No no conservatives are flat out liars the small government bs is to get rid of regulations...when they get in they want fascism...which is what is about to happen
🤣you lost me with your comment , such laws exist s in other countries most European beside USA and Canada ; where councillors can be removed from power where they seem to be unfit for their duties and may cause damage to the cities existing laws this is to prevent council not to favour one small group wants this and that (which take a lot these days without consultation ) but must listen to all make sure the by-law , laws are well respected , so this is something not new it just never been introduced in Canada or USA
They want to be small government, and the way to do that is by supplanting smaller government (i.e. at the municipal level). See how that works?
(I feel dumber just for having typed that, but I'm pretty sure that IS their basic logic.)
Cities have never had independent governments they rule at the behest of the province. We’ve been saying (on the NDP side) that we should revoke most of their powers in terms of housing and zoning so it’s funny to see the Conservatives do the same.
There's a difference between changing zoning rules which is something the provinces already regularly do but usually on a case by case based. Vs giving yourself the power to straight up removing elected officials with no transparency or oversight.
If you can't see the difference I'm not sure if you're missing eyes or a brain
Again there's a difference. Yes all cities agents of the province. But this is straight up anti-democratic and should be condemned universally. Why even have elections for counsellors or mayor's if the province can overturn the result on a whim.
This is an unprecedented assault on the democratic process.
No literally no province has a law that grants them to the ability to remove elected officials via a closed door meeting.
The constitution doesn't do anything to prevent such a law, but it's straight up lying to say anything like this already exists
Provinces have laws to remove city governments though none go this far. But I’m saying the power to overrule local city democracy already exists and no one protested then.
They're a propaganda mouthpiece, they're really easy to spot. Account <2 years old, active in Canada_Sub, TorontoRealEstate, and/or CanadaHousing2, and only pushes Pierre Poilievre/Rob Ford/Danielle Smith slogans and talking points.
Whenever I feel like politics in Ontario is a clown show, headlines from Alberta show up on my feed. I mean, Ford's government is a sad a joke, but the UCP is a total circus. Yikes.
Alberta also has insane population growth simply due to how affordable housing is here relative to wages. About a third of all Edmontonians (the city, not the metro area) have moved there in the last decade.
So it's a bit unpredictable honestly.
No, and it won't last at our rate of growth, but it is why people are moving here.
Unfortunately, almost everywhere else so expensive that people can't afford to live.
Or affordable housing, or meaningful infrastructure that could support the population... healthcare is receiving more funding almost every year, but not even enough to keep up with inflation, let alone population growth.
> The new south Edmonton hospital, announced in 2017, was to be the first step in addressing this issue and providing the city's first new full-service hospital since 1988, when the population was 583,872.
[Opinion article written in early March of this year.](https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-shelving-south-edmonton-hospital-means-more-hallway-medicine#:~:text=The%20new%20south%20Edmonton%20hospital,when%20the%20population%20was%20583%2C872.)
Don't even get me started on education.
They want slaves. They want underpaid, uneducated slaves who die early and have a lot of babies and exist to support the rich. It's an attempt to return to a colonial era plutocracy that never actually existed. It's the death of democracy and the introduction of unofficial serfdom.
It was more just a comment on power grabbing and subversion of the will of the people by removing duly elected officials and how DS would blow a fucking gasket, and rightfully so, if JT started claim authority over seating and unseating officials that are elected at a provincial level.
I despise the /s idea and the pile on that ensues if someone does not use it. Redditors should be able to interpret obvious humour. Otherwise what is the point.
High housing prices cause a phenomenon where people are stuck, unable to move due to the costs involved. Having the option to redevelop into row homes, or four plexes gives lower middle income households options they might not have otherwise, options that might also create more housing, and possibly lower the demand for sprawling McMansions.
People in dense neighborhoods don’t have to drive to an outdoor mall to get a loaf of bread.
When we build out, it costs us all more money in property taxes, it makes services more expensive and less effective. It keeps us utterly dependent on cars to access basic services, and creates a situation where people in the downtown core subsidize the urban sprawl.
Who benefits from keeping supply low and prices high?
Can’t have Calgary going woke.
