A bit of a timeline (some of this may never hit the MSM) :
By the end of last week (Thursday) about twenty PC MLAs had agreed to cross the floor on Monday and form an independent Conservative party. They had the paperwork ready for filing. There was a caucus meeting on Sunday where Redford pleaded (well not pleaded – likely more like argued) to remain as leader and that she would change her imperious ways (she was a recluse compared to Nixon). Most of the caucus relented on pressing for her resignation.
On Monday she made this promise to be a new Alison publicly. The rank and file of the PCs were having none of it however. And almost all of the riding associations revolted and organized a meeting where they would vote to insist on her removal – a remarkable repudiation of the PC MLAs. That became public today. The entire party elite has been found wanting. It’s difficult to see how they survive as a party after the next election.
And now she’s gone.
More from Lorne Gunter.
“…about twenty PC MLAs had agreed to cross the floor on Monday and form an independent Conservative party”
Really? Are you sure it wasn’t an independent Progressive party they wanted to form because pretty much all of the Conservatives who used to be in the PCP of Alberta got fired last election and replaced by Wildrose MLAs.
My source is pretty solid. And that they were planning on using the term “independent conservative” or something very similar was an appeal to the right but going through the list of suspects who were planning to cross and create a new party (by doing so they would get extra funding/office perks etc.) most looked to be on the left-side of the party (Edmonton and urban Calgary) the exact names likely will now never be known as one can be pretty sure that the paperwork has been shredded/deleted.
Until recently you couldn’t even find the word “conservative” anywhere on their website except in a PDF of their founding documents. And ms Redford never used the word conservative without saying progressive as well.
So if any of you folks have five bucks…you to can vote for the next Premier/Queen/King of Alberta….
Scandals that plagued Premier Alison Redford’s tenure
• October 2011: Redford’s PC leadership campaign is accused of buying teachers’ support by vowing a $107 million boost to education.
• March 2012: It’s revealed MLAs were paid $1,000 a month to sit on a committee that hadn’t met in 39 months.
• October 2012: Redford takes heat when it’s clear her government paid $114,000 for unused hotel expenses related to the provincial government entourage at the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games that cost a total of more than $500,000.
• November 2102: It’s revealed 145 children died while in provincial custody since 1999, though the government only revealed 56 of the fatalities.
• October 2013: It’s learned Redford’s chief of staff of six months, Stephen Carter, received a $130,000 golden handshake.
• February 2014: The so-called sunshine list tells a tale of big six-figure salaries and sumptuous pay hikes for those in Redford’s office and other government operatives.
• February 2014: The premier is hit with a huge political broadside when it’s revealed taxpayers paid $45,000 to send her and an aide to former South African president Nelson Mandela’s memorial in December 2012. She paid back the money the following month. Other questionable travel expenses were also revealed.
A veritable litany of ‘entitlements’ which won’t be celebrated or missed…
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
Shhh! Listen! Can’t you hear the gnashing of teeth and wailing from the Alberta Teachers Association, and the Nurses Union? Music to my ears.
I trust you Gord Tulk, forgive me if I seemed to have been questioning the veracity of your recollection.
I suspected they were only playing off of the cache’ that conservatism has in Alberta.
syncrodox, I thought about buying a fresh PC membership so that I could vote in the leadership race last time too, but I’m convinced that the 3 way runoff they always pull after the first vote is designed to ensure a Leftist Leader and I don’t want to help fill their war chest for the snap election they’re likely to call.
No worries…I predict they go for the sanitation engineer/environmentalist vote this time around…
Nice list there Hans. I’ll archive it for future use as a clue-by-four for unregenerate Progressives that show up here from time to time. What was the amount Nanny Redford blew on herself for the London Olympic trip, $88k or thereabouts?
In an early indication of what was to come she had to refund the money she spent on her mum and daughter for the Olympic trip
Entitled to her entitlements to quote an old federal liberal wag
Quite a few dollars spent flying/dining the executive assistant…
Well, it’s sure good to see Redfraud go, but the question is who’s next? One of the issues that Redfraud needs to be investigated for is the massive illegal thefts of firearms and ammunition from gunowners in High River by the HRGT. I’m curious what the status of firearm owners claims to their significant financial loss in terms of ammunition is at this time? If Redfraud gave these orders, would she be personally liable?
