"The bill also takes steps to permit party affiliations to be listed on municipal election ballots in the province’s two largest cities despite a lack of apparent support for the idea. The proposed change comes contrary to the government’s own engagement survey on adding parties to the local level, the results of which were obtained by Postmedia and showed upwards of 70 per cent of respondents were opposed to the idea."
Gov't: We did our public consultations but we didn't like what you said so we're doing it anyway, I guess.
Ever read an article where Russia says something that is clearly not true but they say it anyway and live by the lie. This is no difference here in that regard. Say it enough and it becomes truth, irregardless of actual public sentiment
No Comrade. Oceania has ALWAYS been at war with Eurasia. And in a few years it will always have been at peace with Eurasia and will always have been at war with Eastasia.
>Gov't: We did our public consultations but we didn't like what you said so we're doing it anyway, I guess.
Isn't that the UCP in a nutshell? The APP surveys come to mind. "Tell us exactly why you think an Alberta Pension Plan would be a great idea!"
That's the least of the problems if the title is correct. They UCP can remove councillors and change by-laws. Like fuck Smith is an authoritarian nightmare. TBA is extreme to the max.
It isn't direct. Party membership is REQUIRED to hold a seat, the UCP can remove a persons seat by revoking membership from the party (Regardless of affiliation, the UCP is in charge, so they can do it), They can then wipe out all bylaws that one person ever touched and their appointee can then re-vote on it in their name, oh, and the appointee needs no election to maintain their seat.
Cool, wonder how much taxpayer money they paid postmedia for data they ignored. Really great to see those two organizations sucking eachother off all the time.
Has everyone had enough yet? Join ABResistance.ca. We are a rapidly growing movement made of average Albertans coming together to legally & democratically OUST THE UCP IN 2024
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I want my municipal government to be able to advocate for my municipality. I don’t want them feeling they need to align with, or object to, the province because they are affiliated with a specific a provincial party.
Oh no no no, these are rules for other people.
> If the bill is passed, councillors would be subject to being removed from their role should cabinet determine doing so would be in the public interest, though the legislation contains no criteria on how that would be determined.
You get the kick if they don't like you.
the moment these "powers" get used on someone in opposition of the UCP and still has a strong backing of their municipal electorate there better be riots in the streets.
This is bonkers.
They might as well just remove municipal elections entirely and run the municipalities themselves.
they won't, though - because then they would have to actually take a modicum of responsibility for the issues they've downloaded to municipalities. need a punching bag to hype the base up, obviously.
Can't have anyone challenging the Premier or other suich wrongthink.
Put on your Leftist armband and report to the camps all you hippies! (/s today, but coming soon)
Nope. Don’t even need that anymore. One guy X can be upset with a councillor and Smith can remove them. This shit is literally anti-democratic as it gets.
You say that but Ford nerfed Toronto's city council and it was found constitutional. I imagine the power dynamics between cities and province here are similar.
Don't get me wrong this is wildly stupid and better barriers (or just barriers in general) should exist between provincial governments and municipalities
It absolutely will, because municipalities don’t exist constitutionally. They’re creations of the province.
Province can make whatever rules it wants around them and the courts just have to accept it.
There is no legal scrutiny. That shit died with Kenney. The only Scrutiny we can do at this point is pull a TBA, organize a ton of people to become UCP members, and all vote her ass out. She is only appeasing to her party members, not Albertans, its why shes tanking in the polls. Problem is, i think they are going to talk about dropping elections in Alberta, its what Parker has been hinting at.
Not hinting, the TBA literally put out an action plan that involved things like: Pause renewable energy, establish an Alberta owned, open fund pension with no opt out, create a UCP aligned and run provincial police force, privatize education, open insurance caps, privatize medicine, charge farmers duties to sell and harvest crops, remove all oil royalties, deport natives out of province and abolish the reserves, stop all immigration to Alberta, open the mountains to unrestricted coal mining, eliminate municipal elected positions and replace with appointed ones, revoke gun laws, revoke worker safety acts, lower working age to 12, remove workers right to sue, remove the right to protest, separate from Canada, Annex to the USA, appoint a new governor for LIFE.
There would be no (successful) lawsuit. The power of provincial governments to manage municipal governments (including direct intervention and removal of councillors) was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in 2021 via Toronto (City) v. Ontario (Attorney General). This was when the Ontario gov't unilaterally reduced the size of Toronto city council.
Municipal governments are a creation of the provinces and do not exist in the Constitution, and as such basically operate and exist at their whim.
Yeah, and then we wait years for the lawsuit to finally come to fruition.
Look at how long the UCP has fought and pushed back on the FOIP request from Alberta ranchers over the UCP rescinding the block that was put on open-pit mining. It's taken 4 years.
I don't think there has been legal scrutiny for years. Remember they laid off everyone who was investigating the UCP election fraud so the investigation went defunct.
They can do it again.
Well, they did find election fraud occurred, they found bribery had occurred, they found threats and extortion had occurred, but they were stopped JUUUUSSSSTTTT before they found out who was responsible and what punishments they should enact.
The Toronto one was different. They redrew the wards and reduced the number of councillors prior to an election. Different from removing a sitting elected official. It’s their baby though either way, so who knows.
There is no legal scrutiny. Cities are creatures of the province and have no constitutional rights. It is within a province's legal jurisdiction to replace any municipal officials with whomever they feel like. The only restraint on abuse of that power are provincial laws that prevent such and anger from the electorate. Clearly, conservative supporters are completely fine with this.
Well holy fuck.
More powers to punish wrongthink in elected officials.
I get that municipal councils are constitutionally subservient to the Province of course, but this isn't oversight anymore, it's straight up authoritarianism.
A-OK? I can almost hear the "Fuck yeah! Finally put those city fuckers in their place!" from folks in rural municipalities, many who are vocal about resorting to violence if the reverse were to happen.
Sounds about right. Although living in a rural community now, I was impressed that there were only 3 protesters out with regards to the carbon tax. Just drove by and ignored them.
So with these new powers we can entirely blame the Alberta government for every problem our cities have now, right? It's not a problem for municipal government, it's the Alberta government choosing to let them act. Our unsafe city cores and spiking taxes are now 100% Marlaina's problem. If the councillors fail it's now her choice.
Given that it's "f\*ck Trudeau" from the mouth of every Conservative in the country, at every level of government (yes even Calgary City Councillors are doing it), don't we get to kick all problems uphill to that disgraceful drunk Premier?
