#alberta pc's

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Former Alberta justice minister apologizes for racist videos — if they depict 'real events'

Videos on social media appear to show Jonathan Denis performing a caricature of Indigenous people

Warning: This story contains a video that contains vulgar language and content.

Jonathan Denis, a former Alberta justice minister, is apologizing after a series of videos were posted to social media over the past few days, though he says he has no recollection of them taking place or if they are real.

The three videos purport to show Denis on a phone talking while adopting a negative caricature of an Indigenous voice, referencing liquor stores and casinos.

"I have no recollection of these events, however, it is possible I said them years ago while under the influence of alcohol. If so, I am truly sorry," wrote Denis in a statement to CBC News.

"I acknowledge that I overused alcohol in the past and have not in some time. If these are real events, I apologize unreservedly to anyone that I offended. I hope this apology puts an end to this."

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Tagging: @politicsofcanada @abpoli

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Alberta's Wildrose and PC parties vote overwhelmingly to unite the right

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean to resign post, run for leadership of new conservative party

Alberta Wildrose and Progressive Conservative Party members have voted 95 per cent in favour of ratifying the agreement to join forces and form the new United Conservative Party.

Of the 24,598 Wildrose members who cast a ballot, 23,466 voted Yes and 1,132 said No. The party said 57.7 per cent of eligible voters weighed in.

On the PC side, 27,060 members voted with 25,692 saying Yes and 1,344 saying No. There were 24 spoiled ballots.

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[allthecanadianpolitics]

The Wildrose Party is not going to change. The PC Party, meanwhile, has changed for the worse.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose!

That is to say, for those Albertans who are still upset about having French "stuffed down their throats" with their cornflakes in the 1960s … the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Exactly one year ago, I wrote on this blog about former Wildrose leader Danielle Smith's remarkably blunt comments on the damage done to her former party and the broader conservative movement by the powerful, social conservative cabal within it bitterly opposed to LGBTQ rights.

Since then, everything has changed and nothing has changed.

Today, Alberta's two main conservative parties are well on their way to uniting into a single party. But under the leadership of former Harper cabinet minister Jason Kenney, the Progressive Conservative Party is now dominated by the same core of homophobic social conservatives.

Indeed, in many cases, they are now exactly the same people in both parties.

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[allthecanadianpolitics]

The new President of the Alberta Progressive Conservatives is a big fan of Kellie Leitch.

Now with both him and Jason Kenney at the helm of the party, it seems like the PC’s are taking a hard turn to the right.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Wildrose-PC members to vote on new united party on July 22

If the agreement is passed, there will need to be a joint party convention and a leadership race.

The Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties will work to come together under a new entity called the United Conservative Party.

Party leaders unveiled details of the plan to unite Alberta’s conservative-minded parties Thursday afternoon at a news conference in Edmonton, with both parties looking to ratify the agreement on July 22.

A leadership race will begin the following day, with Oct. 28 pegged as the date to elect a leader through a one member, one vote system.

A self-imposed deadline to reach an agreement passed two weeks ago, but the two sides have hashed out their differences.

The new party’s founding principles include: economic freedom, grassroots democracy, compassion for the less fortunate through progressive social policies, universal healthcare, high-quality public education and a school of choice program, environmental responsibility, and a fair regulatory regime.

The legal societies of the two legacy parties will amalgamate, with the new party’s interim board comprising six PC and six Wildrose members.

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[allthecanadianpolitics]

Jason Kenney is the new leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservatives. He won ~75% of the vote.

And if he gets his way, he will be the last leader of that party (since he plans to unite the right under a new party).

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Of course, this is part of a long tradition in Alberta politics of dubious Russian political metaphors that fall flat upon delivery. Alert readers will recall that not so long ago a group of Wildrose MLAs prompted outrage by blogging about how the NDP’s carbon tax is pretty much the same thing as Stalin’s genocidal starvation policy in Ukraine in the 1930s.

Social democracy in Alberta? Pretty much the same as the Russian Revolution!

Really! I’m not making this up!

Just ask Richard Gotfried, Progressive Conservative MLA for Calgary-Fish Creek.

Mr. Gotfried should know. After all, he talked to his dad about this. His late father quit Russia in 1917, which, as historically alert readers will recall, was a big year for revolution in that part of the world.

So if you thought it’s only Wildrose infiltrators voting for Jason Kenney in the recent Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership election that worry about this kind of thing, guess again. Mr. Gotfried was up on his hind legs in the Alberta Legislature Monday afternoon to prove you wrong.

According to Mr. Gotfried’s rambling commentary during Monday’s members’ statements, his pop just was 10 years old when he shook the dust of revolutionary Russia off his boots and headed for Shanghai in the company of his mother and siblings, “a refugee with little more than the clothes on his back.”

So far, this sounds like a ripping yarn, and I would sincerely like to hear more – but perhaps not in the context of trying to prove Alberta’s thoroughly democratically domesticated New Democrats are a bunch of Bolsheviks. (Or maybe just Mensheviks, if Mr. Gotfried was feeling kind-hearted on Monday, or if there’s any uncertainty about which month in 1917 we happen to be talking about.)

But Rachel Notley as Leon Trotsky? Sorry, I don’t see it.

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[allthecanadianpolitics]

Voting underway to choose next Alberta PC leader

Former MP and federal Conservative minister Jason Kenney the frontrunner

Voting is now underway in Calgary to elect the next leader, and possibly last, leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative party.

Former MP and federal Conservative cabinet minister Jason Kenney, Alberta PC MLA Richard Starke and Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson are vying to replace the late Jim Prentice as the party's permanent leader.

Results of the first ballot are expected around 4:30 p.m. local time.

Kenney is running on a platform to unite Alberta conservatives by dissolving the PCs and creating a single right-wing party, so if he wins, this could be the last leadership race for the party as it now stands. Starke and Nelson want the party to continue under the PC banner.

The three candidates made their final pitches to the crowd of approximately 2,000 at the Telus Convention Centre.

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