Not surprisingly, my simple comment on the departure of Redfraud didn’t survive moderation at the CBC site. So, thought I’d try another one to see what happens:
Next it’s time to find out if Redford gave the orders for the illegal use of what was supposed to be a destroyed firearms registry by the HRGT to illegally enter homes in High River to search for firearms. Through some remarkable coincidence, just the homes of known firearms owners were entered and extensive damage was caused to homes and firearms and ammunition were stolen.
While firearms owners did get their guns back, all ammunition was destroyed by the HRGT – a theft which amounted to several hundred thousand to millions of dollars. This was one of the most blatant examples of police state activity in this country and, if Redford had any connection to this statist theft, she should be prosecuted for abuse of power. Coincidentally this statist theft occurred in the riding of Danielle Smith, a cat fight if there ever was one and Danielle didn’t come across very well in her initial comments regarding what were clear police state actions. The Wild Rose Party will likely have to look for another leader with better Libertarian credentials.
Hopefully one of the first actions of the next premier is to kick the HRGT out of Alberta and create an Alberta provincial police. That PMSH hasn’t fired the upper ranks of the HRGT indicates that he’s just another CINO and I’ve used this action to tell members of the federal “Conservative” party who call me asking for donations that my days of donating to a CINO party are over. Ideally I’d like a Libertarian government in power but would be satisfied with one who reigned in the federal gestapo. I know that in the eyes of the CBC crowd I’m a redneck, but I’m proud to be a redneck and a Libertarian one at that. At least there’s one province in Canada that, in the past, has stood up to statists and hopefully we’ll again see an Alberta that doesn’t cringe when its statist premier is mentioned.
And furthermore, Redford was a believer in the fraud of CAGW which is a campaign by global plutocrats to impoverish the west while enriching themselves through their “green” campaigns. The reluctance of global temperatures to rise for 17 years despite rising CO2 concentrations has destroyed the CO2-global warming link for rational people everywhere but US and Saudi plutocrats fund campaigns to ensure that oil-sands oil doesn’t interfere with their profits. So, if the US plutocrats don’t like the Keystone pipeline, Northern gateway is where the oil sands crude is going.
The above comment had the last paragraph trimmed as only 1800 characters/comment are allowed on the CBC site. Now if this comment doesn’t survive moderation, it will be time to contact the CBC ombundsman to ask about their moderation policy. The tone of comments regarding “Alberta rednecks” is quite insulting and the CBC moderation policy appears to be designed to give a very one-sided view of Canadians opinions. What I’d suggest is an SDA flood the CBC day when a particular story would have a large number of SDA viewers post comments on the story. A count could be made of how many comments were posted and how many survived censorship. If simple thoughtful comments that were at variance with the CBC’s statist weltanschauung were excluded, then we would have direct evidence of a deliberate distortion of what Canadians think. This, in any logical country, would be enough to start the ball rolling to defund the CBC which is clearly misrepresenting opinions of Canadians. If PMSH had any balls, he’d slash the CBC’s budget to 0, but then it appears that he’s been too long in Ottawa and become a CINO.
b
Noticed in her sob speech how she drew attention the the word, “progressive”?
That’s the trouble with the current crop of Alberta Tories…..too much “progressive”, not near enough “conservative”. Be it buying into the global warming/carbon capture/green movement hocus pocus, to pandering to the teachers union to abuse of power and taxpayer money through lavish expense claims.
Playing the “but I’m a Mom first” card proves that those in power certainly don’t get it.
Headlines in the Edmonton Journal are beyond hilarious.
Redford makes sudden, clean break
and
Premier beats disgruntled colleagues to the punch
I very rarely give props to a Liberal but I will do so this morning. Nova Scotia’s premier, Stephen McNeil, also attended the Mandela funeral. Total expenses? Just under $1,000. The direct comparison between Redford’s outrageous expense and McNeil’s frugal one was something she could not dodge no matter how hard she tried. I’d like to think, as a Nova Scotian, that it may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Good riddance, Redford. May you never get near a position of power again, you entitlement ##### (not sure I can use that word without tripping on the auto-censor!).
How many former Federal Conservatives supported Redford?
Would love to see a revolt of this nature in Ontario but we’re dealing with Liberals so it’s hopeless, the destruction of Ontario continues bolstered by their fellow leftists, the NDP.
Interesting. There have been party revolts where riding execs and members attempted to oust or contain the pink/red elite in the party (the last one lead by Ted Morton I believe) but never the caucus – I suspect this was all staged theater to dissuade the last of the hardcore PC support from wavering and going W-Rose.
