Will Premier Jason Kenney survive a leadership review and lead the party into the next election? Or will he be ousted and replaced by Brian Jean, Danielle Smith or someone else?
And will the UCP split back into old rivalling factions – the corporatist and often-corrupt PCs versus the gaffe-prone and unelectable Wildrose?
Or will they remain united and strong in the face of an extremist left-wing NDP rival?
On today’s episode of The Candice Malcolm Show, Candice is joined by Alberta political insider Vitor Marciano to discuss these important questions about the state of political affairs in Alberta.
Most Albertans think their province is heading in the wrong direction, a new Leger poll by Postmedia found.
The survey found that a majority of Albertans – 54% – believed their province was headed down the wrong path. The rest of the respondents were split almost evenly between thinking Alberta was heading in the right direction and being unsure.
Meanwhile, 61% believed that Alberta’s reputation has been hurt by how the United Conservative Party (UCP) government has handled the pandemic.
The poll was conducted between Dec. 2 and Dec. 5 and involved 1,249 respondents. A similar poll with a random sample would have a margin of error of +/- 2.8%, 19 times out of 20.
Leger executive vice-president Ian Large says the dissatisfaction can’t be explained by party support alone.
“It’s clearly more than half, and that isn’t just going to be accounted for by the people who support the NDP,” he said. “This is both UCP supporters and NDP supporters.”
“People generally don’t like the direction the government is heading in,” Large continued. “And whenever we track this question over the years, which isn’t very often, we know that people tend to be unhappy with the government. But this is remarkably high.”
On specific issues, 81% of Albertans believed that the provincial government has done a “poor” or “fair” job at handling the COVID-19 pandemic overall, while 18% said it has done a “good” or “very good” job.
With regard to diversifying Alberta’s economy, 20% responded that the government has done a “good” or “very good” job on the matter, while 72% said they have performed “poorly” or “fairly.”
As for attitudes towards Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, a recent poll from October found that only 22% of Albertans approve of his performance. In June, Kenney’s approval had been at 31%.
Kenney is due to face a leadership review in April 2022 during a UCP annual general meeting in Edmonton.
The recent arrival of political opponent and former Wildrose leader Brian Jean on the scene has caused many to question whether Kenney will survive as leader.
Earlier this month, Jean won the UCP nomination for the Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche by- election that will be held this upcoming March.
Politicians say the stupidest things. They pretend to be well-informed, thoughtful and intelligent, but sometimes, they let the mask slip and they show how stupid they really are.
On today’s episode of The Candice Malcolm Show, Candice reminds us of the cringiest, most awkward and most insane things said by Canadian politicians in 2021.
Here are the top ten worst moments, plus honourable mention to one gaffe-prone US politician.
True North broke several stories throughout the year and garnered national attention for our journalism on key issues such as the attacks on churches, the unmarked graves found near residential schools, Canada’s heavy-handed approach to the pandemic and the intrusion of woke ideology into our public institutions.
Here is a list of True North’s top 10 news stories of 2021.
Six things the media got wrong about the graves found near Residential Schools (TNC)
True North founder and editor-in-chief Candice Malcolm wrote about six aspects of the residential school grave site findings that the legacy media either got completely wrong or decided to leave out of their reporting. These included the facts that only ground-penetrating radar was used and nothing was actually discovered, the fact that these graves didn’t just belong to residential school students and that the legacy media were using the ‘mass graves’ terminology, when in reality these were unmarked graves.
A map of the 68 churches that have been vandalized or burned since the residential schools announcement (TNC)
True North’s Senior Research Fellow Cosmin Dzsurdzsa created an interactive map that detailed the precise location and nature of each of the 68 church attacks throughout the summer of 2021. After the discovery of unmarked graves in Kamloops, a string of church burnings took place throughout Western Canada before sweeping across the nation. True North’s map garnered national recognition as the only tool that located and documented each attack. It has been viewed over 245,000 times.
Media didn’t disclose professor’s AstraZeneca funding in pro-vaccine op-eds (TNC)
The Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail routinely published Professor Mark Lautens in op-ed articles promoting the use of vaccines. He was accredited in those articles as the “J.B. Jones Professor of Chemistry at the University of Toronto.” What the Star and the Globe failed to mention, however, was that he also held the title of “AstraZeneca Professor of Organic Chemistry.” Lautens had even publicly tweeted about receiving funding and research support from AstraZeneca. True North uncovered this connection, and the Globe and Mail added a disclosure on every op-ed published by Lautens.
