[Newsbot]

Title: UCP denies political interference over plan to fire election commissioner
Category: Provincial Politics
Posted By: DrCaleb
Date: 2019-11-19 07:17:18
Canadian

[DrCaleb]

[Thanos]

They're so nakedly awful it's disgusting. Even Trump didn't have the stupidity to fire Robert Mueller.

[DrCaleb]

Thanos Thanos:

They're so nakedly awful it's disgusting. Even Trump didn't have the stupidity to fire Robert Mueller.

Actually, he did! Just his staff smartly ignored the order.

At least Kenney is being consistent in his corruption. "Well, the new Elections commissioner would be free to re-hire the investigator!"

I really wonder if in the Facebook and Twitterverse, if anyone is payin g attention to this stuff?

[DrCaleb]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

I really wonder if in the Facebook and Twitterverse, if anyone is payin g attention to this stuff?

Yesterday on the radio call in show "Alberta At Noon" was pretty brutal.

$1:

"It's very controversial and it's going to get a lot of tongues wagging," former MP Monte Solberg told Alberta@Noon.

"This is in alignment with where the government said it would go, but the optics are absolutely … they are pretty bad."

Solberg is conservative going back to Reform Party days. He represented Medicine Hat in Parliament, was a federal cabinet minister and has long been a supporter of now-premier Jason Kenney. As a political strategist and principal with New West Public Affairs, Solberg urged Albertans to vote for the UCP leader.

Zain Velji, a campaign strategist and political analyst, goes a bit further.

"I think it's a brazen move," said Velji, a partner at Northweather.

"It's about a crisis a day. This doesn't allow citizens or the media to get a full dissection on what's going on because we have to cover the next thing. It's called changing the channel. You do something that people don't like, you don't want them to talk about it, you throw something else at them."

. . .

A political scientist says it doesn't look good.

"The optics of firing the guy or removing his position, who is investigating the party, looks really bad. And it is bad," said Duane Bratt, a professor at Mount Royal University.

Toews wasn't available Tuesday to defend the bill on Alberta@Noon.

. . .

Velji says, however, this goes beyond what the party promised.

"The electorate has given Jason Kenney the mandate to cut expenditures, but not at any cost," he said.

"No way has this government been given the mandate to do stuff like this."

And caller Tyler Lambert of Edmonton told Alberta@Noon he agrees.

"It is incredibly corrupt, what they are doing," Lambert said.

"They advocated jobs and pipelines and they are cutting all of these social services. There is no job creation there. He is not standing up for Albertans, not in my eyes."

A Calgary caller was on the same page.

"It doesn't look bad. It is bad," Doug Wilson said, defending the work of the elections commissioner.

"I can't believe for a moment that [Lorne Gibson] would do so without any form of substantiation. To remove him could change the entire investigation and make it a whitewash. It speaks to a certain level of ethical bankruptcy, in my mind."

. . .

Another Edmonton caller wasn't so sure, saying trust is paramount.

"I have never been mad enough to phone in before, but I am now," Brian Kaliel said.

"I am not a partisan party member by any stretch. I am the kind of guy Jason Kenney should be paying attention to. Once you have lost a voter's trust, you are not going to get it back. I think most Albertans are concerned about good governance, somebody who will be honest and manage our affairs in a careful, prudent way. The urban voters in Edmonton already don't trust him, and I would be concerned about voters in Calgary, if I were him."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/ ... -1.5365697

[Thanos]

The way they're going so far they're looking at a perp-walk out of their offices some day. This isn't the return of Ralph Klein, it's the return of that gang of thieves that were in the completely corrupted Grant Devine government in Saskatchewan back in the 1980's.

[fifeboy]

Thanos Thanos:

The way they're going so far they're looking at a perp-walk out of their offices some day. This isn't the return of Ralph Klein, it's the return of that gang of thieves that were in the completely corrupted Grant Devine government in Saskatchewan back in the 1980's.

And believe me, you do not want that!

[Thanos]

Doesn't the Devine team still have the Canadian record for most politicians in a sitting government to be arrested? Like thirteen out of fifty-five of them charged/convicted/imprisoned for abusing their expense accounts and taking bribes? Jesus Christ!

[DrCaleb]

Thanos Thanos:

The way they're going so far they're looking at a perp-walk out of their offices some day. This isn't the return of Ralph Klein, it's the return of that gang of thieves that were in the completely corrupted Grant Devine government in Saskatchewan back in the 1980's.

I don't know, they might be a new breed of awful.

They railed against Notley in the Leg that she didn't have a mandate to introduce a Carbon Levy, and campaigned that they wouldn't revisit abortion. But then introduce a bill that will in effect limit abortion. Like we don't see through them or something.

[Thanos]

The slash-and-burn austerity they're doing is the one that stands out to me the most, especially after they promised multiple times that they wouldn't repeat the Klein method that devastated the province. I never trusted the little shit when he said that sort of thing during the campaign because I knew right then and there that he was lying. Coming soon, another hospital or two to be knocked down, all to the rapturous applause of the ball-cap wearing redneck drunks that come out to witness the spectacle. Endless enemies outside the province combined with an unrestrained spirit of malice inside. WE. ARE. FUCKED.

[DrCaleb]

Yea, I think we both saw that Randy would not be good for us.

[fifeboy]

Thanos Thanos:

Doesn't the Devine team still have the Canadian record for most politicians in a sitting government to be arrested? Like thirteen out of fifty-five of them charged/convicted/imprisoned for abusing their expense accounts and taking bribes? Jesus Christ!

Well, if they don't get the gold, I'm sure they are on the podium.

[llama66]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Yea, I think we both saw that Randy would not be good for us.

He was a terrible assistant trailer park supervisor and he’s a terrible Premier

[DrCaleb]

$1:

Election commissioner's office officially dissolved: Elections Alberta

The Office of the Election Commissioner has been dissolved and transferred to the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Alberta said in a news release Friday.

Bill 22, the Reform of Agencies, Boards and Commissions and Government Enterprises Act, came into effect on Friday, the agency said.

On Thursday, the legislature passed the bill, which included the firing of election commissioner Lorne Gibson.

Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley said Thursday the quick passage of the bill is the mark of a premier and government "consumed by power and unconcerned by the views of Albertans."

Gibson was leading the investigation into the so-called "kamikaze" campaign of UCP leadership candidate Jeff Callaway and had levied fines against 15 people totalling $207,223.

Callaway allegedly entered the race to discredit former Wildrose leader, and Kenney's chief rival, Brian Jean, only to drop out and endorse Kenney weeks later.

Kenney and Callaway deny they worked together to defeat Jean, but emails obtained by CBC News show high-ranking Kenney officials providing resources, including strategic political direction, media, and debate talking points, speeches, videos and attack advertisements, to the Callaway campaign.

Friday's news release didn't mention Gibson by name.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton ... -1.5370192

Of course, they do it on a Friday so the news cycle deoan't pick it up.

[BartSimpson]

Yep...and need I remind anyone of AdScam? Seems your government (all of it) is not nearly as honest as you'd like to think.