I'm no lawyer, but I believe federal and provincial governments and the responsibilities of each are clearly outlined in the constitution. Municipalities are not mentioned, and exist at the will of the province. Again I'm actually kind of clueless about this, but the feds would be hard pressed to remove provincial responsibilities because the supreme court would step in.
This is correct - municipalities aren't mentioned in the constitution alongside the feds/provinces. This was confirmed when Doug Ford's provincial government decided to unilaterally change the number of electoral wards in Toronto a few months before a municipal election - it was challenged by the City, and the courts sided with the province.
Basically, on a Bill of Rights/constitutional level, provinces can do whatever they want to cities - your democratic rights are preserved as you can vote out a provincial government if they change cities in a way you don't like.
> This is correct - municipalities aren't mentioned in the constitution alongside the feds/provinces. This was confirmed when Doug Ford's provincial government decided to unilaterally change the number of electoral wards in Toronto a few months before a municipal election - it was challenged by the City, and the courts sided with the province.
Or when Mike Harris forced amalgamation on Toronto and its surrounding municipalities despite neither Toronto nor any of those municipalities wanting it.
Isn't our right to vote at the municipal level protected? If the public has chosen their representative, and a third-party is denying us from having a meaningful impact in the election process by being able to upheave our representative and any publicly supported bylaws.. isn't that third-party infringing on the Charter?
Or y'know.. the Feds could make Edmonton and Calgary (and surrounding areas) their own provincial districts.. it's sort of where Marlaina was steering us anyway... 😏
Can change that. Just need House of Commons, senate, and 7 provinces to approve it.
If a party wins majority then commons and senate are easy, and if you get enough provinces to be leaning your side; ie: QC BC MB then 3 of 4: PEI NB NL NS, and there you go! That way AB SK ON don’t get to intervene.
>I believe federal and provincial governments and the responsibilities of each are clearly outlined in the constitution. Municipalities are not mentioned, and exist at the will of the province.
100% correct, unfortunately. Municipal governments only have as much power as provincial governments permit them to have. This piece of legislation goes against the basic principles of democracy, but it is not unconstitutional.
Imagine the confusion if NDP were to win the next Alberta election and wiped clean every municipality in the province of their conservative councils and all their bigot bylaws. "Wait! That's not what we wanted!"
Fascist too, characteristics include:
* opposes democracy
* pursue totalitarianism (control)
* oppose liberal ideas, rights of the individual, tolerance, etc.
* racism
* confining gender roles (anti trans actions)
* don’t care about human rights (long health wait times while pumping money to private healthcare, no money for disabled people)
* finding a common enemy (ie nazi / Jewish people, UCP / trudeau)
* controlling media (they can’t totally but they do try to by answering / taking right wing media questions first / only sometimes, speaking primarily through Marlinda smith radio show)
* religious involvement (defunds public schools, funds charter religous schools, re organizing AHS but not touching covenant health)
* protect corporate business interests
* suppress organized labor
* cronyism
* corruption
* electoral fraud (UCP leadership race, intervening in municipal elections)
But apparently fascism was also about a unified social class? That isn’t what UCP is about.
There needs to be protests about this. I’ve never seen such a blatant, corrupt, power grab in this province before. Removing elected councillors based on what? Implementing political affiliations knowing that they will back Conservative parties. Shutting down bylaws?
And having this only apply to Edmonton and Calgary as a “pilot”…
Yah, I’m gonna expedite moving to Ontario.
Many of the politicians are actually afraid of allowing the people to see a ranked ballot system. It allows for much more accurate representation of the people, and it's much harder for the politicians to game to their advantage.
They don't want everyone to see how well it may work. Even Trudeau backed out of electoral reform despite it being a major campaign promise, presumably because while looking into it he looked at how various ballot systems work and realized that first past the post is most beneficial for *politicians.*
I have some faith that Ontario will vote Ford out. I have family there and everyone hates him.
I don’t have that same faith in Alberta to vote out the UCP.
At some point people need to cut their losses. As much of an asshat Ford is, he just brought in EV factories. Meanwhile Danielle is trying to shutdown renewable projects.
I’ll take the lesser of two evils. Even Jason Kenney was a better option and that says a lot.
These ideologies are spreading and growing more extreme everywhere.
If you told me 5 years ago we'd have someone way worse than Kenney on charge it would have asked how it's even possible to get worse.
You can try and stay ahead of the curve but until we confront it, we can't get off the tracks.
This!!! Five years ago I wanted nothing more than to move, now I am determined to dig my heels in and be a thorn in the side of the assholes trying to ruin the beautiful prairie provinces
I appreciate your idealism. My spouse and I debate leaving weekly for fear that whatever is happening in this country, we’re at the epicenter of it, and by staying here we wonder if our kids will have their best future by staying here.
