The seeds of Division

Now that the Alberta elections are over and the United Conservative Party (UCP) under Danielle Smith’s leadership has won, we are still arguing about divisiveness in the province. The divide now is not just policy but geography. The large cities are NDP while rural Alberta is UCP. The question is why we have arrived at this point when Alberta used to be seen as a bastion of conservatism.

The socialist NDP has made massive inroads in the two largest cities of Calgary and Edmonton. The provincial capital has always been a bastion of socialism because of the large public sector union. Calgary on the other hand, the oil and gas head quarters was always seen as a strong conservative City.  However, over the years, ethnic enclaves and the election of leftist Mayors have made it difficult for conservatives to find electoral success.

The divisiveness quoted by the media during this electoral campaign, has all been about Danielle Smith and her views over the past twenty years. Her stance against the mandates forced upon us during the Covid pandemic, and her conversation with a convicted pastor was used to portray her as a divisive leader. It seems that in today’s world of politics, personalities trump policies. Attack on Smith were made by the same media and people who supported Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister based on his hair. The media which is supported by millions from the Liberal government is no longer the institution that used to hold politicians’ feet to fire. Instead, today, most of the media tends to be the left’s propaganda machine; so much so that they now mirror the days of the Pravda of the old Soviet Union. I don’t know whether it is jealousy or envy, that one of their own has come back from the political grave and become a political force, but it seems that the media has taken upon itself to try and crucify one of their former colleagues. The vitriol in some columns was thrown at her and her policies during the campaign and even during the evening as the results came in, one CTV reporter on air even said: “we are not seeing the NDP make the gains we were hoping for.”

Division in politics is at the root of the democratic system. Politicians differ on political ideology and therefore policies. This is what makes democracy so endearing. In autocratic states there is no division because there is only one point of view. The issue is that in our democracy today, the left wants compromise when they lose and yet never compromise when they win. The first salvo from the left after the UCP win, is Danielle Smith must work with the two socialist lead cities because she does not have a strong representation. What they mean is that we must accept their views, or we shall oppose you.

Danielle Smith views did not divide the province, the media and academics created the division. In fact I venture to say that her move to the centre help her win. During the campaign much of the lefts attack was about virtue signalling.  The day after the election we can still hear the words of Calgary’s Mayor:“There is no room for hate in a city or province that is slowly recovering from an economic recession that stood to cripple us,” she said, adding homophobic, misogynistic, transphobic and racist views cannot be tolerated” As if  the election was about social issue and not about the bigger picture of economics, provincial sovereignty and leadership. The word racism came up several times in the campaign. The UCP because of a perceived relationship with a group called ‘Take Back Alberta’ has raised some concerns. But what is forgotten in this province seemingly racist in the view of the socialist left is that Calgary had a Muslim Mayor, and an Open Bisexual Councilor who ran for Mayor, Edmonton and Calgary elected two Sikh ethnic minority leaders. The division in politics is straight from Trudeau’s book. He perfected the art of virtue signaling and won two elections, and the media helped him do it, and so they tried but fortunately, in the end it failed in Alberta.

The bigger issue of division is from within the conservative movement. It is unfortunate that too many so-called conservatives decide to shift their votes to the NDP. As a result, many seats were lost or won by very small margins, despite the UCP’s win in popular votes. What is worrying is that even some past conservative leaders like Lee Richardson decided and urged people to vote for the NDP. The idea that Progressive Conservatives were conservatives is quickly being proved to be an oxymoron. Conservatives continue to prove that they can never be as united as the left; they have a cannibalistic culture that is difficult to abandon. This is the main reason for Canada to gradually become a socialist/ communist country. Conservatives are not united as they claim, and we can see the left make inroads in every aspect of our lives: healthcare, education, and most all the economy through their climate change agenda.

What Canadians should be happy is that Danielle Smith and the UCP were winners on May 29^th, 2023, because it will show that there is still a remnant of conservatism that can be built upon to defend the country from Trudeau’s agenda. The media is the enemy of conservatism, citizens are being fed the leftist agenda and cannot make independent decisions because they are no longer exposed to the facts. They just get opinions and political views. The shift to the left in Calgary may have been a matter of trust in the leader, but it was based on misinformation and lack of unbiased reporting.

