May 5th, 2024

Ethics commissioner’s ruling makes clear Smith not fit to be premier


By Lethbridge Herald on May 24, 2023.

Editor:

The Alberta Ethics Commissioner has found that Premier Danielle Smith broke the law.  Her interactions with the Justice Minister breached the Conflicts of Interest Act.  Her call to Artur Pawlowski, who has since faced a slew of criminal charges, violated “a fundamental principle of our democracy.” Smith’s phone call to Pawlowski attempted to interfere with the administration of justice on behalf of a man who blockaded our border and incited violence.  

The Ethics Commissioner wrote, “It is a threat to democracy to interfere with the administration of justice.” 

It is becoming clear that Smith is unfit to serve as the Premier of Alberta. 

Vinny Gagliano 

Lethbridge

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HaroldP

Speaking about being “fit” to stand as an elected government representative…..is “wanna be” Shannon Phillips “fit”? After all. In her $400,000.00 statement of claim against specific and general (Jane and John Doe” defendants of the Lethbridge Police Force, Phillips states that she suffers “post traumatic stress disorder” (PTSD). And this, as a result of the indiscretions of certain police officials (including former police chief, Rob Davis) of the Lethbridge Police Service. Medical definition and symptoms discribe PTSD as a serious and debilitating mental disorder.

Now, certainly one can not discriminate against one due to mental or physical disorder (disability) however one could argue the appropriateness of a person suffering PTSD in an elected position, which is admittedly a “stressful position”. Ideally, when looking at the “horse race” we would/should be choosing the best all around horse to “win the race”

Last edited 11 months ago by HaroldP
Kal Itea

Harold, does this mean that people who have medical problems shouldn’t be allowed to run?
Slippery slope. How about federal gov’t employees on sick leave?
Ban them too?

Dennis Bremner

Google definition- Those struggling with conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or complex PTSD (C-PTSD) often find their decision-making alters after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. This is because people make decisions based on emotion rather than logic

So the question is, do you want a representative that claims she has PTSD when you know that PTSD can affect clear judgement or decision making?

Would I vote for a soldier suffering PTSD, probably not because PTSD can strike when the person is under the greatest pressure and affect judgement. So as long as under no pressure, the person may be fine but, when under pressure they may not be. In which case you do not elect people that,cannot perform under pressure,because its when you need them the most. She is telling you that she may make a decision based on emotion rather than logic because PTSD suffers do that. So she may not be able to perform under pressure, and, is telling you that by saying she has PTSD!
If one wishes to bypass facts, thats fine, it is up to everyone to pick who they think can do the job under all circumstances.

Last edited 11 months ago by Dennis Bremner
HaroldP

Kai, did you even read? I specifically and intentionality stated, “non-discrimation” and picking the “best horse”.

Fedup Conservative

T
The true conservatives in my world have and it’s Rachel Notley. We aren’t dumb enough to elect another Reformer who doesn’t give a damn about us, and lawyers, accountants, oilmen, bankers, and former conservative MLAs agree with us. Comparing the majority of Albertans to Nazis proves she isn’t fit , so why are you hellbent on supporting her? .
Why don’t you google what conservative MLAs have been telling us about Notley:
“Rachel Notley Led Like Lougheed” Allan A Warrack was an MLA under Lougheed, and he’s not alone others have said the same thing. .
“Former Premier Ralph Klein’s Daughter Urges Albertan’s to Vote NDP ”
Members of the Klein family that I had known since the early 1960s were furious with him for what he did to us, so why didn’t you try to help us stop him, like they did?

YQLDude

Every time I think I’ve seen a new low in these comments someone comes out and surprises me. What a revolting thing to post, you should be ashamed.

HaroldP

“Facts” are revolting?

Montreal13

Is that the best you can do, it is a” revolting thing”? PTSD is a severe mental health condition.

YQLDude

Sometimes simply pointing out that vile people are vile is the best tactic. Let me spell it out for you though – you are taking a politician who was stalked by a police service, and claiming that because it had a negative effect on her, she is unfit to serve. Police intimidation as a tool for political goals is fascist, plain and simple. And fascists are revolting.

