It’s that time again - governance policy! #UCPAGM2020
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Seems I missed something last night...
Page 36 - SR-01
Cleaning up language in the policy book.
Probably not the fun kind.
If you’re following along, policy debates are the original grammar police where people fight over the placement of commas, adding and removing one or more words for clarity.
SR-02
Moving the principles into its own constitutional document and out of policy declaration.
No one currently wants to speak against but we do have a speaker in favour.
Yay: just housekeeping but remember we need 75% for this to pass.
That’s 75% of whoever is here..
As an aside, I don’t know how many that is.
Yay: principals should be in their own space ahead of all other documents.
Moving on to SR-03
Proponent wants the statement of principles set at 75% for approval also.
YayNay: original principals when parties merged have disappeared. “I don’t know if that was on purpose or a conspiracy,” but isn’t sure he supports 75%.
YayNay: there are some missing principals we need to add.
Nay: the 75% makes the principals essentially a locked box; we can get stuck with antiquated principals or inability to add new ones.
Speaker says it’s a joint proposal and they separated them purposefully.
Same speaker: the first to separate principals from policy and the second to get the 75% threshold.
Members can pass 02 without 03 but not vice versa.
SR04
Amends article 10 - makes it easier to amend governance documents.
Nay: this would make information no longer visible.
Nay: disagree with it but this is required to pass grassroots motions brought up for this AGM.
Rebuttal: governance manual is published on party website and fully visible. This will ease the transition to member governance
For reference, in 2018, the inaugural UCP AGM, this was an absolute shitshow.
Leadership review. “If the proposed leadership review and selection rules are bit adopted at an AGM, it diverts to the board to create whatever rules they prefer.”
Opposition to this one. Say it makes the board more powerful than members.
Majority plus plurality required to pass this.
Yay: we need leadership review rules.
Reminiscent of 2018, Moderators say we won’t geek to all of the policy proposals in time allotted...
Geek above should have been get but it still kind of works.
Onto GR-02
Still about leadership review but more concerned about a review after losing an election rather than if the party wins.
Yay: it’s better than GR-01
Nay: no mechanism to remove the leader; GR-01 is better
Yay: this resolution sets the ability to support the leader
Nay: disturbing to hear a comment that the leader doesn’t have to look over his shoulder - we hold people accountable, even our leader.
Rebuttal: we heard this process ness to be adaptable and allow for changing environment. We see GR-01 as rigid and inflexible.
GR-03
Code of conduct - there isn’t one, apparently.
No speakers in opposition.
Yay: we need to clean this up; the members need to have rules to follow
Nay: the code of conduct is really light, only deals with confidentiality and conflict of interest. Says it needs more opportunity to add new
YayNay: it’s a guide for reviews and candidacies
Yay: we need this because there isn’t a code of conduct passed by members (looking at you 2018). We need to be able to fix errors, add new etc.
GR-04
Dispute Resolution
Adding to the bylaws and while not perfect, can be fixed next year (if time allows 🙄)
Nay: this resolution would be contradicting to current articles.
Yay: let’s not have the perfect be the enemy of the good. We need something in the bylaws.
Disclaimer: I haven’t read these since 2018 but again... that was interesting.
Yay: this allows dispute resolution at any level, constituency associations, candidacies etc. We can make amendments in the future.
None are opposed.
Yay: says no conflicts with standing committee list. Just a starting point.
GR-05
Candidate selection rules need to be set by members
Video Nay: MLA Dan Williams says we need to vote this down to keep the nomination processes transparent.
LOL
Nay: need to go back to the drawing board, work with experts such as Dan Williams
Yay: membership needs to have the final say not the party vote yes
Yay: we had problems from the top of the party- power should be it’s members
Nay: MLA Shandro says this proposal would protect an incumbent MLA, if you want rules to contest a nomination vote no.
Yay: the board should be doing this
Yay: this is a grassroots party, Nothing worse than when the top parachutes candidate in. We need to start from the bottom up set the rules at the membership level.
Last word: grassroots decide how to elect their candidates.
SR-05
Candidate recruitment and selection
Nay: GR-05 is too specific (I did have to scroll a whole lot to get to this resolution) and this is too generic
Nay: this is too ambiguous, try again.
Yay: we need something in place. Please vote for one or the other GR or SR 05
Nay: the only purpose of this motion is to defeat the previous motion and give the board control.
Editor’s note: I marked the board comment two tweets ago as a yay and it should have been nay.
