Thread by @youseepeeYYC

"[Millennials] have been hardwired with *collectivist* ideas, (...) from their primary and secondary schools to universities. That's a cultural challenge for any Conservative Party, and we have to figure out how to break that."

--Jason Kenney.

Just a note here that while the term originated in the 19th century, *collectivism* was often used by Ayn Rand when she denounced anything that involved people cooperating with each other.

This is the definition that Rand, who hated "the common good" used.

Notice the distinction from the older meaning.

Which definition do you think Kenney is using in his dogwhistle, during his sit-down with Ezra Levant?

Now let's apply this to how Kenney is "breaking" millennials of their "collectivism."

"[@UCalgary] said the reductions bring the operating budget to less than it was in 2011, when, according to the university, it had 4,300 fewer students on its campus."

globalnews.ca/news/7664094/a…

At @UCalgary:

- reducing the workforce by 600 staff positions

- freezing management and professional service wages

- increasing tuition

- eliminating, slowing or deferring more than 200 initiatives and projects

...

At @UCalgary cont.

- reducing maintenance and facilities upgrades and preventative maintenance activities

- reducing spending on travel, engagement, events and marketing

- reducing and cancelling IT projects and delaying purchasing of new equipment

“If students were to receive a better, higher-quality education by paying more, that would be easier to swallow, but the university is being forced to cut staff in addition to raising tuition,”

--Student Union president @FrankFinleyYYC

Meanwhile @mountroyal4u seems to have fared better.

(No idea why one school is receiving massive cuts, while another celebrating.)

Exactly a year ago:

"@mountroyal4u students can expect to pay hundreds of dollars more for tuition in the coming academic year after the school’s board of governors approved a seven-per-cent increase for domestic students."

calgaryherald.com/news/local-new…

Fast forward to this year:

"The 2021-22 academic year will usher in the start of performance-based funding at Alberta’s 26 post-secondaries."

(What performances do you think Jason "break Millennials" Kenney will want to emphasize?)

#abpse

calgaryherald.com/news/local-new…

*Quick interlude*

Did you know that millennials aren't kids anymore?
Many of them have their own kids!

"Gen Y: Gen Y, or Millennials, were born between 1981 and 1994/6. They are currently between 25 and 40 years old."

Kenney is hating on 35-year-olds!

kasasa.com/articles/gener…

"Gen Z is the newest generation, born between 1997 and 2012/15. They are currently between 6 and 24 years old"

Let's find out what the elder Gen Zeds have to say about these cuts.

From @Spartan403 via @The_Gateway:

"The government is estimating post-secondary institutions in 2021-22 will have to fund 49 per cent of their operations themselves, with the amount increasing to 52 per cent the following year."

More cuts to come?

thegatewayonline.ca/2021/02/breaki…

Also from @Spartan403:

"As part of Alberta’s economic recovery plan, a new research partnership exploring finance and financial technology (fintech) will be created between the University of Calgary and the Government of Alberta."

🤔🤷‍♂️

From Tom Ndekezi also via @The_Gateway:

"Following a seven per cent increase to tuition in 2020-2021, the university projected additional seven per cent increases in 2021-2022 and 2022-2023."

Rapid tuition increases abound!

thegatewayonline.ca/2021/02/u-of-a…

It's clear that #abpse is in danger here. We'll have to circle back.

We have to check on K-12.

In spite of increasing enrolment, "provincial budget documents show there are 1,801 fewer full-time support staff jobs and 172 fewer teaching jobs than were originally budgeted for 2020-21."

#abed
edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/…

Remember how we started this thread?

Kenney sees it as his task to break millennials of their "collectivism," as he sees it, that has "wired" them in elementary & secondary schools, and in university.

We're only part way through witnessing how he is doing this.

Recall who the Minister of Education is.

"A former trustee for Red Deer’s Catholic school board, LaGrange previously served as the president of Red Deer Pro-Life, which also made her by extension a member of the board of directors of Alberta Pro-Life."

pressprogress.ca/jason-kenney-a…

This is from 2018:

"One of Alberta UCP leader Jason Kenney’s former staffers is leading a new initiative to help 52 anti-abortion candidates win local nominations and stand as candidates for Kenney’s party during Alberta’s 2019 provincial election."

pressprogress.ca/ex-jason-kenne…

"We are concerned that budget documents show $27 million less in expenditures on instruction in Budget 2021, while **private schools see an increase of $20 million** in funding."

