Alberta review of COVID-19 led by doctors who challenged vaccine policies expected next month /via @globeandmail theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta… Holy hell! Every aspect of this article is worrying. A secret $2 million review of COVID response launched in secrecy just after Smith becomes Premier in November 2022.

Evidence has emerged that links the Recall Gondek movement, Take Back Alberta, and the drive for municipal parties. It is all being coordinated. 1/6 Landon Johnston may have been just a disgruntled citizen upset with Gondek and City Council. But his recall petition has been co-opted by the conservative movement and has attracted big money (including from outside of Calgary and Alberta). 2/6

Revisiting the Vriend decision is very important. But the authors (Vriend's lawyers in the case) skipped over a really critical part of the story. A thread.edmontonjournal.com/opinion/column… The Premier at the time, Ralph Klein, had mused about using the notwithstanding clause when the Supreme Court read-in sexual orientation into the Charter. The authors write "Ultimately, cooler heads prevailed." What they don't explain is why.

I am sure that many of the policies announced by Smith yesterday will be popular among the public. Will they still be popular when she has to use the notwithstanding clause to bypass expected court rulings? 1/5 Will they still be popular when the first teacher gets fired (or a petition started to get fired) because they had an impromptu discussion in a high school class about gender identity and parents hadn't completed the opt-in form yet. 2/5

I am hearing concern that the Liberals-NDP are working together to make electoral changes on the eve of an federal election that would rig it in their favour. It is based on this article. This thread offers some analysis. ctvnews.ca/politics/trude… The proposed changes are all about increasing access to voting. This should not be controversial, but as I discuss later, has become so.

I have reviewed the differences between the Lifeworks August 2023 and Morneau-Shepell April 2021 reports on an Alberta Pension Plan. Hat tip to @TheBreakdownAB for FOIPing it! Outside of the name of the company and the date, the two reports are largely the same. Here are two important passages from the Executive Summary. 2023 report on the left and 2021 report on the right. Identical!

Long thread warning. The Manning panel report has come out: 116 pages with another 253 pages of appendices. I have read through it once, and will have to review some of the sections more than once. But here are my initial thoughts. It is clear that the Smith govt has had this report for a while and has started to implement its recommendations. In particular, changing the Public Health Act to ensure dominance of Cabinet and not CMOH (also part of the Ingram case).

Listening online to tonight's pension townhall. Starts at 6:30. albertapensionplan.ca/engagement There are survey questions for those that registered (which was not me). These are real questions like what risks do you see with an APP - options include benefits, portability, etc.

Alberta government names five new members to Preston Manning-led COVID review panel | Globalnews.ca globalnews.ca/news/9495757/a… Only two medical doctors: Dr. Martha Fulford and Dr. Rob Tanguay. Plus Jack Mintz, Michel Kelly-Gagnon, and Jack Major. Mintz was part of AHS Board during covid. Major publicly endorsed the Sovereignty Act. Kelly-Gagnon is head of the Montreal Economic Institute.

cbc.ca/news/canada/ca… So Smith never contacted crown prosecutors, but her staff did! Not one email, but a series of emails.

Day one for applications and the Alberta affordability portal has crashed. Here is the link: affordability.alberta.ca

Listening to @AlbertaatNoon on the Just Transition. Guests include Environment Minister @sonyasavage and UofA energy economist @andrew_leach Savage's key message is that Ottawa should be providing incentives (ie., money for clean tech like CCUS, SMR, hydrogen) and not through sticks (ie., emission caps and regulations).

So for those playing the whataboutism with Trudeau and SNC-Lavalin. First, it was a major scandal and I (and many other commentators) were very critical. Second, there were resignations: of 2 cabinet ministers, Trudeau's principal secretary, clerk of privy council.

Kaycee Madu was temporarily removed as Justice Minister and later shuffled out of the portfolio by Kenney for interfering in the judicial process. Now we have Premier Smith admit that she calls crown prosecutors about particular cases. This is a major problem. Imagine that you are a crown prosecutor who has laid charges against someone for violating covid restrictions. Now the Premier calls you if the charges are in the public interest and if there is a reasonable chance of conviction. This is attempted political interference.

Further to the discussion last night about Smith realizing that amendments are required to her Sovereignty Act. Especially the Henry VIII clauses. Here is her interview with CBC yesterday. When you watch, count the times that Smith says that "Ottawa needs to stay in its lane", but crucially some of of her key examples (Northern Gateway, Energy East, KXL) are where Ottawa did stay in its constitutional lane but did things (or didn't do things) that upset Smith.

A long thread on @ABDanielleSmith address and @RachelNotley rebuttal. The affordability policies announced will be popular and the AB govt has the resources to do it. Targeting cheques for seniors and parents (means-tested too). Temporarily removing the provincial gas tax, utilities rebates, indexing income tax, AISH, and other programs.

Back to back sacks. But instead of turning it over on downs. Facemask penalty. Automatic first down for Bombers.

Can't sleep so here is a 🧵on the UCP and covid. It is clear over the last three weeks that the UCP has become the party explicitly opposed to covid restrictions. That was the thrust of Smith's winning campaign. The architects of the covid restrictions are gone or on their way out. Kenney is out, Hinshaw is being replaced, Smith has promised to replace the AHS Board and fire many senior managers. How many more people at Alberta Health including CMOH staff will be removed?

If the UCP was hoping for displays of unity at their AGM, they couldn't have asked more than having Toews/Jean introduce Smith. There is no way that Jean would have introduced Kenney after 2017 leadership race. unitedconservative.ca/livestream/ Smith begins her speech with details about the strength of her caucus and the work that they did at their retreat.

I, and others, have been quite critical of Smith's comment that the unvaccinated were “the most discriminated against group that I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime.” Comments that Smith has tried to clarify, but not apologize for. 1/2 Based on the vicious emails, voice mails, and tweets I have subsequently received, there are lots of people that agreed with Smith's original comments. Yes they are a small minority of Albertans/Canadians, but they are angry. Very angry.

Please make yourself comfortable for a short by-election story. In 2007, John Tory was leader of the Ontario PC party and lost the election and his riding in Toronto. So in 2009 he convinced the local MPP in Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock to step down... In what was a safe PC riding, Tory lost the by-election to the Liberal candidate. Tory resigned as PC leader the next day...