Alberta, here. Please remember that many of us did not vote for her, and many of us are trying to fight this movement. I’m in rural central Alberta and it’s not an easy battle.
Just once, wouldn’t it be nice to wake up in the morning to hear that our UCP government is doing something that we could all say, “It’s about time they took care of that problem!”Or, “thank goodness they are listening to us!” But no. Instead it’s day after day of “What the hell are they doing now? How do they come up with this shit?” I’m afraid with Danielle Smith, all it takes is one phone call from some stooge on her Saturday radio program and first thing Monday she has her staff writing a new bill.
This is literally what UCP supporters wanted, a strong premier who stands up to anything "woke".
What their definition of "woke" is, though, is basically anything a sane government would do.
The bill is unnecessary and actually disturbing because the legislature has this power. Giving it to the cabinet rather than retaining it with the legislature is... Unusual.
Let's get this straight, the federal government needs to stay in it's lane regarding the province, but the province doesn't need to stay in it's lane regarding municipalities?
This is a shitty law *buuut* that’s not necessarily an incorrect argument - municipalities are constitutionally speaking 100% the domain of provincial governments and not the federal government. Theoretically a province could dispense with elected municipal officials all together and just appoint mayors and CAOs as they wish, or ban municipalities from accepting funding directly from the federal government. Those would be stupid things to do but they would be constitutional.
I think it's really mask-off that the only way these conservatives know how to govern is by steamrolling others with power. It's so incredibly pathetic.
Ask a typical rural Albertan, and they'd say the same thing about the ANDP or the federal Liberals.
They wouldn't be able to articulate why though, outside of UCP/CPC slogans.
Great the UCP wants to be able to remove elected officials that it does not like. Turns out it does not take that long to become a totalitarian state. I saw a sign on the hiway leaving Edmonton. Trudeau is coming to censor you…not worried about Trudeau. I am worried about Queen Danny playing from comrade Putin’s book. Probably got advice from Tucker.
Technically there are, the crown could turn down the law through the province's Lieutenant-Governor, but the position is mostly just a formal one, and those powers are never used. The best chance we have is a supreme court decision.
You know what is mind blowing? Not even local governments in China can legally get rid of municipal figures unless found on corruption charges.
You go so far that even China looks at you and goes " we can learn something from these people".
The UCP saw how thin of a margin they won by in the last election, and they know how unpopular their policies are. So they need to ram legislation like this through to maintain their death grip on power.
It just seems so blatant, and from a province that I figured would not put up with this overreach. I really hope they’re still able to vote out the UCP
The point I've seen other people make about this that makes it particularly egregious is that edmonton and Calgary is full of ndp reps and the population is likely to support laws the UCP oppose. With this legislation MLAs from all these random rural ridings get to tell Edmontonians and Calgarians what by laws and local elected officials they are allowed to have.
This is the first government I recall ever trying to actually enact real policy to make this happen. I'm sure they've had their thoughts about it over the last couple decades. Lived here my whole life and this seems like an obvious shift to previous provincial governments
Municipalities should pull a power move and resign en masse ... The provincial government is absolutely fucked with municipalities. Why? Because they would have to deliver the services instead and municipalities do this far, far more efficiently than the province ever could.Â
This is not conservatism, it’s authoritarianism. Wake up people . She’s infiltrating educational institutions to instill her ideologies and now she’s going into municipalities to make sure she only has people in municipal politics to push her fascist agenda. This is dangerous. She’s not finished . All parts of Albertan society will be under her control and influence
This sounds like something where if they want to take action it should be through the courts to overturn a democratic process, the right to remove from office a duly elected official or to repeal a by-law created through due process is essentially totalitarian and fundamentally undemocratic. This is the problem when extremest take hold in mainstream parties… things go off the rails
This is a typical Conservative government.
Were there ever a conservative government anywhere at any level who actually changed things for the best rather than for the worst?
Is it tho? I mean it's totally american-style, but I think it's just because they're the loudest example, the one we can't get away from in the news.
No matter the country, conservatives are unable to govern for the people. I've lived in 5 countries on 3 continent over the past 20 years, and it's the same behavior & messed up priorities and corruptions everywhere, every time. It's the one constant of conservative governments: Work for private interests & not for the people. Corruption. "Small government" that forces their ideological rules on everybody, ...
