Roundup: Danielle Smith’s problematic tales

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The Danielle Smith/Wildrose drama continued yesterday, as details about her decision to defect to the ruling Progressive Conservatives started spilling out, and Smith herself started giving interviews. Interviews that, well, didn’t offer a whole lot of clarity to the issues at hand. The shift in tone from when two of her former MLAs crossed the floor just weeks ago, the statements about the party culture of the PCs, about leadership changes not being the answer – all blown out of the water as Smith equivocated about all of it. There were some tantalizing hints, however, in some of what she said, talking about how the party was already self-destructing, as the grassroots membership voted against policies that would have moved them into the social mainstream rather than keeping them squarely as a protest movement of cranks and what Heather Mallick dubs “angry pyjamas.” As a leader who was increasingly disconnected from her party, she had choices of her own to make. Then comes in revelations about talks with the centrist Alberta Party to merge – in Smith’s estimation to help get an urban base for a rural protest party – and that Preston Manning had a hand in convincing the other Wildrose MLAs to cross the floor. It’s incredible to read, but I still find myself unmoved by this notion that it’s a kind of “reunification,” and that it’s all about the conservative movement as a whole. The problem with that is that it’s hard to consider the PC party as conservatives to a great extent because they’re more populists than anything, and that’s what allows them to remain as amorphous as they are and keep reshaping themselves to allow the One Party State™ to continue carrying on. That it merely absorbs the more strident fiscal conservatism of the Wildrose members is merely a sign of the times. By that same token, the federal Conservatives are also more populists than they are conservatives, if you judge by their fiscal policies, so it’s hard for me to swallow this narrative around the merger. It’s also hard to see how nine MLAs would cross out of the sake of careerism, but again, I go back to Smith’s comment about the party in a state of self-destruction. I’m sure more stories will continue to tumble out, but it’s a lot to try to wrap your head around. Kathleen Petty offers some thoughts, while Jen Gerson pitches for the leadership of the merged party – in 2042.

Good reads:

  • We’ll get a commemorative Sir John A toonie for his 200th birthday.
  • Bob Dechert made some comments about income splitting and how it’ll let mothers stay-at-home “which they’re used to.” And then, the quote disappeared from the site it appeared on, which added to the drama.
  • DND is accused of withholding documents related to the overdose death of a soldier, as her parents question the role that military doctors played in her death.
  • In Beaches East–York, there is talk of a nomination appeal after accusations of shenanigans and robocalls, which the winning candidate denies.
  • The ethics commissioner will look into the issue of two Conservative MPs voting on Elections Act changes that would be advantageous to the voter identification app that they developed and are selling.
  • The government is paying $1.25 million to a “news service” to create positive coverage to give to actual news outlets for free, and that service is offering VIA Rail promotions to outlets who use their copy. It’s unconscionable.
  • Neil Macdonald gives a scathing indictment of the declining state of American civil liberties.

Odds and ends:

Here’s an interview with Justin Trudeau with CBC Vancouver. He also spoke with Mark Kennedy, and pledged not to form a coalition with the NDP and to meet with the premiers.

Susan Delacourt picks five signs of political civility from 2014.