Yesterday, Albertans voted in the Regressive Conservative Party -- otherwise known as the UCP. Geoff Dembicki writes in The Tyee:
Albertans elected one of the most socially conservative and environmentally hostile governments in its history Tuesday night, handing a majority of seats to the United Conservative Party and electing its leader Jason Kenney as premier.
In the end it seemed voters acted the way pollsters and other observers had predicted all along: by voting in a government that promised to do whatever it takes to get Alberta’s bitumen to the Pacific coast and scrap climate change policies brought in by Notley’s NDP and Justin Trudeau’s federal Liberals.
But the election was about more than oil:
Kristopher Wells, an international expert on sexual and gender minority youth issues based at MacEwan University in Edmonton, told The Tyee that Alberta currently has some of the best legislation in the world for gay-straight alliances in public schools, which create spaces for LGBTQ students and their allies to be safe and open in their sexuality. The UCP has promised to change the rules so that teachers have the option of informing a student’s parents when they join a GSA.
“Why would we go backwards on that?” Wells said. “It’s sound legislation that was developed out of concern and need by students and teachers on the ground in schools. To roll that back as many have suggested would be to place vulnerable LGBTQ youth at increased risk in their schools.”
Like Ontario, Alberta is now ruled by a collection of ignorant thugs, dedicated to accomplishing the impossible. Climate change is proceeding apace and Jason Kenny is the Sergeant Schultz of Canada:
Tzeporah Berman, a Canadian environmental activist who is international program director for the group Stand.earth, said Kenney’s confrontational rhetoric won’t bring the benefits many Albertans are expecting — a swift return of jobs and investment in the oil patch — during an era when the world is rapidly shifting to cleaner sources of energy.
“Attacking those that are concerned about the cumulative impacts on our water, on our air, and on our climate as a result of the growth of the oilsands is not going to solve this,” Berman said. “It’s a dramatic overblown shoot-the-messenger moment. No matter how much Kenney attacks civil society groups and environmental groups, it’s not going to make the issue go away.”
She predicted that a UCP government would govern “by anger and fear and not reason or logic or science” and that “this will set us back on climate policy.” Berman, a one-time advisor to the Alberta government on climate policy who frequently critiqued Notley’s stance on pipelines, went on, “While the NDP strategy was far from perfect, at least it was moving in the right direction, albeit slowly.”
Score another one for unadulterated ignorance.
Image: Redbubble
6 comments:
This is a catastrophic turn of events for all of us who are concerned with a rapid rise of rightwing cruel politics in this country. We seem to be stuck in this revolving door between goon style political reprobates(Harper,Harris,Ford and Kenney) who will play this populist stagnation with promises they are unable to deliver. Erosion of civil rights and freedoms, interference in standards of lifestyle etc., are one thing but to play this form of Russian Roulette with our lives on a global scale i.e. climate change denial is nothing short of criminal. Perhaps we should be enacting our own BDS movement with a province that denies health to the rest of the country and the world as they practice partisan economics in order to peddle their garbage bitumen. In view of what's happening in England we also need to rise up in civil disobedience in this country with a support of Extinction Rebellion.
From where it sit, zoombats, it seems inevitable that people are going to take to the streets.
.. Alberta Pipelines .. Petro Superpower Is Us !! The hill Albertans are willing to die on..
The great crusade is on ! Jason Kenney, that modern day virginal Joan of Arc has united the self righteous right under one true banner (to be revealed..) Marching christian welders (jobs jobs jobs !) and reluctant TFW welders from anywhere (we are the navvies who work upon the pipeline..) and helpful folk wearing yellow vests who will help guide their celebration.. Its all so 'christian' we salamanders get all chocked up.. feel blessed n holy shucks eh! We also presume massive gouts of money will sprout in the pockets of all Albertans.. and assist in how tar sands workers, fracking workers and conventional oil workers aka the Alberta Economy will 'drive' Canada's economy back into overdrive.. Hell, the concervstive great white stiff Andrew Scheer will fixit in two years.. surplus budgets r us ..
These folks believe it's 1980 again, sal. They believe that what worked for Thatcher and Reagan will work for them. Like all modern conservatives, they will lay down on the track and be run over by the Train From The Future.
Well Owen, that old adage of being able to correct ignorance but unable to fix ignorance is in play here. Jason Kenny could not become Prime Minister of Canada, but he is now the new king of North Texass. It appears the lack of education and greed are the major driving factors of our electorate these days. I mean how else could unsavory characters like Doug Ford, Kenny, Harper and Trump get elected. The Neocons have been very effective in controlling our democratic agenda for the past 40 years. RG
I agree RG. They have been very effective. And it's easy to do, when the folks who cast the votes don't know anything about the people who are behind the scenes pulling the strings.
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