Alberta’s premier in need of a worthy emblem of her abilities
By Lethbridge Herald on February 23, 2024.
Editor:
Many great world leaders have over time been associated with stirring and emblematic animal totems. We remember Winston Churchill as the indomitable British Bulldog, Haile Selassie as the noble Lion of Judah, Mao Zedong as the Great Dragon of the People.
These are enduring symbols rife with the spirit and vitality of the times and circumstance within which they were embodied. And they have brought comfort and inspiration to the respective peoples of those epochs.
It seems a shame to have let such potent imagery lapse in our modern sociopolitical culture, and so I will attempt to revive something of the essence of it right here in Alberta.
Let us consider then our current premier of this great ‘Sovereign-Within-A-United-Canada’ province of ours.
Surely there is an apt animal totem to attach to Danielle Smith that might accurately reflect her estimable abilities and proclivities.
Might it perhaps be the mighty buffalo with its brooding nobility? The soaring eagle with its mastery of the vast skyways? Maybe the colossal grizzly bear with its imposing strength and majesty. Or even the towering elk, haughty lord of forest and field?
Hmm….not quite right, not quite right. There must be something better.
Ah! I’ve got it! Yes, here is a tenacious critter that perfectly channels the amazing ability of our premier to render any otherwise normal encounter into a snarling and exasperating frenzy of mindless yet totally ineffectual aggression.
Yes! It is hands-down and without question that yappy and pernicious little demon – the ankle biter.
I think you’ll agree it’s perfect! Just watch her go. Not a leg is let pass belonging to anyone or anything, other than her rabid pack, that she doesn’t immediately latch on to with snarling intensity.
And all the better if that leg belongs to a teacher or a nurse or a scientist or a marginalized person or pretty much anybody with a functioning brain.
And the thing is, just like a frenetic, ratbag ankle-biter, you can’t shake her off!
Well, now that I’ve filled in that cultural void, I think we can better understand how best to deal with this frantic and frothing little annoyance come next election time. There really is only one solution to an ankle-biter attack – boot!
Phil Burpee
Pincher Creek
17-16
And the thing is, just like a frenetic, ratbag ankle-biter, you can’t shake her off!
Somebody take a crap in your corn flakes this morning. What a bunch of jibberish. Let’s see your list of what you have done to make PC better or worse. Go.
Zzz 😴
Once again you aren’t smart enough to understand why no one agrees with your stupidity, while you help these Reformers steal your share of the oil wealth in Alberta believing every lie they feed you and not smart enough to understand what they are doing to, sad isn’t it?
What animal symbolizes lying and deceit? Snakes, foxes, jackals, weasels, badgers…..
The not shaking off: could the only one who shakes one off, is, oneself? Could be also known as autocannibalism?
A snake is what she is.
I like the politicians-are-dogs trope.
Trudeau might be a bigger dog, a little dumb but nice hair. Spends a bit too much time licking his own butt.
Polievre is a doodle who stands on the back of the couch barking at passerbys. He doesn’t have a clue what they are doing or where they are going, but has something to say anyway. He is particularly irritatated by the dog across the street sitting on the grass licking his butt.
nice motif!
hmm, sophie gets a plus 4, and rightly so!, but biff gets neg 4 for supporting sophie’s great entry. is it…is it so many in this forum just like to biff on biff, no matter the comment? i bet there is a leviticus passage to be had that will smite each ye neggers.
As much as I agree with you about Trudeau our lawyer friends point out that he has not screwed Albertans out of hundreds of billions of dollars like these Reformers have. In fact he has poured billions of dollars into this province and we know the Reformers never would have.
Poilievre is a joke, he never has an intelligent solution to any problem all he does is blame it on someone else which is always Trudeau.We aren’t going to ignore how he helped Harper put Canadians in financial ruin, like they have in Alberta and tried to destroy our Public Health Care system which has always been Reform Party mandate.
to compare smith to an animal is entirely rude and unfair to any animal.
the best comparison is that she is a boob, and we can recall how that has already been symbolised back when during an election campaign some years ago her annoying visage appeared atop the bus’s wheels, making the wheels appear as her..well, we all recall the laugh, and accuracy, of that one.
So, Mr. Burpee your analogy, full of disrespect, is supposed to portray exactly what? Are you attempting to be funny, arrogant, insightful or just plain “mindless”? When individuals stoop to this level of blatent personal attack(s) is it simply because they lack rational fortitude or even common sense? As for me and my house, we see no need to rely on any “critter” association to our great leader, rather to just support and enjoy Alberta become great again.
