David Parker’s bespectacled eyes widened as the leader of Take Back Alberta told fellow political activists what will go down at the United Conservative Party’s annual convention this weekend.
It’s different from what most traditional politicos will say is happening at Calgary’s BMO Centre — a political schmoozefest where members get to clap thundersticks for leader Danielle Smith, get tipsy at hospitality suites and choose the party apparatchiks who manage fundraising dollars and help constituency associations file documents on time.
Parker sees it in more revolutionary terms.
He sees this as a chance to elect an “absolute majority” of the UCP board, loyal to his movement and its beliefs.
‘Control your politicians’
Parker has taken credit for helping drive Albertans to channel their anger with COVID rules into toppling former premier Jason Kenney, replacing him with Danielle Smith, and electing like-minded conservatives to form half the UCP board at the annual general meeting last fall. He’s among the organizers who encouraged 3,725 Albertans to attend this weekend’s event, largely to finish with the other half of board posts.
But the charismatic Parker has lately tried to shake accusations that he’s a wannabe puppetmaster, rather than a great empowerer of the grassroots. “I don’t want to control the premier; I’m not interested in that,” he told a crowd in the small town of Taber, Alta., last month. “I want you to control your politicians. I want the people to be the ones who are in charge.”
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The attendees at the Take Back Alberta events Parker has held around the province are galvanized by continued fights against the threat of mask mandates or any threats to their personal liberties, and more lately by the fight for “parental rights” when it comes to transgender kids. Those voting for UCP president at the AGM will also get to vote on several policy resolutions about things like student pronouns and medical freedoms.
On the convention’s eve, Parker struck an even more determined tone on social media.
“After this AGM, the grassroots of the UCP will be in charge,” he wrote Thursday night. “Those who do not listen to the grassroots or attempt to thwart their involvement in the decision-making process, will be removed from power.”
But if there’s a “control” mentality that much of those record throngs bring to the United Conservative AGM, political veterans have a warning for them:
Parties don’t work that way.
Delegates listen to UCP Leader Danielle Smith at the 2022 party AGM. (Jason Markusoff/CBC)
“The reality of modern politics is that the influence of the elected board is overstated, or not that significant,” says David Yager, the president of the Wildrose party when Smith led it a decade ago.
These were thankless tasks to run party operations, especially outside of election periods — it was administrative, technical governance fodder, and nobody wanted the jobs.
“You didn’t go to the bathroom in the middle of a meeting because you came back in and you discovered you were president,” Yager quipped.
That couldn’t be farther from the excitement buzzing around Danielle Smith’s party in 2023. Local UCP groups and Take Back Alberta have hosted multiple candidate forums for posts like vice-president of communications and south regional director. Other activists have made candidate interview videos.
It stems from misinformation about how much the boards matter, says Dustin Franks, who was a Calgary director of the party until being swept out by the so-called “freedom movement” last fall.
“It’s like a dog who (chases and) finally gets the bumper off a car, and then they’re like, I don’t know what to do now,” Franks told CBC News. “What is their movement trying to accomplish apart from taking over a board?”
It’s those policy issues, like residual COVID frustration, that animate many of the new UCPers. Joanny Liu, is a traditional Chinese medical doctor who helped lead “freedom rallies” in Calgary during the pandemic, and is now running for UCP secretary.
“It’s really important to press our MLAs to bring all those policies, the best ones, into law,” Liu told a Take Back gathering last week at a northeast Calgary hotel.
An organizer of past Calgary rallies against vaccine mandates and COVID rules is running for secretary of the UCP. (Helen Pike/CBC)
As much as most party leaders like to say they listen to the grassroots, there’s normally tension between the decision-makers and the mere party card-carriers.
Kenney initially wooed United Conservatives with promises of a “grassroots guarantee” that he’d carry forth their wishes.
But that willingness hit a wall in 2018, when the members at the first UCP convention voted to require parents to be notified if students enrol in a school gay-straight alliance. Not wanting to let the NDP make hay on a socially divisive issue, Kenney rejected that resolution, saying “I hold the pen on the platform.”
Federally, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is similarly grappling with his party members’ recent proposal to ban medical interventions for transgender youth.
Although Smith is generally as driven as this part of the UCP base is on loathing pandemic restrictions, her personal convictions cut against the conservative trend to, as she puts it, “politicize” the situations of transgender or transitioning youth.
At last year’s AGM, members overwhelmingly supported a resolution demanding that government protect the rights of parents “so as not to require them to affirm or socially condition a child in a gender identity that is incongruent with the child’s birth sex” — but Smith and her cabinet effectively ignored that wish.
It could be different this time, with so many people excited to attend this convention and vote for executives and policy ideas.