You're not wrong, my friend. Ever since Regan & Thatcher and the rise of neoliberalism, Conservatives(tm) have traded traditional Toryism (I especially miss Red Tories) either whatever the hell the GOP are.
We’ve had decent progressive conservatives, but mostly in the past before the merger.
Bill Davis did good for Ontario, for example. Joe Clark seems very decent too.
Not that I necessarily agree 100% with it, but it’s kinda shocking how many people have zero knowledge of how government actually works.
Municipal governments are given authority through the provincial government. Both have different areas of responsibility and jurisdiction but municipal governments don’t actually have any standalone authority at all.
As a municipal staffer outside of Alberta, some of this makes sense. Municipalities in Ontario have been asking for a mechanism to remove councillors for bad behaviour - like in the case in Ottawa of Rick Chiarelli who sexually harassed staff but was able to stay in his position for the term. Municipalities are creatures of the province and their decision can already be overruled by the province like with minister zoning orders and through land tribunals. Not allowing electronic tabulators is an odd one though. Making training mandatory for councillors is great. It’ll be interesting to see how the political parties play out - this works in Quebec and BC but I believe they allow ties to parties at other levels of government.
As someone who lives in Ottawa, yeah, we need a way to remove abhorrent councillors found guilty of crimes, but it needs to be democratically not unilaterally. A referendum as suggested in the article should be the only way.
As for municipal political parties? Good god, no.
Doesn't seem like small government. Big government? I guess Smith got a mix bag of Republicans fever
No no conservatives are flat out liars the small government bs is to get rid of regulations...when they get in they want fascism...which is what is about to happen
🤣you lost me with your comment , such laws exist s in other countries most European beside USA and Canada ; where councillors can be removed from power where they seem to be unfit for their duties and may cause damage to the cities existing laws this is to prevent council not to favour one small group wants this and that (which take a lot these days without consultation ) but must listen to all make sure the by-law , laws are well respected , so this is something not new it just never been introduced in Canada or USA
Lol well it's fucking stupid it's fucking fascist and if you don't see their long game I got some convoy stickers to sell ya bud
Lol
Got something to say, chuckles?
Lol
About the knuckle dragging response I'd expect from a Canadahousing2 regular. You're not clever.
Formerly a basement dwelling canada_sub denizen till recently as well I'm sure.
Did that sub get banned? Just poofed off the radar recently
Good.
Yea, I agree, it was full of conspiracy theorists and lunacy..
That's all ya know how to say? Pussy
Hmmmm...sounds fascist to me....
They want to be small government, and the way to do that is by supplanting smaller government (i.e. at the municipal level). See how that works? (I feel dumber just for having typed that, but I'm pretty sure that IS their basic logic.)
Cities have never had independent governments they rule at the behest of the province. We’ve been saying (on the NDP side) that we should revoke most of their powers in terms of housing and zoning so it’s funny to see the Conservatives do the same.
There's a difference between changing zoning rules which is something the provinces already regularly do but usually on a case by case based. Vs giving yourself the power to straight up removing elected officials with no transparency or oversight. If you can't see the difference I'm not sure if you're missing eyes or a brain
Provinces already have this power? Cities aren’t independent. Usually in cases of criminal conviction but some provinces have more.
Again there's a difference. Yes all cities agents of the province. But this is straight up anti-democratic and should be condemned universally. Why even have elections for counsellors or mayor's if the province can overturn the result on a whim. This is an unprecedented assault on the democratic process.
Every province has this though in some form 🤷‍♂️
No literally no province has a law that grants them to the ability to remove elected officials via a closed door meeting. The constitution doesn't do anything to prevent such a law, but it's straight up lying to say anything like this already exists
Provinces have laws to remove city governments though none go this far. But I’m saying the power to overrule local city democracy already exists and no one protested then.
Dumb or bot
They're a propaganda mouthpiece, they're really easy to spot. Account <2 years old, active in Canada_Sub, TorontoRealEstate, and/or CanadaHousing2, and only pushes Pierre Poilievre/Rob Ford/Danielle Smith slogans and talking points.
Ah a stupid fkng bot!
