Thread by @AndersonBooz

1/ Why would a Premier refuse to fire a speechwriter found to have expressed racist views?

#abpoli wants to know. Certainly @abndpcaucus does. But if they stop and think about who the speechwriter is, what his earlier career was, they might come to some conclusions themselves.

2/ A Premier who has swiftly plummeted in popularity and has as many skeletons in mom's basement as @jkenney doesn't want to offend his base.

But let's be clear: we have an imported Premier who fairly recently identified as an Ontario Conservative. He has stocked his staff with

3/ peculiarly unqualified and incompetent communications people, several from other provinces. And they really don't seem to know, or care to know, anything about Albertans.

But there's the speechwriter. And he's been here a long time. Not only that: he was part of the Byfield

4/ middle-Alberta Conservative Christian-when-it-suited-them outfit.

What Kenney lacks in Alberta provincial Conservative bonafides, his speechwriter has. His speechwriter is connected to AB Conservative bigwigs, and he almost makes Kenney sound like an Albertan. Compared to

5/ some of the other poorly trained comms folks being overpaid by Kenney - the geologist from MB, the yoga instructor, the PoliSci BAs with revolving door résumés - the speechwriter is gold for Kenney. He makes Kenney seem like he BELONGS here.

The other party leaders don't have

6/ the same challenge. They aren't surrounded by failures from ON, SK, MB.

So a Premier and his Twitter troll issues manager will do the math. Try to brazen out the racism because central AB won't care? Fire the well-connected speechwriter?

It wouldn't have occurred to them to

7/ vet the speechwriter. I mean, look at that résumé!

I didn't know about the racist writings. But people do remember other antics of the Byfields and of Bunner from 20+ years ago.

Maybe if Kenney had been paying attention to Alberta then, he wouldn't be in this pickle now.

8/ If I were Kenney and The Matts, I'd be spending the weekend doing the vetting they didn't do before. And if they're wise, they'll start realizing that comms staffing mustn't be based on political ideology. It has to be based on competence and integrity.

If they can find

o/ competent professionals willing to engage in #UCPcorruption.

To fire Bunner would be to cast Kenney as Katisha in the racist operetta The Mikado. After learning of the execution (fake) of the scheming KoKo, Katisha wails "But where will I find another? Where?"

Where indeed.

PS Dang. It was after they fake-killed Nanki-Poo, not KoKo. Which makes it even better, because Nanki-Poo was the heir apparent.masquerading as a lowly speechwr...um, troubadour.

You'd think I'd get that one right without looking it up.

It was KoKo who was supposed to have DONE the execution.

I think the last time I played KoKo might have been in Cardston in the 1980s. And Pooh-Bah for Edmonton Opera in the 1990s.

And, a case could be made that the satirical Mikado is actually commenting ON the racism expressed by the orientalist bent in operas of the day. It's full of self-mockery.