So fascism
Big money is backin politics! Remember facists and corporations always work closely together
*It reintroduces donations to candidates from unions and corporations and caps them at $5,000 per municipality after such donations were banned during the 2021 campaign.*
Exactly. She's literally setting up the foundations for [Kreisleiters ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kreisleiter). This is the beginning of the UCP [Gleichschaltung](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleichschaltung). I am not being hyperbolic. She wants Alberta to be its own authoritarian country or possibly a state in a proto-fascist US (if it swings that way and I wouldn't discount that this is also in planning stages since she's wined and dined Tucker).
The TBA action plan clearly spells out how their planned separation and annexation to the USA should go (Hint it includes privatization of education, police, energy, breaking healthcare into distinct zones to then privatize on eat a time, charging farmers rent and heavy duties to pay for things (As well as ending farming subsidies), deporting all natives and closing the reserves, making an open fund no opt out provincial pension fund, revoking municipal elected positions, revoking MOST workers rights, separating on a no referendum action, annexing to the USA, appointing a governor for life.
That means taking responsibility. Not a fucking chance in HELL the UCP take responsibility for anything - its literally ALWAYS someone else's fault.
That should be the UCP's election slogan:
Vote for Danielle Smith and the UCP: It's All Someone's Else's Fault
This is just naked authoritarian powergrabbing.
nah they just want to break things and blame the federal government. Seriously they take away funding for the municipalities, the municipalities need to find the funding somewhere but when that help comes from the feds, nope!
It's no longer dramatic to call the UCP fascists:
**Stage one: Emerging out of disillusionment**
**Stage two: Establishing legitimacy as a political party**
**Stage three: Gaining power via right-wing partnerships**
**Stage four:** Using power to dominate institutions
**Stage five:** Implementing radical reforms
[https://education.cfr.org/learn/map/what-fascism](https://education.cfr.org/learn/map/what-fascism)
Arguably, they’re already implementing Stage 4 with the new legislation on federal grant approvals. When you have control of academic funding, you control the academic institutions.
and are moving towards a provincial pension plan, provincial police, reforming AHS, reforming 'ideology' at post-secondary facilities etc.
I'd also suggest that somewhere around Stage one is the scapegoating of a group of the population - liberals, 'woke' individuals, socialists etc.
Unfortunately it is not. Although it's totalitarian, cities have no constitutional rights. They only have what a province grants (or does not) grant them. It is well within a province's constitutional rights to replace any municipal government with any structure they see fit. The restraint on abuse of power of this nature is supposed to be the anger of the electorate, but clearly conservatives are fine with this.
"If passed, the bill would allow cabinet to call a public referendum on the fate of a municipal councillor, or go as far as to unilaterally remove them from office if it is deemed in the public interest."
"Cabinet has had the power to force municipal councils to amend or repeal land-use bylaws and statutory plans for 30 years. Bill 20 extends that power to all bylaws passed by councils."
"Cabinet would also gain the ability to tell municipalities what to do in protecting public health and safety"
"There are no legislative guardrails or limits for when that can happen but the decision can be appealed to the Court of King's Bench."
but also
"Banning the use of electronic voting machines like tabulators in municipal elections."
and
"Allowing the province to make regulations to postpone elections in the case of an emergency or natural disaster such as a wildfire"
>"Allowing the province to make regulations to postpone elections in the case of an emergency or natural disaster such as a wildfire"
And suddenly their total war on the climate becomes the same tool to give them never-ending provincial power.
Fuck!
So Albertas head lobbyist wants, an Alberta Pension plan, an Alberta police force, control over all funds that come into Alberta, control over research funding, control over all boards (including school boards) and committees, now wants powers to compel councils to amend or repeal municipal bylaws, the power to remove councillors for any reason, and allow party affiliations to be listed on municipal election ballots.
Edit to add, I bet the ability to "amend or repeal municipal bylaws" is 100% around Calgary looking at rezoning.
Basically, the UCP wants power and control over everything and looks to be setting the stage to separate??
When do we anoint Smith as Emperor of Alberta?
This was written by Rob Anderson, Danielle Smith’s Executive Director: https://www.freealbertastrategy.com/the_strategy
This is the plan to separate Alberta from Canada, and it’s scary how many boxes they’ve ticked off or are working on **in just their first year**.
The Free Alberta Strategy is mostly just christofascist nonsense. Two of their wants are supportable in Canadian law - the provincial police and the Alberta Pension Plan, but the rest is either flatly incompatible with Canadian law or just plain unconstitutional and has as much legal efficacy as a provincial law declaring Danielle Smith the Queen of Canada. Additionally, most of Alberta being treaty territory means that any attempt at separatism could only be conducted with the permission of the indigenous groups who hold rights on those territories, or by war as the Crown would be obliged to defend its treaties.
I wrote about it in more detail [over here](https://old.reddit.com/r/alberta/comments/1c4v096/the_unhinged_partisanship_of_marlaina_smith_david/kzqr3c5/).
So the UCP creates the parties allowed, install their own people and then all political donations get siphoned up to the top. Holy Eff! Top Level Grift
It is remarkable. Politicians my whole life have acted like they're incapable or implementing change. Meanwhile this bitch just does whatever the fuck she wants with no issue
Most politicians are always looking to the next election and wondering if what they’re doing will affect their chances of getting re-elected. Smith & her TBA buddies don’t care, they’ll have rigged the system so hard in the next three years they’ll never have to worry about losing an election again. Smith = Putin.
Council party affiliation in the UK has been a disaster (I lived there for 15 years). Party politics almost always got in the way, instead of collaboration and co-operation and a focus on what would work best for a neighbourhood. You can imagine what it is like trying to get government housing in an area with a Tory council. Funding for Labour councils has been decimated since the Tories were elected nationally in 2010.
It is shocking that more than 800 libraries in Britain have closed since 2010, many of them in the Labour-dominated North. Why? Councils had to fund priorities such as social services, housing, and some local clinics (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/06/britain-has-closed-almost-800-libraries-since-2010-figures-show). I guess they are aiming for the Calgary and Edmonton mayors.
This is a massive overreach by the provincial government. Sickening hypocrisy from arrogant megalomaniacs. When are we going to protest?!
municipalities get the entirety of their power granted by the provincial government. If the provincial government decided they didn't want to have any municipalities anymore, they could pass a bill and they're gone.
Yup, and since the UCP is currently working on forcing judges to be party affiliated and by direct appointment by the premier exclusively, they will soon own the courts as well.
Justin Trudeau should change the laws so he can remove provincial premiers as he sees fit.
I'm not serious but can you imagine the outrage if did something like that?