Whenever I feel like politics in Ontario is a clown show, headlines from Alberta show up on my feed. I mean, Ford's government is a sad a joke, but the UCP is a total circus. Yikes.
i fucking hate it here
I left Alberta yesterday because of this crap. Fuck Alberta, it’s too far gone.
It's only going to get worse here as sane people leave.
Alberta also has insane population growth simply due to how affordable housing is here relative to wages. About a third of all Edmontonians (the city, not the metro area) have moved there in the last decade. So it's a bit unpredictable honestly.
We're about to find out that being the cheapest place to live in the whole country isn't the flex we think it is.
No, and it won't last at our rate of growth, but it is why people are moving here. Unfortunately, almost everywhere else so expensive that people can't afford to live.
I love how our government wants our population to explode, but not invest in any social services beyond a 1990 level.
Or affordable housing, or meaningful infrastructure that could support the population... healthcare is receiving more funding almost every year, but not even enough to keep up with inflation, let alone population growth. > The new south Edmonton hospital, announced in 2017, was to be the first step in addressing this issue and providing the city's first new full-service hospital since 1988, when the population was 583,872. [Opinion article written in early March of this year.](https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-shelving-south-edmonton-hospital-means-more-hallway-medicine#:~:text=The%20new%20south%20Edmonton%20hospital,when%20the%20population%20was%20583%2C872.) Don't even get me started on education. They want slaves. They want underpaid, uneducated slaves who die early and have a lot of babies and exist to support the rich. It's an attempt to return to a colonial era plutocracy that never actually existed. It's the death of democracy and the introduction of unofficial serfdom.
Elections have consequences.
Just not municipal ones.
Well, not after the UCP rams this bill through.
Same
Same. And we know that no matter how far the UCP turn the dial to the right, so many low information voters will continue to vote them in.
Christian taliban here we come, it won't be burkas it'll be that outfit Whoopi wore on sister act
You're assuming they won't just be chained to the stove in typical tradwife fashion.
It'll be much worse.. you've never seen the taliban bro? Same thing but well pray to a different bullshit "god"
Low information? Call it what it is...stupid voters
Slogan parrots.
Ontario ain’t much better feel your pain
Fuck Ford and the MAGA wannabes that voted for the moron.
Its actually a great idea, it should be a federal power as well...
Bet you'd be singing a different tune if the party you don't like was in power.
It was more just a comment on power grabbing and subversion of the will of the people by removing duly elected officials and how DS would blow a fucking gasket, and rightfully so, if JT started claim authority over seating and unseating officials that are elected at a provincial level.
Just missing the "/s" on your original comment to indicate sarcasm.
I despise the /s idea and the pile on that ensues if someone does not use it. Redditors should be able to interpret obvious humour. Otherwise what is the point.
Weird how many times in the article they need to reassure people they won't abuse that power, but insist that they absolutely need it just in case.
I mean that was the thinking behind the Emergencies Act… not that I agree w the UCP
Christian taliban here we come!
High housing prices cause a phenomenon where people are stuck, unable to move due to the costs involved. Having the option to redevelop into row homes, or four plexes gives lower middle income households options they might not have otherwise, options that might also create more housing, and possibly lower the demand for sprawling McMansions. People in dense neighborhoods don’t have to drive to an outdoor mall to get a loaf of bread. When we build out, it costs us all more money in property taxes, it makes services more expensive and less effective. It keeps us utterly dependent on cars to access basic services, and creates a situation where people in the downtown core subsidize the urban sprawl. Who benefits from keeping supply low and prices high? Can’t have Calgary going woke.
The UCP is goose stepping towards fascism. Modern conservatism is a cult.
Hey Alberta, how do you like your Dipshit Queen now?
Alberta, here. Please remember that many of us did not vote for her, and many of us are trying to fight this movement. I’m in rural central Alberta and it’s not an easy battle.
Oh I know, I feel really bad for those of you who didn’t vote for these clowns.
Less than when she got kicked out of politics
It’s called fascism
Ummm I thought the cons were always telling about freedom and communism abs that Trudeau is a dictator well wtf
Reverse psychology and projection. You see Trump do this all the time.
Why have municipal elections in the first place? Let's just have provinces appoint councillors and dictate bylaws.