All a waste though, the PC organization has become so diluted in vision and purpose, aa well as in ideology, that it needs to be sent for a total refit, scrape the barnicles off the hull – get the reds all back into one separate party – PCs reduced to 10 seats or less for a decade of rebuilding as a viable right of center governing structure.
The CBC has gone to its go-to guy for matters Albertan, Mayor Nenshi, for his wisdom on the matter. Perhaps the Redford wing of the PC party should try to recruit the smiling statist mayor to lead them.
Nenshi is defending Redford and blaming partisanship for her ouster.
Tone deaf and obviously unaware that it was the grassroots of the party that forced her to quit.
I would love to see a battle between he and the former mayor of Edmonton. The two most left-wing mayors in Alberta history.
With the demise of the Alberta PCs and the dithering of the Wild Rose a conservative in Alberta really has no party to vote for. I voted Wild Rose last time because of Alison Redford and the disaster I saw coming at us but since then the Wild Rose has decided that they want to be PC lite and I personally feel betrayed. I had great hopes for the party that held so much promise of getting a grass roots fire started and doing great things for Alberta/Canada. Instead its the same old pap of following the public rather than leading the public. Where’s Ralf when you really need him?
Nenshi the Progressive…now Aint that the truth.
As a Fiscal Conservative and Libertarian, I am heartened at REDferds departure. I could only be happier if the whole of this sad empty husk of a so Called conservative party is eviscerated at the next electeion.
But what we see in Alberta is a microcosm of what has happened throughout Canadian Politics – witness the cheery oblivion of Kathleen WHine…and the LieBral Scandal backa few yrs ago. It seems to me that statist Entitlement has become the norm, aided and abetted by various police agencies throughout the country.
I want to see an elimination of political immunity. You screw up and blow money on partisan or personal purposes – you stand trial. As a Politician YOU WORK FOR US…not the other way around.
This country has never had a revolution…it might be time for that.
Give Wildrose a chance Joe. I too felt bad when they shifted left in order to appeal to moderates.
However, half a glass is better than nothing and it’s worked for Harper.
They need power and ideology aside, we need a new party in power to clean up the bureaucracy, corrupt and entitlement. 4 years of someone new is all it would take to shatter the fossilization of politics in Alberta.
The IA’s in Alberta already revolted against the PC’s there, that’s one of the reasons you see the MLA’s scrambling to save themselves.
“Nova Scotia’s premier, Stephen McNeil, also attended the Mandela funeral. Total expenses? Just under $1,000. The direct comparison between Redford’s outrageous expense and McNeil’s frugal one was something she could not dodge no matter how hard she tried.”
Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, did not go. Total expenses? $0.
How long until the next Alberta election?
In any case, hopefully Wildrose moves a little more to the libertarian side and sweeps the next election.
It was a great day seeing Redford resign. Now if only Wynn would go.
“Wild Rose has decided that they want to be PC lite”
Well, don’t think it’s PC lite, but the Wild Rose sure as hell ain’t straight Alberta rye anymore. Smith compromised some pretty basic conservative principles by her AGW statements. And if you’ve done it once, you’ll do it again, and again, and….
Got a phone call from Wild Rose.
They wanted to know if they can count on voting for their party.
Told them “no”.
The caller asked,”why”?
Told the caller, it appears the went for the global warmmongers.
The caller was of course disappointed, told them, the ball is in your court.
End of story.
To be honest the Wild Rose party lost the last election because of a lack of vision and the one 2 years out isn’t going to be any different. The fact is that most Albertans are neither left wing or right wing. They are enthusiastic ‘can do’ kind of people. Give them a vision and a goal and Albertans will turn hell into heaven in a week and a half. Don’t give them a vision and they will keep turfing your sorry political butts into the political scrap heap like they did with Getty, Klein in his declining years, Stelmach and now Redford. The only question is will (hubcaps) Smith figure this out in time to win the next election or will she be another Grant Notley who is fondly remembered by the socialists but never got more than two members elected.
The RCMP need to arrest her before she flees the country!
Obvious joy that she is gone, the only caveat is that she would have been a guaranteed, no contest win for the WRP in the next election.
When Alberta chooses a new PC leader, will that leader go to the polls quicker than Ontario, whose leader has not yet faced the voting public?
Should be an interesting comparison.
Joe “she be another Grant Notley who is fondly remembered by the socialists but never got more than two members elected.”
Gant Notley was a media whore who was on the news every day for 15 years. His day wasn’t complete until he talked to the few legislature reporters. He is remembered because he is remembered, not because he was some genius or great leader. Alberta is getting to the point that they might elect a commie who says he is a commie rather than a commie who says he is a conservative.