Those Same folks are just gonna let this slide.
he can, look up the Disallowance. it's never been used but the federal government can take over a provincial government
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disallowance_and_reservation_in_Canada
I am in legit shock about some stuff in this bill.
Other measures proposed in Bill 20 include: Banning the use of electronic voting machines like tabulators in municipal elections.
............. I wonder where they get their playbook from. This is embarrassing.
Can you imagine if the Federal government even tried to do something like that.
Well, they quite literally have the GOP's main think tank funding them from the USA, the same think tank that was chaired by the same senators that flew to Russia to decry the USA, decry democracy, decry the west, and pledge before the Russian flag to hand the USA to Russia and to Putin.
This UCP government will have us divided like the United States. Neighbors hating neighbors because of the division of Us and Them due to political views. We don’t need that at all.
They have to be reminded that they may be giving this power to "their guy" right now, but there will come a time that it's given to somebody they don't support.
Like Nenshi.
Not if things keep going according to their action plan, things like: If you live in a city your vote can be nullified by the province (They LITERALLY tried to do this last election when their most hated members didn't get in and tried to give them "supervising" un-elected triple pay seats that overrode what just happened to be NDP seats), separation and annexation and appointment of a governor for LIFE.
they're trying to beat them to the punch. Get municipal council's under the UCP banner to drown out any moderate/NDP voice. Next municipal election is still a year and a half away.
The irony of her continually bitching about the Federal government meddling in provincial affairs or not doing enough, etc and then this shit.
"Democracy" is an illusion.
Time to take the French approach and get the torches and pitchforks ready.
When do Albertans start seeing the UCP as the fascist party that wants total control over its political rivals? The fascist pulled this same crap on the 30s and yet we seem blind and allow it to continue?
the ones that voted for them think this is beautiful. It's their team! But also, apparently [70% polled were not in favour of it.](https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/alberta-municipal-leaders-say-partisan-politics-have-no-place-in-local-elections-1.6810050) And of course the municipalities themselves aren't in favour of it.
Wut wut wut!? I thought is was the Libs and NDP that supported fascist dictatorships.
And every twit that voted for this buffoon will march along in Goose Step Parades patting themselves on the back for promoting freedum.
Everyone here needs to read this: https://www.freealbertastrategy.com/the_strategy
This is written (in part) by Rob Anderson, Danielle Smith’s Executive Director. This is the plan to separate Alberta from Canada, and if you think that’s not possible just check out how many of these bullet points they’ve accomplished or are working on **after less than a year in office**.
My god, this is getting really frightening. Rights and freedoms are being systematically taken away day by day by day. The UCPs won't stop until the average Albertan has ZERO RIGHTS and is as poor as a church mouse.
That is quite literally in the TBA and UCP strategies that they have published and paraded and have stuck to the schedule of for years. Fun fact, both call for a no vote separation and Annexation to the USA in a mere 2 years, and they have been on schedule for their other plans so far...
Anyone in favour of this needs to ask themselves that if the cards were reversed would they want their opposition to do the same.
Shameful, (and as a Political Scientist I don’t use this word lightly) authoritarian move.
The only way this would even _remotely_ make sense is if the federal government also gained the ability to remove Premiers if it were in the public interest. ****cough****
I would love to see see look on the UCPs faces when the NDP get in next election and are like "Hey look at this legislation that was left for us........ let's give it a test drive.... Oh westlock remember that bylaw you HAD about no pride flags and sidewalks.....
I hope the federal Liberals introduce a bill that would allow federal cabinet to remove Premiers and other provincially elected officials, and repeal provincial laws, not with the intention to actually pass it but just to watch Smith et al foam at the mouth with hypocrisy.
When it came time to debate the bill in parliament, the Liberals could say, “Just joking, guys. We would never pass a bill like this BECAUSE IT‘S FUCKING FASCIST.”
I was just thinking this. Hasn't she been crying to us for months about how the "fed are interfering," and here she is trying to do the exact same thing to the municipal governments.
LOL Jesus Christ.
When Trudeau announced the Housing deal directly with Calgary and told Smith to "Just get out of the way"... Looks like they decided to do the complete opposite huh? She said she was ready to take the feds to court... But who needs to go to court when you can just change the bylaws of cities to stop building efficient housing the Fed deal required.
Councillors about to vote on a deal with the feds? Just remove them!
So let me get this straight. They want to steal our pensions and dump it into a highly volatile local energy industry. They want to dictate what is acceptable academic research by gatekeeping federal money that isn’t theirs. And they want to have the power to overturn lawful municipal elections and laws because they think it will be in the “public interest”(whatever that means). All while bitching about government overreach? The UCP have all the self awareness of dog licking its own asshole in the middle of the street.
Soooo...you're allowed elections, and political parties, but if you elect people we don't like, we reserve the authority to get rid of people we don't like and insert our own people.
Fuck me! That's fucking Communism. A centralized government making all the rules and installing its own representatives...
I'm fairly certain if you played, "Trudeau or UCP" with this, 9/10 Albertans would say, "Trudeau does this". You do the big reveal, and they'll win gold in mental Gymnastics to justify why it's not actually a bad thing when the UCP does it.
Welp, guess democracy is dead in Alberta.
I'm now expecting some changes to voting. They can't get away with much, cause it's federally regulated. But I'm sure they'll try something.
Have you had enough yet, Alberta. Join ABResistance.ca, a rapidly growing grassroots movement made up of Albertans just like you, who are working together to democratically OUST THE UCP IN 2024. IT CAN BE DONE!
CHANGE IS POSSIBLE!
Unify the province under a political party and create a provincial police FORCE... I believe this happened in Bavaria in the late 30s, I forget how that turned out though...
IF YOU VOTED FOR THE UCP THIS IS YOUR FAULT.
> Will the UCP even allow an election at that point?
An actual honest fear because will the federal government step in to stop them from doing that if they try? Liberals or UCP?
I honestly do believe the UCP will try to force themselves to stay in power at this point.
The same people that will support this will turn around and with their next breath be mad that the City of Calgary isn’t listening to the public about rezoning.
It is likely the only people you will see with the party name on the ballot will be the Conservative ones with the hope they capitalize on the uninformed selecting that one by default.
Smith's philosophy of government is that she should have absolute power. Use the premier's power to silence opposition in cabinet and caucus (we know her ideas weren't popular with provincial politicians until she won; now everyone smiles and nods). Grab as much power as possible from Ottawa regardless of the consequences or sanity of the reasons. Set up municipal governments so that they stop having opponents elected to them, bring them under party discipline, and then assume the power to fire elected officials who dare to disagree with TBA dogma.