Great leader?? You mean ‘Great Liar’, which makes her a female dog. Starts with B and ends with H.
Thanks for that personal tax promise BS.
Now you are a sexist lump of dirt! With no clue!
O, you reactionary libertarians are are such a crowd of fragile snowflakes. Bucky would tell you: ‘if you can’t stand the heat, don’t play dominos with a leprakon.’
Not a surprising response from HP, given his adoration of MP Thomas. When not bowing at the altar of Harper, Poilievre and the aforementioned Thomas, he would appear to be worshiping our home grown Trump/MAGA acolyte.
Your “house” HP may well be unanimous in support of the far right agenda of these political figures, but there are many whose incomes are critically low, have no doctor, support environmental protection, homeless persons, addicts, transgender etc who vehemently disagree with your personal convictions.
Disagreeing with the opposition is expected at all government levels, but continuing descent into the chaos of US style partisanship is unexpected and unacceptable.
My senior friends and I while desperately trying to put a stop to these Reformers pretending they are conservatives have been called Liars, traitors, communists, leftists, left-wing nuts, closet Liberals or more recently Socialist and in every case the name calling came from one of fellow seniors, that’s how stupid they are. But why should I be surprised.
As a former Royal Bank Manager, police officers and I saw firsthand why senior have such a horrible reputation for being easy to fool. I spent hours with police officers trying to figure who stole their money using some of the dumbest excuses to do it. Con artists have been making a living by stealing their savings and politicians have been feeding them lies forever and they have been believing everyone of them, proving how stupid they really are. Sad isn’t it?
Did you listen to her speech last night where she finally admitted that our Reform Party governments, pretending that they were conservatives, starting with Ralph Klein have deliberately destroyed what Lougheed had created for us?
Of course she is going to be our hero and fix it all up by cutting expenses and putting a lot more into the Heritage Trust Fund while the remaining 61% of doctors state they will be leaving this year because of how they have been treated. Never have my fellow seniors seen worse lineups in our Emergency Rooms in Edmonton. Of course there was no mention of paying the millions of dollars she has already wasted on children’s cold medication or the millions she has given her Reform Party friends and certainly no mention of increasing royalties and corporate taxes back up to the Lougheed levels that Albertans have been screwed out of.
Where does it say to be a true conservative you have to be an idiot and vote for the word conservative and ignore who is hiding behind the name and what they are doing to us?
However I have an advantage Lougheed’s energy minister Bill Dickie was a brother in-law of one of my uncles and I certainly know how disgusted the conservative and social credit MLAs that I knew were with Klein and fools like you who allowed him to deliberately destroy what Lougheed had created for us.
What is even more stupid is the fact that you have shot yourself in the foot and taken all of us with you. Lougheed’s idea was to follow what Alaska was doing by building up a massive savings account and paying Albertans an annual oil dividend cheque and since 1982 this plan has put $50,000. Into the pockets of every man, woman, and child in Alaska.
While in Alaska on two occasions one woman told me that she had saved every penny they had received under this plan and had over $250,000. in a savings account to pay for her children’s university costs in the future. Another told me that it had paid off their mortgage well ahead of time saving them thousands of dollars in interest.
How many senior Alberta couples could have used an extra $100,000. to help them in their retirement? I have also been to Norway and it’s sickening for a former bank manager to see what we should have had while you fools gave it all away destroying our children and grandchildren’s future I hope your proud of yourselves?
Very well, however, I have it on good account that my cousin’s step-father’s uncle’s neice, who happened to be a sanitation engineer (garbage pickup employee) had to continuously pick up bags of “BS” from the back of the Legislative building during the “Notley reign”.
In others words you have nothing intelligent to back up your idiotic comments just like the rest of these Reformers, right? Have you seen the financial statements that proved that Notley didn’t wasted this $80 million these mindless Albertans were brainwashed into believing she did? Can you explain how you would build 60 new schools without spending any money. Have you talked to any former conservative or social credit MLAs like some of us have who are as disgusted as we are for what ignorant Albertans have done to the province? Have you read what former Conservative MLA Allan Warrack said about Notley? I can assure you that all the conservatives in my world feel the same way, they aren’t dumb enough to believe the lies of these Reformers trying to pretend they are Conservatives when there is nothing conservative about them, so why have you?
Allan Warrack states that “Rachael Notley led like Lougheed “. The former MLAs that I knew all agreed.