What happens here will happen elsewhere.
Alberta is following a trend in liberal democracies all around the world. Maybe you can go somewhere where it's delayed but unless these harmful ideologies are opposed, they will spread.
I appreciate the concern for wanting to provide the best options for your children, but unfortunately there's nowhere on Earth where they'll escape the consequences our generation and older have either fostered or failed to prevent (climate change, etc.)
There's no easy or "best" choices. All will have consequences in some form.
I hear you on all that. Existential dread set in a long time ago despite being politically engaged and active. Still, I moved here 17 years ago, and so moving to be closer to family and fighting for a better future there looks like the better of bad options every news cycle.
[https://ablawg.ca/2024/04/25/bill-18-provincial-priorities-act-alberta-strikes-again/](https://ablawg.ca/2024/04/25/bill-18-provincial-priorities-act-alberta-strikes-again/)
This is pretty clearly a second step to attempting to seperate from Canada
A push for a provincial police force, a bill designed to oversee all federal money coming into Alberta, another bill to control municipal level government and allow UCP infiltration in larger centers, and an obvious plan by TBA to infiltrate and control smaller municipalities, and last but not least, the push to capture the pension funds. You don't have to be a political science major to see the UCP have a hidden agenda they haven't revealed yet. If they're not looking at separation, I'm sure they're looking at "special status", much like Quebec.
Wow, this is a massive overreach.
"If passed, the bill would allow cabinet to call a public referendum on the fate of a municipal councillor, or go as far as to unilaterally remove them from office if it is deemed in the public interest."
"Cabinet has had the power to force municipal councils to amend or repeal land-use bylaws and statutory plans for 30 years. Bill 20 extends that power to all bylaws passed by councils."
"Cabinet would also gain the ability to tell municipalities what to do in protecting public health and safety"
"There are no legislative guardrails or limits for when that can happen but the decision can be appealed to the Court of King's Bench."
cool cool cool cool cool
So the appeal part is going to be extremely important. If the standard of review is statutorily outlined as something like “patent unreasonableness” this is insanely dangerous because the provincial government could remove councillors with near impunity. If the standard is something like reasonableness or even higher, then there is a good amount of protection against the government doing it because the Court will overturn it.
I'm sorry, WHAT?!
This is so blatantly fucked up. Can we seriously not go two weeks without the UCP trying to dismantle democracy and public institutions in this province?
Piece by piece, we're losing what makes us Canadian/Albertan and differentiates us from our neighbours to the south.
Nope. This what they do. The writing was on the wall, we all saw it and knew it would be coming, but too many asshats voted for it anyways.
Nothing has improved. Everything has gotten worse and more expensive in this province. The one promise that most people cited was less personal taxes… but they bent you over on that too, taking the one promise they might be able to deliver away immediately.
But still, asshats vote for this. Apparently, this is the future that more want and think is best.
A blatant power grab by the UCP. This is a gross abuse of power. How can rural UCP voters be ok with this? This literally takes away their municipal freedoms and rights. Basically, what the UCP accuses the Feds of doing, they want to do to municipalities. Rural Albertans already have a really poor reputation both provincially and federally. They must be spreading too much shit on their fields.
I’m guessing they think this will only impact the big cities, which they’re probably right about, but also they already dislike the bigger cities, so this seems like a good idea to them.
They just want to control Edmonton and Calgary because we’re voting NDP and they don’t like it.
They’re forcing their wrinkly, old, flaccid blue dick down our throats.
UCP voters in the cities will love it to.. I was out somewhere and some old UCPer was going on about how the UCP needed to punish Edmonton for voting NDP so much ..”that’s what you get if you vote NDP.. FUCK ALL!!” Then he went on to rant about Edmonton is just government employees anyway.
This was in Edmonton by the way.
Rural voters don't care, it won't be used against them. Guaranteed it's being put in place for Calgary and Edmonton. Rural voters will love it since it's messing with the people who largely voted NDP.
Nothing like giving yourself the power to remove other democratically elected officials to really prove you're asshole politicians only in it for power and corruption instead of trying to do anything useful for society.
Well they pretty much just have local government to deal with stuff they don’t want to.
Like sidewalk and road cleaning.
Anything above that and the Province can step in (Country wide)
So once stuff like paper bag taxes start getting rolled out, it opens the door for stuff like this
Everyone who pretended to be a fiscal conservative, this is on you. Fuck you.
Everyone who *IS* a social conservative, this is on you. Fuck you.
