Politics

Braid: UCP candidate Schulz calls for end to 'arrogant, entitled, out-of-touch' politics – Calgary Herald

Published

2 years ago

July 23, 2022

The former children’s services minister has no time for declarations of Alberta sovereignty and says Danielle Smith’s platform is ‘a car crash waiting to happen’

Author of the article:

Don Braid • Calgary Herald

Publishing date:

Jul 22, 2022 • 17 hours ago • 3 minute read • 20 Comments

Rebecca Schulz speaks during a news conference in Edmonton on April 21, 2020. Chris Schwarz/Government of Alberta

Calgary MLA Rebecca Schulz, former children’s services minister, has no time for declarations of Alberta sovereignty.

“Danielle Smith’s approach and platform is a car crash waiting to happen,” says the UCP leadership hopeful. “It would get the NDP elected in 2023, no question.”

Schulz, 37, was formally accepted as a candidate Friday after her interview with the party screening committee. She joins Rajan Sawhney, Brian Jean, Travis Toews and Smith on that list, with more to come.

Candidates could still drop out if they don’t submit a second payment of $50,000 by July 29. Schulz doesn’t expect that problem.

She says she’s running as a common-sense choice who will look for solutions rather than headlines. She points to her record as the children’s services minister who negotiated a landmark child-care deal with Ottawa.

That’s the kind of thing Albertans want, she says, not more UCP fighting and drama.

“Too many people see us as arrogant, entitled, out of touch, and not listening to regular Albertans, or even our own party members,” she says.

“I hear every day that people are tired of the drama in politics. I get it.

“The Twitter wars, the entitlement, the policies that create chaos and division. I don’t have time for that.

“People don’t want to hear about humility — they’d like to actually see some humility (from) a government that can admit when it makes mistakes.

“We can’t just have the status quo. We can’t do things the way we’ve been doing them for the last three years.

“Enough with the old boy’s club and the infighting. I don’t have time for that.”

She’s talking about the Jason Kenney regime she served. Schulz doesn’t criticize fellow candidate Travis Toews, but he’s the one who carries the legacy banner, with 30 UCP members supporting him.

Schulz has eight key endorsements, three from women: MLA Michaela Frey (Brooks-Medicine Hat), MP Stephanie Kusie (Calgary Midnapore) and MP Laila Goodridge, formerly the Fort McMurray provincial member whose resignation to run federally opened the legislature door for Brian Jean.

Calgary MLA and UCP leadership candidate Rebecca Schulz photographed with her family.

She also has backing from MLAs Jeremy Nixon (Calgary-Klein), Brad Rutherford (Leduc-Beaumont) and Health Minister Jason Copping (Calgary-Varsity).

Her campaign chair is Rona Ambrose, the federal Conservative icon who was interim leader after the Harper government was defeated in 2015. (There’s an irony in that; Ambrose backed Kenney for the PC leadership and then the drive to unite with Wildrose.)

Schulz is also endorsed by former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall.

Toews has the lion’s share of the old Kenney caucus, but Schulz has reach of her own in the conservative world.

She got her first political experience working in Wall’s office in 2009.

“These are my conservative mentors,” she says of Wall and Ambrose.

“Theirs is the leadership style I would aspire to, about hope and common sense.

“People are dying for common sense from a government that hears their concerns and can put itself in their shoes.”

Schulz feels Danielle Smith would hurt the UCP in next year’s general election.

“We have to keep the NDP out of government. That happens with common sense policies, getting our internal house in order, and presenting Alberta with a vision of hope for the future.

“It does not mean creating a constitutional crisis nine months before an election with the Sovereignty Act.

“If you want more of the same-old same-old, or even more chaos, then maybe I’m not your candidate. But if you’re interested in fresh leadership that will see this generation and the next reach our full potential, then support me.”

Schulz feels the key concerns for most people are health care, education, rural and urban crime and safety, inflation and affordability, and the future of the energy industry.

She offers a fiscal plan for saving and debt repayment. On Friday she released a detailed health plan promising every Albertan access to a family doctor.

Rebecca Schulz positions herself as both a counter-Kenney candidate and a sharp critic of Smith’s dramatic proposals.

She’s going for the centre. It could work — if there still is a centre in Alberta conservative politics.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

Twitter: @Don Braid

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Politics

RFK Jr. says Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water. ‘It’s possible,’ Trump says

Published

14 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

PHOENIX (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent proponent of debunked public health claims whom Donald Trump has promised to put in charge of health initiatives, said Saturday that Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water on his first day in office if elected president.

Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.

Kennedy made the declaration Saturday on the social media platform X alongside a variety of claims about the heath effects of fluoride.

“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” Kennedy wrote. Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, “want to Make America Healthy Again,” he added, repeating a phrase Trump often uses and links to Kennedy.

Trump told NBC News on Sunday that he had not spoken to Kennedy about fluoride yet, “but it sounds OK to me. You know it’s possible.”