Obviously you are looking at a “brand name” my dear “Fed Up” friend. Why not consider the present instead of reflecting on the past? In your line of thinking, I would love to be back in the day when gas was .99 cents a gallon, bread .35 cents a loaf, milk $1.00 a gallon, hamburger .69 cents a pound, and you could go to a movie, popcorn and a drink for $2.50……. wake up “Fed up” or if you like the term, “Woke” get with the times, or do you still resist the fact that we have a very powerful and dynamic leader (who is not a male) as our Premier?
I’m not sure what it is you’re upset about. Is it inflation or are you circling back to the introduction of the metric system? Or maybe you want to roll things back to the days when my mother couldn’t open her own bank account without my father co-signing the application?
Maybe them were the Good Ol’ Days?
My brand name was created by a conservative lawyer friend of mine and he also taught me to call fellow seniors stupid. He had a good theory and it is certainly true. “Without naming names you can call seniors stupid and the only ones you will offend are the stupid ones. The intelligent ones will know you don’t mean them and will know exactly who you are talking about. It’s a wonderful way to get the stupid ones to show you who they are. They will feel guilty about what they have done and automatically think you are talking about them and attack you with their stupid comments “. Boy does it work.
Alan K. Spiller Edmonton and formerly of Lethbridge.
I have never tried to hide who I am.
I was a card carrying conservative for about 35 years starting when my late parents and two sisters spent countless hours volunteering for the Lougheed and Getty governments. A brother in-law voluntarily flew the government plane for them and Lougheed’s energy minister Bill Dickie was a brother in-law of one my uncles. Dad donated around $30,000. to the Alberta Conservative Party over the years.
I had known Ralph Klein since I was 19 years old and know what a jerk he was. He always bragged about being a Liberal to our family and of course Jason Kenney was a well known Liberal in Saskatchewan so watching stupid Albertans calling anyone who doesn’t share their level of ignorance a Leftist or Left wing nut while they support one makes them look really stupid, doesn’t it?
You, and your distant relatives have just proven my point…..get with the times and who the UCP are and where we are going! Apparently, unlike yourself, the UCP has a destination and know how to get there! My suggestion, “get a map to help you understand the NEW direction” ie. Read the UCP Constitution and Bylaws. You may not agree, but then it is your God given right to get off and/or stay on the UCP “stage coach” and where it is going…..in a new amd exciting direction.
The UCP is a populist lemming parade that wants only the worst aspects of the gong-show that is going on south of our border.
Their PooAnon believing base would have it no other way.
The Governess of Albertabama is probably 100% in agreement with your assessment McKnight.
We know where these phoney conservatives are going and it’s destroyed our children’s future so let’s get it straight.
While continuing to give away our oil and tax wealth started by Ralph Klein whom Smith constantly praises Jason Kenney wasted taxpayers money on $1.5 billion Keystone XL pipeline, $30 million War Room, $3.5 million on foreign corporations attacking our oil industry that oil executives knew was a lie, removed Lougheed’s protection on our mountains allowing coal mining again, while Coal Tech was being sued $60 for polluting rivers and streams in B.C. and Montana, public outrage forced them to shut it down now we are being sued for $8 billion, and there was the cancellation of rail way cars that Notley bought that cost us a penalty of $2.2 million. Then there is the Danielle Smith stupidity isn’t there.
While Danielle Smith constantly praises Ralph Klein and ignores the $260 billion orphan well cleanup mess he dumped in our laps she blames Trudeau for stealing all our money when we know her Reformers and she is to blame she doesn’t explain how Trudeau is doing it. We understand that he has poured at least $30 billion into the province as these articles prove: “ Alberta has received more money from feds than it has from resources in decades”.
“Alberta has received more COVID funding per capita than any other province “. While trying to outsmart Trudeau she bought $75 million worth of children’s cold medication when there was a shortage. Buying it from Turkey was a huge mistake when it was found to be dangerous and not being used while Albertans are on the hook for the cost. Of course giving her pal Preston Manning $2.2 million to him and his friends to promote an article he wrote a year ago wasting more of our money. Then there is Jim Dinning who is trying to steal our Canada Pension Plan spreading lies that they owe us 53% of the plan when we know they don’t. While these reform party fools invite more and more Canadians to move to Alberta we know our healthcare and education systems can’t handle it putting us senior’s lives in trouble when we know it will be a lot harder to get medical help when we need it.
So maybe these Reform Party supporters should put their money where their mouth is and start showing how they are going to help pay for this financial mess they have helped them create? How much is Harold P prepared to pay?