No one:

UCP: We object! Absolutely not! Never!

Albertans: What are you objecting to now?

UCP: Money that Ottawa is trying to give Alberta. Forget it!

Albertans: But…don’t we need it? 1/ UCP: What we don’t need is Ottawa putting ‘conditions’ on money they give us. Just give us the money!

Albertans: But how do we know that you’ll spend the money on what it’s supposed to be for?

UCP: Just trust us.

Albertans: Um…. 2/

Even if you think LGTBQ+ rights and what Danielle Smith is doing has nothing to do with you, you should be concerned because:
-clearly she is beholden to an unelected group led by a dangerously ideological megalomaniac
-she has no mandate for any of what she just announced 1/ It was not part of UCP’s platform. Just like the APP, we can’t count on anything she did or didn’t promise prior to being elected. If Take Back Alberta gives her marching orders on whatever they want, she will do it. That’s concerning, and not just on LGTBQ+ issues. 2/

My sons went by shortened versions of their first names at school, even though I never call them that, because they prefer it. One doesn’t like how non-French-speaking people try to say his name, so he also uses an anglicized version of the name. No one asked me permission 1/ My brother is a _____ the 3rd. He always went by a short version of his name. No one asked my parents if that was okay. Maybe it was really important to them to have our father’s and grandfather’s name said constantly? 2/

A little anecdote🧵 I worked one summer during university as a tour guide at the #ableg. We had our usual stops on the tour, like the ‘rain’ in the ceiling, the portrait eyes that follow you, etc. and we would look into the chamber. At that time there were 4 MLAs in opposition 1/ That’s right—FOUR. One was Grant Notley. Our tour patter included some jokes about this discrepancy—look how cute that is with 4 people in opposition! The mindset was that PCs were in charge, and aside from the occasional MLA who got elected just because everyone liked them 2/

Danielle Smith: Here’s a plan I have to take your money.

Albertans: Ew. No.

DS: We’re going ahead with it.

Albertans: Well, we don’t want to vote for you if you do.

DS: Oops, I meant obviously, no one is going ahead with that! NDP was lying about that. 1/ *Election happens*

DS: So, about my plan…we’re going ahead.

Albertans: What? You said you wouldn’t !

DS: I just really needed to get elected. So I could go ahead with this plan. So here it is again.

Albertans: Ew. No.

DS: This report explains how great my plan is! 2/

Albertans were so averse to the idea of an APP prior to May’s election that UCP had to back off and pretend it was no longer on the table. May 15 Livingstone-Macleod MLA misleadingly claimed it was “not a topic of conversation anymore within the conservative government.” 🧵 1/ Dani said that “no one is touching anybody’s pension” and that the idea that UCP intended to pursue this was just NDP ‘misinformation’. She ALSO said an APP was “not in our campaign because I think we’ve got so many things that we have done that we’re excited about.” 2/

We have a huge, huge uphill battle ahead of us of combatting disinformation. It’s monstrous. And it’s everywhere. It has proliferated due to some common ideals of those who believe it:
—I should always have my own way
—If I can’t get my own way, it’s someone else’s fault

1/ —Once scapegoats are located, *everything* is their fault, forever
—I should never have to do anything I don’t like, ever
—I should have maximum compensation for minimal effort, BUT no one else should
—There should be no consequences for my actions
2/

Virtually ALL the polls in 2012 predicted a sure win for Danielle Smith and Wild Rose. They were wrong. Albertans were rightfully wary of having her as premier. Has she changed or improved? I’m so sick of her ‘Hey, I’m new at this’ schtick, as though that didn’t happen. 1/ As Nenshi and others have pointed out, if she now claims to disavow things she has been touting and advocating for for YEARS, like privatizing health care, what does she even stand for? Danielle has proven that she will say anything to get what she wants. 2/

We were on a collision course to having Danielle Smith as premier in April 2012 and Albertans hit the brakes on that after the Lake of Fire, other bozo eruptions, climate change denial, etc. Poor judgement from Smith. This was not a person most of us could see being premier. 1/ The PCs we elected in 2012 had problems of their own, much to do with cronyism and entitlement, and it seemed like support for Dani being premier might be building again. Then she made the jaw-droppingly dumb decision to cross the floor to the PCs 2/

The *reason* hospitals are overcrowded right now is because the covid pandemic is STILL going on (40+ people dying of covid/week in Alberta for the last few months) and peoples’ weakened immune systems after repeated infections makes them more susceptible to other viruses. 1/ Many people are sick and they are out and about—shopping, going to events, holiday parties, school, etc.—mostly maskless. All of this includes kids. There is NOTHING to stop the spread of this now. Not only that, but DS refuses to even recommend masks, vaccination or anything 2/