@albertateachers

https://twitter.com/albertateachers/status/1365111866733826048?s=20

The fact that Alberta funds elite segregated schools is already a pet peeve of mine. The fact that right here we're seeing a transfer of millions of dollars from public education to private academies is concerning.

I've written about this before.

🧵
👇

https://twitter.com/youseepeeYYC/status/1301240594056929280?s=20

From @SOSAlberta:

"The UCP continues the tired use of coded language “education funding held flat at $8.2B” to cover up actual funding cut per student when rising enrolment, inflation, and continued need for pandemic measures are taken into account."

https://twitter.com/SOSAlberta/status/1365126183042441216

“25% of Alberta’s post-secondary students attend the University of Alberta, yet the province has required us to bear nearly 50% of the reduction in [#abpse] funding.” 

-@BFlanaganUofA

ualberta.ca/the-quad/2021/…

"Since 2019, the @UCalgary operating budget has been reduced 18%, forcing difficult decisions
by the campus community."

- Dean Parthenis
Director, Media and Issues Management
University of Calgary

#abpse #abBudget2021

ucalgary.ca/news/governmen…

"Why did private schools get a funding increase?????"

Question asked by @GPCatholic42.

h/t @michaeljanz for raising awareness about this.

So far in this thread, I've tried to include articles about #abBudget2021 pertaining to education as well as press releases & statements from institutions themselves.

I have not found statements from @NAIT or @sait about this year's cuts, and little news coverage.

Curious. 🤔

Last year "@NAIT said it will have to cut between seven and nine per cent of its staff — which means between 190 and 240 positions" as a result to cutbacks then.

globalnews.ca/news/6619857/n…

.@sait had similar layoffs.

"SAIT CEO and president David Ross announced that 230 positions are being eliminated — 80 of those are vacancies that won't be filled."

cbc.ca/news/canada/ca…

.@davideggenAB protested these cuts & pointed out the #UCP's hypocrisy.

#abpse #abpoli

https://twitter.com/davideggenAB/status/1233457003453804544?s=20

"SAIT has already cut over 200 staff including some faculty, permanently closed the bookstore, stopped hiring permanent faculty and support staff. It's all contract now.
Many programs have fewer than 50% permanent faculty."

paraphrased from reddit.

reddit.com/r/Calgary/comm…

Just after last year's budget cuts were announced, @jkenney made a visit to @sait.

To help him feel welcome, @sait removed their pride flag 🏳️‍🌈 and replaced it with an "I ❤️ oil & gas" flag from @CanadaAction's merchandise campaign.

It was a few months later, in the summer, that @sait closed their bookstore, laying off all employees who worked there.

(narrator whispers: "pipelines. economy. jobs.")

Press release from @_AUPE_ at the time:

aupe.org/news/news-and-…

University of Lethbridge also discusses their cuts in relation to other schools. via @kim_siever

https://twitter.com/kim_siever/status/1365129245479952388?s=21

.@LaurieAdkin is a Pol Sci Prof at @UAlberta.

She has been active in drawing attention to the #UCP's plans to allow open-pit coal mining in the watersheds many towns and cities rely on for drinking water.

Read what she has to say about these cuts.

https://twitter.com/LaurieAdkin/status/1365839936339865605?s=20

Now is a good time to review what we know.

Kenney feels that the ideological "collectivism" that has shaped everyone born since 1980 must be "broken."

Massive cuts have unevenly struck every level of education.

Private schools had their funding increase.

That's not all.

To see what else is going on, and why this year is so important, we have to go back.

Back to a time before covid.

Back to 2017.

In 2017 @klaszus reported:

"Calgary’s election campaign for public school trustees is getting unusually heated, with a contentious slate of candidates being challenged to reveal its financial and political backers before Election Day."

sprawlcalgary.com/students-count…

"Five candidates are running under the Students Count banner, which has a five-point platform: fix math, fund classrooms not admin, fix report cards, ensure student wellness, and keep big money (unions and corporations) out of elections."

#abed

The Slate was an organization, like a political party, but running for school trustee position all under the banner "Students Count."

They wanted to control school boards.

cbc.ca/news/canada/ca…

They were anti-NDP.

