Over there on the right.  I look rather edgy.

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So, the Alberta mistake.  Also, the braying and screeching.

Even the Washington Post has (amusingly) taken note.  The Washington Post!

The hullaballoo – the ceaseless braying and screeching – has prompted me to declare: I’m an Albertan.  Alberta’s home.  My family has lived there for decades. Hell, I’m heading back there to teach at the University of Calgary’s law school soon enough.

And, yes, I’m a liberal/Liberal (although I’ve always been more of a Democrat, but that’s a story for another day).  But, just because I’ve worked for a three-majority Liberal Prime Minister (that Chrétien guy) and a three-majority Liberal Premier (that McGuinty guy), doesn’t mean I’m ever afraid to criticize my own team. In the past few days, I’ve roughed them up pretty good over the appalling Khadr payment, for example.

So, believe me when I tell you: this Trudeau-forgetting-Alberta thing is a prairie-style butt truffle.  It’s stupid.  Ten reasons.

1. Come on. Do you seriously think, Conservatives, that he’d leave out Alberta on purpose?Like, seriously?  If you think that, you’re stupid.  Sorry, but you are.
2. He apologized! The second he realized his mistake, Trudeau walked back to the microphone and corrected it. “I’m a little embarrassed. I got excited somewhere over the Rockies,” he said. “Alberta, I love you. Happy Canada Day!”
3. Alberta matters. The guy doesn’t just love Alberta, he needs Alberta.  Since 2013, he’s invested considerable political capital and resources in winning Alberta seats, and it’s paid off, big time – even in my hometown of Calgary, a political earthquake last experienced a half-Century ago.
4. Watch him. The day after he announced his run for the Liberal Party leadership in his home riding – the day after!– Trudeau Jr. went straight to Calgary, and professed his undying fealty, as well as his disgust with his father’s signature energy policy, the NEP.  That did not go unnoticed, in Alberta.
5. He’s walked the talk. Trudeau’s spilled a lot of political blood, in B.C. and elsewhere, to fight for the pipelines Alberta needs to get its oil to market.  On his watch, Keystone approval happened.  On his watch, Trans Mountain approval happened. On his watch, Line 3 approval happened, too.  A Conservative Prime Minister didn’t get those things done – a Liberal Prime Minister did: a Trudeau, no less.
6. Um, who cares? Sensible Albertans shrugged about the sloppy speechifying.  Naheed Nenshi, for instance, called the resulting controversy “silly,” because it was.  “I screw up speeches all the time,” Nenshi said. So do the Conservative politicos who brayed and shrieked about Trudeau’s.
7. Alberta has clout. Trudeau put two ministers from Alberta in his rather-small cabinet.  That’s the same number as Manitoba, one more than Saskatchewan, and one less than B.C. Overall, Ontario has the most representation at the cabinet table, followed closely by the West. That matters.
8. R-e-s-p-e-c-t. My friend, Alberta Liberal legend Darryl Raymaker, has recently written an excellent book about Alberta and the Trudeaus, called Trudeau’s Tango. You should buy it.  In his compendious book, Raymaker reminds everyone that the Trudeau name has always been controversial in Alberta – but respected, too.  The Trudeau name gave “Alberta Liberals hope,” Raymaker writes.  The father, then – like the son, now – “was a man for his time – new, youthful, superbly confident, tough, and equally articulate in both official languages.”  What made Pierre Trudeau appealing in Alberta in his era makes the son just as appealing in his.  Conservatives dominate Alberta – but the Trudeaus (and Rachel Notley) remind us they don’t own
9. Check the numbers. Polls say Trudeau’s still competitive. CBC’s Eric Grenier – who most recently took an up-close look – says that, even with the Tories way ahead in Alberta, Trudeau is still doing well enough to win again. In fact, Grenier notes, at about 26 per cent support, Trudeau is still tracking a couple of points higher in Alberta than he did on Election Day 2015.  While the CPC, notably, remains where it was on that day.
10. It was an INNOCENT MISTAKE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. None of the conservatives who leapt on Trudeau’s gaffe – Jason Kenney, Brian Jean, Michelle Rempel, et al. – were nearly as outraged as they claimed to be.  They were, as politicians do, taking political advantage of a rival politicians’ slip.  It was a mistake, to be sure.  But not a career-ending one.

Albertans (where I grew up) are like Quebeckers (where I was born).  They see themselves as a distinct society: part of Canada, but arguably better than the rest of Canada.  As such, when the offered the opportunity, they will never hesitate to moan that they have been harmed and humiliated and hurt.  It’s in the genes.

So, will Albertans accordingly let Trudeau’s slip, slip by? Not on your life.