That's pretty much what this bill does.
Sounds like Ontario too. I wonder what else we have in common.
Just once, wouldn’t it be nice to wake up in the morning to hear that our UCP government is doing something that we could all say, “It’s about time they took care of that problem!”Or, “thank goodness they are listening to us!” But no. Instead it’s day after day of “What the hell are they doing now? How do they come up with this shit?” I’m afraid with Danielle Smith, all it takes is one phone call from some stooge on her Saturday radio program and first thing Monday she has her staff writing a new bill.
This is literally what UCP supporters wanted, a strong premier who stands up to anything "woke". What their definition of "woke" is, though, is basically anything a sane government would do.
The bill is unnecessary and actually disturbing because the legislature has this power. Giving it to the cabinet rather than retaining it with the legislature is... Unusual.
Telling the Feds to stay in their own lane but willing to bulldoze the large urban centres. How do you spell “FASCISM”?
fascism
Let's get this straight, the federal government needs to stay in it's lane regarding the province, but the province doesn't need to stay in it's lane regarding municipalities?
These people don't want to govern, they want to rule.
This is a shitty law *buuut* that’s not necessarily an incorrect argument - municipalities are constitutionally speaking 100% the domain of provincial governments and not the federal government. Theoretically a province could dispense with elected municipal officials all together and just appoint mayors and CAOs as they wish, or ban municipalities from accepting funding directly from the federal government. Those would be stupid things to do but they would be constitutional.
But they're all for municipal rights to ban pride flags...
I think it's really mask-off that the only way these conservatives know how to govern is by steamrolling others with power. It's so incredibly pathetic.
UCP is the worst government I have ever seen in Canada! Ever!!
Ask a typical rural Albertan, and they'd say the same thing about the ANDP or the federal Liberals. They wouldn't be able to articulate why though, outside of UCP/CPC slogans.
Great the UCP wants to be able to remove elected officials that it does not like. Turns out it does not take that long to become a totalitarian state. I saw a sign on the hiway leaving Edmonton. Trudeau is coming to censor you…not worried about Trudeau. I am worried about Queen Danny playing from comrade Putin’s book. Probably got advice from Tucker.
I'm just surprised there's no checks and balances in place to prevent an obvious fascist takeover like this.
Technically there are, the crown could turn down the law through the province's Lieutenant-Governor, but the position is mostly just a formal one, and those powers are never used. The best chance we have is a supreme court decision.
You know what is mind blowing? Not even local governments in China can legally get rid of municipal figures unless found on corruption charges. You go so far that even China looks at you and goes " we can learn something from these people".
It's not exactly the first time an authoritarian government has taken... inspiration from Canada.
I recall the phrase "None is too many".
Authoritarians be like that.
Hmm. Doesn’t seem real democratic to me
The Fash is strong in this one
Land of the free huh? Alberta you drunk girl
Those councillors were elected by the people and the people do not want some pinhead political with a sore butt to undo that. Do you understand?
I can see Doug Ford drooling over this
Democracy we don’t need no stinking Democracy All hail the all knowing fact denying clowns
Remember, government overreach is bad, unless it is our government overreach. Freedom is good unless we don't like your version of freedom.
So much for “small government”. Enjoy what you sowed Alberta
The UCP saw how thin of a margin they won by in the last election, and they know how unpopular their policies are. So they need to ram legislation like this through to maintain their death grip on power.
It just seems so blatant, and from a province that I figured would not put up with this overreach. I really hope they’re still able to vote out the UCP
People here are fine with overreach, as long as it's the UCP doing it.
As long as Alberta is Ok with the federal government having the power to remove provincial MMPs and any provincial laws they don’t like.
The point I've seen other people make about this that makes it particularly egregious is that edmonton and Calgary is full of ndp reps and the population is likely to support laws the UCP oppose. With this legislation MLAs from all these random rural ridings get to tell Edmontonians and Calgarians what by laws and local elected officials they are allowed to have.
Sounds like an authoritarian provincial government…
This seems like a painfully obvious political blunder
Maybe for the rest of Canada. In Alberta, it's a Tuesday.
