At the end of the fall session, Alberta’s NDP goes on the offensive

Better late than never, Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi finally effectively hammered the governing United Conservative Party (UCP)’s policy hot mess at a news conference Thursday morning marking the end of the fall sitting of the Alberta Legislature. 

“The last six weeks have been a wild ride from a government pushed into the corner,” Nenshi began strongly. Premier Danielle Smith’s UCP, he said, is “a government worried about its own political future, a government that lashes out at any criticism, that subverts democracy, that subverts our institutions, that pushes 14 bills not one of which addresses the real concerns of Albertans.”

“What the heck was that?” he asked, rhetorically. “This is not a government any Albertan elected! They are doing things that no Albertan wants in this crazy, wild time.”

So far so good. Leastways, the former Calgary mayor and university business teacher started out bluntly before giving in to the temptation to digress with a professorial discourse about how often closure has been used in the history of the province’s Legislative Assembly. (All you need to know is: too much, and a lot more by the UCP than anyone else, ever.)

The Opposition entered the fall session focused on things they believe Albertans care about, Nenshi continued after getting himself back on track.

“The cost of living, health care, public education, good jobs and a trustworthy government,” he said.

By contrast, he said, “the UCP focused on none of those things with their make-it-up-as-you-go-along bills. They introduced massive changes to Alberta that nobody asked for. … And it became clear – now more than ever because the mask fell – that this government cares only about its own political survival, and Albertans be damned! 

“Over the last six weeks, they’ve shown just how out of touch they are, and how self-serving they are and, quite frankly just how cruel they are when they think it suits them,” said Nenshi

This is all hard to argue with. But while Nenshi’s discourse was a long one, at times compelling and assertive, at times not so much, when he briefly handed the mic off to his deputy leader, Edmonton-Whitemud MLA Rakhi Pancholi, things livened up. 

Pancholi quickly and entertainingly recapped the many sins of the UCP in just this session. “In the over six years that I’ve been in MLA, I’ve seen the UCP do a lot of damage, but never in so short of a time,” she began before ripping into the government’s antics point by point. “I’m gonna have to warn you, buckle up!” 

“The personal impact of government’s choices in the past two months on so many Albertans is unprecedented,” she said. “There is not a person in this province who has not been affected by the government’s choices.”

“We’ve seen incredible overreach by the government into all areas of Albertans’ lives, into all aspects of civil society and the judicial system, into the homes, doctors’ offices, businesses, workplaces of Albertans, and into the very democratic processes of this province,” she asserted.

Look, I shouldn’t give in to the temptation to review the political equivalent of the warm-up act more enthusiastically than the main event. But you can read my transcript of Pancholi’s deconstruction of the UCP’s transgressive session here. It was a bravura performance. And you can watch the entire news conference on Facebook, although you’ll have to put up with an introduction that was a little too heartwarming for my taste before the video cuts to the chase. 

Predictably, the government’s news release and press conference saw UCP House Leader Joseph Schow tout the session’s “robust legislative agenda” as proof “our government has successfully delivered on keeping Alberta the best place to live, work and play.” Don’t worry, he also insisted it made Alberta “the best place to invest and do business.” 

The list of legislation touted by Schow, however, suggested the influence of the UPC’s MAGA-inspired, Alberta separatist base and its corporate donors more than keeping the province the best place to live, etc. 

Held up for special notice by the government’s press-release writers: Energy- and water-sucking AI data centres, galloping health-care privatization, cuts in support for the disabled, restrictions on the powers of regulatory colleges to protect the public from quacks and frauds, and restrictions on naming political parties expressly intended to prevent politicians from calling themselves Progressive Conservatives. 

In the unlikely event anyone was paying attention yesterday, the NDP won this argument.