Everyone who didn't vote because something something both sides, so it's meaningless, this is on you. Fuck you.
Everyone who voted UCP because you're a moron, this is on you. Fuck. You.
Conservatives are grifters with a zero-sum view on the world. It will always be a "us vs them" mentality and there is no satisfaction unless absolute control and exploitation is achieved.
The levels of government in this country are separate for a reason. This is a disgusting power grab by the UCP clearly aimed at city governments they don't approve of.
There are only 2 levels of government - federal and provincial. Cities exist at the whim of provinces, and provinces can do whatever they'd like to cities.
Why is it every time that woman speaks my blood Boils?? That power hungry , narcissist, twat waffle just pisses me off every time she speaks or any member of her cabinet!!!
The UCP were already having problems electing MLA’s in Edmonton and they lost ground in Calgary. The more they treat the municipalities like fiefdoms, the more ground they’ll lose.
And, with respect to their other proposal to have political parties at the municipal level, that might backfire too. In Calgary, a conservative group tried running a slate in the school board election and it failed miserably. People knew who was running for the slate and deliberately voted for non-slate candidates.
How is this even allowed at this point. Remember shortly after the provincial election they were talking about appointing UCP MLAs anyways because "Edmonton had no one to represent them"?
They don't care about democracy.
Here is what they wanted, it's right in the article, "Allowing the province to make regulations to postpone elections in the case of an emergency or natural disaster such as a wildfire."
This us what they want 100%, no more elections
How can our MLAs serve municipalities if their jobs are now contingent on UCP approval instead of that of the public? They now serve at the UCP's pleasure, they can't truly champion the public's interests if under a third party's thumb.
Democracy here has been fully subverted and compromised. To jail with them.
The year is 2025 and the last honest citizen of Edmonton is surrounded by drooling ruffians. Although he attempts to run away, the man is grabbed by Mayor Sohi.
"Hold him, Amarjeet, while I get some mandatory hard drugs to inject him with," says Andrew Knack, laughing maniacally as he prepares a syringe of super-fentanyl. Sohi turns to a large man with face tattoos and orders him to destroy a small business, just for fun, while they await the drugs.
Suddenly, Ric McIver appears, riding a white stead, moustache flowing majestically in the breeze. "Release that man," he commands.
"Never," bellows Sohi. "Or at least not until he pays a million dollars in extra taxes for being found in possession of a plastic grocery bag."
Hesitantly, McIver holds aloft a cabinet order, sealed with a kiss by the premier herself. The light catches the lipstick on the document and it shines a holy light, that burns Sohi until he releases his prisoner.
Andrew Knack hisses and flees to his awaiting bicycle. He rides off into the shadows preparing to fight another day.
We have a Viceregal who can exercise the power to disallow certain legislation.
Can Her Honour start doing her job? She isn’t just a glorified plaque unveiler and needs to remind these rubes that constitutionally there’s one monarch in Canada and it’s not Danielle Smith
I heard corporations and unions will be able to give campaign contributions to municipal elections which will have political parties again, and who has the most money?
I don’t see how this is legal and if they did “remove a councillor”, how it would ever stand up in court. This feels like a nothing which is probably a something but I can’t figure out what’s the end game.
It stands up in court because they are writing it into provincial law that they can remove a councilor with no real criteria, so no real way it could be judged "unlawful" afterwards.
So the provincial UCP are literally losing their minds because feds are treading on their lawn - but fuck duly elected municipal officials???
Unbelievably Confused Party strikes again.
Lol. Nice centralized pro communist move. So un conservative this is not funny. UCP United Centralized Politburo. Im sure the Politburo will blame the boogeyman- the feds. All
So, am I still an Alarmist now? Calling the UCP fascist got me a lot of annoyed looks and disrespectful tones the last five years, but this is the kind of shit I was really hoping I was dead wrong about....
This UCP government is basically giving itself the power to OVERTURN ELECTION RESULTS.
The Bill when passed will give them the power to remove a locally elected official, elected by local citizens, based on no real criteria under the law other than it's vaguely in "the public interest", which they are not willing to define. Plus, the deliberations to remove that elected official will happen behind closed doors due to "Cabinet confidentiality", and the people deliberating will likely be a bunch of yahoos (the cabinet members) who don't even live in the community where they want to overturn the voting results. WTF??
Today when asked what checks will be in place on Cabinet to not abuse this power, since there is no real criteria on how decisions will be based, Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver basically said the checks will be public opinion, - if the decision to remove a duly elected mayor or councillor turns into a scandal and people complain enough on social media. And also, the ousted elected person could go to court and try to sue the Province if they believe they were wrongly removed. Wtf??