Thank god and the CBC that the whole affair wasn’t settled until Mayor Nenshi gave his final blessings.
Never forget that “it ain’t over until the black lady sings”.
Thank you CBC.
That Sieg Heil goodbye photo was to appeal to her future Progressive UN boss’s.
This is exactly what we in Ontario saw with the Ernie Eves government. The red tories had taken over and look where it has gotten us! If Alberta falls to the socialists the country is done, it would not have an economic engine left. The real conservatives have to reassert control over the party to bring the Wildrose back into the fold and get the province into shape again.
chris >
“If Alberta falls to the socialists the country is done”
That is precisely why Alberta has been under heavy “shock & awe” Liberal bombardment for the last 10 years or more. The influx of mass immigration of eastern Liberals and third world labor is always the spearhead for Socialist invasions.
I saw a clip of her talking to “reporters” after the weekend meeting with the party brass. She was going on about continuing to travel talking to “party members”. Not talking to Albertans, or fellow citizens or some other such bromide. No it was talking to party members and focusing on getting re-elected. I give her props for being honest, but “tone deaf” doesn’t even come close to describing her. “Ding dong the witch is dead, which old witch? The Redford Witch…
The problem with Redford and others like her is that at her political core she is a big state Liberal masquerading as a Conservative out of expediency, whereas our PM is a libertarian conservative forced to masquerade as a moderate. Redford simply didn’t have the strength to keep her inner demons from manifesting. I remain fairly convinced that our PM is still “bending the curve” from within, so to speak, and is steadily marching the ball down the field. But power corrupts even the strongest among us…
TPTB were surprised by Reform. They will never let their plans be diverted like that again, hence the quick dousing of the WR bushfire by any and all means necessary.
Previous to those 10 years, Alberta was getting all the real Conservatives from good old Saskabush. That’s why we were wandering in the NDP wilderness for so many years. Now, thanks to the oil boom our nomads have returned and we have a Conservative government again and the Roughriders are No. 1.
One down…
It’s too little, too late. That rat faced cankle was a liberal shill from day one and should never have been let near the levers of power for the party. Before that it was the brain-dead Fast Eddie. That party hasn’t been worth a s**t since King Ralph left.
Sorry guys. If the conservatives are going to act like liberal scum they will not be getting my vote.
Wynne is quite safe, she has the NDP supporting her, making it a worse case scenario for Ontario, an economic disaster zone and Wynnemill Winny is still spending, a few million for this and that in and around Toronto where brain free Liberal voting reigns supreme and voila, she’s back to power. We will be the wind and solar farming capital of North America, paying high prices for power or freezing in the dark.
Maybe you folks can enlighten me? Forgive my ignorance, but who and what is this Hancock guy? Is there any danger with him? I ask because I am trying to decide whether the Alta PC party is doomed or just wounded.
River Rat >
I can’t argue with that!
Why don’t any “real conservatives” left just move to the
Wild Rose and the leavings can call themselves the
Lib-Dem/Gub Unions/Crony Caps/Love In/ Party?
I was listening to CBC this morning because I like to know what the enemy is up to. CBC was desperately trying to spin the resignation of Alison Redford as primarily a GENDER issue. Excuse my culturally based anti-male references, but sadly, for the Wild Rose party,not having Alison around at the next election as a whipping boy will be a real kick in the balls.
Hancock is a PC Party lifer and one of the reddest of Red Tories. He was on Don Getty’s Edmonton-Whitemud board of directors and became the replacement candidate after he got defeated. He won his seat even when Liberals were all the rage in Edmonton in the 90’s and is going on 20 years in the PC caucus and is a revolving cabinet minister under just about every portfolio you can think of and was one of Redfords most trusted Ministers and mouth pieces.
Thanks. So their hooped then. What a shame that the party of Peter Lougheed goes down this way, bloated and full of disease — ready to pop like a ripe carcass. I just hope the Wildrose can keep it together this time. Danielle Smith will make an excellent premier.
They’re, not their. Dolt.
I don’t necessarily believe any of this is true, but I wish it had happened. We could have had more choices and even a rightist one.
Yeah well mebbe I’m a wee bit misogynist, a bit far right, and libertarian…..but I wuz amazed that Alberta, not just the PCs, ever considered that petulant, UN apparatchik…..
Although the High River Firearms Scandal grinds on, most have little doubt that the petulant UN apparatchik authorized/requested it.
As far as morontario……it’s the GTA tail waggin’ the dog.