“This election is your chance to let the NDP know that you are rejecting its ideology,” says a letter from Sadiq Valliani, the Students Count candidate for Wards 11 & 13, which appeared in mailboxes in the city’s southwest this week.

sprawlcalgary.com/trustee-electi…

I can't quote all of this @sprawlcalgary article in one tweet. Do read the whole thing if you have time.

It looks like Kenney was very supportive of the "Students Count" slate.

#ableg

And they supported him back.

"Bianca Smetacek did introduce Jason Kenney at the PC Party’s leadership convention back in March."

"Kelley Charlebois said although she’s a supporter of Kenney, that isn’t the focus, 'We’re focused on education.'"

web.archive.org/web/2018031508…

Bear in mind that this was all reported back in 2017, before Kenney had "won" the leadership of the #UCP.

Rachel Notley was still premier.

They used their school trustee campaigns to campaign against the NDP, and they had connections to Conservatives and to Kenney.

So that's just one example of a slate basically working within the pocket of a political party.

A political party led by someone who blames "primary and secondary schools to universities" for creating voters who care about each other, as an obstacle to be broken.

But the slate of candidates I brought up here from 2017 is just ONE school board. This kind of thing has been going on in school boards for years all over the province.

How do we know?

Adriana Lagrange.

sprawlcalgary.com/lagrange-alber…

In 2018, when Lagrange was a school trustee at the Red Deer Catholic School Board, at least four buses of students took the trip from Red Deer to an Edmonton anti-abortion rally.

#ableg

cbc.ca/news/canada/ca…

Also under Lagrange's watch as school trustee:

"Board chair says administration is reviewing the role of Red Deer and Area Pro Life in future presentations"

Remember, "by the late 1980s, LaGrange was president of Red Deer Pro Life."

cbc.ca/news/canada/ed…

"[Millennials] have been hardwired with *collectivist* ideas," says Jason Kenney.

Well, not if Lagrange can help it.

She made it her life's work to strip other women of their bodily autonomy.

The schools carried on after she had moved to #ableg.

albertapolitics.ca/2019/05/your-t…

Once she was education minister, Lagrange helped to make this happen:

https://twitter.com/bertaadvantage/status/1291467213895946240?lang=en

I can't get into heavy detail about the Angus McBeath incident, but I do encourage you to check out this @BertaAdvantage episode where it is discussed among the rest of the #UCP's assault on K-12 education.

https://twitter.com/BertaAdvantage/status/1299420176090378244?s=20

In the fall, a draft curriculum was leaked.

Curriculum advisers hand-picked by the [#UCP] recommended eliminate all references to residential schools and "equity."

And that 1st grade students should learn Bible verses about creation as poetry.

cbc.ca/news/canada/ed…

So now we've established that Kenney's attack on education is coming from cutting funding, as well as attempting to rewrite the curriculum.

There have been attempts from the Right to control school boards, as Lagrange had done.

Now what about post secondary?

#abpse

Do you remember back in 2019 when the #UCP made sweeping appointments to institutions across the province?

This would have been just a few months after Kenney became premier.

Jump in there and have a look.

lacombeonline.com/local/ucp-make…

The appointments affect the boards of governors of these post-secondary institutions:

@AthabascaU
@banffcentre
@BowValley
@GPRC_AB
@keyanocollege
@MacEwanU
@mountroyal4u
@NAIT
@sait
@UAlberta
@UCalgary

Let's look a a few appointees:

Former PC MLA Janice Sarich was appointed to the board of MacEwan University

MLA and associate cabinet minister Donna Kennedy-Glans was appointed to the board of the Banff Centre

former MP James Rajotte is now on the U of A's Board of Governors.

Alex Pourbaix, president and CEO of Cenovus Energy and newly appointed chairman of the Mount Royal University board of directors, donated $4,000 to the UCP in 2019.

(Several other appointees also donated. Surprise surprise.)

Grafton Asset Management, the company run by newly appointed University of Calgary board chairperson Geeta Sankappanavar, donated $25,000 to the Shaping Alberta’s Future political action committee which purchased front-page pro-UCP ads in Alberta’s Postmedia newspapers.

What we saw was Jason Kenney ramping up the old Tory patronage machine.

But we know it's not just patronage.

Kenney has a vendetta to "break" millennials of their "collectivist" thinking.

