Alarmed by the vitriol of May’s Alberta election, founders of a new Alberta political party want to curtail the extremism in politics and society.
Len Olson, leader of the Albertans Against Extremism Party, said the party offers a moderate home to Alberta voters on the right of the political spectrum.
“We kept hearing that a lot of people voted (United Conservative Party) but they didn’t know what else to do,” said the lifelong Conservative. “They’ve always been a conservative, they didn’t like the right-wing end of it, and I call it ‘plugging your nose and voting.’ ”
On May 29, Premier Danielle Smith’s UCP formed a majority government, winning 49 seats in the Alberta legislature to the NDP’s 38.
Olson said he’s tired of divisive politics, where opposing parties’ ideas are always “terrible.”
“Our slogan is to bring reality back to politics, where policy is getting done as compared to fighting,” he said, adding X (formerly Twitter) is full of hateful comments.
Albertans Against Extremism Party does have an X account, as well as an email address, info@albertansagainstextremism.ca, and a website under development.
The Albertans Against Extremism Party is working toward becoming an official party, having reserved the name and continuing to gather signatures. The party needs the names and signatures of 8,473 eligible electors and, without a lot of effort, the party has a quarter of the required signatures in two and a half weeks, said Olson. The party hopes to gather all the needed signatures by the end of 2023.
“Our support has been higher than what we thought,” Olson said, based on word of mouth and without advertising.
The party wants to run a full slate of candidates in the next provincial election.
“Without a full gamut, you can’t really call yourself a provincial party if you only cherry-pick the places where you’re going to run,” said Olson.
Olson plans to take the party through to the next provincial election and then assess the situation.
“I’m not here saying, ‘I’m ready for the victory parade because I’ll become premier,’ because that’s not a realistic goal,” he said. “Our goal is to make change, hopefully be able to get some seats so we can be involved in the conversation.”
Albertans Against Extremism plans to put out its platform next week, but Olson said his party is against the UCP’s proposed Alberta pension plan.
“We believe it’s bad for Albertans,” he said.
On controversial issues such as abortion, Olson, as premier, would allow his MLAs a free vote, based off the views in their riding and their own personal beliefs.
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.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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