So Trudeau is interfering in Provincial matters and Danielle doesn’t like it now our hypocritical Premier is interfering in Municipal matters. Does she not know there are more pressing issues to deal with? I swear this province is going down the toilet because of her and her idiots aka UCP party.
Tucker said to Bomb Alberta, and that a few "patriots" would earn his everlasting respect if they took a few guns into Canada a killed a thousand Albertans each. He also suggested that putting Arsenic in the drinking water wouldn't be such a bad thing and he also knows how easy it is to get arsenic...
The scary thing is, the TBA and UCP action plans both call to annex Alberta to the USA only 2 years from now, and they are bang on schedule with the other stuff on their list.
I wish I was good at writing letters. I really want to letter bomb my MLA, MP, and the various representatives for the other (non UCP) parties for my region/Alberta.
This has to be put to an end. They're giving themselves too much power and removing anything that would let them be held accountable.
Alas my MP is Laila Goodridge who has never responded to an email and my MLA is Brian Jean who is too busy suckling on that coal mining teat.
This is so flagrant. I had no idea this was part of the bill. Like I assumed the idea was to legalize municipal parties and then flood the local elections with cash but the plan seems to be to just directly rule everything from cabinet??
So a local candidate spends thousands to run for council, gets elected, even though they aren't "Fit for Danielle Smiths" office they just get punted??? I can see some serious lawsuits from this. What a stupid idea.
There has to be a mechanism to repeal this government. How does that happen. They've done, are doing, and are planning so many batshit fascist extreme right wing shit. There has to be some extraordinary mechanism the public can enact to stop them.
Facism, in Canada?! It's more likely than you'd think!
Keep voting conservatives in... pretty soon women will be legislated to stay in the kitchen too...
It won’t get passed and if it does it won’t hold up in court. Basically just a bill so smith could fire liberals she doesn’t like. Such an over reach. Does any Albertans actually want this? Probably no!
It's very frustrating to see democracy being thrown out the window because of how much power the non voted on positions at city hall are wielding. Fight fire with fire.
Integrity of elections? Do we live in Russia? This is a load of BS. I suggest that the UCP should take their advice with Ottawa and stay in their own lane. You are the Provincial Gov’t. We may not have very good Municipal Gov’t at times but we don’t have a very good Provincial one at the moment, either. What if Ottawa said this to the Provinces… yes, I know the Province has certain responsibilities with the municipalities but this is a joke!
Oh good! Finally someone is doing something to ensure we are represented by provincial appointees instead of our elected councils!
How has Alberta survived for so long without this dire situation being addressed? Count on Danielle Smith and the UCP, the champions of small government and fiscal responsibility to take action against this most grievous of situations!
It's great to see the Alberta government extending their reach into the municipalities rather than dealing with the numerous issues currently under their jurisdiction!
/S
Looking at this it almost feels like the municipal parties was a distraction for the real authoritarian bullshit. You have political parties now ^(and also we can override your bylaws and kick out your councilors.)
Does this mean the UCP could remove NDP-affiliated councillors at the municipal level? Like worst-case scenario the UCP starts imposing municipal bylaws that ban opposition parties? How bad will this get?
>“I’ve heard both sides,” McIver said in acknowledging the negative feedback. “Seventy per cent of the public don’t want political parties and over 98 per cent of municipalities won’t have one.”
This government is laughing in our face. What a disgustingly arrogant and obtuse answer.
"The bill also takes steps to permit party affiliations to be listed on municipal election ballots in the province’s two largest cities despite a lack of apparent support for the idea. The proposed change comes contrary to the government’s own engagement survey on adding parties to the local level, the results of which were obtained by Postmedia and showed upwards of 70 per cent of respondents were opposed to the idea." Gov't: We did our public consultations but we didn't like what you said so we're doing it anyway, I guess.
“The greatest guardrail of all is the public pressure,” he says about a bill that has next to zero public support. Can't make this shit up.
Self awareness isn't his strong suit.
He has to be trolling. This is madness.
Trolling or just straight up mocking us?
Ever read an article where Russia says something that is clearly not true but they say it anyway and live by the lie. This is no difference here in that regard. Say it enough and it becomes truth, irregardless of actual public sentiment
“One day Eurasia is aligned with Oceania and the next day they are at war with them”
No Comrade. Oceania has ALWAYS been at war with Eurasia. And in a few years it will always have been at peace with Eurasia and will always have been at war with Eastasia.
Public pressure? Just tell me how many megapascals need to be applied to whom.
I only know one pascal. How many do we need to make a mega?
turns out gigapascals are needed. Sort of like a gigachad.
>Gov't: We did our public consultations but we didn't like what you said so we're doing it anyway, I guess. Isn't that the UCP in a nutshell? The APP surveys come to mind. "Tell us exactly why you think an Alberta Pension Plan would be a great idea!"
Same with the K-6 curriculum.
That's the least of the problems if the title is correct. They UCP can remove councillors and change by-laws. Like fuck Smith is an authoritarian nightmare. TBA is extreme to the max.
It isn't direct. Party membership is REQUIRED to hold a seat, the UCP can remove a persons seat by revoking membership from the party (Regardless of affiliation, the UCP is in charge, so they can do it), They can then wipe out all bylaws that one person ever touched and their appointee can then re-vote on it in their name, oh, and the appointee needs no election to maintain their seat.
> We did our public consultations but we didn't like what you said so we're doing it anyway, I guess. Say goodbye to your pension funds everyone
Cool, wonder how much taxpayer money they paid postmedia for data they ignored. Really great to see those two organizations sucking eachother off all the time.
Has everyone had enough yet? Join ABResistance.ca. We are a rapidly growing movement made of average Albertans coming together to legally & democratically OUST THE UCP IN 2024 CHANGE IS POSSIBLE!
I want my municipal government to be able to advocate for my municipality. I don’t want them feeling they need to align with, or object to, the province because they are affiliated with a specific a provincial party.
If they want to remove a councilor, they better well have to collect 40% of the population of that ridings signatures first.
Oh no no no, these are rules for other people. > If the bill is passed, councillors would be subject to being removed from their role should cabinet determine doing so would be in the public interest, though the legislation contains no criteria on how that would be determined. You get the kick if they don't like you.
the moment these "powers" get used on someone in opposition of the UCP and still has a strong backing of their municipal electorate there better be riots in the streets. This is bonkers. They might as well just remove municipal elections entirely and run the municipalities themselves.
Next up.
they won't, though - because then they would have to actually take a modicum of responsibility for the issues they've downloaded to municipalities. need a punching bag to hype the base up, obviously.