Media didn’t disclose doctor’s $2M in Pfizer funding in coverage promoting child vaccination (TNC)
Dozens of legacy media including the CBC, CTV News, Global News and the Globe and Mail cited Dr. Jim Kellner as a leading authority on vaccinating children. True North uncovered research funding directed to Jim Kellner from Pfizer Pharmaceuticals worth nearly $2 Million. In numerous articles and stories that promote Kellner’s positions on vaccinating kids, the legacy media failed to mention his Pfizer funding even though it is publicly accessible on Kellner’s University of Calgary CV.
Defence department website tells employees vaccine mandates not legal (TNC)
In August, True North Senior Fellow Andrew Lawton reported on a Defence Department web page that explicitly told public servants that management “cannot require a public servant to get a vaccine, nor is mandatory vaccination supported under Canadian law.” During this time, Justin Trudeau was campaigning on mandating vaccines for all federal service employees. The day before this article was published, Trudeau warned there would be “consequences” for federal employees who refused to get the jab. Ten days later, the Department of Defence scrubbed the web page. Today, all federal employees are subject to a vaccine mandate.
NDP to debate phasing out Canada’s Armed Forces at policy convention (TNC)
In April, True North became aware of a policy proposal being debated at the NDP national convention to “eliminate Canada’s Armed Forces.” The policy resolution stated, “(a)ll members of the Canadian Armed Forces will be retrained, at the expense of the federal government, into civil service roles that help expand Canadian, provincial and municipal social services.” This policy was rejected by the NDP. Other policies at the NDP convention included removing all Sir John A Maconald statues from public spaces, abolishing the monarchy in Canada and pulling out of NATO.
Jagmeet Singh’s wife wears $1,124 dress for maternity shoot as the NDP plans to tax ‘luxury goods’ (TNC)
Just days after the NDP released their uncosted campaign platform promising to tax “luxury goods” and to hike taxes on “super-rich Canadians,” Jagmeet Singh’s wife was seen in pictures wearing a $1,124 maternity dress. The NDP platform stated, “(a) New Democrat government will also boost the top marginal tax rate by two points, put in place a luxury goods tax on things like yachts and private jets, and ask the very richest multi-millionaires to pay a bit more”. The NDP failed to respond when True North asked whether Singh’s wife’s dress would be taxed as a “luxury good.”
CBC apologizes for using fake patients and training facility in COVID-19 story (TNC)
The CBC was forced to apologize in October after being caught using a fake hospital set with mannequins posing as patients in ICU beds during a broadcast. CBC Edmonton in their apology said, “(e)arlier in October, we aired two stories on what patients can expect in a hospital ICU during the COVID crisis” as justification and then went on to say, “(u)nfortunately, some of that same footage was then used in a different story about COVID projections and modelling last week.” The CBC called this an “editorial error.”
Lockdowns killed more Canadians under 65 than COVID-19: Statscan (TNC)
A StatsCan report released in July revealed that government-enforced lockdowns killed more Canadians under the age of 65 than COVID-19. The report titled Provisional death counts and excess mortality found that between January 2020 and April 2021, 5,535 Canadians under the age of 65 died because of “indirect consequences” due to the pandemic. Over the same time period, 1380 Canadians in the same age group died from COVID-19.
B.C. doctor stripped of ER shifts after raising COVID vaccine side effect concerns (TNC)
In May, True North reported that Dr. Charles Hoffe was claiming to be reprimanded by health authorities in B.C. after speaking out about alleged Moderna vaccine complications. According to Dr. Hoffe, he was suspended from the emergency shift at St. Bartholomew’s Health Centre in Lytton due to the alleged “vaccine hesitancy” his claims had caused. In April, Dr. Hoffe published an open letter to the B.C. Chief Medical Officer of Health claiming to have seen “numerous allergic reactions,” one “sudden death” and a few cases of “ongoing and disabling neurological deficits” after administering 900 doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine to nearby First Nations community members.
Renowned Canadian author and psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson slammed the CBC and other legacy media in a tweet last week.