Rebuttal: we don’t want it to be too prescriptive.
If GR05 is passed, GR06 would amend it to “take the pressure off candidates on the amount of money they feel obligated to pay back to the constituency association”
Nay: I’m not sure this is legal re: Alberta Elections
Yay: let’s make sure we don’t have troll candidates
Nay: I don’t think this is democratic or in line with Elections AB
Yay: misunderstanding - I think it’s just saying that if there is a surplus after an election...
Nay: AB elections rules need to be clarified
Rebuttal: this has been somewhat vetted. It’s only asking for refunded amounts not additional monies candidate may receive.
GR-07
Add a schedule to the governance manual regarding campus clubs and other affiliated organizations.
Proponent: relying on science we have experts...
Nay: dictates to organizations how they should be structured, but shouldn’t collect private info or dictate constitutions
Yay: we want to capture the heartbeat of society
Nay: MLA Demetrios Nicolaides Has concerns of rules for campus clubs proposed that relies them to report
Nay: A requirement of these associations is they have a constitution, our own party doesn’t have a constitution and I don’t like the idea of forcing them to have one
Yay: many of these things are required by other groups for recognition as well as federal party
Nay: campus clubs should be kept independent from the party
Rebuttal: it’s interesting there seems to be too many rules and regulations associated with this, maybe that could be modified, thank you
GR-08
08, 09, and 10 are about Standing committees
Nay: Revoking memberships - I’m lost
Yay: need more financial oversight, if nothing else this protects the board from their own ineptitude.
(Resolution asks to create a Finance committee)
Yay: accountability
Rebuttal: speaker is also confused about the revoking memberships comment.
GR-09
Add communications committee
None against...
Yay: One of the biggest weaknesses I’ve seen in the party and the CAs is communication. It’s the biggest flaw in everything in the world.
YayNay: MLA Ron Orr says if it’s just internal party communications, fine, but if it’s media communications we’ve had problems before and we don’t need more of that
Nay: too many committees, too much management
Yay: we need this to combat left-leaning media
Rebuttal: it’s fostering communication internally between the party and members; 5 to 8 people not more than that
GR-10
Membership Committee
Proponent: already exists vote yes
None against. Possibly on bathroom break because we haven’t had one yet
Yay: encourage support
Still none opposed.
Yay: memberships expiring and we have no mechanism to follow up; this can create growth for our memberships
Can’t stop thinking about that bathroom break.
Yay: This committee won’t do the CAs work to renew membership, best practices
We’re being led to the break, the Premier is in the house well, in hair and makeup.
Kenney will do a Q and A over lunch. Damn it, I don’t have lunch ready because I’ve been tweeting for two hours.
Bathroom break!!!!
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Back for a Q&A from Kenney at the #UCPAGM2020
Q: masks don’t work can you and Dr. Hinshaw make a statement against Dr. Tams recommendations?
Jk: I’ve been critical of Dr.Tam when she gave bad advice, most of which came from WHO.
Jk: China restricted travel within China but encouraged travel out of the country. We don’t have a mask mandate here in the province.
Q: is there anything we can do to combat the federal anti-pipeline regulations?
Jk: TC Energy would like to invest and reduce the gas glut in AB. The province made recommendation and The federal govt has been sitting on it. They need pipelines. We’ve been approving in less than a year provincially. Longer pipelines needed, but under federal jurisdiction
Late to the #UCPAGM2020 party because I had a prior engagement. We’re on Policy 10, collecting our own taxes. Drew Barnes asks people to vote for. First speaker says he’s tired of dealing with people in other provinces at CRA so he’s for it. #ableg
Next speaker is against. He says it’s just too expensive.
We aren’t being told whether the resolution is passing... that’s no fun.
Next up - private health care. First speaker, a Dr., says it’s in contravention of the Canada Health Act.
Speaker for motion says individual Albertans need options for when Medicare fails as it fails everywhere.
Against says we’re good, private costs more.
For says “no it doesn’t.”
MLA Glubish is opposed because the UCP said they’d preserve public and doesn’t want the grief.
"Two unrelated phenomena are hard to justify for a conservative and value investor: the prime minister’s continued lead in the polls and the disconnect between the stock market rally and a weak economy."
Everyone, Joe, left and right, is scratching their heads at the latter.
The former, however, is due to the fact that in the face of a global pandemic, the PM understood, somehow, that people needed to eat and make mortgage payments without a government salary or multi-million dollar Canadian tax-payer funded pension. Weird, I know.