Last edited 11 months ago by YQLDude
Dennis Bremner

Its blatantly ovbvious you like telling half a story. Here is the other half. Politician who was stalked by police, correct. She then claims it had an effect on her, correct. She then defines that effect as being PTSD. She did not say PTSD like symptoms, she said PTSD, to claim PTSD you have to be diagnosed by a physcian as having PTSD. PTSD can cause a heightened emotional decision state over a logically based decision state. Which then makes her condition, although not caused by herself, questionable when pursuing her present career. A career she has put a dollar number on for compensation in the shortening of that career.
Thats the other half of the story you left out YB

John P Nightingale

A quick segue to Philips , thus avoiding answering the bloody question concerning Smith. Historic and current examples abound of her inability to learn from past mistakes. Failing to condemn hateful comments from her caucus , resignation of Tanner here on the west side because of inane and inaccurate comments. Perhaps you do not understand that “interference” is in fact interference and not worthy of a premier. Perhaps you do not understand the influence one David Parker of the TBA seemingly has on the party . But perhaps that is just fine by you.

Rachel

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Last edited 11 months ago by Rachel
Fedup Conservative

So while these ignorant Albertans are willing to let Smith do whatever she wants the true conservatives in my world can’t get rid of her fast enough. They aren’t going to let another Reformer destroy our health care and education system like her hero Ralph Klein .
They aren’t going to let her get away with comparing them to Nazis for daring to get vaccinated when they know the shots saved their lives. Not caring about who lost their lives during this pandemic doesn’t make Smith look very smart does it?

Dennis Bremner

And yet, the true Conservatives elected her, or, allowed themselves to be outnumbered as members of the Conservative party? So are the “ignorant Conservatives those that won’t take a $10 membership and ensure this does not happen or are the ignorant Conservatives the ones that live in the past and still believe they are relevant but mouth off rather than resist?

Last edited 11 months ago by Dennis Bremner
Fedup Conservative

No true conservatives didn’t it was ignorant Albertans believing everything these Reformers fed them.There is nothing conservative about them.

Fedup Conservative

Danielle Smith was fired in 1999 as a school board trustee in Calgary by the conservatives for wanting to privatize our education system. She became leader of the Wildrose Party who were well known Reformers and in opposition to the Conservatives. She was defeated by conservative Allison Redford. In 2012 as leader of the Wildrose Party then she walked the floor along with 8 others and joined the Conservative Party under Jim Prentice, the dumbest thing Prentice could have done, and they were all defeated by Notley in 2015. She was defeated in her own home riding in High River in 2015 when she tried to become their conservative candidate. The people knew what she stands for and weren’t dumb enough to elect her and let her ram her Reform Party policies down our throats like she promising to do now. She had to go to rural Alberta to elected because Calgarians likely wouldn’t have elected her and she knew it. There has never been anything conservative about Smith and true conservatives know it.

Incal

Incorrect. Lyle Oberg suspended the entire board when two specific persons, neither of them Smith, gridlocked it until it became dysfunctional. Blaming Smith for that is just convenience for the here and now. I agree she shouldn’t have crossed the floor… but I also agree that Prentice should not have called the election as quickly as he did. The move was precipitate and led to ruin.

Fedup Conservative

The ones who were fired along with Smith said on TV that they couldn’t get any work done because Smith wouldn’t stop yapping about privatizing our Education System.
Oddly enough that was the theme she used in Edmonton in 2012 when she told us that if she was elected she would privatize our health care and education systems and bad mouthed Klein for not doing it.
Would you trust her not to do it when has already hinted at doing it? We aren’t going to let her.. If she is elected she will think we are giving her the okay to do it.

Fedup Conservative

.Maybe you would like to explain why after getting fired asour MLAs said she was she starting promoting private schools, like this these articles show;
“New Data Shows Danielle Smith’s Education Plan Benefits Wealthiest Socioconomic Households”
“Danielle Smith Backs Plan to Spend More Public Dollars on Elite Private Schools and Homeschool”
Doesn’t that prove she is all for privatization of our Education system, as her candidates in Edmonton told us she was in 2012.
One told me she fully support Smith’s plan to privatize our education system. She had her son in a private school and it was only costing her $1,000. per month. I asked her if she had 6 kids would she still feel the same way. Her stupid reply was “No One Has Any Right Having More Than Two Children” In The election. running for the Wildrose she got 198 votes and the Conservative who beat her got more than 25,000 that’s what the people thought of her stupid attitude. Smith was also defeated as leader of the Wildrose, by Allison Redford, and we know how she did, her own party kicked out like they did, Klein, Stelmach, and Kenney no one wants any part of their privatization schemes and we still don’t.. So why do so many seniors still blindly support them ?

