It could only happen in Alberta, the land of cowboy Steve and not so Big Oil, Canada's Banana Republic.
Where the leader of the opposition, after attacking the Con government for five years, and trailing them in the polls by only five points.
Has suddenly decided that if you can't beat them, you should join them.
And is apparently leading half her Wild Hog Party back to the trough.
In what will be remembered as one of the greatest acts of betrayal in Canadian political history, the leader of Alberta’s Official Opposition appears poised to quit on her party and join ranks with the provincial government. And Danielle Smith hopes to take a chunk of her ever-shrinking caucus with her.
And while some in the cowboy province are outraged, outraged I tell you.
In politics, as in sex, a sudden urge to merge can bring disaster. Wildrose is already tearing itself apart over a bizarre plan to stage a “reunion” with the Progressive Conservative government.
And are predicting that the Wild Hog party is heading for the abattoir, or the sausage factory.
For Wildrose, this scenario can only mean political death. Imagine it — an official Opposition party with 14 seats, still only five points behind the government in the polls, collapses like cheap tent into the PC fold. Why would anybody give the Wildrose rump another dime?
Or is high on drugs.
But even now, with all the evidence out there, it’s hard to believe this is really happening. Maybe the Marijuana Party has a foothold in Wildrose?
I am not surprised. I knew that sooner or later the wheels were going to fall off the redneck bus...
Because Alberta is and always will be a one-party state. They don't know any better.
And besides what does it matter if the rednecks do join the PC party? When the Premier himself, Big Jim Prentice, is such a pathetic bigot?
Third reading of Bill 10, a controversial bill about student-led gay-straight alliances, has been put on hold for more consultation, says Alberta Premier Jim Prentice.
The province’s Progressive Conservative Party introduced the legislation on Monday, which effectively killed a private member’s bill to make gay-straight alliances mandatory in schools where students want them.
Who would endanger the lives of bullied gay children for crass political purposes.
And the only good thing I can see is that Stephen Harper must be REALLY disappointed.
Because him and his Alberta Reform Cons have been cheering and squealing for the Wild Hog Party from the moment it was born...
Because they thought the Progressive Conservatives were too LIBERAL.
Can you believe that?
Muahahahaha.
Alberta, not my province, not my Canada.
So much for Great Cowboy Leader.
So much for Albertonia...
Oh yeah, one more thing. If you plan on visiting that Banana Republic.
Don't forget to bring a banjo eh?
And of course, if you're gay, or a damned easterner.
Be prepared to run for your life...
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Prentice was always one of the more forward thinking conservatives out there but has now shown his true colours with the gay straight alliance issue. We all know that without it, gay youth suffer in silence but at least "concerned" parents know that their bigotry will live on in their children. To me, this issue is no different than Redford's lavish spending and he ought to fix this or resign in shame.
ReplyDeletehi bcwaterboy...I always thought that Prentice was one of the better Cons, which makes his pandering to the bigot vote even more disappointing. It may help him to press the pause button, but it doesn't help bullied LGBT children. Since he clearly doesn't need to placate the bigots any longer, he should reverse himself immediately and just do the right and decent thing...
Delete.. Alberttawa.. Its not really its inhabitants.. the general population..
ReplyDeleteits an amazing province.. with so many typical Canadians
But to believe there are no rats is delusional..
Sure, a fair number were elected, one presumes in good faith.. and duly migrated to Ottawa
but some provincial ones remain holed up.. nesting with the Queen Rat Ms Redford
and a few rabid ones slipped westward into Beautiful BC to nest with.. Gulp.. Ms Liberal Clark
So these are the dayz when its hard to identify the reform rats among the Conservative/liberalmice
when pretentious Party proclamations are just that.. and weasel brained political speech
After all.. watching the King Reform Rat in Ottawalberta talk from both sides of his face
at the same time as he talks out of his ass.. any other rat will think its all OK
Rules, Values, Laws are just impediments when Contempt, Duplicity, Deceit are the trademark
of the senior Public Servant of the land.. and service his private ideology & odd pathology
And that other reform rodent Ray.. Yes Ray Novak, the 2nd most powerful politician they say..
was just hangin out with Stevie, Laureen all these years and suddenly subs in for Nigel.