UCP MLAs: what’s the endgame here? You’ve got to know how reviled you have made yourselves, even among some who used to support your party. You’ve got to know that your ‘leader’ has already destroyed 2 political parties in Alberta and she has teed up to do the same to a 3rd. 1/5 You’ve got to know that many of your seats are in jeopardy now, and no amount of bravado pretending otherwise will change that. Did you sign up to be a pariah? To go down in history as someone who supported this insanity? Are you entertained by being part of this 🤡 show? 2/5

Thinking about this: Although DS has ‘apologized’ for her egregiously horrible comments about Ukraine & Russia, what made her say that in the first place? Clearly, she was exposed to Russian propaganda and she fell for it, hook, line & sinker. This is a pattern. 1/ Her anti-vax sentiments and touting hydroxychloroquine as a 100% cure for Covid show susceptibility to conspiracy theories too. Same with her declaration of how much ‘discrimination’ the unvaccinated have faced, her residential schools denials, education ‘theories’ and more. 2/

It’s hard not to feel despair about the UCP leadership race. It is an unmitigated disaster. There are, perhaps, 2 (at most) candidates who *might* possibly be less terrible, destructive placeholder premiers until we can throw UCP out of government in Alberta. 1/8 The rest will destroy us. And they don’t care. They only want power—that’s it. People who actually care about Alberta would not be pandering to the most extreme, awful fringe elements of our province for votes. They would not be lying to us, and misrepresenting themselves. 2/8

More UCP MLAs speak out against Kenney every day. They don’t like how they have been treated in caucus meetings. Fair enough. They are worried they won’t be re-elected. OK. It bothers them to have Albertans questioning their integrity. Just now? ‘Cause it’s been 3 years. 1/7 When they were elected in 2019, they thought they were back to the conservative glory days where all you had to do was win the nomination in your riding, and your career was set for as long as you wanted. 2/7

We downplay what is going on at these PP rallies at our peril. Like, actual peril. 1/6 I find him repugnant, but something is really connecting there. Not to make excuses for them, but a lot of these conservatives were raised to believe that if you work hard and are a ‘good’ person (by their definition), you will get ahead in life. 2/6

I don’t believe Kenney & Copping. I don’t. And I don’t trust them. They have been wrong EVERY time about the pandemic. Not just a little bit wrong. Not hit and miss. Not kind of right, but missed a few things. Really, really, egregiously wrong. 1/5 I would really, really like for the pandemic to be over and just go back to doing whatever I feel like doing, but I can’t, in all conscience, do that because I know there is no science or anything but self-serving political interest backing up what we are being told now. 2/5

Kenney and Copping (late as usual) are about to tell us how a virus that killed 14 people and put 14 children under age 10 in the hospital since Friday is something that we are going to ‘live with’ now, because they couldn’t be bothered anymore and their RWNJ supporters insist. They are at a restaurant? In Red Deer? Weird for a health announcement.

I don’t believe anything Jason Kenney says. He’s trying to sound all scientific with his data and stuff. “What we do know…” 🤢 ‘For covid’ vs. ‘incidental cases’—full on gaslighting.

Where did this whole ‘kids have to be in school for their mental health at all costs, no exceptions’ thing come from? I agree, in ordinary times, it is better for kids to be at school with their peers and to have the social interaction and resources school provides. 1/6 It’s also certainly true that for some kids, being online for school was difficult or worse, and that there are families where there are challenges to provide the technology needed and where an older sibling is trying to supervise younger ones while learning online. 2/6

3279 new cases on 8995 tests=38.8%
1089 in hospital
104 in ICU
They are doing a ‘robust summary’ on who was admitted because of covid vs. where it was not determined to be a cause at admission. She claims that 51% of the covid patients in hospital were admitted because of covid. 9 new deaths since yesterday.
Hospitalizations are at a 3-month high.

This Madu thing really encapsulates what is wrong with UCP. They truly, at their core, believe themselves to be above the rest of us and entitled to better and different treatment than the peasants who elected them. They consider themselves a superior, ruling class. 1/4 We’ve seen it over and over:
-laughingly wearing earplugs in the #ableg
-jetting off to tropical vacations/‘check on’ second homes while we hunkered down, advised not to travel
-Sky Palace dinner party
-Tell us to keep Christmas gatherings small, then party for 200
2/4