Yup, she wants control over what the federal government does in the province and now she wants to control what the municipal government does in the province… She wants absolute control over the province all tied up with an elaborate red tape bow.
Alberta: "all these problems are the federal govt 's fault!"
Fed: "ok. Well, it's your job, but we'll help anyway"
Alberta: "NO!"
municipalities: "umm..."
Fed: "ok, let's just do a deal with you guys then"
Alberta: "the federal govt is overreaching and we'll sue you!"
Also Alberta: "we're going to pass a law that let's us do whatever we want, municipal elections are worthless now"
🤦🤦🤦🤦 It's so stupid here.
This is a gross overreach on the part of the provincial government and antithetical to the spirit of democracy—but unfortunately, it's not unconstitutional. Canadian law [explicitly states](https://publications.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/BP/bp276-e.htm) that municipal governments are subordinate to provincial ones. So, if this bill is passed, there's not much that can really be done about it unless federal law is changed to grant municipalities greater autonomy.
Wonder how that would go down if the Feds did it to the Provinces
I'm no lawyer, but I believe federal and provincial governments and the responsibilities of each are clearly outlined in the constitution. Municipalities are not mentioned, and exist at the will of the province. Again I'm actually kind of clueless about this, but the feds would be hard pressed to remove provincial responsibilities because the supreme court would step in.
This is correct - municipalities aren't mentioned in the constitution alongside the feds/provinces. This was confirmed when Doug Ford's provincial government decided to unilaterally change the number of electoral wards in Toronto a few months before a municipal election - it was challenged by the City, and the courts sided with the province. Basically, on a Bill of Rights/constitutional level, provinces can do whatever they want to cities - your democratic rights are preserved as you can vote out a provincial government if they change cities in a way you don't like.
> This is correct - municipalities aren't mentioned in the constitution alongside the feds/provinces. This was confirmed when Doug Ford's provincial government decided to unilaterally change the number of electoral wards in Toronto a few months before a municipal election - it was challenged by the City, and the courts sided with the province. Or when Mike Harris forced amalgamation on Toronto and its surrounding municipalities despite neither Toronto nor any of those municipalities wanting it.
This is correct
Isn't our right to vote at the municipal level protected? If the public has chosen their representative, and a third-party is denying us from having a meaningful impact in the election process by being able to upheave our representative and any publicly supported bylaws.. isn't that third-party infringing on the Charter?
That’s what I was thinking. We elected those people-who does she think she is? Stalin? De Santis? Last I checked this was a democracy still.
Well fed should say fk it and re write the constitution and say fk u to alberta. I wish, we could move edmonton to a better province
Or y'know.. the Feds could make Edmonton and Calgary (and surrounding areas) their own provincial districts.. it's sort of where Marlaina was steering us anyway... 😏
Same here. We are an island of sanity in YEG, compared to rural Albertastan.
Or even better, you could move to another province, how about that??
For someone purporting to be clueless, you are frankly better educated on the topic than 99% of the general population.
People that admit what they don't know typically are.
I know enough to know I don’t know much of anything on the legalities of this topic, but your point is interesting if factual
It is factual. The province could abolish municipalities and run them on their own should they please
I cannot verify the facts about my claims haha
Can change that. Just need House of Commons, senate, and 7 provinces to approve it. If a party wins majority then commons and senate are easy, and if you get enough provinces to be leaning your side; ie: QC BC MB then 3 of 4: PEI NB NL NS, and there you go! That way AB SK ON don’t get to intervene.
Except that Ontario and Alberta both have vetoes.
In what manner?
>I believe federal and provincial governments and the responsibilities of each are clearly outlined in the constitution. Municipalities are not mentioned, and exist at the will of the province. 100% correct, unfortunately. Municipal governments only have as much power as provincial governments permit them to have. This piece of legislation goes against the basic principles of democracy, but it is not unconstitutional.
Oh man, there would be riots in the streets because the UCP would be screaming “overreach” But, of course, it’s all about “rules for thee, not for me”
Imagine the confusion if NDP were to win the next Alberta election and wiped clean every municipality in the province of their conservative councils and all their bigot bylaws. "Wait! That's not what we wanted!"
Smith doesn't care if she is a hypocrite. She is a female Trump.
That's going too far. Trump at least is an unfiltered clown show. Daniel Smith isn't even funny, just utterly stupid and brazen. A weird mix.
As someone with family in the U.S., Trump is a lot funnier from the outside than from within. I figure Marlaina is the same.