Jack Redekop, who’s running for the presidency, has promised that his party executive would demand twice-yearly reports from the UCP leader on how they’re implementing party policy.
Even though many members misunderstand the party board’s ability to get policies approved, they will expect to see action from the premier, says fellow presidential contender Rob Smith. “If they don’t, there will probably be some pushback.”
Premier Jason Kenney was forced out of the leadership of the UCP by activists in Alberta’s ‘freedom movement’ who were angered by the province’s COVID public health rules. (Dave Chidley/The Canadian Press)
This base, after all, turfed Kenney for going against its wishes on pandemic rules, and Rob Smith and Redekop are both folk heroes in many circles for being two of the UCP riding presidents who challenged the ex-premier’s leadership.
But these conservatives appear solidly behind Danielle Smith.
Parker praises Smith as a freedom fighter, but sounded his own caution this week on a UCP channel on the social media app Telegram. “The freedom movement cannot be her friends,” he wrote. “They must hold her accountable.”
It’s not clear how much the premier is quietly trying to stage-manage the outcomes of this convention, as leaders often do. Her Saturday speech to the convention crowd, and her reaction to the resolutions voted on later that day, may help shape how much pushback there really is.
Even if Smith is able to successfully shrug off controversial party resolutions like others have, a more activist core of party directors could steer Alberta’s governing party in different directions. The stuff a board does do matters: they’ll wield control over fundraising messages, candidate nominations, and can frame the conditions around a leadership review — which, if one convention resolution passes, would take place next year.
New guard, old guard
There has been reported friction between the new crop of members and Kenney-era establishment members on the board — including outgoing president Cynthia Moore, whom Parker has called a “power-hungry tyrant.”
Insiders say it’s wrong to consider the TBA-aligned members of the board as drones willing to carry out the wishes of Parker or the freedom movement. But they risk causing headaches for a leader who will naturally want to assert her own, ahem, control over the party.
“They don’t always know what’s good for her and what’s going to hurt her,” says one United Conservative familiar with party matters.
TBA isn’t endorsing anybody this year, though other groups have, including the pro-independence Alberta Prosperity Project. The preferred choices for president in the “freedom” crowd are Redekop and Rob Smith, against small-town newspaper owner Ruven Rajoo and Rick Orman, an Alberta cabinet minister in the 1980s who’s been active in provincial conservative politics ever since.
Some activists view Orman’s long resume as a negative, and argue that he’s too much of an establishment man. His pitch at debates is more focused on building a party machine that can defeat the NDP next election, rather than grassroots engagement and changing government policy.
As his way of downplaying the importance of a UCP president in the policy-making food chain, Orman is fond of saying: while more than 3,000 Albertans casting ballots for the UCP board is high by party AGM standards, close to one million voted for Danielle Smith as premier.
At the same time, however, while most Albertans can’t weigh in on her leadership until the 2027 general election, that smaller group will get their say sooner.
EDMONTON – Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government’s $8.6-billion plan to fast-track building new schools will include a pilot project to incentivize private ones.
Smith said the ultimate goal is to create thousands of new spaces for an exploding number of new students at a reduced cost to taxpayers.
“We want to put all of the different school options on the same level playing field,” Smith told a news conference in Calgary Wednesday.
Smith did not offer details about how much private school construction costs might be incentivized, but said she wants to see what independent schools might pitch.
“We’re putting it out there as a pilot to see if there is any interest in partnering on the same basis that we’ll be building the other schools with the different (public) school boards,” she said.
Smith made the announcement a day after she announced the multibillion-dollar school build to address soaring numbers of new students.
By quadrupling the current school construction budget to $8.6 billion, the province aims to offer up 30 new schools each year, adding 50,000 new student spaces within three years.
The government also wants to build or expand five charter school buildings per year, starting in next year’s budget, adding 12,500 spaces within four years.
Currently, non-profit independent schools can get some grants worth about 70 per cent of what students in public schools receive per student from the province.
However, those grants don’t cover major construction costs.
John Jagersma, executive director of the Association of Independent Schools and Colleges of Alberta, said he’s interested in having conversations with the government about incentives.
He said the province has never directly funded major capital costs for their facilities before, and said he doesn’t think the association has ever asked for full capital funding.
He said community or religious groups traditionally cover those costs, but they can help take the pressure off the public or separate systems.
“We think we can do our part,” Jagersma said.
Dennis MacNeil, head of the Public School Boards Association of Alberta, said they welcome the new funding, but said money for private school builds would set a precedent that could ultimately hurt the public system.
“We believe that the first school in any community should be a public school, because only public schools accept all kids that come through their doors and provide programming for them,” he said.
Jason Schilling, president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association, said if public dollars are going to be spent on building private schools, then students in the public system should be able to equitably access those schools.