Can't wait to read his 1st book.. whisked out of Western Ontario to nest above Harper's garage?
When one reads that Harper's MP's fear retribution if they scamper out of line.. one must wonder..
Would that be fear of ratty revelations? What does go on in those hotel rooms after Question Period?
Does Jenni Byrne know where her ratling MP children are? Or who they cavort with?
hi salamander...I am very aware that are many decent people in Alberta, and the province is beautiful, even if I'm having a little fun with it in this post. But it does have a rotten political culture that has inflicted the Cons upon us, as well as a bigot streak that has helped poison this country. So it has its work cut out for it if it wants to be considered a real member of the Canadian family. The day it rejoins that family will be a day to celebrate....
DeleteSalamander,
ReplyDeleteI love your analogy of rats and mice. Yes it seems they are scampering all over my BC and of course Alberta the "Rat Free Province" breeds them thanks to "The Calgary School" and Americans like banned Professor Tom Flanagan. And how the F#@K did they ever manage to invade Oilwa? Through lying and cheating and scampering one step ahead of the rule of law and of course with sellout rat MacKay's help. The head rat Harper is headless or brain-dead to anything except servicing the 1%...
Here they are in what used to be my Canada now they own it:
http://honeybadgerpress.ca/node/82
Article entitled "The Canadian Council of Chief Executives: Northern Oligarchy" It sure is an oligarchy.
Now here is their own version of what the hell they are trying to do which is basically running the head rat Harper and the mice-boys in the short pants PMO and they are succeeding. They wanted FIPA they got it They wanted NAFTA they got it they want the European trade deal its in the Harper agenda they want the North American Security Perimeter their greed is a bottomless pit and they don't give a rat's ass about Canadians. They want temporary foreign workers so they can exploit them and they are far right religious abortion and gay basher's.Now these are the real rats:
http://actionplan.gc.ca/en/page/rcc-ccr/canadian-council-chief-executives
See how they are in bed with Harper's touted but phoney "Action Plan" which is nothing more than propaganda and meaningless drivel...
To be continued...
After having criticized the PC for years, and after appearing as if they had wanted to lynch Redford for her sins, Smith and her party now are joining the very people and party they had been castigating.
ReplyDeleteBetrayal, hypocrisy, contemptible .... are all words that come to mind.
But we have seen this movie before.
Think about how often Harper and his gang of Albertan Reformers had ranted about the following: gold plated MP pensions, the Senate ....
Now Harper and that gang of Reformers (except for Manning) had all signed onto the gold plated pension that they had said were a ripoff of taxpayers. As for the Senate, there is no need to say anything other than Duffy, Brazeau, Wallin.
Seems Alberta is not the land of opportunity, especially with the tanking price of oil, but rather the land of opportunists, eh?
hi anon...you make a good point, hypocrisy is the Cons, and crass opportunism their most distinguishing characteristic. After all they were the ones who made transparency the main plank of their campaign platform, when as we know no Canadian government has been less transparent. For that alone they deserve to be defeated, and of course there are so many others...
DeleteI did time in Edmonton back in the late seventies. It was a very friendly town where you knew every ones name. It was embroidered on the right shoulders of their ski jackets.
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought it was quaint, but then I realized that a very large number of the native born Albertans had very similar facial features which in the end I assumed was caused by forced inbreeding during the long cold winters when the prairie was still sparsely populated and might possibly be the reason for the labeling.
