Ongoing YYCCC (Chu + Farkas) Transgressions Threat

[Looch City]

I don't understand, I seriously do not understand....every single government website says AVOID NON-ESSENTIAL TRAVEL....yet people see these "deals" are like, #### that pack the bags honey!

Does no one know what NON-ESSENTIAL means?? My god, this makes my blood boil gahh

[AFireInside]

Originally Posted by Looch City

I don't understand, I seriously do not understand....every single government website says AVOID NON-ESSENTIAL TRAVEL....yet people see these "deals" are like, #### that pack the bags honey!

Does no one know what NON-ESSENTIAL means?? My god, this makes my blood boil gahh

I agree with you. I find it incredibly annoying.

I know people personally that are travelling, and it is what it is. I don't agree with it, and I wouldn't do it, but it isn't illegal.

The problem is that the people who are telling you to stay home, and putting the rules in place telling you to stay home, are travelling, and that's a bad look. I do not care if someone's employee is travelling.

The people who shut down small businesses while allowing malls to remain packed, who said you can't gather in households (which I agreed with) then turn around and travel to Hawaii. Legal or not, it's bad optics. Not to mention the woman who has a role in vaccine rollout leaving immediately after vaccines arrive, with Kenney lying about not knowing, and how they were just supporting Westjet. Those are the issues. I don't care if a secretary working for the province travels. Same for the city.

If a co-worker of mine travels, and it's done under the existing rules, what can I do?

[DoubleF]

I know people who went to Disney land because of cabin fever. It's like smoking. Allowable, but frowned upon.

I heard that there are some extra doses of the vaccine (in the vials) that are being thrown out rather than used on some begging to be vaccinated. I don't know the details of the situation and it's possible that it's correct to throw out those extra/partial doses, but it's what I've quietly been hearing as frustrations from some doctors as another failure of the Province (who are already pissed off for other reasons).

[Knut]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

I know people who went to Disney land because of cabin fever. It's like smoking. Allowable, but frowned upon.

I heard that there are some extra doses of the vaccine (in the vials) that are being thrown out rather than used on some begging to be vaccinated. I don't know the details of the situation and it's possible that it's correct to throw out those extra/partial doses, but it's what I've quietly been hearing as frustrations from some doctors as another failure of the Province (who are already pissed off for other reasons).

It is covered in the Vaccine Thread and was addressed by AHS. It is mostly a nothing Burger.

[Flames0910]

Disappointed with this but at least Nenshi had the guts to stand in front of the cameras and explain it without forcing reporters to dig it up or trying to spin about how the staffers were saving WestJet.

[Minnie]

Originally Posted by Flames0910

Disappointed with this but at least Nenshi had the guts to stand in front of the cameras and explain it without forcing reporters to dig it up or trying to spin about how the staffers were saving WestJet.

I like Nenshi, well enough. Given the current slate of possible candidates, I'd vote for him in a hot minute, if I could vote in Calgary's election. But I don't know if this was guts. He saw what was going on at the provincial level and how people were rightfully pissed off, and he knew his CoS and the admin assistant travelled and said nothing, at least not immediately, which would have definitely been better optics here.

I don't know that this was transparency for transparency's sake so much as it was to get ahead of the information the media already knew and were about to release. There has been a lot of rumbling online, that this was known. So I don't know if I'm all that ready to give him quite the break others may, even though technically, I can't vote so it's also technically neither here nor there to me, if we get down to the splitting of hairs. Disappointed is definitely a start.

[CliffFletcher]

It would have been gutsy if Nenshi volunteered this information two days ago. Today it just shows he has political antenna and knows which way the wind is blowing.

[Flames0910]

Ok fair enough gutsy was maybe not the exact right word.

[Jiggy]

Nenshi was calling out the provincial government (which was fair) on the relaxed restrictions in the province. But he allowed staffers to travel during the pandemic. And he releases the information today only because the UCP caused a #### storm. Talk about being a hypocrite.

[PaperBagger'14]

Maybe its just me, but if you are not an authority figure and are able to safely follow all quarantine requirements, I dont really give a ####. An admin assistant that can (and must) work from home goes on vacation, and upon return, quarantines to remove any possibility of community spread is low on the list of things I give a #### about it. Like it barely registers.

Now if you're the ####### making the rules, you're held to the same standards you've set.

[accord1999]

A chief of staff to an important politician isn't a mere admin assistant though.