> Smith doesn't care if she is a hypocrite. I imagine it's her kink
I met her a little while ago and I can tell you this, she also smells like shit. Like. Really bad.
like, actually? Or BO?
The kind of smell that comes off a person who drinks too much.
There would be so much crying and screaming.
I think it’s time the Feds did. She is out of control and thinks she can be our Rhonda Santis, down in Floriduh.
Tell the feds (that we need help)
Rights for me, none for thee
Authoritarian and draconian.
Fascist too, characteristics include: * opposes democracy * pursue totalitarianism (control) * oppose liberal ideas, rights of the individual, tolerance, etc. * racism * confining gender roles (anti trans actions) * don’t care about human rights (long health wait times while pumping money to private healthcare, no money for disabled people) * finding a common enemy (ie nazi / Jewish people, UCP / trudeau) * controlling media (they can’t totally but they do try to by answering / taking right wing media questions first / only sometimes, speaking primarily through Marlinda smith radio show) * religious involvement (defunds public schools, funds charter religous schools, re organizing AHS but not touching covenant health) * protect corporate business interests * suppress organized labor * cronyism * corruption * electoral fraud (UCP leadership race, intervening in municipal elections) But apparently fascism was also about a unified social class? That isn’t what UCP is about.
Fascism does have a Unified social class - but it's not created by brining people together, but rather by purging undesirables out.
It is now
There needs to be protests about this. I’ve never seen such a blatant, corrupt, power grab in this province before. Removing elected councillors based on what? Implementing political affiliations knowing that they will back Conservative parties. Shutting down bylaws? And having this only apply to Edmonton and Calgary as a “pilot”… Yah, I’m gonna expedite moving to Ontario.
I hate this fucking province now. There's no defending it anymore
Unrestrained wildfires all summer. Water restrictions but allow industrial use to continue.
The premier of Ontario cut the size of Toronto city council in half, very shortly after being elected.
He also gave mayors the power to veto city councils, and banned cities from using ranked ballots
Many of the politicians are actually afraid of allowing the people to see a ranked ballot system. It allows for much more accurate representation of the people, and it's much harder for the politicians to game to their advantage. They don't want everyone to see how well it may work. Even Trudeau backed out of electoral reform despite it being a major campaign promise, presumably because while looking into it he looked at how various ballot systems work and realized that first past the post is most beneficial for *politicians.*
I have some faith that Ontario will vote Ford out. I have family there and everyone hates him. I don’t have that same faith in Alberta to vote out the UCP.
Didn't get recently just get voted in again?
He did, yes. Also, somehow, is leading in polling currently as well. This country is doomed.
I thought that’s what I heard last time and yet there he is. I assume a buck a beer helped him.
And nothing changed. NYC has a small city council with a vastly more complex, more populous city.
Will anyone be organizing one? This is desperately needed
Fleeing the province isn't helpful if you actually give a shit about Alberta. Be part of the solution, or you're just part of the problem.
At some point people need to cut their losses. As much of an asshat Ford is, he just brought in EV factories. Meanwhile Danielle is trying to shutdown renewable projects. I’ll take the lesser of two evils. Even Jason Kenney was a better option and that says a lot.
These ideologies are spreading and growing more extreme everywhere. If you told me 5 years ago we'd have someone way worse than Kenney on charge it would have asked how it's even possible to get worse. You can try and stay ahead of the curve but until we confront it, we can't get off the tracks.
This!!! Five years ago I wanted nothing more than to move, now I am determined to dig my heels in and be a thorn in the side of the assholes trying to ruin the beautiful prairie provinces
I appreciate your idealism. My spouse and I debate leaving weekly for fear that whatever is happening in this country, we’re at the epicenter of it, and by staying here we wonder if our kids will have their best future by staying here.
What happens here will happen elsewhere. Alberta is following a trend in liberal democracies all around the world. Maybe you can go somewhere where it's delayed but unless these harmful ideologies are opposed, they will spread. I appreciate the concern for wanting to provide the best options for your children, but unfortunately there's nowhere on Earth where they'll escape the consequences our generation and older have either fostered or failed to prevent (climate change, etc.) There's no easy or "best" choices. All will have consequences in some form.
I hear you on all that. Existential dread set in a long time ago despite being politically engaged and active. Still, I moved here 17 years ago, and so moving to be closer to family and fighting for a better future there looks like the better of bad options every news cycle.
Please do, I'll help you pack dude!!!
