The UCP government is now becoming vengeful - openly so. In the 2023 Alberta Election, rural Alberta voted UCP, and urban Alberta didn't (at least not the kind of sweep that the UCP seems to think they are owed). Now, it's not unusual for political parties to "reward" ridings that vote for them, but this is taking on a whole new tone that I think we need to discuss.
It's not hard to see that the UCP has no real interest in respecting the role of municipal government. They already passed a law that basically allows them to override civic governments at will. This is no accident as the UCP continues to demonstrate that from their perspective, it's "do things our way, or it's the wrong way".
In Edmonton, we had the Edmonton Police removing homeless camps at the behest of the UCP, and some serious arm-twisting of city council from the UCP last winter. The UCP has also been less than subtle in not engaging with politicians who don't match their particular viewpoint.
As we pivot towards Calgary, we have the oddly timed arena deal in Spring 2023. This was an odd one, and ever since I watched the presser for it, I had the distinct feeling that this deal was achieved not through negotiation, but by the UCP twisting Gondek's arm hard. Gondek's non-verbals in that presser were strained - as if she wasn't particularly happy about the deal or how it had been achieved. As details have come out, it's clear that this is a giveaway to the billionaire owners of the Calgary Flames, and leaves Calgary taxpayers on the hook for the costs. This was more about "padding the UCP's prospects in Calgary" for the upcoming election.
Remember that funny little project called "The Green Line"? The UCP has been sticking its oar into that project and delaying it ever since Kenney was elected in 2019. In 2020, McIver and Kenney slammed the brakes on the project hard. Precisely why is unclear to me, but I found it very suspicious that nothing happened with it until after the arena deal was announced. Excuses about concerns over financial probity ring hollow, and it seemed to have more to do with ensuring that people who believed they should profit from the Green Line actually got their pound of taxpayer flesh.
Then, after the 2023 election, Smith starts making rumblings about not funding cost overruns for the Green Line project. Odd, but not out of character for the UCP. They don't want anything done that could possibly look like a win for the current city council. In an effort to comply with the government's demands, council went back and rescaled the project, cutting it back significantly. Of course, the UCP takes no ownership of the fact that they held the project back from 2020 to present, and like any other project, when you delay things, it's going to get a whole lot more expensive the longer it sits. Heck, if the project had actually geared up in 2020, we could have taken advantage of lower interest rates, available labour pool, etc.
Then yesterday, the UCP once again slams the brakes on because "they don't like the project any more". This is nothing more than revenge politics. Calgary has needed the Green Line since the 1990s, and it needs a line that goes much further than the proposed Lynnwood/Millican terminus. It has always been conservative politicians sitting with their foot on the brakes preventing the project from moving forward.
This isn't about fiscal responsibility. At all. This is about punishing the big cities for not voting UCP. Ironically, the areas of Calgary most affected by this decision _VOTED UCP_. (No, they really aren't that bright, are they?).
But to further establish the idea that the UCP is setting up to punish the big cities for daring to not vote UCP en masse, we have Danielle Smith musing about uprooting entire ministries and moving them to various rural settings. I don't think it's coincidental that the timing of this aligns with starting the process of redrawing riding boundaries. That will drain population from Edmonton in particular, and allow Smith to justify adding rural ridings during the process on the basis that those ridings are going to grow in population substantially when ministry X or Y gets moved.
Right now, the major urban areas - Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, and Lethbridge - combine to equal some 2.5M residents of a total population of 4.8M. The UCP knows that to continue their grip on power, they have to find a way to shift the balance of population out to more rural ridings where their base support is stronger. Now, the Alberta public service is only about 25,000 employees - so that's about half the population of one urban riding. So the UCP has to be careful about how they move things around in order to achieve their goal.
The last three elections have shown conservatives that large urban centres are their weak spot. That is no doubt why they are being deliberately malicious in their decision making. They aren't interested in hearing from urban voters - that's just not on the menu for them. Instead, they desperately are looking for ways to "get even" with voters who don't support them.
This, Alberta, is what an authoritarian government looks like. Take a long, hard look at what you voted for. For the rest of Canada, take a long hard look at Alberta before you vote Conservative again - because these aren't your father's conservatives. Hell - even your grandfather would be shocked by these people.
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