“The legacy media are in an unrecoverable death spiral, spinning ever more uncontrollably. The CBC has become a mewling, meandering, self-righteous, slogan-spewing narcissistic near-corpse,” said Peterson.
The legacy media are in an unrecoverable death spiral, spinning ever more uncontrollably. The CBC has become a mewling, meandering, self-righteous, slogan-spewing narcissistic near-corpse. https://t.co/lFiPeRyyj8
Peterson’s comments came in response to an episode of The Candice Malcolm Show featuring Toronto Sun columnist Anthony Furey. Malcolm and Furey had discussed how the legacy media’s coverage of COVID-19 was failing Canadians.
“What we see is that there will be some kind of main message that’s coming from Justin Trudeau or even provincial authorities, and the media is sort of like a pack,” True North Founder and Editor-In-Chief Candice Malcolm had said. “They all just completely take the narrative – take the talking points, hook, line and sinker – and start promoting it. Not like journalists but like activists.”
Furey agreed, adding, “(a) journalist’s job is not just to amplify a tone that has been set by a government official or a public health official. And may I remind you that public health talks a lot about behavioural sciences, what they call nudging, to encourage people to take a certain attitude. It’s just not the job of the media to be pushing all of that out there.”
For several years now, CBC has seen advertising revenue rapidly decline and Canadians tune out of their hyper-partisan programs. According to the public broadcaster’s latest Annual Report, the CBC saw a 10% decline in ad revenue for the year 2020-21 alone.
Despite the shoddy performance, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tasked Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez to provide “additional (taxpayer) funding” to the outlet.
In his mandate letter to Rodriguez, Trudeau called on the minister to give “additional funding to make (CBC) less reliant on private advertising, with a goal of eliminating advertising during news and other public affairs shows.”
Taxpayers are already forking over $1.2 billion to keep the public broadcaster fed.
The Federal Court has removed references to Christmas from its proceedings calendar.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, staff opted for the more “inclusive” option: “seasonal recess.”
“Given that litigants before the Courts do not all celebrate Christmas an amendment is required to change references to the Court’s ‘Christmas recess’ to the more inclusive ‘seasonal recess,” a legal notice claims.
The request to have the holiday reference changed was put through on April 9, 2020, but administrators have not divulged who was responsible.
The Federal Court did not respond to requests for comment by Blacklock’s. Attorney General David Lametti – himself a Roman Catholic – did not reply either.
Conservative politicians have in the past spoken out against the war on Christmas. In 2014, former Conservative MP Nina Grewal cited political correctness as being behind the push to eradicate Christmas from the public square.
“Judges remove Christmas trees from courthouses, school concerts are postponed to take away the Christmas theme, the lyrics of Christmas carols are changed, the distribution of candy canes is banned, and all the references to God, Christ and the Lord are removed,” said Grewal.
“I am a Sikh and I am not offended when people celebrate Christmas in a traditional way,” Grewal added. “Instead of silly political correctness, all of us should feel proud in our traditions and beliefs and rejoice in this season of joy, peace and goodwill.”
The Federal Court’s decision is simply the latest in a longstanding campaign to relabel Christian venues and events. This year, Toronto’s Christmas Market was rebranded “Distillery Winter Village” to back away from traditional Christian-oriented celebrations.
“The Toronto Christmas market will not operate in 2021,” read a statement on the market’s website. “The Distillery District will be holding a separate winter event called the Winter village.”
Canadians across the country are once again being locked down – this time out of an abundance of caution for the Omicron variant.
More people, including many medical experts, are sounding the alarm about lockdown restrictions and how politicians are implementing more measures because they’re cautiously pessimistic.
Toronto Sun Editor and Columnist Anthony Furey discusses.
The Toronto Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) saw a 35% increase in eating disorders among youth last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Experts have warned that Canadian youth are facing unprecedented physical and mental health challenges as a result of lockdowns and other restrictions.
One of these experts is Christina Bartha, executive director of the SickKids brain and mental health program.
“COVID is a great amplifier,” said Bartha. “In pediatrics, the mental health and eating disorder rise in numbers is, to some degree, our pandemic. This has been very significant in terms of the number of kids presenting for care, and being able to attend to that has been really challenging,”
Other hospitals have also seen a spike in such cases. Between 2019-20 and 2020-21, McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton reported a 90% rise in referrals involving suspected eating disorders among kids.