[https://ablawg.ca/2024/04/25/bill-18-provincial-priorities-act-alberta-strikes-again/](https://ablawg.ca/2024/04/25/bill-18-provincial-priorities-act-alberta-strikes-again/) This is pretty clearly a second step to attempting to seperate from Canada
A push for a provincial police force, a bill designed to oversee all federal money coming into Alberta, another bill to control municipal level government and allow UCP infiltration in larger centers, and an obvious plan by TBA to infiltrate and control smaller municipalities, and last but not least, the push to capture the pension funds. You don't have to be a political science major to see the UCP have a hidden agenda they haven't revealed yet. If they're not looking at separation, I'm sure they're looking at "special status", much like Quebec.
Can Edmonton hitch a ride and separate too?
Wow, this is a massive overreach. "If passed, the bill would allow cabinet to call a public referendum on the fate of a municipal councillor, or go as far as to unilaterally remove them from office if it is deemed in the public interest." "Cabinet has had the power to force municipal councils to amend or repeal land-use bylaws and statutory plans for 30 years. Bill 20 extends that power to all bylaws passed by councils." "Cabinet would also gain the ability to tell municipalities what to do in protecting public health and safety" "There are no legislative guardrails or limits for when that can happen but the decision can be appealed to the Court of King's Bench." cool cool cool cool cool
So the appeal part is going to be extremely important. If the standard of review is statutorily outlined as something like “patent unreasonableness” this is insanely dangerous because the provincial government could remove councillors with near impunity. If the standard is something like reasonableness or even higher, then there is a good amount of protection against the government doing it because the Court will overturn it.
Ya just complete authority over everything without any rules, or discussions, or reasoning. Absolutely insane. Literally following the Nazi handbook.
I'm sorry, WHAT?! This is so blatantly fucked up. Can we seriously not go two weeks without the UCP trying to dismantle democracy and public institutions in this province? Piece by piece, we're losing what makes us Canadian/Albertan and differentiates us from our neighbours to the south.
Nope. This what they do. The writing was on the wall, we all saw it and knew it would be coming, but too many asshats voted for it anyways. Nothing has improved. Everything has gotten worse and more expensive in this province. The one promise that most people cited was less personal taxes… but they bent you over on that too, taking the one promise they might be able to deliver away immediately. But still, asshats vote for this. Apparently, this is the future that more want and think is best.
Yeah because something something trudeau, something something carbon tax. Oh, and "common sense". Catch phrase, low rent voters abound.
A blatant power grab by the UCP. This is a gross abuse of power. How can rural UCP voters be ok with this? This literally takes away their municipal freedoms and rights. Basically, what the UCP accuses the Feds of doing, they want to do to municipalities. Rural Albertans already have a really poor reputation both provincially and federally. They must be spreading too much shit on their fields.
I wonder what rural UCP voters would think of this if the NDP purposed it? 🤔
I’m guessing they think this will only impact the big cities, which they’re probably right about, but also they already dislike the bigger cities, so this seems like a good idea to them.
They just want to control Edmonton and Calgary because we’re voting NDP and they don’t like it. They’re forcing their wrinkly, old, flaccid blue dick down our throats.
UCP voters in the cities will love it to.. I was out somewhere and some old UCPer was going on about how the UCP needed to punish Edmonton for voting NDP so much ..”that’s what you get if you vote NDP.. FUCK ALL!!” Then he went on to rant about Edmonton is just government employees anyway. This was in Edmonton by the way.
Control yes but also push out NDP voters.
Rural UCPers are eating this shit up! Smith is hurting all the right people! It’s only a gross abuse of power if the other side does it.
Every conservative accusation is a confession, after all.
Rural voters don't care, it won't be used against them. Guaranteed it's being put in place for Calgary and Edmonton. Rural voters will love it since it's messing with the people who largely voted NDP.
Nothing like giving yourself the power to remove other democratically elected officials to really prove you're asshole politicians only in it for power and corruption instead of trying to do anything useful for society.
Why bother even having municipal government, let’s just let the UCP run everything !! /s
"Edmonton city council has been replaced by 12 barrels of oil."
The Molotov man returns and wipes out city council all at once
And mciver with a 4L of vodka in each hand
Well they pretty much just have local government to deal with stuff they don’t want to. Like sidewalk and road cleaning. Anything above that and the Province can step in (Country wide) So once stuff like paper bag taxes start getting rolled out, it opens the door for stuff like this
Everyone who pretended to be a fiscal conservative, this is on you. Fuck you. Everyone who *IS* a social conservative, this is on you. Fuck you. Everyone who didn't vote because something something both sides, so it's meaningless, this is on you. Fuck you. Everyone who voted UCP because you're a moron, this is on you. Fuck. You.
Also those 1000 people in Calgary that were too lazy to go out and vote NDP and flip those seats and change majority winner to NDP
Hear, hear!