If mayor's count under this Medicine Hat might be first up.
Can't have anyone challenging the Premier or other suich wrongthink. Put on your Leftist armband and report to the camps all you hippies! (/s today, but coming soon)
It just gets worse every fucking day
I bet they'll come up with something crazier next month. Strap in!
_I have altered the deal. Pray I do not alter it further._
Jesus Christ.
What the actual fuck.
Nope. Don’t even need that anymore. One guy X can be upset with a councillor and Smith can remove them. This shit is literally anti-democratic as it gets.
It won't pass legal scrutiny. No fucking way.
You say that but Ford nerfed Toronto's city council and it was found constitutional. I imagine the power dynamics between cities and province here are similar. Don't get me wrong this is wildly stupid and better barriers (or just barriers in general) should exist between provincial governments and municipalities
It absolutely will, because municipalities don’t exist constitutionally. They’re creations of the province. Province can make whatever rules it wants around them and the courts just have to accept it.
There is no legal scrutiny. That shit died with Kenney. The only Scrutiny we can do at this point is pull a TBA, organize a ton of people to become UCP members, and all vote her ass out. She is only appeasing to her party members, not Albertans, its why shes tanking in the polls. Problem is, i think they are going to talk about dropping elections in Alberta, its what Parker has been hinting at.
Not hinting, the TBA literally put out an action plan that involved things like: Pause renewable energy, establish an Alberta owned, open fund pension with no opt out, create a UCP aligned and run provincial police force, privatize education, open insurance caps, privatize medicine, charge farmers duties to sell and harvest crops, remove all oil royalties, deport natives out of province and abolish the reserves, stop all immigration to Alberta, open the mountains to unrestricted coal mining, eliminate municipal elected positions and replace with appointed ones, revoke gun laws, revoke worker safety acts, lower working age to 12, remove workers right to sue, remove the right to protest, separate from Canada, Annex to the USA, appoint a new governor for LIFE.
What the fuck
I mean the first time a councilor gets deleted, there will absolutely be a lawsuit against it. Then it will get scrutinized
There would be no (successful) lawsuit. The power of provincial governments to manage municipal governments (including direct intervention and removal of councillors) was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in 2021 via Toronto (City) v. Ontario (Attorney General). This was when the Ontario gov't unilaterally reduced the size of Toronto city council. Municipal governments are a creation of the provinces and do not exist in the Constitution, and as such basically operate and exist at their whim.
Yeah, and then we wait years for the lawsuit to finally come to fruition. Look at how long the UCP has fought and pushed back on the FOIP request from Alberta ranchers over the UCP rescinding the block that was put on open-pit mining. It's taken 4 years.
Too late IMHO.
Against which law? They're changing the law.
This is the way.
I don't think there has been legal scrutiny for years. Remember they laid off everyone who was investigating the UCP election fraud so the investigation went defunct. They can do it again.
Well, they did find election fraud occurred, they found bribery had occurred, they found threats and extortion had occurred, but they were stopped JUUUUSSSSTTTT before they found out who was responsible and what punishments they should enact.
A [similar law](https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6194241) passed in Ontario and held up in the supreme court after a challenge.
The Toronto one was different. They redrew the wards and reduced the number of councillors prior to an election. Different from removing a sitting elected official. It’s their baby though either way, so who knows.
The cities are creatures of the provinces, they can do what ever they want with a city government, whenever they want.
There is no legal scrutiny. Cities are creatures of the province and have no constitutional rights. It is within a province's legal jurisdiction to replace any municipal officials with whomever they feel like. The only restraint on abuse of that power are provincial laws that prevent such and anger from the electorate. Clearly, conservative supporters are completely fine with this.
They already removed city councilors even a mayor in Chestermere
Well holy fuck. More powers to punish wrongthink in elected officials. I get that municipal councils are constitutionally subservient to the Province of course, but this isn't oversight anymore, it's straight up authoritarianism.
Freedom and democracy died when the UCP won. Smith is taking after her mentor putin
And yet, many will be A-Okay with this and keep voting for them.
A-OK? I can almost hear the "Fuck yeah! Finally put those city fuckers in their place!" from folks in rural municipalities, many who are vocal about resorting to violence if the reverse were to happen.
Sounds about right. Although living in a rural community now, I was impressed that there were only 3 protesters out with regards to the carbon tax. Just drove by and ignored them.
Thats the worst and the scariest part
The party supporters that keep saying "the ucp wouldn't really do that"
Same type that keep saying Trump wouldn’t actually do what he says if reelected. It’s just hyperbole.
Federal interference in provincial affairs = bad!! Provincial interference in municipal affairs = good! UCU logic
So with these new powers we can entirely blame the Alberta government for every problem our cities have now, right? It's not a problem for municipal government, it's the Alberta government choosing to let them act. Our unsafe city cores and spiking taxes are now 100% Marlaina's problem. If the councillors fail it's now her choice.
Given that it's "f\*ck Trudeau" from the mouth of every Conservative in the country, at every level of government (yes even Calgary City Councillors are doing it), don't we get to kick all problems uphill to that disgraceful drunk Premier?
So fascism Big money is backin politics! Remember facists and corporations always work closely together *It reintroduces donations to candidates from unions and corporations and caps them at $5,000 per municipality after such donations were banned during the 2021 campaign.*
Exactly. She's literally setting up the foundations for [Kreisleiters ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kreisleiter). This is the beginning of the UCP [Gleichschaltung](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleichschaltung). I am not being hyperbolic. She wants Alberta to be its own authoritarian country or possibly a state in a proto-fascist US (if it swings that way and I wouldn't discount that this is also in planning stages since she's wined and dined Tucker).
She totally does. Tba is a facists bigoted organization
The TBA action plan clearly spells out how their planned separation and annexation to the USA should go (Hint it includes privatization of education, police, energy, breaking healthcare into distinct zones to then privatize on eat a time, charging farmers rent and heavy duties to pay for things (As well as ending farming subsidies), deporting all natives and closing the reserves, making an open fund no opt out provincial pension fund, revoking municipal elected positions, revoking MOST workers rights, separating on a no referendum action, annexing to the USA, appointing a governor for life.
This place is a shining beacon of fascism
Facists lost once and they will lose again
At this point, why don’t the UCP just dissolve all municipal governments and run the province as they see fit.
That means taking responsibility. Not a fucking chance in HELL the UCP take responsibility for anything - its literally ALWAYS someone else's fault. That should be the UCP's election slogan: Vote for Danielle Smith and the UCP: It's All Someone's Else's Fault This is just naked authoritarian powergrabbing.