The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) in Ottawa has also faced pressure to increase resources due to eating disorders.
CHEO has admitted at least 25 kids and adolescents with eating disorders since the pandemic began. The hospital has had to add three in-patient beds to accommodate the patients.
“We were having to take resources from other parts of our mental health program to support those young people,” said CHEO vice-president of mental health and addictions Joanne Lowe.
The crisis has prompted the Ontario government to invest $8.1 million until 2022 to help hospitals deal with an increase in eating disorders.
One patient is Hadley Phillipson-Webb, who told the Canadian Press that she began to feel ill last December. She was later diagnosed with anorexia nervosa.
“Not being able to see anyone or really kind of do anything just gave me more time to just think about myself,” said Phillipson-Webb.
“As time went on, I was just less and less happy with my body and how I looked. So then I stopped eating.”
Doctors have been warning for some time that Canadian youth are facing a mental health crisis. In April, the Ottawa Community Pediatricians Network warned that physicians were seeing more and more children being admitted for mental health issues.
A group of 200 global campaign groups have written a letter to the television networks that will be showing the 2022 Beijing Summer Olympics, asking them to cancel their broadcasting deals.
“All of your companies are at serious risk of being complicit in China’s plan to ‘sport wash’ the severe and worsening human rights abuses and embolden the actions of the Chinese authorities,” reads the letter. “By broadcasting Beijing 2022 your companies will legitimize these abuses and promote what is being widely described as the ‘Genocide Games.’”
The letter reads that while many of these television networks have stood up for human rights, their efforts will be “overshadowed by the abuses going on away from the cameras” if they go on to broadcast the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Human rights commitments are pointless if they are not accompanied by meaningful action, according to the letter.
The Chinese government has stated the 2022 Beijing Olympics will be “open and inclusive,” create a “harmonious world” and promote “social progress.”
For people living in China, the campaign groups write, daily life does not reflect these principles.
Outlets have reported that at least two million Muslims are being held in “re-education camps” in China where they are tortured. Freedom House ranked China-occupied Tibet as the least free place in the world for civil and political rights.
Pro-democracy activists have also been rounded up and imprisoned for protesting in Hong Kong, while China has been intimidating Taiwan in recent months.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it would take action if China did not meet its promises to uphold human rights.
The campaign groups write that the Chinese government has backtracked on the human rights pledges they made to host these Olympics, and there has been no accountability by the IOC and international organizations. Their letter claims China has been given “a free pass to wantonly violate human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
A letter from Human Rights Watch to the IOC said the 2022 Beijing Olympics will be held in “a human rights environment significantly worse than that of 2008.”
The letter from the human rights groups said the reputations of the television networks participating in the upcoming Olympics risk being tainted if they go ahead with their partnerships.
“Genocide must be a red line that cannot be crossed, no matter the cost,” reads the letter.
Canada will be holding a “diplomatic boycott” of the 2022 Beijing Olympics. This means politicians will not attend the event, but athletes can continue to compete.
“We are extremely concerned by the repeated human rights violations by the Chinese government,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when announcing the measure.
Liberal MP Yves Robillard has been censured for defying the party’s non-essential travel advisory, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
Robillard has been stripped of committee assignments after contravening party orders by travelling outside of Canada.
Chief Government Whip Steven MacKinnon said in a statement to The Canadian Press that he is “profoundly disappointed” Robillard left Canada.
Liberal MPs have been told to avoid non-essential international travel because of the Omicron variant.
The travel order mirrors the Canadian government’s advice to members of the public not to travel abroad to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant.
MacKinnon said to The Canadian Press that while Robillard is fully vaccinated, his trip has been considered non-essential, and he will be removed as a member of the standing committee on national defence.
MacKinnon, who did not mention Robillard’s destination or reason for travelling, intends to talk to him about his decision to leave Canada when Parliament resumes.
In 2020, a number of Canadian politicians were caught travelling abroad despite rising cases of COVID-19.
These politicians included former Ontario finance minister Rod Phillips, Liberal MP Kamal Khera and NDP MP Niki Ashton.
As stated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and public health officials at press briefings, federal public health advice at the time discouraged all non-essential travel outside of Canada.
Robillard could not be reached for further comment in time for publication.