“No other province spends as much money on private schools as Alberta does, and it’s at the detriment of public schools, where over 90 per cent of students go to school,” he said.
Schilling also said the province needs about 5,000 teachers now, but the government announcement didn’t offer a plan to train and hire thousands more over the next few years.
Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi on Tuesday praised the $8.6 billion as a “generational investment” in education, but said private schools have different mandates and the result could be schools not being built where they are needed most.
“Using that money to build public schools is more efficient, it’s smarter, it’s faster, and it will serve students better,” Nenshi said.
Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides’ office declined to answer specific questions about the pilot project Wednesday, saying it’s still under development.
“Options and considerations for making capital more affordable for independent schools are being explored,” a spokesperson said. “Further information on this program will be forthcoming in the near future.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
OTTAWA – Health Minister Mark Holland urged a committee of senators Wednesday not to tweak the pharmacare bill he carefully negotiated with the NDP earlier this year.
The bill would underpin a potential national, single-payer pharmacare program and allow the health minister to negotiate with provinces and territories to cover some diabetes and contraceptive medications.
It was the result of weeks of political negotiations with the New Democrats, who early this year threatened to pull out of their supply-and-confidence deal with the Liberals unless they could agree on the wording.
“Academics and experts have suggested amendments to this bill to most of us here, I think,” Independent Senator Rosemary Moodie told Holland at a meeting of the Senate’s social affairs committee.
Holland appeared before the committee as it considers the bill. He said he respects the role of the Senate, but that the pharmacare legislation is, in his view, “a little bit different.”
“It was balanced on a pinhead,” he told the committee.
“This is by far — and I’ve been involved in a lot of complex things — the most difficult bit of business I’ve ever been in. Every syllable, every word in this bill was debated and argued over.”
Holland also asked the senators to move quickly to pass the legislation, to avoid lending credence to Conservative critiques that the program is a fantasy.
When asked about the Liberals’ proposed pharmacare program for diabetes and birth control, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has often responded that the program isn’t real. Once the legislation is passed, the minister must negotiate with every provincial government to actually administer the program, which could take many months.
“If we spend a long time wordsmithing and trying to make the legislation perfect, then the criticism that it’s not real starts to feel real for people, because they don’t actually get drugs, they don’t get an improvement in their life,” Holland told the committee.
He told the committee that one of the reasons he signed a preliminary deal with his counterpart in British Columbia was to help answer some of the Senate’s questions about how the program would work in practice.
The memorandum of understanding between Ottawa and B.C. lays out how to province will use funds from the pharmacare bill to expand on its existing public coverage of contraceptives to include hormone replacement therapy to treat menopausal symptoms.
The agreement isn’t binding, and Holland would still need to formalize talks with the province when and if the Senate passes the bill based on any changes the senators decide to make.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia’s NDP are accusing the government of prioritizing landlords over residents who need an affordable place to live, as the opposition party tables a bill aimed at addressing the housing crisis.
NDP Leader Claudia Chender took aim at the Progressive Conservatives Wednesday ahead of introducing two new housing bills, saying the government “seems to be more focused on helping wealthy developers than everyday families.”
The Minister of Service Nova Scotia has said the government’s own housing legislation will “balance” the needs of tenants and landlords by extending the five per cent cap on rent until the end of 2027. But critics have called the cap extension useless because it allows landlords to raise rents past five per cent on fixed-term leases as long as property owners sign with a new renter.
Chender said the rules around fixed-term leases give landlords the “financial incentive to evict,” resulting in more people pushed into homelessness. She also criticized the part of the government bill that will permit landlords to issue eviction notices after three days of unpaid rent instead of 15.
The Tories’ housing bill, she said, represents a “shocking admission from this government that they are more concerned with conversations around landlord profits … than they are about Nova Scotians who are trying to find a home they can afford.”
The premier’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Also included in the government’s new housing legislation are clearer conditions for landlords to end a tenancy, such as criminal behaviour, disturbing fellow tenants, repeated late rental payments and extraordinary damage to a unit. It will also prohibit tenants from subletting units for more than they are paying.
The first NDP bill tabled Wednesday would create a “homelessness task force” to gather data to try to prevent homelessness, and the second would set limits on evictions during the winter and for seniors who meet income eligibility requirements for social housing and have lived in the same home for more than 10 years.
The NDP has previously tabled legislation that would create a $500 tax credit for renters and tie rent control to housing units instead of the individual.
Earlier this week landlords defended the use of the contentious fixed-term leases, saying they need to have the option to raise rent higher than five per cent to maintain their properties and recoup costs. Landlord Yarviv Gadish, who manages three properties in the Halifax area, called the use of fixed-term leases “absolutely essential” in order to keep his apartments presentable and to get a return on his investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
