Late yesterday afternoon, the UCP gravy train hit full speed.

Let me explain. 🧵 Yesterday, the UCP introduced Bill 8, which will remove the $200 cap on gifts to elected officials.

I have to tell you in my time as an MLA I’ve never had a constituent complain that they couldn’t give me a more expensive gift.

We’re sharing documents that have come into our possession. I'll be completely candid - they showed up in the mail. I don’t know who sent them.

There are 35 pages of photos of a presentation to cabinet detailing the UCP’s scheme to rip apart Albertans’ public health care. This is a plan to massively concentrate control of healthcare in Danielle Smith’s office.
It’s a blueprint for chaos in our clinics and hospitals.

Today, Danielle Smith took the first step to steal your pension.

She did it by releasing a report riddled with fake numbers — and now plans to spend your money campaigning to convince you it’s a good idea.

It’s not.

In short, your pension is not safe.

Let me explain. 🧵 For years, the UCP has talked about doing this.

And while Smith claims today she wouldn’t have control of Albertans’ pensions funds.

In the past, she has talked openly about your pension to pay for a police force.

Happy “gotcha day” Johnny Cash.

Three years ago, like many Albertans, my family adopted a "COVID pup" from Zoe’s animal rescue society. 🧵 Johnny was a tiny puppy, we had no idea he’d get so big (over 90 lbs now).

We watched with amazement (and a little horror) as he grew by leaps and grounds that summer.

With big dog comes big love. Johnny is a great cuddler. Johnny is trained-ish.

If we win this election, we will expand affordable childcare to include before- and after-school care—and we will accelerate $10/day childcare for all Albertans.

We need affordable childcare that works for working parents.

🧵 1/6 “Childcare creates opportunities for our kids to have the best start in life by preparing them for school and ensuring they learn through play,” said @pancholi_rakhi.

🧵 2/6

Here is my statement on Danielle Smith’s connection with Artur Pawlowski:

I’m writing today as someone seeking to become Premier of Alberta.

But I am also someone who simply and deeply loves this province.

And I am profoundly concerned about all we have seen today.

🧵 1/6 If Danielle Smith is elected Premier, this is what the next four years looks like.

Extremism being shouted from the steps of the Legislature.

Instability for our economy.

Hate and transphobia and a furthering of a division that only serves to harm Alberta.

🧵 2/6

As I write, 107 wildfires are burning across the province and more than 24,500 Albertans have been displaced.

I want to take a moment to speak to those under evacuation order, to our heroic firefighters, and to all Albertans.

🧵 1/11 First, to everyone who is under an evacuation order: I can’t imagine how frightening it must be to leave your home without knowing when you can return and without knowing what your community will look like when you do. 🧵 2/11

Good climate policy is also good economic policy.
Danielle Smith’s fake climate plan means Alberta will miss out on billions of dollars of job-creating investment.

The Alberta NDP has a robust plan that will create good-paying jobs and drive growth. 🧵 Danielle Smith’s so-called "aspirational" plan doesn't set any firm targets, lacks accountability, and fails to address the threat of climate change. It also fails to create a robust investment environment with certainty for the energy industry and the clean tech industry.

Yesterday, we made a big platform commitment: $200 million for a downtown Calgary campus as part of our innovative plan to revitalize the city’s core.

Here’s what this exciting announcement means for Calgary and for Alberta’s wider post-secondary ecosystem. 🧵 The funding is designed to establish a permanent campus downtown to bring businesses, students, and researchers together to facilitate collaboration and innovation, and support economic diversification. It will also be used to provide student housing downtown.

Tonight, the UCP defeated my Bill 201: The Public Health Care Delivery Standards Act, which would have had a major impact in ensuring Albertans get the healthcare they need.

Let me tell you what it would have done for you. 🧵

#ableg #abhealth The Bill would have set standards for emergency room waits, ambulance response, the time it takes to see a doctor and so on. Where those times weren’t being met — where you weren’t getting the care you deserve — government would have to provide additional resources.

#AbLeg

Ted Grimm was Mayor of Medicine Hat for 24 years, Alberta’s longest serving Mayor.

Ted was a passionate advocate for public utilities, owned by residents. 🧵

#ableg #yxh Ted was instrumental in Medicine Hat, maintaining the last fully municipally run power company and it was a top-20 producer at the time of his retirement in 2001.

#ableg #yxh

Earlier today, Alberta’s NDP released newly obtained data that shows there were 9,600 unfilled ambulance shifts in Calgary alone from January to October of this year.

Response times and the length of time paramedics spend in hospitals have also increased. 🧵

#ableg #abhealth This is a crisis. Emergency care isn’t reliably there for Albertans.

We need a government that will do better. That will:

➡️ Respect frontline workers and make it clear we have their backs;
➡️ Restore funding cut from healthcare by the UCP;

...
#ableg #abhealth

I hear from first responders who are exhausted and suffering — as the crisis in our hospitals backs up into emergency response. 🧵

#ableg #abhealth Firefighters are now more often the first on scene, working to stabilize patients waiting for EMS to arrive. That wait is getting longer and longer.

#ableg #abhealth

A thread on how my Legislature portrait came to be. 🧵

#ableg #yyc #yeg My political career began as an activist.

#ableg #yyc #yeg

There are national economic challenges that require national solutions.

I’m proud to live in a country where provinces and different levels of government can come together to develop solutions. 🧵

#ableg #yyc #yeg There would be no TransMountain pipeline expansion in a world with Sovereignty Acts. That’s tens of thousands of Alberta jobs lost.

#ableg #yyc #yeg

Nothing from the UCP to get Albertans a family doctor, nothing to address the specific calls from frontline paramedics to reduce wait times, and nothing to get children’s medication in the hands of Alberta parents. 🧵

#AbLeg #abhealth The new round of chaos Danielle Smith is inflicting on health care will make the situation worse. Health care workers deserve leadership that will listen to them and support them.

#ableg #abhealth

Earlier this year I met Celina.

She’s a mother of two, she’s on a fixed income, and she has to travel to Edmonton to get specialized healthcare. 🧵

#ableg #yyc #yeg Celina saw her electricity bill explode from $200 a month to $500 a month.

She told me she was being forced to choose between feeding her kids … getting to the healthcare she needs … and paying the electricity bill.

#ableg #yyc #yeg

I want you to be able to put food on your table. 🧵

#ableg #yyc #yeg I want you to be able to heat your home, fuel up your car and afford the insurance required to keep it on the road.

#ableg #yyc #yeg

I want to take a moment to speak directly to all of the young Albertans who are considering making the choice to leave our province.

🧵#ableg #yyc #yeg #cdnpoli #abpoli I know things look bleak under the UCP. From cutting the youth minimum wage to raising the cost of your tuition, they have trampled on the opportunities this province once presented for you to build your future.

But I promise you change is coming. #ableg #yyc #yeg

We have the largest oil and gas reserves in North America — and the fastest-growing market for wind and solar power in Canada.

There is so much opportunity to keep this going, and expand it further. 🧵

#ableg #yyc #yeg We can use our expertise in drilling to convert abandoned oil and gas wells into geothermal wells, turning a blight on the landscape into a new asset.

#ableg #yyc #yeg

We depend on tradespeople to build everything from roads and hospitals to pipelines and refineries. Yet skilled trades training centres don’t get a penny of provincial funding, even as Alberta faces a skills shortage.

The @albertaNDP will change that. 🧵 #ableg I have announced that we will scale up the number of Albertans who can seek meaningful employment in a trade by directly funding skilled trades training centres. #ableg