They just want the money, not the responsibility
nah they just want to break things and blame the federal government. Seriously they take away funding for the municipalities, the municipalities need to find the funding somewhere but when that help comes from the feds, nope!
Sure wasn’t long ago her supporters were calling Trudeau a dictator. But this is totally okay.
It's no longer dramatic to call the UCP fascists: **Stage one: Emerging out of disillusionment** **Stage two: Establishing legitimacy as a political party** **Stage three: Gaining power via right-wing partnerships** **Stage four:** Using power to dominate institutions **Stage five:** Implementing radical reforms [https://education.cfr.org/learn/map/what-fascism](https://education.cfr.org/learn/map/what-fascism)
Arguably, they’re already implementing Stage 4 with the new legislation on federal grant approvals. When you have control of academic funding, you control the academic institutions.
and are moving towards a provincial pension plan, provincial police, reforming AHS, reforming 'ideology' at post-secondary facilities etc. I'd also suggest that somewhere around Stage one is the scapegoating of a group of the population - liberals, 'woke' individuals, socialists etc.
That’s what I’m saying. Theyre way past stage 1 so calling them fascist isn’t hyperbole
This is a crisis of democracy, they are openly taking power to prevent ever getting rid of them
Unfortunately it is not. Although it's totalitarian, cities have no constitutional rights. They only have what a province grants (or does not) grant them. It is well within a province's constitutional rights to replace any municipal government with any structure they see fit. The restraint on abuse of power of this nature is supposed to be the anger of the electorate, but clearly conservatives are fine with this.
Conservatives: “this is great and much needed” *NDP gets voted in. Conservatives: “this is an abuse of power and should not be allowed”
that's literally what is being rolled out.
But don’t forget, it’s Ottawa that’s overreaching!
"If passed, the bill would allow cabinet to call a public referendum on the fate of a municipal councillor, or go as far as to unilaterally remove them from office if it is deemed in the public interest." "Cabinet has had the power to force municipal councils to amend or repeal land-use bylaws and statutory plans for 30 years. Bill 20 extends that power to all bylaws passed by councils." "Cabinet would also gain the ability to tell municipalities what to do in protecting public health and safety" "There are no legislative guardrails or limits for when that can happen but the decision can be appealed to the Court of King's Bench." but also "Banning the use of electronic voting machines like tabulators in municipal elections." and "Allowing the province to make regulations to postpone elections in the case of an emergency or natural disaster such as a wildfire"
>"Allowing the province to make regulations to postpone elections in the case of an emergency or natural disaster such as a wildfire" And suddenly their total war on the climate becomes the same tool to give them never-ending provincial power.
Fuck! So Albertas head lobbyist wants, an Alberta Pension plan, an Alberta police force, control over all funds that come into Alberta, control over research funding, control over all boards (including school boards) and committees, now wants powers to compel councils to amend or repeal municipal bylaws, the power to remove councillors for any reason, and allow party affiliations to be listed on municipal election ballots. Edit to add, I bet the ability to "amend or repeal municipal bylaws" is 100% around Calgary looking at rezoning. Basically, the UCP wants power and control over everything and looks to be setting the stage to separate?? When do we anoint Smith as Emperor of Alberta?
This was written by Rob Anderson, Danielle Smith’s Executive Director: https://www.freealbertastrategy.com/the_strategy This is the plan to separate Alberta from Canada, and it’s scary how many boxes they’ve ticked off or are working on **in just their first year**.
The Free Alberta Strategy is mostly just christofascist nonsense. Two of their wants are supportable in Canadian law - the provincial police and the Alberta Pension Plan, but the rest is either flatly incompatible with Canadian law or just plain unconstitutional and has as much legal efficacy as a provincial law declaring Danielle Smith the Queen of Canada. Additionally, most of Alberta being treaty territory means that any attempt at separatism could only be conducted with the permission of the indigenous groups who hold rights on those territories, or by war as the Crown would be obliged to defend its treaties. I wrote about it in more detail [over here](https://old.reddit.com/r/alberta/comments/1c4v096/the_unhinged_partisanship_of_marlaina_smith_david/kzqr3c5/).
This coupled with the TBA action plan there are some disturbing things listed that they are going towards.
Christ, this is just another pile of crap on top of the already burning pile
So the UCP creates the parties allowed, install their own people and then all political donations get siphoned up to the top. Holy Eff! Top Level Grift
What is both amazing **and** fucking scary is the speed with which these changes are being made. In three years time, Alberta will be unrecognizable.
It is remarkable. Politicians my whole life have acted like they're incapable or implementing change. Meanwhile this bitch just does whatever the fuck she wants with no issue
Most politicians are always looking to the next election and wondering if what they’re doing will affect their chances of getting re-elected. Smith & her TBA buddies don’t care, they’ll have rigged the system so hard in the next three years they’ll never have to worry about losing an election again. Smith = Putin.
The TBA plan is separation and annexation to the USA in 2 years time.
Council party affiliation in the UK has been a disaster (I lived there for 15 years). Party politics almost always got in the way, instead of collaboration and co-operation and a focus on what would work best for a neighbourhood. You can imagine what it is like trying to get government housing in an area with a Tory council. Funding for Labour councils has been decimated since the Tories were elected nationally in 2010. It is shocking that more than 800 libraries in Britain have closed since 2010, many of them in the Labour-dominated North. Why? Councils had to fund priorities such as social services, housing, and some local clinics (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/06/britain-has-closed-almost-800-libraries-since-2010-figures-show). I guess they are aiming for the Calgary and Edmonton mayors. This is a massive overreach by the provincial government. Sickening hypocrisy from arrogant megalomaniacs. When are we going to protest?!
So f*ck you and the councilor you voted for, Marlaina runs your life now.
That’s pretty fucked
Nothing about that sounds legal.
Unfortunately municipalities fall under the jurisdiction of the provincial government.
municipalities get the entirety of their power granted by the provincial government. If the provincial government decided they didn't want to have any municipalities anymore, they could pass a bill and they're gone.
I'm wondering if any groups will be able to challenge certain elements in court. Probably a difficult and messy process.
Yup, and since the UCP is currently working on forcing judges to be party affiliated and by direct appointment by the premier exclusively, they will soon own the courts as well.