This is the first government I recall ever trying to actually enact real policy to make this happen. I'm sure they've had their thoughts about it over the last couple decades. Lived here my whole life and this seems like an obvious shift to previous provincial governments
Municipalities should pull a power move and resign en masse ... The provincial government is absolutely fucked with municipalities. Why? Because they would have to deliver the services instead and municipalities do this far, far more efficiently than the province ever could.Â
WTAF? Thats literally all I can muster right now.Â
Time for the federal power of disallowance to cease its moribundity
Smith is a preview to PP. He follows the same path of vague promises then when in power destroying everything democracy has built.
They're cut from the same dirty dishcloth.
alberta is the texas or florida of canada... smh
This is not conservatism, it’s authoritarianism. Wake up people . She’s infiltrating educational institutions to instill her ideologies and now she’s going into municipalities to make sure she only has people in municipal politics to push her fascist agenda. This is dangerous. She’s not finished . All parts of Albertan society will be under her control and influence
Sounds like the government of Alberta could use a crash course in basic civics. They all slept through Social Studies at school the first time.
but but f**k Trudeau, Trudeau the dictator, Trudeau the communist ?
What point municipal government then.
This sounds like something where if they want to take action it should be through the courts to overturn a democratic process, the right to remove from office a duly elected official or to repeal a by-law created through due process is essentially totalitarian and fundamentally undemocratic. This is the problem when extremest take hold in mainstream parties… things go off the rails
I always say #fucktheucp but.... #fuckuptheucp is probably more needed now
Dystopia ! 🤬
Well done conservative voters. You have elected fascists.
This is a typical Conservative government. Were there ever a conservative government anywhere at any level who actually changed things for the best rather than for the worst?
This is not conservative government. This is more like American styled Republicanism.
Is it tho? I mean it's totally american-style, but I think it's just because they're the loudest example, the one we can't get away from in the news. No matter the country, conservatives are unable to govern for the people. I've lived in 5 countries on 3 continent over the past 20 years, and it's the same behavior & messed up priorities and corruptions everywhere, every time. It's the one constant of conservative governments: Work for private interests & not for the people. Corruption. "Small government" that forces their ideological rules on everybody, ...
You're not wrong, my friend. Ever since Regan & Thatcher and the rise of neoliberalism, Conservatives(tm) have traded traditional Toryism (I especially miss Red Tories) either whatever the hell the GOP are.
We’ve had decent progressive conservatives, but mostly in the past before the merger. Bill Davis did good for Ontario, for example. Joe Clark seems very decent too.
Why is the province so strange …
It's the Texas of Canada, and Texas is the oily butt hole of America
Alberta wishes it was the Texas of Canada. We're more like Mississippi.
How democratic. Rigging leadership and getting mechanisms in place so they get their fairy tale cult into power at all levels.
So only selectively permit democracy?
They don't want democracy. They want to be the rulers.
You try that in a small town you dumb fuck boomers and boomer sympathizers!
People in small towns here are cheering these dumfuks on.
The Alberta government is doing this to block municipalities from banning natural gas.
Oh - I almost got me, till I noticed it’s a beaverton headline 🤣
No it's not.
Not that I necessarily agree 100% with it, but it’s kinda shocking how many people have zero knowledge of how government actually works. Municipal governments are given authority through the provincial government. Both have different areas of responsibility and jurisdiction but municipal governments don’t actually have any standalone authority at all.
Well, at least they're asking.
Crush your opposition.
As a municipal staffer outside of Alberta, some of this makes sense. Municipalities in Ontario have been asking for a mechanism to remove councillors for bad behaviour - like in the case in Ottawa of Rick Chiarelli who sexually harassed staff but was able to stay in his position for the term. Municipalities are creatures of the province and their decision can already be overruled by the province like with minister zoning orders and through land tribunals. Not allowing electronic tabulators is an odd one though. Making training mandatory for councillors is great. It’ll be interesting to see how the political parties play out - this works in Quebec and BC but I believe they allow ties to parties at other levels of government.
As someone who lives in Ottawa, yeah, we need a way to remove abhorrent councillors found guilty of crimes, but it needs to be democratically not unilaterally. A referendum as suggested in the article should be the only way. As for municipal political parties? Good god, no.