The former president declined to say whether he would seek a Cabinet role for Kennedy, a job that would require Senate confirmation, but added, “He’s going to have a big role in the administration.”

Asked whether banning certain vaccines would be on the table, Trump said he would talk to Kennedy and others about that. Trump described Kennedy as “a very talented guy and has strong views.”

The sudden and unexpected weekend social media post evoked the chaotic policymaking that defined Trump’s White House tenure, when he would issue policy declarations on Twitter at virtually all hours. It also underscored the concerns many experts have about Kennedy, who has long promoted debunked theories about vaccine safety, having influence over U.S. public health.

In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later. Though fluoride can come from a number of sources, drinking water is the main source for Americans, researchers say.

Officials lowered their recommendation for drinking water fluoride levels in 2015 to address a tooth condition called fluorosis, that can cause splotches on teeth and was becoming more common in U.S. kids.

In August, a federal agency determined “with moderate confidence” that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. The National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water.

A federal judge later cited that study in ordering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen cautioned that it’s not certain that the amount of fluoride typically added to water is causing lower IQ in kids, but he concluded that mounting research points to an unreasonable risk that it could be. He ordered the EPA to take steps to lower that risk, but didn’t say what those measures should be.

In his X post Saturday, Kennedy tagged Michael Connett, the lead attorney representing the plaintiff in that lawsuit, the environmental advocacy group Food & Water Watch.

Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization has a lawsuit pending against news organizations including The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy is on leave from the group but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.

What role Kennedy might hold if Trump wins on Tuesday remains unclear. Kennedy recently told NewsNation that Trump asked him to “reorganize” agencies including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and some agencies under the Department of Agriculture.

But for now, the former independent presidential candidate has become one of Trump’s top surrogates. Trump frequently mentions having the support of Kennedy, a scion of a Democratic dynasty and the son of former Attorney General Robert Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy.

Kennedy traveled with Trump Friday and spoke at his rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin.

Trump said Saturday that he told Kennedy: “You can work on food, you can work on anything you want” except oil policy.

“He wants health, he wants women’s health, he wants men’s health, he wants kids, he wants everything,” Trump added.

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Politics

Danielle Smith receives overwhelming support at United Conservative Party convention

Published

14 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

Danielle Smith receives overwhelming support at United Conservative Party convention

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Politics

America’s Election: What it Means to Canadians

Published

2 days ago

November 2, 2024

Steven Kaszab

Americans and Canadians are cousins that is true. Allies today but long ago people were at loggerheads mostly because of the British Empire and American ambitions.

Canadians appreciate our cousins down south enough to visit them many millions of times over the year. America is Canada’s largest and most important trading partner. As a manufacturer, I can attest to this personally. My American clients have allowed our firm to grow and prosper over the past few decades. There is a problem we have been seeing, a problem where nationalism, both political and economic has been creating a roadblock to our trade relationship.

Both Democrats and Republicans have shown a willingness to play the “buy only American Made product” card, a sounding board for all things isolationist, nationalistic and small-mindedness. We all live on this small planet, and purchase items made from all over the world. Preferences as to what to buy and where it is made are personal choices, never should they become a platform of national pride and thuggery. This has brought fear into the hearts of many Canadians who manufacture for and service the American Economy in some way. This fear will be apparent when the election is over next week.

Canadians are not enemies of America, but allies and friends with a long tradition of supporting our cousins back when bad sh*t happens. We have had enough of the American claim that they want free trade, only to realize that they do so long as it is to their benefit. Tariffs, and undue regulations applied to exporters into America are applied, yet American industry complains when other nations do the very same to them. Seriously! Democrats have said they would place a preference upon doing business with American firms before foreign ones, and Republicans wish to tariff many foreign nations into oblivion. Rhetoric perhaps, but we need to take these threats seriously. As to you the repercussions that will come should America close its doors to us.

Tit for tat neighbors. Tariff for tariff, true selfish competition with no fear of the American Giant. Do you want to build homes in America? Over 33% of all wood comes from Canada. Tit for tat. Canada’s mineral wealth can be sold to others and place preference upon the highest bidder always. You know who will win there don’t you America, the deep-pocketed Chinese.

Reshaping our alliances with others. If America responds as has been threatened, Canadians will find ways to entertain themselves elsewhere. Imagine no Canadian dollars flowing into the Northern States, Florida or California? The Big Apple without its friendly Maple Syrup dip. Canadians will realize just how significant their spending is to America and use it to our benefit, not theirs.

Clearly we will know if you prefer Canadian friendship to Donald Trumps Bravado.

China, Saudi Arabia & Russia are not your friends in America. Canada, Japan, Taiwan the EU and many other nations most definitely are. Stop playing politics, and carry out business in an unethical fashion. Treat allies as they should be treated.

Steven Kaszab
Bradford, Ontario
skaszab@yahoo.ca