Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

What even is the AB bill of rights? Do other provinces have their own? I assume it can't supplant the Canadian one, which means at best, it can echo them. What's the point of this thing? Looks like some red tape that could be harmlessly cut.

Unfortunately, as I've kind of said before...it essentially outlines Alberta's conditions for joining Confederation.

Its why we have a Catholic School Board, amongst other things, you really need to ask a Lawyer of you want a better explanation.

Also, as I've said before, we're less of a 'Country' than we are 'Conveniently Geographically Correlated collection of loosely affiliated States.'

Which we've seen. Because our Provinces squabble with each other like spoiled brats.

As for the point? It guarantees rights.

Do you want to just tear up all the contracts made with the Indigenous?

You are actually starting to sound like the Freedumbers. Once you start tearing up rights...where does it stop? Says who? Which rights? The ones you dont like? Guess who that sounds like...?

Dumbass Smitty here is trying to game the system and she should be stopped.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

I’m tempted to register so I can vote against Smith. Don’t know if they’d reject me because I joined the NDP a few years ago to support a candidate I favoured.

Funny you should bring that up!

https://twitter.com/user/status/1838664650151596475

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Anyone want to see a circus act without actually going to the circus? Have I got an event for you!

https://twitter.com/user/status/1837922347384557951

Is this the most MAGA looking poster or what? Deplorablefest!

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Locke

Unfortunately, as I've kind of said before...it essentially outlines Alberta's conditions for joining Confederation.

Its why we have a Catholic School Board, amongst other things, you really need to ask a Lawyer of you want a better explanation.

Also, as I've said before, we're less of a 'Country' than we are 'Conveniently Geographically Correlated collection of loosely affiliated States.'

Which we've seen. Because our Provinces squabble with each other like spoiled brats.

As for the point? It guarantees rights.

Do you want to just tear up all the contracts made with the Indigenous?

You are actually starting to sound like the Freedumbers. Once you start tearing up rights...where does it stop? Says who? Which rights? The ones you dont like? Guess who that sounds like...?

Dumbass Smitty here is trying to game the system and she should be stopped.

https://albertahumanrights.ab.ca/wha...-history-text/


Looking at this, it was actually 1973 so wouldn't have existed at Confederation.

[Makarov]

Originally Posted by Locke

Unfortunately, as I've kind of said before...it essentially outlines Alberta's conditions for joining Confederation.

Its why we have a Catholic School Board, amongst other things, you really need to ask a Lawyer of you want a better explanation.

Respectfully, this is not correct. The Alberta Bill of Rights is a document which applies only to the Legislature of Alberta. It purports to limit legislative and administrative powers of the government of Alberta so as to protect certain enumerated rights. It does not apply to Parliament or to the federal government (unsurprisingly, since Alberta has no jurisdiction to pass such legislation).

[Locke]

Alright, I was mis-informed. I shall never forgive Google for this!

[Ozy_Flame]

The UCP is administering purity tests!

We only allow REAL Marlainamaniacs, brother!

https://twitter.com/user/status/1838668111962316926

[Fuzz]

LOL, who's writing those things? It's gotta be Rob Anderson, right?

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by Locke

Alright, I was mis-informed. I shall never forgive Google for this!

[Locke]

Originally Posted by D as in David

In my defense however...I have shown that I can be presented with information and change my mind.

Although...Google is going to have a tougher time curbing my vengeance!

They've made an enemy for life!

[Ozy_Flame]

According to Lukaszuk's post, it's written by Dustin van Vugt, Executive Director of the UCP.

[CliffFletcher]

Every health care system in Canada is on the brink of collapse. The capacity shortfall is systemic and chronic, across the country.

'Serious trouble': New Ontario report latest example of Canada's health-care crisis

Quebec doctors are abandoning the public system in record numbers

Crisis at Surrey Memorial Hospital ER worsening, doctors say

Canada’s health care crunch has become ‘horrific and inhumane,’ doctors warn

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

The UCP is administering purity tests!

We only allow REAL Marlainamaniacs, brother!

https://twitter.com/user/status/1838668111962316926

I came here to post this very same tweet. I don’t like my chances of getting in, lol.

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Every health care system in Canada is on the brink of collapse. The capacity shortfall is systemic and chronic, across the country.

'Serious trouble': New Ontario report latest example of Canada's health-care crisis

Quebec doctors are abandoning the public system in record numbers

Crisis at Surrey Memorial Hospital ER worsening, doctors say

Canada’s health care crunch has become ‘horrific and inhumane,’ doctors warn

That's pretty simplistic. The fact is, Alberta is having trouble attracting doctors relative to other jurisdictions and that's something that's going to impact care in the long term.

Just to compare to BC, which I'm most familiar with, in 2022 81 more physicians migrated out of Alberta than into it. BC gained 126 through migration that year.