Dennis Bremner

So I am unsure exactly what is your point? If the entire party is not the Conservatives you want why don’t you and all the high power people you say you know and talk to regularily form a true Blue Conservative party? Then all the “Dumb Albertans” you seem to think exist will stay with the UCP and you can be leader of the Blue Cons. Pretty simple.

Fedup Conservative

No not all UCP are Reformers some are Conservatives which is why we have seen all this infighting amongst them, but the majority are Reformers, and they have the power to control the rest of the party. A great example was all the whining the candidates did when they tried to become leader of the party bashing Smith at every turn then sucking up to her after she was elected. They are as two-faced as they can be.
It so happens that for the past 24 years I have been having coffee with a group of seniors in a club in Edmonton with about 70 members and like me the vast majority were all long time conservative supporters and like me they stopped supporting them when Klein came along and started destroying everything Lougheed had created for us .
We are from all walks of life as you can image and we have had it with these Albertans who ignore what true conservatives have been telling them, and blindly support these Reformers. We know what these phony conservatives, Reformers, have done to us and are doing to us and we have got to get it stopped.
The conservative MLAs that I knew certainly agreed they called reformers the enemy of the people and true conservative parties and they are.

Fedup Conservative

Vinny These Reformers aren’t interested in the law they think their above it. They want to kick the RCMP so they can create a police state with officers they can use against anyone who doesn’t agree with them, just like Hitler did as German fiends point out?

Dennis Bremner

So if Kenney was an ahole according to you, leading one half of the party. Smith is no leader and leading the other half and an ahole according to you, I am baffled as to which part of the entire conservative party is your part lol

YQLDude

There’s only one conservative party in Alberta – they’re the ones with the orange signs. They oppose massive handouts to corporations, they support eliminating taxes on small businesses and maintaining the lowest corporate tax rate in the country, they support pipeline expansion and continued growth of the oil and gas sector. The NDP has picked up where Peter Lougheed left off.

Dennis Bremner

Again, half the story. The latest out of the NDP is they intend on building new hospitals hoping that Albertans will forget that there are not enough staff to man the present ones. But it should give the Builders Union some jobs.
The one thing the Orange have seemingly been able to do is con Albertans to believe we are the only province with a shortage of Doctors and Nurses and its only Albertans that are struggling finding one.
https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/vaughn-palmer-gag-order-or-not-hospital-crisis-story-is-spreading

Last edited 11 months ago by Dennis Bremner
YQLDude

Yes, there is a doctor shortage everywhere. That means if we want to attract them we need to make an appealing work environment for them. It means we shouldn’t tear up their contract, constantly nickel and dime them, threaten privatization, and elect a party that our existing doctors are loudly warning us about.
When you desperately need employees that are desperately needed everywhere… slapping them in the face isn’t the right tactic.

Fedup Conservative

All of my conservative friends and I are supporting Notley because as the former conservative MLAs have been saying she is a lot more like our hero Lougheed. Maybe you had better google this
“Rachel Notley Has Led Like Lougheed” Allan A Warrack was an MLA under Lougheed and every conservative MLA I talked to felt the same way.
Lougheed’s energy minister Bill Dickie was a brother in-law of one of my uncles and I can assure you they were all disgusted by what Klein did to us and the ignorant Albertans who supported him.
Your comments aren’t making you look very smart, are they? We know what our former conservative MLAs have told us.

pursuit diver

Where in the Ethics Commissioner report does it say she is ‘not fit to be Premier’? I don’t see it anywhere the report so how ethical is it for you to make that statement up?
If she is unfit then how come the PM is still governing. The sitting PM has had more breach of conflicts than all the PM’s combined.
Yet the ‘baffoon’ as one other country leader just called him, is still PM and runs around the world blowing hard earned taxpayer dollars, writing cheques like a drunken sailor all while embarrassing Canada and telling other leaders what they should or shouldn’t do!
I would say let’s look closely at tall the ‘errors’ in judgement made by Notley, Phillips and Miyashiro, since everyone has ‘skeletons’ in their closets and none are perfect.

Last edited 11 months ago by pursuit diver
dibble

Smith has lurched from mistake to mistake and has made terrible and ridiculous statements for years. Look at how the Pawlowski mess has turned out. She went to bat for him – “a danger to democracy” the report said, and he turned on her. Is that good judgement? She betrayed the Wildrose party when she crossed the floor to the opposition! Was that good judgement? Her references to the holocaust in the vaccination context, her anti-vaxxer support, her suggestion that Albertans were too stupid to think for themselves on the vaccination issue, her repeated lying with respect to the phone call. All of these things are examples of terrible judgement. She is indeed unfit.