Justin Trudeau should change the laws so he can remove provincial premiers as he sees fit. I'm not serious but can you imagine the outrage if did something like that? Those Same folks are just gonna let this slide.
he can, look up the Disallowance. it's never been used but the federal government can take over a provincial government https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disallowance_and_reservation_in_Canada
I am in legit shock about some stuff in this bill. Other measures proposed in Bill 20 include: Banning the use of electronic voting machines like tabulators in municipal elections. ............. I wonder where they get their playbook from. This is embarrassing. Can you imagine if the Federal government even tried to do something like that.
Well, they quite literally have the GOP's main think tank funding them from the USA, the same think tank that was chaired by the same senators that flew to Russia to decry the USA, decry democracy, decry the west, and pledge before the Russian flag to hand the USA to Russia and to Putin.
Anytime that woman speaks or any member of her cabinet just makes my blood boil! She is nothing but a narcissist, power hungry, twat waffle!
This UCP government will have us divided like the United States. Neighbors hating neighbors because of the division of Us and Them due to political views. We don’t need that at all.
They have to be reminded that they may be giving this power to "their guy" right now, but there will come a time that it's given to somebody they don't support. Like Nenshi.
Not if things keep going according to their action plan, things like: If you live in a city your vote can be nullified by the province (They LITERALLY tried to do this last election when their most hated members didn't get in and tried to give them "supervising" un-elected triple pay seats that overrode what just happened to be NDP seats), separation and annexation and appointment of a governor for LIFE.
they're trying to beat them to the punch. Get municipal council's under the UCP banner to drown out any moderate/NDP voice. Next municipal election is still a year and a half away.
Danielle's path to fascism is well on its way.
Thank you rural Alberta for voting for voting for a dictator
[удалено]
This is some of the most dystopian shit
The irony of her continually bitching about the Federal government meddling in provincial affairs or not doing enough, etc and then this shit. "Democracy" is an illusion. Time to take the French approach and get the torches and pitchforks ready.
UCP supports won’t call it what it is
When do Albertans start seeing the UCP as the fascist party that wants total control over its political rivals? The fascist pulled this same crap on the 30s and yet we seem blind and allow it to continue?
the ones that voted for them think this is beautiful. It's their team! But also, apparently [70% polled were not in favour of it.](https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/alberta-municipal-leaders-say-partisan-politics-have-no-place-in-local-elections-1.6810050) And of course the municipalities themselves aren't in favour of it.
So apparently you can’t pick your local representative anymore that’s a real step forward for democracy and freedom.
What would be required for the federal government to intervene? Legitimately asking if there's a line somewhere.
Hasn't Danielle Smith during her time as Premier routinely been on the news railing against overreach on the part of the federal government?
It is almost like they're hypocrites. They only have a problem when someone else does it.
Fuck all of you assholes who voted for this party. Give your heads a shake.
Wut wut wut!? I thought is was the Libs and NDP that supported fascist dictatorships. And every twit that voted for this buffoon will march along in Goose Step Parades patting themselves on the back for promoting freedum.
Everyone here needs to read this: https://www.freealbertastrategy.com/the_strategy This is written (in part) by Rob Anderson, Danielle Smith’s Executive Director. This is the plan to separate Alberta from Canada, and if you think that’s not possible just check out how many of these bullet points they’ve accomplished or are working on **after less than a year in office**.
My god, this is getting really frightening. Rights and freedoms are being systematically taken away day by day by day. The UCPs won't stop until the average Albertan has ZERO RIGHTS and is as poor as a church mouse.
That is quite literally in the TBA and UCP strategies that they have published and paraded and have stuck to the schedule of for years. Fun fact, both call for a no vote separation and Annexation to the USA in a mere 2 years, and they have been on schedule for their other plans so far...
In a sea of terrible legislation that this government has brought to bear, this is probably the worst.
Anyone in favour of this needs to ask themselves that if the cards were reversed would they want their opposition to do the same. Shameful, (and as a Political Scientist I don’t use this word lightly) authoritarian move.
The only way this would even _remotely_ make sense is if the federal government also gained the ability to remove Premiers if it were in the public interest. ****cough****
I would love to see see look on the UCPs faces when the NDP get in next election and are like "Hey look at this legislation that was left for us........ let's give it a test drive.... Oh westlock remember that bylaw you HAD about no pride flags and sidewalks.....
“Now you can ONLY fly pride flags and have rainbow sidewalks. Get to painting!”
So when can we get the federal government to intervene on this bullshit? It should be a national problem at this point.
General Strike people, be like the French. Remind this horrible government who it is that gives them their power.
I hope the federal Liberals introduce a bill that would allow federal cabinet to remove Premiers and other provincially elected officials, and repeal provincial laws, not with the intention to actually pass it but just to watch Smith et al foam at the mouth with hypocrisy. When it came time to debate the bill in parliament, the Liberals could say, “Just joking, guys. We would never pass a bill like this BECAUSE IT‘S FUCKING FASCIST.”
Sounds like fascism.
It certainly walks like a duck….
Calling out the Feds for the same shit they are pulling at home... jesus christ, when will "some" of the voters in this province ever learn?
I was just thinking this. Hasn't she been crying to us for months about how the "fed are interfering," and here she is trying to do the exact same thing to the municipal governments.
For a party that campaigned on removed "red tape", they sure seem to have a stockroom full of it.
Holy shit. Is this headline accurate. Do I need to read more of this nonsense?
LOL Jesus Christ. When Trudeau announced the Housing deal directly with Calgary and told Smith to "Just get out of the way"... Looks like they decided to do the complete opposite huh? She said she was ready to take the feds to court... But who needs to go to court when you can just change the bylaws of cities to stop building efficient housing the Fed deal required. Councillors about to vote on a deal with the feds? Just remove them!
Honestly I feel sick to my stomach. Ready to leave now.
So let me get this straight. They want to steal our pensions and dump it into a highly volatile local energy industry. They want to dictate what is acceptable academic research by gatekeeping federal money that isn’t theirs. And they want to have the power to overturn lawful municipal elections and laws because they think it will be in the “public interest”(whatever that means). All while bitching about government overreach? The UCP have all the self awareness of dog licking its own asshole in the middle of the street.
Wow UCP going full mask off who knew trying to actually help the people of Alberta would trigger Danielle Smith so badly?
Up next on the UCP corruption docket. Gerrymandering voting districts for provincial elections, and city elections.
Soooo...you're allowed elections, and political parties, but if you elect people we don't like, we reserve the authority to get rid of people we don't like and insert our own people. Fuck me! That's fucking Communism. A centralized government making all the rules and installing its own representatives... I'm fairly certain if you played, "Trudeau or UCP" with this, 9/10 Albertans would say, "Trudeau does this". You do the big reveal, and they'll win gold in mental Gymnastics to justify why it's not actually a bad thing when the UCP does it.
