of the now-defunct Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre Progressive Conservative Association and is now the president of the UCP association in that district.

Ryan Ouderkirk, who works as an executive assistant to Fort McMurray-Cold Lake MP David Yurdiga, is also challenging Eglinski for the nomination.

Carolyne Mackellar of Edson, a campaign assistant for the Nova Scotia PC Party and a former Emergency Medical Technician in Alberta, is also running for he nomination.

Eglinski is a former RCMP Officer and mayor of Fort St. John, B.C., and was first elected to the House of Commons in a 2014 by-election. Eglinski raised some eyebrows earlier this year when he was featured in a Maclean’s magazine article about his participation in Jasper’s annual Pride Week celebrations.

The Conservative Party quietly opened nominations for the next election early this month and, I am told, also closed sales of new memberships for party nominations shortly afterward.