And Alberta's number of family doctors per 1,000 residents is down about 10% from its peak and the current numbers are no better than they were 15 years ago. That's despite an aging population that would presumably require more doctors to maintain the level of care (the share of the population that's 60+ has increased by 50% in that period). BC by comparison has increased its family physicians per 1,000 residents by about 30% in that same time period while the average for Canada is a 22% increase.

These things may not be felt immediately, but you can only cut corners for so long before you see real deterioration in care levels. Particularly given that BC revamped its pay model for physicians last year, which is something Alberta needs to compete with if they want to even maintain physician numbers.

[DownInFlames]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

According to Lukaszuk's post, it's written by Dustin van Vugt, Executive Director of the UCP.

What a Vunt.

[Cappy]

Lets all remember David Parker's claims of "democracy" when he advocated the same thing:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1747328534190969161

https://twitter.com/user/status/1725540221180109026

[PepsiFree]

Remember when people defended the UCP leadership race by saying “did you buy your membership and vote?”

I remember.

[puffnstuff]

But these black hatted buffoons, theyll pass the ucp purity testing and get a vote at the meeting

https://www.reddit.com/r/alberta/com...he_gun_rights/

[MBates]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

What even is the AB bill of rights? Do other provinces have their own? I assume it can't supplant the Canadian one, which means at best, it can echo them. What's the point of this thing? Looks like some red tape that could be harmlessly cut.

The Alberta Bill of Rights is just an ordinary statute, but that has some constitution-like effect. It can be changed or repealed anytime by any successive provincial government, but in its current form it operates similar to the Canadian Charter (but only as it relates to laws within Alberta's jurisdiction).

The constitution-like part is this little 'notwithstanding clause' section:

2 Every law of Alberta shall, unless it is expressly declared by an Act of the Legislature that it operates notwithstanding the Alberta Bill of Rights, be so construed and applied as not to abrogate, abridge or infringe or to authorize the abrogation, abridgment or infringement of any of the rights or freedoms herein recognized and declared.

It is a bit surprising the Bill of Rights does not get relied on more often given the above, but in most cases the Charter takes care of anything you want to argue anyway. The one main exception has been property rights because the Charter expressly does not protect those, while the Bill of rights does (and it also already protects a parent's "right" to make informed decisions about the education of their children:

https://www.canlii.org/en/ab/laws/st...00-c-a-14.html

The type of buffoonery afoot here is problematic because it will open up a whole generation of litigation while people who understand essentially nothing about how anything actually works in society will start boldly declaring their new "rights" that the UCP has bestowed upon them and it will lead to further chaos and disruption of our already bordering on failing systems and institutions.

I will await to see what nonsense is proposed regarding firearms "rights" before I set my hair on fire and sound alarms, but this one makes me nervous for the danger it could unleash if it is presented in such a way as to make people think they can do things with guns that are actually unlawful (criminal).

On that note, the Alberta government already lost this issue in dramatic fashion in the Firearms Reference. When the federal government of the day imposed the registration of 'ordinary' (non-restricted, non-prohibited) firearms, Alberta challenged the jurisdiction of the law.

To put a fine point on it, Alberta could not even win in Alberta - the Alberta Court of Appeal majority (3-2) upheld the constitutionality of the federal government controlling firearms by way of their exclusive criminal law power in the Constitution Act, 1867. On further appeal, Alberta lost 9-0 in the SCC.

Of significance, one of the judges in that 9-0 decision was none other than Albertan and the UCP's recent favoured authority on the Constitution, Jack Major.

Perhaps the most notable quote showing how obvious the federal jurisdiction is in Canada regarding firearms is this one [emphasis added]:

Courts have repeatedly held that gun control comes within the criminal law sphere. As Fraser C.J.A. demonstrated in her judgment, gun control has been a matter of criminal law since before the enactment of the Criminal Code in 1892, and has continued since that date (see also E. M. Davies, “The 1995 Firearms Act: Canada’s Public Relations Response to the Myth of Violence” (2000), 6 Appeal 44, and M. L. Friedland, A Century of Criminal Justice (1984), at pp. 125 ff.).

https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc.../1794/index.do

[Side note, for those who like the idea of politicians 'staying in their lane', criminal law is the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal Parliament]

That loss happened in 2000 regarding a law passed in 1995...but now in 2024 I guess we are going to get an enshrinement of some kind of provincial right to acquire and possess firearms that is almost certainly to have no practical meaning (unless and until the federal government changes current firearms control laws, which to be fair will occur at some level if Poilievre is the next PM).

[Ashartus]

Can you vote on the leadership review virtually or do you have to actually go to the meeting? I could maybe pass the sniff test for a UCP member since I was a past federal Conservative member (when I tried to vote Rob Anders out before they cancelled the nomination meeting) so long as they don't cross-reference against NDP memberships. But I don't think I could handle being in a room full of UCP members.