Danielle Smith: newcomers must “own/share our (…)

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David J. Climenhaga

By David J. Climenhaga

September 16, 2024

Text translated from English to French by JEANTY Marvens

“Who have our common values! » What values ​​are these, please?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard a dog bark louder than from an elected official since I moved to Alberta a few years ago. several decades ago, and there have been many. There has been a lot of this dog barking/dog whistling here since the Smith-led United Conservative Party (UCP) took power in 2019.

Prime Minister Smith tried to cloak her message to the UCP base in the usual coded denials as she prepared another attack on the federal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to find a way to ensure the settlement of asylum seekers in all regions of the country.

« The Alberta government opposes the federal government’s plan to relocate tens of thousands of asylum seekers to Alberta, particularly without any financial assistance to support the province in doing so “. Smith huffed at the start of his statement, repeating a lie spread by the Conservative Premier of New Brunswick, Mr. Blaine Higgs.

Mr. Higgs is contesting elections next month and polls indicate the race will be close, but it is shaping up to be a referendum on his divisive brand of conservatism. On Wednesday, he claimed that federal authorities were considering sending more asylum seekers to his province without financial assistance, and this was quickly rejected by federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller, who called the move “fictitious”.

We never said we would impose asylum seekers on the provinces without financial compensation “Mr. Miller told reporters at the Liberal caucus retreat in Vancouver.

This fictional element did not prevent Mr. Smith’s comment, of course. “We inform the Government of Canada that asylum seekers are not supported by the federal government. We advise the Government of Canada that until further notice, Alberta is not open to settling these additional asylum seekers,” Ms. Smith’s statement concluded defiantly. “We just can’t afford it.”

This is very heavy coming from a Prime Minister who has been talking for months about his ambition to increase Alberta’s population to 10 million inhabitants by 2050! At the same time, too bad for those subway cars in Toronto that his predecessor, former Premier Jason Kenney, paid for wrapping with photos of the Rocky Mountains telling Ontarians that “Alberta is calling.” Apparently, “the dream of home ownership is alive in Alberta” only until people with bad values ​​move there regardless of the basis of their thoughts.

When I was a Polish refugee, I never had to take a ‘shared values ​​test’,” noted former Progressive Conservative MP Thomas Lukaszuk in a tweet responding to a meme posted by the European Commission . Tweet responding to a meme published by the Prime Minister. He asked: “ You mean No Muslims? »

One wonders what Ms. Smith will say next. Is she going to warn us that asylum seekers are going to eat the dogs, eat the cats, like that old bastard Republican who is running for president in South Medicine?

Line ?

I don’t doubt it. Donald Trump mentioned the Keystone XL pipeline in passing Tuesday night as Democratic candidate Kamala Harris knocked him into insensitivity.

I’m not kidding. Because, like Higgs, the author of the fiction, Smith has an electoral problem of his own. The right-wing extremists who formed the basis of his party and are now about all that’s left of it just might. Ditch her, just like they abandoned Kenney, if she isn’t MAGAfied enough for their liking.

She is desperate to cajole them, at least until the vote on her leadership at the UCP’s annual general meeting in Red Deer on November 1 and 2.

That’s why she will be participating in a live interview with their favorite news source, Rebel News, on October 5. This is why she publishes nonsense about certain types of immigrants in official government statements. And it certainly won’t stop until after the AGM.

It may not stop then either.

Ms. Smith understands that the party’s MAGA base represents the greatest threat to its political survival today. And when it comes to Conservative Prime Ministers, national observer Max Fawcett of the National states that “ the call almost always comes from inside the house.”

The situation is likely to get worse until Alberta voters take it upon themselves to purge the UCP by electing another government.

More information was released this week…

Meanwhile, a lot continues to explode this week, too much even to detail.

The trial of former UCP star Derek Fildebrandt, accused of threatening to shoot a group of three young teenagers outside his Civil War-era home in the Crestmont neighborhood last spring, s continues this weekend in Calgary.

A panel of experts from the Law Society of Alberta yesterday released a decision finding former Conservative Alberta Justice Minister Jonathan Denis guilty of two counts of professional misconduct for events that took place in 2020 and 2021. He said he deserved to be punished. More information here.

The Progress Report revealed that Alberta Health Services officials pressured two downtown Edmonton mental health clinics to transfer their patients’ prescriptions to Shoppers-Drug Mart. Current and former employees of health care workers at these clinics say Shoppers pharmacists disrupted their relationships with patients.

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