MAY 1st, 2023 | Grant Johnson

This Is Alberta's Most Crucial ELection Yet

The upcoming election is too competitive for comfort.

The Alberta election is upon us and although the polls look neck-and-neck to an uncomfortable degree for conservative supporters, it’s likely that the natural advantage of the United Conservative Party being a united conservative party (no vote split this time) will lead to a marginal victory on May 29th.

After Jason Kenney vanquished Notley in 2019, many of us thought that would be the end of our experience with these progressive interlopers, yet as of today, this election is competitive. What obstacles are on the horizon for Smith this time and has she learned, from experience, to avoid them?

“I was born living one way and God expects me to live another way. I can’t do that on my own and that’s why Jesus Christ came so I could be changed. Warning people to not live the way they were born is not judgment or condemnation – it is love! Accepting people the way they are is cruel and not loving!” – Allan Huntsperger blogpost.

Allan Huntsperger was a candidate for the Wildrose Party during the election in 2012 and someone dug up a blog post he wrote regarding homosexuality and the public school system. (These were the days when Gay-Straight Alliance clubs in schools were being debated vigorously, but today they are ubiquitous.)

In 2012, the media jumped on Allan’s churchy sounding post and condemned his phrase of “lake of fire” regarding outcomes for homosexual behaviours. It was obvious to me then, that Allan was an old man speaking in old-timey Christian sermon language regarding sin in general. The Christian perspective is that we’re all going to the lake of fire if not for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the grace of God that goes with it.

The problem for Allan was that the LGBTQ+ culture was ascendant and protected under the hegemonic progressive umbrella. Any criticism whatsoever of homosexuals is heresy and must be punished with banishment and condemnation. Danielle Smith found herself in a conundrum. She could throw him under the bus to placate progressive orthodoxy or stick to her libertarian roots and defend him in order to maintain support from the significant social conservative wing of the party doing much of the heavy lifting during the campaign.

She stuck with her candidate.

A similar issue occurred with Ron Leech who made this statement…

"I think, as a Caucasian, I have an advantage," Leech said. "When different community leaders, such as a Sikh leader or a Muslim leader, speaks, they really speak to their own people in many ways. As a Caucasian, I believe that I can speak to all the community."

This statement, although totally true, wasn’t politically correct to say out loud and Ron had to do a mock apology for the salivating liberal media.

The official lesson to be learned from this ordeal is that non-progressive views should not be tolerated and are by their nature beyond the pale. Serious political parties need to purge these people and their views from the public space and failure to do so will cost you an election. Danielle did a lot of pruning before the writ was dropped, so maybe she’ll get lucky and not have any controversial candidates to deal with this time.

The problem is that the real lesson to be learned from the Huntsperger/Leech affair is that the media is the enemy and the progressive hegemony that the media is a part of, will stop at nothing to dominate and destroy anything that counters ideological orthodoxy.

It wasn’t just these two old-fashioned candidates that derailed the whole 2012 campaign. It became clear that Wildrose was a strident right-wing party…a “real” conservative option for conservatives that were unimpressed with Alison Redford and her Red Tories. This caused all progressive sites to target Wildrose.

Whether it was Danielle getting booed at a forum when she suggested the debate was not settled on climate change, or the blank hostile stares she received from seniors when she tried to explain healthcare innovations from beyond the “United States pay out of pocket/Canada everything free” dynamic… fighting within the progressive framework was impossible.

And this was in 2012!

Before woke.

Before Covid tyranny.

Before Justin Trudeau.

Today, Danielle is facing enormous opposition and a cultural framework so far to the left that conservatives are dealing with previously unimaginable issues like: defending against shutting down our energy industries; suggesting that free hard drugs isn’t good public policy; not defunding the police; pardoning people who were arrested or fined for things like skating on an outdoor ice rink or not wearing a surgical mask in Wal-Mart; dealing with the federal banning of gas powered cars by 2035; attempts (and success) in banning guns; having the right to protest drag queens performing in libraries, the absurd list goes on and on.

The marketplace of ideas has gone totally insane and the power structures of society are almost uniformly to the far, far, far left. These recent legal system gotcha “leaks” with the CBC in the run-up to the spring election are only the beginning of the smear campaign to come. Danielle is smart for limiting media questions because all they’re going to do is attack her at every turn.

But is it enough?

Stonewalling unfriendly media won’t stop the propaganda and people today are buying what’s being sold like never before. Alberta is changing and drifting left along with the rest of Canada, along with the rest of the Western world…

In 2012, Alberta still had the “Martha and Henry” culture intact, but it was waning. Today, Martha and Henry are dead and the new Alberta is progressive. Since 2012, hundreds of thousands of immigrants from overseas have arrived in Alberta and tens of thousands more from elsewhere in Canada. They don’t care about Ralph Klein or Peter Lougheed. They don’t remember the NEP. They don’t understand desires for independence from Canada.