This Alberta provincial election was a watershed and should be a call to action by conservative leaders across the country. The next federal election will see the same divisive role played by the media and the so-called academics. Divisiveness will come from three fronts, the media, the left with virtue signaling, and most of all from within. Be afraid, be very afraid of the snakes who call themselves conservatives.

 

Do Conservatives want to Win?

 

Recent events in the political world have shown that Conservatives have a long way to start winning elections and form governments. In The United Kingdom we saw the demise of a Prime Minister within weeks of being chosen, in the United States the Republicans have been unable to rest power from the Democrats despite a collapsing economy and many other scandals. Closer to home, Canada has a new opposition conservative leader at the federal level, in Alberta we saw the exit of a conservative leader to be replaced by another, who seems to be having difficulties in expressing and implementing her agenda. The question is why are conservatives so unsuccessful?

When I wrote my book Conservatives: Dead or Alive? I thought that perhaps I had concluded that conservatives would have learned a lesson in the art of political failure. Over the years conservatives have been unable to rest power from the left for very long and they have seen their place in the political arena dwindle. They continue to oppose with no alternative ideas when they are not in power, but when they win, they compromise their principles believing that it will gain them more votes in future to stay in power.

The media has been the left’s greatest ally. It is becoming apparent as events unfold in the United States, that collusion between the media and the left is rampant. Furthermore, as Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter. releases some damaging information about election interference, the public is becoming aware that even the judiciary and security forces are in cahoots with the left. The influence of social media and mainstream media in shaping elections for the left has taken a new life. The bias in the media is so apparent that the public has lost faith in what was supposed to be the last bastion  of oversight, as it has become an arm of a political party supported by government funding in some cases.

Most of all Conservatives never learn from their enemies. Sun Tzu in the Art of War said: “Know thy enemy. Know thyself”. The left has been very adept hat manipulating election rules. They have increased the use of mail in ballots, mobilize their base with the help of many NGOs and Unions. The left has spent massive amounts of taxpayers’ money to fund motherhood and apple pie programs that cannot be easily reversed. They have been able to muzzle dissension using divisive ‘hate laws. Today it is more difficult  for conservatives to express an opinion without being accused of racism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Nazism and other harmful epithets. In effect the left has redefined the definition of freedom of speech. In addition, when in power the left has been able to appoint the judiciary which is favourable to their ideology.

Since it seems that it is an uphill battle for conservatives, what can they do to regain power? The first thing is that they must have good policies based on common sense conservative principles. Conservatives must recognize that their basic role is to protect its citizens, ensure economic growth and defend the freedom of speech. They must stop conservative cannibalism, as they continuously fight each other. The Republicans who just won a majority in the House are still arguing who should be the Speaker. In Alberta conservatives are still fighting who should the leader be, despite the fact that a new one was recently elected.  Leaders come and go; supporters must accept that it is the nature of things to change. When conservatives regain power, they must ensure that elections rules are revised to bring back the integrity of the ballot box. The use of mail in ballots must be reduced to the bare minimum for only special circumstances. Voting hours must be strictly adhered to, with some advance voting in person. We must ensure that the use of technology is for the greater good and not subject to possible fraud.

I just hope that conservatives hire better strategists than their predecessors. In order to gain power, Conservative must most of all take a page from the left, first stick together like glue and next “Do on to others before they do it to you”

The Rise and Fall of elitist Politicians

 

The recent events in Alberta politics and the election of a new leader for the United Conservative Party (UCP) has shown that politician who stay too long and more importantly over promise and under deliver cannot last past their due date. To claim that conservatism is dead is a cope out and a false narrative.

Jason Kenney is a twenty-five-year career politician, who served this country as one of the best Immigration Ministers of all time. So much so that I devoted a whole Chapter about his work in my book Conservatives: Dead or Alive? He took an enormous gamble to leave federal politics to save Alberta from the claws of a socialist Notley government. He achieved to bring the UCP back into government, but along the way, in my opinion he made some mistakes that cost him his position as leader of the party.