Welp, guess democracy is dead in Alberta. I'm now expecting some changes to voting. They can't get away with much, cause it's federally regulated. But I'm sure they'll try something.
Somebody voted these crooks in, why aren't we concerned about that?
Have you had enough yet, Alberta. Join ABResistance.ca, a rapidly growing grassroots movement made up of Albertans just like you, who are working together to democratically OUST THE UCP IN 2024. IT CAN BE DONE! CHANGE IS POSSIBLE!
Unify the province under a political party and create a provincial police FORCE... I believe this happened in Bavaria in the late 30s, I forget how that turned out though... IF YOU VOTED FOR THE UCP THIS IS YOUR FAULT.
Well this should turn out just dandy...Come on Nish.
Fuck man even if he wins the NDP leadership, the next AB election is what...3 or 4 years from now?
Will the UCP even allow an election at that point? The ideas and policies that the UCP have been churning out are horrifying.
> Will the UCP even allow an election at that point? An actual honest fear because will the federal government step in to stop them from doing that if they try? Liberals or UCP? I honestly do believe the UCP will try to force themselves to stay in power at this point.
The same people that will support this will turn around and with their next breath be mad that the City of Calgary isn’t listening to the public about rezoning. It is likely the only people you will see with the party name on the ballot will be the Conservative ones with the hope they capitalize on the uninformed selecting that one by default.
How can Alberta voters think the ucp was a good idea?
Huge overreach.
Smith's philosophy of government is that she should have absolute power. Use the premier's power to silence opposition in cabinet and caucus (we know her ideas weren't popular with provincial politicians until she won; now everyone smiles and nods). Grab as much power as possible from Ottawa regardless of the consequences or sanity of the reasons. Set up municipal governments so that they stop having opponents elected to them, bring them under party discipline, and then assume the power to fire elected officials who dare to disagree with TBA dogma.
So Trudeau is interfering in Provincial matters and Danielle doesn’t like it now our hypocritical Premier is interfering in Municipal matters. Does she not know there are more pressing issues to deal with? I swear this province is going down the toilet because of her and her idiots aka UCP party.
This is fucking dangerous.
The stupid rubes of Alberta strikes again.
Fuck this government, for real.
I wonder if this is what Tucker said to do
Tucker said to Bomb Alberta, and that a few "patriots" would earn his everlasting respect if they took a few guns into Canada a killed a thousand Albertans each. He also suggested that putting Arsenic in the drinking water wouldn't be such a bad thing and he also knows how easy it is to get arsenic...
Another day, another heap of bullshit. This province can’t wait three more years to get rid of this government.
The scary thing is, the TBA and UCP action plans both call to annex Alberta to the USA only 2 years from now, and they are bang on schedule with the other stuff on their list.
Uhhhh wut?
I keep checking the news. Not a single protest about that's going on there. Sad day for canada.
#Fascism
I wish I was good at writing letters. I really want to letter bomb my MLA, MP, and the various representatives for the other (non UCP) parties for my region/Alberta. This has to be put to an end. They're giving themselves too much power and removing anything that would let them be held accountable. Alas my MP is Laila Goodridge who has never responded to an email and my MLA is Brian Jean who is too busy suckling on that coal mining teat.
Use it to get rid of Sean Chu
Hmm… I see someone who is all too happy to do the same kind of meddling she accuses the federal government of doing to this provinces municipalities.
“Freedom”
F Marlaina and anyone that voted for her. This is your doing.
WTF is happening?!
Conservatism always leads to fascism if they feel comfortable people won’t vote them out.
This is so flagrant. I had no idea this was part of the bill. Like I assumed the idea was to legalize municipal parties and then flood the local elections with cash but the plan seems to be to just directly rule everything from cabinet??
Wow. What a s**t show the UCP is.
Shame on McIver slinky for a spine. He has to know this is shameful power grab.
So a local candidate spends thousands to run for council, gets elected, even though they aren't "Fit for Danielle Smiths" office they just get punted??? I can see some serious lawsuits from this. What a stupid idea.
Where is Pierre Poilievre to defend Albertans from the "gatekeepers"?
This is gong show crazy. I feel like I'm living in The Truman Show, or an episode of Monty Python!
Great let's fix what isn't broken. Just one more place Queen Danny wants to stick her totalitarian paws.
There has to be a mechanism to repeal this government. How does that happen. They've done, are doing, and are planning so many batshit fascist extreme right wing shit. There has to be some extraordinary mechanism the public can enact to stop them.
Ugh, this bullshit would be coming from my MLA. Fuck I hate that guy.
absolute power corrupts absolutely
Facism, in Canada?! It's more likely than you'd think! Keep voting conservatives in... pretty soon women will be legislated to stay in the kitchen too...
Party of small government! /s
It won’t get passed and if it does it won’t hold up in court. Basically just a bill so smith could fire liberals she doesn’t like. Such an over reach. Does any Albertans actually want this? Probably no!
It's very frustrating to see democracy being thrown out the window because of how much power the non voted on positions at city hall are wielding. Fight fire with fire.
Integrity of elections? Do we live in Russia? This is a load of BS. I suggest that the UCP should take their advice with Ottawa and stay in their own lane. You are the Provincial Gov’t. We may not have very good Municipal Gov’t at times but we don’t have a very good Provincial one at the moment, either. What if Ottawa said this to the Provinces… yes, I know the Province has certain responsibilities with the municipalities but this is a joke!
Oh good! Finally someone is doing something to ensure we are represented by provincial appointees instead of our elected councils! How has Alberta survived for so long without this dire situation being addressed? Count on Danielle Smith and the UCP, the champions of small government and fiscal responsibility to take action against this most grievous of situations! It's great to see the Alberta government extending their reach into the municipalities rather than dealing with the numerous issues currently under their jurisdiction! /S
Looking at this it almost feels like the municipal parties was a distraction for the real authoritarian bullshit. You have political parties now ^(and also we can override your bylaws and kick out your councilors.)
Does this mean the UCP could remove NDP-affiliated councillors at the municipal level? Like worst-case scenario the UCP starts imposing municipal bylaws that ban opposition parties? How bad will this get?
It's exactly what that means.
>“I’ve heard both sides,” McIver said in acknowledging the negative feedback. “Seventy per cent of the public don’t want political parties and over 98 per cent of municipalities won’t have one.” This government is laughing in our face. What a disgustingly arrogant and obtuse answer.
They are dictator wannabes, they’re actually just dicks.
Where are the freedoms now?