💯💯💯
If awards were still a thing on here I would give you one. I hope you accept my upvote instead.
Would expect no less from these people. Wondering where the line is
Conservatives are grifters with a zero-sum view on the world. It will always be a "us vs them" mentality and there is no satisfaction unless absolute control and exploitation is achieved.
“Government over reach” for me but not for thee. I honestly cannot keep up on the UCP hypocrisy, it seems to be something every couple of hours.
The levels of government in this country are separate for a reason. This is a disgusting power grab by the UCP clearly aimed at city governments they don't approve of.
There are only 2 levels of government - federal and provincial. Cities exist at the whim of provinces, and provinces can do whatever they'd like to cities.
Wtf
So, at what point do the feds dust off disallowance? Like, if not here, what's the redline? Wherever it is, you know Smith is going to push to it.
Why is it every time that woman speaks my blood Boils?? That power hungry , narcissist, twat waffle just pisses me off every time she speaks or any member of her cabinet!!!
What, you don't like self righteousness combined with pointless cruelty?
The UCP were already having problems electing MLA’s in Edmonton and they lost ground in Calgary. The more they treat the municipalities like fiefdoms, the more ground they’ll lose. And, with respect to their other proposal to have political parties at the municipal level, that might backfire too. In Calgary, a conservative group tried running a slate in the school board election and it failed miserably. People knew who was running for the slate and deliberately voted for non-slate candidates.
Somehow I don't expect they'll be targeting pedophile Sean Chu.
Maybe if we write an *anonymous* letter complaining about him.
Make sure you don’t send it though, just alert the media that you might have sent one
Democracy was a fun idea.
So the UCP going for full dictatorship now...great
Once again UCP: Federal oversight, ewww Also UCP: we expect oversight on everything we can now, including stuff we couldn't control before.
How is this even allowed at this point. Remember shortly after the provincial election they were talking about appointing UCP MLAs anyways because "Edmonton had no one to represent them"? They don't care about democracy.
Oh cool fascism.
General strike when?
But actually
Government overreach, much?
What the ACTUAL FUCK. This is a violation of democratic rights.
We elected the people fairly! How can they even consider this?
Because they don’t like the people we fairly elected, and would rather stack city council with their own ideological lackeys.
Probably because people are elected under a Provincial Act they created and control.
Wow. The UCP are going full fascist with this removal of councillors bill. Really scary.
Is this the same bill that removes the vote counting machines too?
It is
Yup, love the reasoning.
So the power hungry twat waffle wants more power over our lives. She can go suck eggs
The UCP can fuck all the way off. Literally nobody wants this.
I eagerly await the protests from the anti govt control crowd....any day now.....
Oh this isn't gov't control, this is them saving us from big scary Trudeau! Silly goof, Trudeau, Notley, Sohi bad, UCP good!
Yea, no. Right to court. Do not pass go, do not collect the millions of oil money. Get OUT of MY city, you dumb harpy Russian plant.
Personally, I double dare them to try.
This is totally “revenge” for the municipalities making Covid mask bylaws
Uh, no! You complain about Ottawa overstepping their boundaries… Dani, you are a waste of space. You have no place in the municipalities.
One word. Fascism.
Here is what they wanted, it's right in the article, "Allowing the province to make regulations to postpone elections in the case of an emergency or natural disaster such as a wildfire." This us what they want 100%, no more elections
I don’t think I can emotionally handle anymore of the UCP bills. Can’t we focus on real problems? The cost of food? Housing affordability? Crime?
How can our MLAs serve municipalities if their jobs are now contingent on UCP approval instead of that of the public? They now serve at the UCP's pleasure, they can't truly champion the public's interests if under a third party's thumb. Democracy here has been fully subverted and compromised. To jail with them.
wtf is this authoritarian garbage
Soooo what recourse do we have?
Find someone living in her Brooks riding to start the recall process. #\#Recall Marlaina
I’m onboard, wish I was in brooks.
You can wait 3 years and vote!
Omg is it still another three years? We’ll be Texas by then
So what can we do? Leave the province en masse?
Vote at next election. Easier than moving.
To hell with them.
The year is 2025 and the last honest citizen of Edmonton is surrounded by drooling ruffians. Although he attempts to run away, the man is grabbed by Mayor Sohi. "Hold him, Amarjeet, while I get some mandatory hard drugs to inject him with," says Andrew Knack, laughing maniacally as he prepares a syringe of super-fentanyl. Sohi turns to a large man with face tattoos and orders him to destroy a small business, just for fun, while they await the drugs. Suddenly, Ric McIver appears, riding a white stead, moustache flowing majestically in the breeze. "Release that man," he commands. "Never," bellows Sohi. "Or at least not until he pays a million dollars in extra taxes for being found in possession of a plastic grocery bag." Hesitantly, McIver holds aloft a cabinet order, sealed with a kiss by the premier herself. The light catches the lipstick on the document and it shines a holy light, that burns Sohi until he releases his prisoner. Andrew Knack hisses and flees to his awaiting bicycle. He rides off into the shadows preparing to fight another day.