So it does not surprise me that when you add opportunistic eastern cowboys to the mix, you end up with a provincial parliament dominated by right and further right parties. The fact that the population could distinguish the difference and that the rest of Canada gives a shit is surprising
hi WILLY...I think part of the problem is that Alberta is the province whose history has been more affected by the Americans than any other. You can't blame them for that history and that geography. But what I hold against them is that thanks to the Cons they send to Ottawa in huge numbers they have tried to make the rest of us like them. And I'll take our Canadian values instead thank you very much. For a province that was once helped during its time of need by the others, I also am dismayed to see how they are constantly putting down those provinces now that they are sitting pretty. Or were sitting pretty. For as long as I remember there has been a stream of hatred pouring out of Alberta. I do detect some hopeful signs, but as I said above they still have a long way to go...
DeleteToday he appointed two tea party members to the Supreme Court of Onatrio. One was not even a judge.
ReplyDeletehi Steve...yes I saw that after I finished the post. As I said once he was a hapless buffoon, now he is a hopeless Reform Con. For I also didn't have time to include how he went after the Chief Justice which was just about as low as you can go. One more reason to fire them all....
DeleteHatched in secret, today's expected mass Wildrose defection to PCs brings party to pathetic end
ReplyDeletehttp://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/djclimenhaga/2014/12/hatched-secret-todays-expected-mass-wildrose-defection-to-pcs-br
hi David...I don't see it as a betrayal, since when you examine the policies of both parties they are closer than they would make us believe. The Wild Hog party got a big boost from Big Oil when Stelmach dared to ask for more royalty money from them. But now Big Jim is in power Big Oil is no doubt very happy to support him...
DeleteAlberta suffers from schizophrenia.
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand you have the world class Tyrell dinosaur museum in Drumheller and on the other , just down the road , you have a 250 actor Passion Play in a natural amphitheatre. staged every year since 1998.
This is the province that, if it did not invent fracking - developed it and proudly exported its technology around the world and unwittingly gave us the oil glut we are now in..
This is the province with such commanding views that it has given its inhabitants the view that they can command the environment leading to environmental disasters such as the Obed mine tailings spill into the Athabasca River near Hinton in October 2013, then the largest spill into a river EVER in North America.. ( Still waiting for the report on that) I doubt you've heard of it.
Alberta is the Province with $14billion in its Heritage Trust fund - the same trust fund the Norwegians modelled theirs on - except theirs now has over $800 billion in it.
Alberta is the province that allows the oilsands companies to forego paying royalties while they are still in their construction phase - which is why they are always still under construction - and those tailing ponds are so darn big..
Alberta allows some oil sands companies to "cook" the bitumen in tanks that have driven several families in the Peace country out of their homes and off their land - at the same time running an ad campaign encouraging visitors to Alberta to "Remember to breathe!" !!
Alberta's first Progressive Conservative Premier Peter Lougheed was on record as advocating the processing and upgrading of Alberta's natural resources within Alberta, but now the major pipeline advocates are promoting support for the pipelines for "dilbit" or bitumen diluted with imported diluent as being " True Canadian Values.!"
We have world class cities in Alberta where a Light Rapid Transit line stands idle, having been completely built for over a year - because of some "computer problem". More like crazy design!
An Alberta policeman with a criminal record for drunken assault, who also, separately, tasered a youth 8 times, and also separately, lied to a JP to get a warrant gets promoted sergeant because of a belief in " SECOND CHANCES! !
We are going to be tightening our belts out here as the PC/Wildrose coalition squeeze us with increased user fees because of declining oil revenues and poor sales of sub surface leases - ( NO SALES TAX IS ALLOWED IN ALBERTA !!!)
It seems just a few short years since "King" Ralph Klein the PC premier of the time sent every man woman and child over the age of 16 a cheque for $400 !
Pray for us !
On second thoughts we have too many Pious Right Wing Albertans doing just that, Steve Harper being one of those !
I think I'll move to Quebec - house prices are better.
In the short term, that is.
According to the self-appointed champion of democracy, Elizabeth May, there is nothing wrong with floor crossing. Voters pick the person, not the Party, so get over it Alberta. And Sudbury, you get over it too.
ReplyDeleteLove the post man! Keep it up! :)
ReplyDelete