They’re here primarily for the prosperity, but unlike previous waves of newcomers, the connection between conservative values and the success derived from those values aren’t as commonly embraced as we would like to believe. Many international immigrants arrive from countries without a strong sense of White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant attitudes towards democratic government. In their minds, the government that promises the most and offers the best is obviously the right choice. The inter-provincial migrants from places like the Maritimes and Ontario, also often bring their left-leaning politics with them.

Now obviously I’m painting with a broad brush and people with the moxie to uproot themselves in pursuit of a better life are likely going to be open to UCP messaging regarding jobs, prosperity, and the economy. The greatest danger, however, is not that people will reject the general message, it’s that they will be culturally conditioned to reject the messenger.

Since 2015, Woke Progressivism has become hegemonic throughout Canada. Even in “conservative” run provinces, we’re stuck with weak, malaise-ridden leaders and parties that function as nothing greater than slow liberals. Justin Trudeau winning three elections in a row should have been a wake-up call for normie conservatives, and yet, most folks just hope we’ll get rid of him next time.

Getting rid of Trudeau isn’t our problem, though, living in a country with a culture and a people that think electing Trudeau three times in a row is a good thing… that’s our problem.

Politics is downstream from culture and the culture is increasingly against everything the UCP stands for and identifies with. If the party is constantly reeling and apologizing and defending against attacks from all the usual suspects on the left, then the momentum will be lost and Danielle will just be putting out one manufactured (lake of) fire after another. Beyond direct attacks, however, Danielle and the UCP need to prepare for the framing of their party as beyond-the-pale, in general. The cultural revolution that Woke Progressivism has unleashed over the past eight years is making conservatism itself beyond-the-pale, and this will cause many problems for them, especially in Calgary.

The UCP has the rural vote locked up because this is the true-blue conservative spirit where Martha and Henry are buried. The NDP has Edmonton locked up because this is where modern progressive government resides. The binary choice that will be presented to Calgary from the culture will be this: do you want an untrustworthy flake leading a party that’s supported by anti-vax hicks from the sticks… or do you want to be a good person and vote for friendly government Rachel? She’s forward looking and cares!

For many people, 21st century democracy is a fashion statement, and the current in-season look is progressivism. Calgarians will be status-signalling by voting NDP in order to peacock their bonafides as correct-thinking individuals within the progressive hegemony. I know a lot of people who are painfully shitlib and have gotten more so over the past few years. You can tell just by talking to them that they are regurgitating talking points from the television, or whatever social media platform they are self-brainwashing with. Old school conservatives that have an impression of Calgary that is rooted in Al Duerr are about to get a rude Jyoti Gondek awakening.

There is still hope. Calgary is still the most conservative cities on offer (which doesn’t say much), and if the 70 and 80-year-olds can muster the energy to vote really hard then the UCP will likely squeeze out a small majority, but they’ll be up against a lot of apolitical shitlibs who simply react to social cues from the culture and vote NDP to signal hegemonic compliance.

I certainly hope Danielle can get a win. After 16 years of listless provincial leadership within a declining and now hostile national atmosphere, Alberta is desperate for some big solutions and aggressive conservative actions. Unlike the United States and Europe, there is almost no official pushback against Woke Progressivism. Alberta sovereignty measures are desperately needed to fend against the ruthlessness of Canada. Fundamental problems with healthcare need to be addressed apart from just throwing cash at the industry. Our education system needs to be protected and guarded from degenerate curriculum and perverted activists. Our natural resource sector needs to be championed and developed, not shut down.

These are serious times. If Danielle gets the win and then treads water like Harper did, then the UCP will likely go down in permanent flames in 2027. Managing the slow decline of our province isn’t what conservatives want or what Alberta needs. She needs to be bold and produce successful results…culminating in the establishment of an alternative conservative hegemony the likes of which hasn’t been seen since Ernest Manning.

Danielle needs to get the opportunity to do big things and that requires the necessity of overcoming the woke tidal wave of progressive propaganda that can mislead the rubes in Calgary into believing they need to social-signal an NDP vote for public approval. The UCP needs to put on brass knuckles, steel their resolve and do whatever it takes to beat down and drown the NDP in mud, because if the UCP saunter up the high road and treat this like just another election, they’re likely going to lose and allow extreme and permanent damage to take root in Alberta as a result.

To summarize and conclude, this election matters. The UCP needs to prepare for the worst of the worst on a meta-level, beyond status-quo campaign management. Calgary is not as secure as it may seem. The progressive enemies have the upper hand and, make no mistake, they are enemies. Voters are easily manipulated. Margins of victory are slim. This election is going to be brutal and crucial.

Remember to vote on May 29th.