Read more about the appointments in this article:

daveberta.ca/2019/08/jason-…👀

Have the #abpse patronage appointments affected learning environment at those institutions?

@ArtsSquared is a Prof with the U of A Faculty of Arts:

https://twitter.com/ArtsSquared/status/1365887941722083328?s=20

(I'm not the media, but I'm doing my best to connect dots in this thread, Dr. Sale.)

#ableg

If you google the current Dean of Business and former Enbridge Prof of Energy Policy, most of what you'll find is him criticizing the U of A for giving David Suzuki an honorary degree.

The letter has been deleted from the university's website.

In a show of solidarity with reactionary conservatives like Jason Kenney the U of A's Dean of Business, @moodystax withdrew their support (bribe money?) from the university over the David Suzuki incident.

They have not removed their statement from their website.

Dean Joseph Doucet was also named to a panel to explore attracting more reactionary conservative capitalists to exploit the province.

betakit.com/alberta-govern…

As for why U of A has been more punished than other universities?

@LaurieAdkin offers this:

https://twitter.com/LaurieAdkin/status/1366162846216720387?s=20

If you are wondering "Where is the joint statement from all Alberta's colleges & universities to denounce these cut?"

There will be no joint statement.

The purpose of hijacking the university boards is to prevent that kind of unifying message.

So far we've heard Kenney's distain for how primary, secondary, and university education have taught students.

We've seen his cuts, how the Right has tried to hijack boards through trustees and patronage appointments, and curriculum rewrite attempts.

One last thing to discuss is why after all of this, private schools are getting more funding.

"The ATA is also concerned that the budget shows $27 million less in spending on instruction, while private school funding sees an increase of $20 million."

cbc.ca/news/canada/ca…

Remember Kenney's initial statement has a built in premise of "Us" vs. "Them" tribalism.

He identifies a "Them" and explains why they are the enemy. "Them" is bad.



Give it another listen with that in mind.

Pretty much this whole thread has been describing how Kenney has set out to hurt his enemies; and the enemies of his tribe: Conservatives.

To be blunt, if you are not part of his "in-group," Kenney's tribe, he sees it as his job to cause you harm.

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

To the in-group, he offers aid and protection, as long as you are loyal.

How do Conservatives show that they are loyal?

With tithes--I mean donations--and in return, Kenney will offer his blessings--I mean tax cuts.

5/6 U of A appointees donated to the #UCP that I found.

While researching this thread I looked at who was donating. When looking at the 2020 YTD donations, there are six pages of donors who gave $4000 or more to the #UCP.

https://twitter.com/youseepeeYYC/status/1366068646162784259?s=20

The NDP had just three pages of donations of $4000 or more.

However, the #UCP had only 112 pages of donors compared to NDP's 182 pages.

This tells us that the #UCP are still marketing themselves--successfully--to wealthier citizens.

Kenney sees his tribe as the rich.

His "Us" is the rich.

He supports private schools because in his mind they segregate his "Us" from his "Them."

He's right about that.

Understand that everything Kenney does is to make things easier for the rich, and harder for the poor.

Easier for the group he associates with, his "Us" and harder for "Them," millennials, Michael Moore documentary watchers, anyone who isn't Conservative enough for him.

A pyramid-shaped society like capitalism requires a broad underclass for the ruling elites to exploit and profit from.

That is how they afford their “freedoms” which are provided for them from the exploited profits take from labouring workers.

Kenney is targeting some groups more than others because he wants to make sure they stay in the underclass.

He doesn't want them to be able to climb to the top.

https://twitter.com/CanuckDamsel/status/1366214705547677699?s=20

That's why he has come down so hard on all levels of education.

I think I'll end the thread here.

I hope the story was at least somewhat cohesive. This ended up being much longer than I expected. Maybe it should have been 3 or 6 shorter threads linked together?

If you want some more in-depth info on the insides of #abpse right now, I can recommend this episode of @BertaAdvantage. I already linked to their K-12 pod above.

https://twitter.com/BertaAdvantage/status/1310232733613010944

If you enjoyed this thread, check out my media analysis exercise.

It's much shorter, and way less depressing.

Thanks for reading.

https://twitter.com/youseepeeYYC/status/1364680295673331712?s=20

The initial video I linked to for this thread has gone private, so here is a clip from the initial source video uploaded by rebel media.

Kenney closes his statement with here "we have to figure out how to break that nut."