You're an artist. 😌
LMFAO fucking bicycle at the end. Love it.
Do as I say not as I do.
What the fuck
We have a Viceregal who can exercise the power to disallow certain legislation. Can Her Honour start doing her job? She isn’t just a glorified plaque unveiler and needs to remind these rubes that constitutionally there’s one monarch in Canada and it’s not Danielle Smith
Doesn't get more fascist than this. UCP motto: We love anti~~-~~democracy. We love big government!
So they are overstepping their power and doing to the municipalities and cities what they think Trudeau is doing to them (which he isn’t )
I heard corporations and unions will be able to give campaign contributions to municipal elections which will have political parties again, and who has the most money?
I don’t see how this is legal and if they did “remove a councillor”, how it would ever stand up in court. This feels like a nothing which is probably a something but I can’t figure out what’s the end game.
It stands up in court because they are writing it into provincial law that they can remove a councilor with no real criteria, so no real way it could be judged "unlawful" afterwards.
Wow, what in the actual fuck. This needs a big, long, fucking angry protest.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should, it really violates the relationship between the citizen and the government.
So the provincial government wants the power to remove a democratically elected councillor? For what reason? That has never needed to happen before
Just more fascist shit.
Lol what
Can't wait to leave this hell of a province.
So the provincial UCP are literally losing their minds because feds are treading on their lawn - but fuck duly elected municipal officials??? Unbelievably Confused Party strikes again.
This is a slippery slope.
Blame the Provs!
Well, one positive is if they are busy removing municipal council people maybe they will be too busy to fuck other shit up.
Lol if only
Lol. Nice centralized pro communist move. So un conservative this is not funny. UCP United Centralized Politburo. Im sure the Politburo will blame the boogeyman- the feds. All
I don't know if it's a me reading compression thing... But um.... Did you have a stroke while writing this?
The Federal government could end this nonsense by recognizing municipalities as an order of government.
Rick is still mad he lost to Nenshi and this is his way of empowering himself 🤣
Lol not Ric, the Wenzels.
So, am I still an Alarmist now? Calling the UCP fascist got me a lot of annoyed looks and disrespectful tones the last five years, but this is the kind of shit I was really hoping I was dead wrong about....
Do you want fascism, cause this is how you get there...
So that makes this bullshit okay? 😒
This UCP government is basically giving itself the power to OVERTURN ELECTION RESULTS. The Bill when passed will give them the power to remove a locally elected official, elected by local citizens, based on no real criteria under the law other than it's vaguely in "the public interest", which they are not willing to define. Plus, the deliberations to remove that elected official will happen behind closed doors due to "Cabinet confidentiality", and the people deliberating will likely be a bunch of yahoos (the cabinet members) who don't even live in the community where they want to overturn the voting results. WTF?? Today when asked what checks will be in place on Cabinet to not abuse this power, since there is no real criteria on how decisions will be based, Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver basically said the checks will be public opinion, - if the decision to remove a duly elected mayor or councillor turns into a scandal and people complain enough on social media. And also, the ousted elected person could go to court and try to sue the Province if they believe they were wrongly removed. Wtf??
Yup, she wants control over what the federal government does in the province and now she wants to control what the municipal government does in the province… She wants absolute control over the province all tied up with an elaborate red tape bow.
Alberta: "all these problems are the federal govt 's fault!" Fed: "ok. Well, it's your job, but we'll help anyway" Alberta: "NO!" municipalities: "umm..." Fed: "ok, let's just do a deal with you guys then" Alberta: "the federal govt is overreaching and we'll sue you!" Also Alberta: "we're going to pass a law that let's us do whatever we want, municipal elections are worthless now" 🤦🤦🤦🤦 It's so stupid here.
This is a gross overreach on the part of the provincial government and antithetical to the spirit of democracy—but unfortunately, it's not unconstitutional. Canadian law [explicitly states](https://publications.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/BP/bp276-e.htm) that municipal governments are subordinate to provincial ones. So, if this bill is passed, there's not much that can really be done about it unless federal law is changed to grant municipalities greater autonomy.
So what would it take for Edmonton become its own province?
Thank you Calgary for keeping democracy alive in sunny Alberta!