Alberta premier Danielle Smith won this week’s prize. That would be the case if we had a prize for the dumbest statement of the week by a provincial premier. It seems we have a constant three-way contest between Doug Ford in Ontario, Danielle Smith in Alberta and François Legault in Quebec. These guys make prime minister Justin Trudeau look smart.
Danielle won hands down this week with her Alberta sovereignty act. This woman who has never been elected premier of anything, tells us that our federal government has to stay in its own lane. It is hard to trust polls this far ahead of an election but Smith, at this time, might have difficulty getting elected provincial dog catcher.
The only people who have voted for her—and in a squeaker—were a collection of rural libertarians and urban conservatives called the United(?) Conservative Party of Alberta. And the guy who put all that together, namely former premier Jason Kenney, has left the building.
At least in Ontario, the only enemy Doug Ford has is himself. He read a book once—I think it was Robin Hood—only he got it wrong and he thinks you are supposed to steal from the poor and give the proceeds of your crime to the rich. He is a conservative and doesn’t know any better.
We had a good laugh the other day when a superior court judge tossed out Ford’s signature law limiting, mostly female, government employees to a one-per cent wage hike per year. The judge said, very wisely, that there was no fiscal emergency on which to hang such a draconian law. I guess the fact it was also discriminatory was just frosting on the cake.
And what was Doug’s response? He will appeal—using the taxpayer’s money—to defend his stupidity. And most of us in Ontario know his stupidity is indefensible.
And that leaves the guy in Quebec City who must have been taking a breather this week. After all you can hardly defend the French language and encourage bigotry, week in and week out and not need some time off. He is probably in Florida, getting lessons in uncaring right-wing governance from Governor Ron DeSantis.
-30-
Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to: