In one of my increasingly growing number of cynical moments, I was contemplating when the Saskatchewan United Party would release its next list of irrelevant “issues” that would rile the good folk of Saskatchewan into a frenzy such as did set wildfires to burn in Lumsden Morse on Aug. 10.
I was almost willing to bet on their following their anti-LGBTQ theme by demanding that the provincial government refuse to allow any confectionary within a two-kilometer radius of a school to sell Chips Ahoy “Rainbow” cookies.
Don’t laugh, because a similar incident occurred in June of 2012 when Kraft Foods (manufacturers of Chips Ahoy) first ran an ad illustrating a seven-layer rainbow Oreo cookie to celebrate LGBT Pride month. Although the cookie was a fictional product (Too difficult to dunk in a glass of milk?), within mere hours following the ad’s publication a Facebook page appeared demanding a consumer boycott of the non-existent product, then later changing the context of the page to recommend that the boycott extend to the entire list of Kraft food products – simply because the company had dared to acknowledge the existence of a large “gay” community in the United States.
In today’s world, the creator of that Facebook page would probably be elevated to the NHL Board of Governors. Now maybe that comment is a tad “cheesy”, but given the cash-strapped conditions of our current university attendees, were that same boycott option to reappear today how many Millennial-aged students would be willing to forsake their survival supply of twice-a-day Kraft Dinner meals to support the cause?
Here’s my point; ten years ago Canadian pundits chuckled about that page, and Canada would now have a few more internationally renowned comedians in Hollywood who make their living by highlighting stupidities American right-wingers adopt into their political agenda. NOW, however, we’re becoming overrun by malcontents, disinformation specialists, economic know-nothings, scientific illiterates and mirror gazers (“Karens”), who have all decided to evacuate their bat caves to form actual “political” entities supporting such stupidities. How else can you best describe the creation of absurdities such as Nadine Wilson’s Saskatchewan United Party and Alberta’s United Conservative Party, temporarily led by Danielle Smith.
The only difference between Wilson and Smith is that Smith creates her own political agenda, which Wilson AND Premier Moe both feel free to plagiarize. The problem is, after the UCP’s November 4th annual weekend convention, Ms. Smith’s tenure as premier is now being threatened from within by Take Back Alberta, the creation of reactionary nobody David Parker, who already has had too many “Andy Warhol moments” on the Alberta political stage.
Parker can best be described as “a serious piece of work”. Once a staunch supporter of Smith’s predecessor Jason Kenney, that marriage ended the moment Kenney imposed a mandate for restrictions in social movement due to then disturbing increases in Covid-19 infections paralyzing the health care system. When Alberta Health Care recommended that people might wish to consider going back to wearing masks in October following a similar outbreak of Covid cases, Parker merely echoed University of Calgary’s scientific illiterate PoliSci professor Barry Cooper, claiming even N95 masks don’t work, while maintaining that such a recommendation “again show[ed] that a hostile and communist ideology has taken over our health-care system and is defying the democratic will of the people.”
Parker’s “realities” foresee an Alberta wherein “women ought to be at home having babies, not spending their days working [within a ‘stressful’ environment’]”. Equally “sagacious”, his opinion to “eradicate gender ideology” from schools is nothing more than a backhanded endorsement of Saskatchewan’s Bill 137, the inappropriately named “Parents’ Bill of Rights”. As to his opinion on climate change and global warming, he again takes a position supporting Cooper’s claim that those who “choose” to advance the seriousness of this global concern are nothing more than cultists.
In its November 6th publication (https://thetyee.ca/Archive/weekly/, “The Tyee” contributors Graham Thomson and David Climenhaga literally did “freak-out” pieces over the range of resolutions that the TBA managed to have passed at the UCP convention. These include such “beauties” as the need to “eradicate diversity and inclusion offices at post-secondary institutions”, refuse to place trans women in women’s prisons (as if the male sexual response mechanism would work after months of taking hormone blockers),”defend the rights of those who chose not to be vaccinated,” “enshrining the right to bear arms”, opposing federal net-zero policies, banning ‘15-minute cities’ (the idea that virtually all amenities and employment opportunities within newer cities can be reached in under 15 minutes, thus allowing for greater population densities combined with less expenditures in infrastructure); banning solar farms, defunding supervised consumption sites, “letting parents censor school libraries;” and “allowing professionals to break ethics rules when they’re not on the clock” (i.e.: allow quack medical practitioners to tout their opinions and products without any scientific substantiation).
Quite naturally, Climenhaga concludes that the TBA would be laying waste to Premier Smith’s hopes of bringing fresh ideas for expanding Alberta’s economic clout by encouraging immigration and investment by these “new Canadians”. Citing political science professor Lisa Young (ironically, a colleague of Barry Cooper), he suggests that “new citizens…aren’t likely to vote for the UCP or anything like it if it advocates what Young calls ‘a heaping side dish of racism and discrimination’” – implying, quite naturally that immigrants that had previously considered settling in Alberta might now even have second thoughts after the province adopts these repressive measures through legislative action.
It is worth noting that even the most extreme of columnists know full well that Parker intends to utilize the TBA’s coup d’état of the UPC to force the party to implement most, if not all of the recommendations passed at convention, or the party, now controlled by TBA, would push her out of her leadership role. This may be good news for Alberta’s NDP, but ONLY if the media does not portray her ouster from leadership as her becoming a martyr to the cause of economic sagacity – a complete reversal of her current image, and a picture that should make even what’s left of Canada’s “traditional conservatives” double over in laughter.
What is certain, however, is that Parker’s binary sister, Nadine Wilson, will incorporate most of the TBA’s resolutions into SUP party’s 2024 platform; this in turn means that Premier Moe will also follow the TBA pathway so as to avoid further hemorrhage of his party base transferring their loyalty and vote to the Uniteds.
It should be obvious by now that the extreme right has no solution to offer the majority of voters who are sickeningly worried about the increasing cost of living, losing their home due to mortgage rate fluctuation, home heating costs or even “climate change” and global warming.
So here’s my question to readership: Do you find that the lack of attention paid to concerns of Saskatchewan’s voters by both the SUP and SP “FUNNY” – or worth their being ridiculed?