To me, some of these decisions were due to circumstances which were out of his control, but some were. He spent a lot of money on trying to get the oil and gas industry back from the death knell of federal regulations. However, he put too much faith in another opportunistic politician Senator Manchin of Virginia and bought a pipeline which was going nowhere for billions of dollars. He also allowed bracket creep into Alberta taxes, while investing a failed project to investigate the involvement of foreign money in the destruction of our energy industry. Then came the Covid pandemic which was outside of his control he allowed too many outside influences to dictate his policies, while presiding on travel, and health scandals within his caucus. While turning a blind eye on some of his caucus behavior, he closed down the province, and arrested pastors and other people who protested against the intransigent Covid laws. In fact he ignore one of the fundamental tenets of conservatism : Freedom. During the pandemic he seemed to have sided more with Ottawa than protected Albertan’s rights to make choices of their own. The Covid decisions, in my view, were the last straws that broke the camel’s back, and an internal revolt saw him calling for a leadership review that handed him a 51% approval and he decided to step down, but not leaving until a new leader was elected. In my opinion, this latest decision was another mistake, which turn many voters to support Danielle Smith.

While the leadership campaign was under way, Kenney proceeded to govern as Premier and spend a lot of money, which came as a complete lucky economic boom caused by the war in Ukraine. The price of oil went up and a surprised surplus came to the rescue of the Alberta economy. The surplus was not the result of fiscal or monetary polices but rather the economic luck of higher oil prices. In his last days he used this windfall to spend on certain programs that should have been part of his government in the first place, albeit with fiscal restraints. Kenney produced some of his best achievements when he had already been voted out as leader, but upon his departure he made some comments that showed how much of a poor loser he had turned into.

Once deposed, he went on TV and gave interviews concerning his departure. The most revealing aspect of his demise according to him was the death of Conservativism which is being replaced by “Populism with a snarl”. His attack on Smith’s plans to use the Alberta a Sovereignty Act (ASA) is based on old style Progressive Conservative principles.  To be clear the ASA states: ““Alberta Sovereignty Act, granting the Alberta legislature absolute discretion to refuse any provincial enforcement of federal legislation or judicial decisions that, in its view, interfere with provincial areas of jurisdiction or constitute an attack on the interests of Albertans.” It does not mean that Supreme Court decisions will be ignored. Many of Smith’s opponents and pundits maintain the ASA may well be unconstitutional, but it resonates with many Albertans that have seen the provincial powers usurped by Ottawa. But if it is defined as populism, it may well be the correct strategy to deal with a Federal government which has for many years disregarded the rights of Alberta to manage its industry that provides so much to Canada’s GDP. The federal government’s clear bias is at the root of Alberta’s stance to have the right to run its affairs. Quebec’s Bill 96 for instance had no blow back from Ottawa, yet many decisions affecting Alberta are deemed subject to the law form Ottawa. Those who claim that the Constitution is being challenged by the ASA, should take a deep breath, and remember that for political reason Ottawa continuously favors Eastern Provinces, and Quebec to the detriment of others. Is Canada still a confederation with equal Provincial rights? Some will say not, hence the proposed use of the Alberta Sovereignty Act.

Where Kenney’s gripes against both Smith and newly elected Canada’s Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre fail, is that he seems to ignore what populism means and why it came to the fore of politics in Canada and other countries. By definition: “Populism is a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.” It is exactly the desire for people to be heard instead of being led by career politicians like Kenney that resulted in populism. True conservatism had long disappeared in Canadian politics when the party became Progressive Conservative which in my view meant more closely related to Liberalism. As Canadian Liberals under Trudeau moved towards socialism, it is clear many voters who felt that they were no longer heard turned to populism and are shifting to Poilievre. In Alberta, Kenney’s failure to govern as a true conservative, which I really believe he is, resulted in Smith’s resurrection as a leader in Alberta. If there is a fear that conservatism is dying in Canada and being replaced by populism, politicians should look in the mirror. The reason for the shift results from the inability of career politicians to listen to their constituents. Career politicians with 25 years in office tend to become set in their ways and too often become arrogant and claim to have all the answers. One more reason for my insistence that we should have term limits. Career politician who are rejected by their constituents should not blame a shift in ideology, they should blame themselves, I just hope that the election of both Poilievre and Smith bring a wakeup call to real conservatives and that they should compromise on process but never compromise their conservative principles. They should both listen to their constituents or face the wrath of the people and shown the door like some of their failed predecessors.

 

Marcel Latouche
former President & CEO of IPSA