[PaperBagger'14]

Originally Posted by accord1999

A chief of staff to an important politician isn't a mere admin assistant though.

I honestly don't know what the chief of staff's duties are, but I'm assuming they don't have the ability to make changes to the day to day life of civilians. I dont have an issue with them leaving as long as they can quarantine and eliminate the chance of spreading it into the community.

I'm actually happy/jealous of those who can vacation safely. If that helps someones mental health, while causing no harm to the rest of our curve flattening efforts (and not being a hypocritical POS like the UCP) then I'm cool with it.

[Lubicon]

The amount of anti -Nenshi comments I see on my various social media accounts is alarming. 'Spendshi' seems to be the common denominator, they see him as an out of control spending liberal. It seems all these people want is lower taxes and less spending and they don't care what the consequences are because it won't affect them. (In their minds)

Very few people seem to defend him.

For what that is worth.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

The amount of anti -Nenshi comments I see on my various social media accounts is alarming. 'Spendshi' seems to be the common denominator, they see him as an out of control spending liberal. It seems all these people want is lower taxes and less spending and they don't care what the consequences are because it won't affect them. (In their minds)

Very few people seem to defend him.

For what that is worth.

Most people don't understand that Calgary has a Weak Mayor system of municipal government, so there's that too. Nenshi is the frontman for the band and consensus builder, but he's still just one vote. If he had more power than that, we'd be hosting the Olympics.

[Patek23]

Originally Posted by 81MC

Administrative Assistants travelling isn’t worthy of news coverage. At all.

This is Nenshi chief of staff. Kenneys chief of staff is what began this whole scandal and was forced to resign.

I'll be honest Im not enraged with the travel from anyone tbh, I understand its not advised and is a poor look but Alberta put in the fast quaranting arrival for a reason. So people would use it and still travel and spend money. Everyone is allowed to do so if they choose.

However I hope everyone who was outraged from day 1 of the provincial scandal is still keeping that same energy!

[Ducay]

Its all fun and games when the cancel culture vultures are hunting UCP, but now that Nenshi's targeted we're all supposed to act like its nbd (which it is)?

Ban travel if it shouldn't be allowed, but firing cabinet ministers, etc, for something the gov't permits is horrifically stupid and short sighted. Same with Nenshi's CoS, etc.

[monkeyman]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Its all fun and games when the cancel culture vultures are hunting UCP, but now that Nenshi's targeted we're all supposed to act like its nbd (which it is)?

Ban travel if it shouldn't be allowed, but firing cabinet ministers, etc, for something the gov't permits is horrifically stupid and short sighted. Same with Nenshi's CoS, etc.

I'm so mad because 'Insert opposition party here' did that.
I see nothing wrong with what 'insert your party here' did.

[CliffFletcher]

I think we can all agree that it’s completely off-base to compare the chief of staff of a premier and the chief of staff of a mayor.

[Cappy]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

I think we can all agree that it’s completely off-base to compare the chief of staff of a premier and the chief of staff of a mayor.

I would echo that. To me, city council staff (outside of elected councillors) seem more administrative to me. Nenshi being a prominent figure in alberta politics ups that ante a bit (I know they are more than administrative, but politicking in city politics is far different than provincial)

I also largely agreed with the sentiment in the alberta thread that staff is not as big of a deal - I was concerned about Kenneys chief of staff skipping the travel ban to go to the UK, more so than he travelled - as they aren’t policy makers.

Whether he is being admirable or exercising realpolitik, nenshi’s presser was far better than kenneys initial one. Didn’t blame the liberals (or UCP) over the rules. Didn’t talk about supporting WestJet. Didn’t deny knowing about the travel; said he approved it; and he took more accountability for it and said he wasn’t going to save his own skin by blaming someone else.

Don’t take this as me defending the COS’s decision to travel nor nenshis to ok it though

[bob-loblaw]

It's different when a politician is out there telling us to do one thing, then they do the opposite. They are supposed to be leaders, and are supposed to lead by example. Doing otherwise is plain hypocritical.

I don't really have any issues with staff going if they're following protocols. Westjet and many different governments have been working hard to make sure that you can have a vacation and still be safe in doing so.

Kenney's chief of staff is a little more puzzling to me given the new Covid-19 variant discovered in the UK, and the travel restrictions put in place. I'm not sure if the CoS got around them, or the timing of the trip, but if the COS pulled some strings so he could get around any restrictions then I do have a problem with that.