Danielle Smith and UCP move to discipline party rebels and distract from party problems

This is a frenzied moment for Danielle Smith and her United Conservative Party (UCP) cabinet and caucus as they try to pacify the party’s influential and unhappy separatist faction and distract from the failure of the separation referendum that for months the Prime Minister did everything she could to enable and the metastasizing health care corruption scandal back to the front burner scandal.

Accordingly, there have been so many performative announcements to distract voters, keep rebellious MPs in line and strengthen the party base that it sometimes seems like an exercise in throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks. From the looks of it, at least some did.

However, Smith and her allies in the party appear to have foiled an attempt by separatist cadres to take over the elected administrative positions of the UCP by requiring all candidates for the party’s board at next month’s annual general meeting to sign a loyalty oath to the leader before they can run.

OK, it’s not an oath. It’s just a declaration. But seriously, potayto-potahto.

Smith’s angry intramural archenemy, Separatist leader and UCP member Jeffrey Rath, circulated a copy of the form on the social media site formerly known as Twitter. The pledge states that the signatory acknowledges that they understand the party’s returning officer “will not certify me as a candidate” unless they agree with the voters’ decision to keep Alberta and remain in Canada.

last night, The Globe and Mail has reported that UCP chairman Rob Smith has sent an email to party members saying that “there will be NO UCP leadership review before our next general election.” He also said at least 65 out of 87 UCP constituency associations voted motions indicating their loyalty to the Prime Minister.

That “at least” of the Globe Report does a lot of work, seen as a minimum of 22 CA votes are necessary to force a leadership review. So don’t bet against the possibility that a few more pledges will be signed by the close of business today.

So, no separatist takeover and no leadership review.

Meanwhile, some separatist-tinged UCP MPs also seem to be convinced to walk the plank. Leastways, Red Deer-South MP Jason Stephan, who admitted he voted for option 2 in the premier’s separatist referendum, the let’s-have-a-bining-vote option, announced a week ago that he would not seek re-election.

And yesterday, Lac. Ste. Anne-Parkland MLA Shane Getson, a Convoy supporter and COVID skeptic, announced that he would quit immediately for personal and family reasons. He also did not plan to run again, but for some reason accelerated his departure plan.

With a provincial election scheduled next year, a by-election in the riding will not be required by law, but this will give the prime minister an opportunity to call in a constituency northwest of Edmonton that is unlikely to elect a new Democrat.

On Monday, the Prime Minister and Energy Minister Brian Jean published a joint statement demanding that Ottawa repeal the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act. “Lifting the ban would open the door to crude-by-rail exports through Prince Rupert, giving Alberta another way to reach customers around the world,” the statement said, side-stepping UCP’s real goal of getting a pipeline approved for the North Coast.

This was timed to coincide with the introduction in Parliament today of a bill by a Conservative MP calling for the same thing. But it clearly hinges on the election of a Conservative government likely to be more sympathetic to pipeline development in British Columbia on Saturday.

The federal Liberals will likely be more cautious because they seem to actually want oil to flow through BC and not just pick an unnecessary fight with some of the First Nations that Smith snubbed on Monday by not attending the historic Ottawa meeting of First Ministers and First Nations leaders.

Meanwhile, yesterday, it was time for the UCP to announce that it will declare culture war over what the political right likes to call diversity, equity and inclusion politics. This will be done so that white guys who already have all the benefits will get preferential treatment when it comes to being hired for public sector jobs. Or, as the government described the concept in its press release, “to ensure that hiring and promotion decisions in public institutions are based on merit.”

The legislation proposes that the implementation of these “fairness” rules – which we all understand should not be fair in practice – be enforced by the human rights commission of the province, which will presumably in the future therefore have to be printed in scare quotes and preceded by the words “so-called”.

If this reminds you of the Trump administration’s use of US civil rights legislation to target legal protections against discrimination and promote false claims of “reverse discrimination” against white bros, there’s probably a pretty good reason for it.

This policy is part of a broader attack by the political right on social justice research and programs that include social justice education in academia.

We can expect more of the same so soon as the UCP must now be scrambling to distract from the latest reports The Globe and Mail on corruption in health care.

In stories from Tuesday, the Globe reported that the RCMP is investigating “fraud, breach of trust and money laundering” in its investigation into the procurement scandal, and that Premier Smith is determined to prevent a proper judge-led public inquiry into the circumstances.

The information appears to have come to light in a letter released by lawyers for former Alberta Health Services (AHS) CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos, who was fired last year as she tried to investigate political interference and dodgy contracts in procurement work at AHS and is now suing for $1.7 million in damages for wrongful dismissal.

The Prime Minister argued that there had already been a judge-led public inquiry, the only problems with it being that the judge in question was retired and lacked the power to compel testimony, and most of his work was not conducted in public.

In fact, in his report, Raymond Wyant, late of the Manitoba Provincial Court, said he was unable to clear the government of any wrongdoing.

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