When even the Washington Post is taking note of the mistake, there’s braying and screeching to be done!

 

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At present, I am at the cabin, blasting them at the trees as I peck away. 

Little-known facts. 

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The Mother of all Storms up here in the woods last night. Here’s what the security camera caught before everything shut down. 

Can you see the mystery guest, coming up the hill?

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I get it.  The full-time folks are gone on holiday, people are a bit sleepy, Peter Mansbridge has finally (finally) departed.  CBC isn’t firing on all cylinders.  I get it.

But, you know, I keep thinking about two things.

One, Steve Ladurantaye gets pilloried by CBC – he gets eviscerated – for an obvious tweeted joke.  Being (full disclosure) a friend of Steve, and being someone who writes novels – and, you know, fiction would be impossible if it didn’t “appropriate” culture – I found the way in which they treated him appalling and disgusting and cruel.  I wrote about it.  (Steve doesn’t know I’m writing this, by the way.  He doesn’t tell me what to say, and vice-versa.)

Two, this week the CBC itself – on its flagship programs The National and Power and Politics, no less – bring on a far-Right white supremacist leader, and let him say whatever the Hell he wants.  This creep has written on The Rebel’s web site about how he hates Jews, calls blacks “monkeys,” calls himself “anti-Semitic,” says Jews should “get over” the Holocaust, and authors essays titled “I’m Not a Racist, Sexist, or a Homophobe, You Nigger Slut Faggot.” It’s all there in Google, easy to find. And CBC brings the racist on TV, arrogantly thinking they can “handle” him, and he handles them instead.  And, only when there is a massive backlash about their stupidity do they offer up a hasty apology.  Only about how they questioned him – not about bringing him on in the first place.

But did anyone get dismissed for helping out a neo-Nazi?  Did anyone get maligned in company-wide emails from the bosses? Did anyone get named and shamed?  Did anyone get forced by management to sit through a veritable Salem witch trial, in which they were defamed and libelled, and their bosses didn’t say word one to stop it?

Not on your fucking life.

As a test, and because I allegedly know a little bit about the racist Right, I wrote to a CBC manager, and offered to write up a piece about why they made a mistake.  The eventual reply: “Don’t think we’ll bite on this.”

Gotcha.  We’ll bite on Steve Ladurantaye, however, because Deepest Annex was apoplectic for all of ten minutes.  But bite on why Canadians’ tax dollars shouldn’t be used to provide an uncritical platform for a white supremacist?

No, the CBC won’t bite on that.

Well, you know what, CBC?  Bite on me.  Bite on us.  You guys are so full of shit, it almost makes me wonder if crazy Right-wingers are right about you.

You know: the ones you invite on-air, to talk about why indigenous people deserve to be scalped.

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…which gives me a shameless opportunity to share with you, Valued Reader, the cover, and an Amazon pre-order link to same.

These books make excellent Christmas, Hanukkah and birthday gifts. You’re welcome.

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You guys made a big mistake giving credibility and airtime to a leader of the new anti-Semitic/white supremacist Right. Big. #cbc #cdnpoli https://t.co/kl7W0WPkSn

— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) July 5, 2017

And it isn’t just me saying so. As HuffPo noted, your interview went completely “off the rails.”

Is it within your mandate to give an uncritical platform to a wasted hater like McInnes, who has written on The Rebel’s web site about how he hates Jews, calls blacks “monkeys,” calls himself “anti-Semitic,” says Jews should “get over” the Holocaust, and authors essays titled “I’m Not a Racist, Sexist, or a Homophobe, You Nigger Slut Faggot“? Is it?

No, it isn’t.  Get your heads out of your asses, The National and Power and Politics.

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"Hey! Let's give the nuclear codes to an addled, unglued old jerk!" #uspolitics pic.twitter.com/FVdNPQWWml

— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) July 5, 2017

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There will be consequences for CAF members who express intolerance while in – or out – of uniform: https://t.co/0GlW85XsOv

— Harjit Sajjan (@HarjitSajjan) July 4, 2017

And:

The members of the Canadian Armed Forces who disrupted a protest organized by Indigenous activists in Halifax on Canada Day will be removed from training and duties as the military investigates and reviews the circumstances, says the country’s top general.

“We are the nation’s protectors, and any member of the Canadian Armed Forces who is not prepared to be the defender we need them to be will face severe consequences, including release from the forces,” Gen. Jonathan Vance, chief of defence staff, said in a statement Tuesday night.

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I have been offered an international multi-book deal with a great publisher.  Wasn’t expecting this when I woke up this morning, but I’ll gratefully take it.

Wow, among other things.  Now, it’s back to work in the writing shed!

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