Politics

Colby Cosh: Following Alberta election, Prairie politics now firmly anti-Ottawa

Published

1 year ago

May 30, 2023

=The new Prairie party system, pathologically disconnected from the political authority of Ottawa, may be as significant a development as Danielle Smith’s win

United Conservative Party Leader Danielle Smith, top, and NDP Leader Rachel Notley hold rallies in the lead-up to Monday’s provincial election in Alberta. Photo by Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press; Todd Korol/Reuters

EDMONTON — Alberta’s 2023 election provides the setup for some good tricky trivia questions. Lemme play Alex Trebek for you: what party finished third in the election? Congratulations to the Alberta Green Party, which got all of 14,085 votes among the 1.7-million-plus cast; some reporter will be along any minute now to try to turn it into Cinderella. But it goes without saying that if you’re finishing behind the Green party in an Alberta election, you’ve got problems.

So which party finished fourth? That would be our old friends from the centrist-vapourware Alberta Party (AP), whose support declined from about 172,000 to 12,715. Yikes. You may have noticed that the Alberta New Democrats’ vote count rose by 157,000 from 2019, and the party made the best of a disappointing night by talking excitedly about all the people who voted NDP for the first time. The mathematical coincidence here suggests that many or most of these dewy virgins weren’t disillusioned Jason Kenney voters, but just cranky Red Tories who were never on board with the United Conservative Party project in the first place and who had dallied with the AP in ’19.

(The high-profile “ex-Conservatives” who rallied noisily behind the NDP and Rachel Notley in the late days of the campaign were people who almost certainly voted AP last time, and who wouldn’t brake for Jason Kenney in a crosswalk if he was pushing a stroller with twins.)

Which party finished fifth, you ask with bated breath. That would be the separatist Independence Party of Alberta, which demonstrated the enduring strength of Canadian federalism by collecting a measly 5,181 votes. Sixth place, whatever crummy metal you make that medallion from, went to Artur Pawlowski’s Solidarity Movement of Alberta (4,812 votes). Anybody further down the list than this is getting outpolled by a wacko street preacher, which means seventh place must have gone to, you guessed it, the ancient and dignified Alberta Liberals (4,282 votes). The party that created Alberta was lucky to hold onto seventh ahead of the die-hard Wildrose Loyalty Coalition (4,256 votes, with some recounts assuredly pending).

That’s all an annoyingly elliptical way of saying that Monday night’s Alberta election might have been the purest, clearest two-party choice to have come about anywhere in Canada in 100 years. (Even in Saskatchewan in 2020, there were minor parties that collected not one but two per cent of the vote share.) The development of politics on the Prairies has reached its full westernized form: elections are to be contested for the foreseeable future out here between the descendants of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (founded in Regina in 1933) and the descendants of the Reform party (founded in Winnipeg in 1987).

Foreign organs such as “Progressive Conservatives” and “Liberals” need not seek friends west of the lakehead. We’re informed that there is a national party called the “New Democrats,” but if you ask Rachel Notley about it, she’ll say they have nothing to do with the Alberta version and that she doesn’t even, like, talk to those weirdos. And who can blame her?

This new Prairie party system, pathologically disconnected from the political authority of Ottawa, may be as significant a development as the headline outcome of the election (by the way, the Conservatives won). Even in British Columbia, the provincial Liberals finally ditched their awkward branding this spring, becoming “B.C. United” (and possibly turning into a soccer team — editor, please check). The Saskatchewan Liberals did the same thing, with the new name still TBA, and their morbid New Democrats are openly hostile to Jagmeet Singh’s federal NDP. Only pride and dim memories of St. Tommy Douglas keep them from reinventing themselves as Saskatchewan Now or some such.

There is now a large section of the country whose citizens, even the ones strongly oriented toward Liberal political ideals, look to the federal government and recoil in sick horror at its managerial abilities. That’s a new thing in Canada, a passive accomplishment of the federal Liberals. You might enter a hospital out West with some trepidation, but you know it’s not going to be run as poorly as our military procurement or Aboriginal governance or the RCMP or passports and aviation.

Grotesque economic atavisms that would obviously benefit from liberalization (telecom policy, food-supply management) don’t get liberalized by Liberals; they’re too busy raging against “assault rifles” and putting the CRTC in charge of the internet. National sentiment remains very strong in the West, but everything federal carries a stench of incompetence, swindling and hipster moralizing, and the political scene now reflects this distinction.

National Post
Twitter.com/colbycosh

Source link

Politics

NDP caving to Poilievre on carbon price, has no idea how to fight climate change: PM

Published

14 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.

Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.

On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.

Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.

Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.

British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

Source link

Politics

Quebec consumer rights bill to regulate how merchants can ask for tips

Published

2 days ago

September 12, 2024

Anne Joseph

Quebec wants to curb excessive tipping.

Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.

That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.

The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.

And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.

Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.

Source link

Politics

Youri Chassin quits CAQ to sit as Independent, second member to leave this month

Published

2 days ago

September 12, 2024

Anne Joseph

Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.

He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.

In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.

Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.

He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.

Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.

He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.

Source link