After weeks of out of control COVID-19 case numbers, rising hospitalizations and deaths, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney finally imposed a lockdown last week.
But why did it take him so long?
Why did he keep harping on about the importance of personal freedom when it was clear that business as usual meant Alberta had the highest number of active COVID-19 cases in Canada?
The answer no doubt lies in Kenney’s particular mixture of political and religious beliefs.
He is a master political strategist. So much so that it is hard to imagine him ever dropping that mindset even when circumstances call for something much more humane and practical. After all, it was his genius at political strategy that led him back to Alberta after serving in Stephen Harper’s cabinet and uniting the bickering Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties into the United Conservative Party, which then proceeded to defeat the NDP government.
All in all, it took Kenney three years to accomplish his goal of returning conservatives to power in Alberta. He never let up and seemed to be a 24/7 perpetual political machine.
But his UCP caucus is decidedly more to the right and rural than the former PCs and he fears that many of them, and some UCP voters, will bolt the UCP for more reactionary parties, such as the new Wildrose Independence Party, and the conservative vote will split again.
So Kenney played to that wing of the UCP, people who insisted they were safe in small communities and didn’t need to wear masks or close down restaurants and bars, even though COVID-19 case numbers were rising in all parts of the province.
For Kenney, political strategy is always top of mind.
Underneath the political skin there’s a fierce attachment to certain religious beliefs. Kenney’s a conservative Catholic and these days there’s not much daylight between conservative Catholics and the Evangelical denominations in the U.S. that have gained so much political power.
As a young MP Kenney fit right in with Reform Leader Preston Manning, an avowed Evangelical, who based much of his party’s platform on deeply held religious beliefs.
For young Kenney had long hewed to the dogmas of the Christian right: anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-public schools, and resistance to the science of climate change.
Underlying these positions is a theology that emphasizes the importance of personal liberty to a personal relationship with Jesus. In “Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America,” authors Michael Emerson and Christian Smith concluded after an extensive survey and personal interviews with 200 Evangelicals that Evangelicals believe that invoking social structures as the cause of societal problems (such as racism or a raging pandemic) shifts blame from where it belongs: with sinful individuals who must take personal responsibility for their actions.
Alberta is not more religious than the rest of the country. In fact, Census data shows that Albertans are more likely than the rest of the country to profess no religion.
But there is a strong and active conservative Christian core.
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms is based in Calgary and has been leading the fight, mostly on behalf of particular Christian denominations, against COVID-19 restrictions.
Its president, John Carpay, is a conservative Catholic lawyer who has moved in the same politic circles as Kenney for years and was at the forefront of the campaign against gay-straight alliances in schools. It was no coincidence that the first legislation introduced by the new UCP government rescinded NDP legislation that protected the privacy of students who joined GSAs.
Carpay recently addressed an antimask rally in Calgary and has filed legal actions on behalf of the JCCF that challenge lockdown measures in both Alberta and Manitoba on the grounds that they impinge on religious freedom.
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It would seem Kenney was stuck between a rock and a hard place. His right wing criticized him for coming down too hard. But polls also showed that the majority of Albertans wanted more restrictions.
He clung to an ideology and a theology of freedom as long as he could. But in the face of a raging pandemic it eventually didn’t make sense.
Especially given what we know about Jesus because he surely would have cared more about the sick and dying.
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.
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.
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.
