City Notebook: Conspiracy

By COLLIN GALLANT on September 3, 2022.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Did everyone enjoy Alberta Day?

If not there’s still time, which might be the point.

The new holiday – though not a statutory holiday, more of an official observance, really, of Alberta’s birthday – was proclaimed earlier this summer by the provincial government, but was held Thursday without much fanfare.

Don’t worry though, a government release tells us events are scheduled through the weekend.

Now, some commentators have noted if it’s too much to think at least part of the thinking here by the United Conservatives is to crowd in on the Labour Day holiday?

That’s the traditional weekend created to celebrate the gains made by the working class.

It’s not indulging in class warfare to note the disconnect between it and the dearly held conservative party belief in free-market capitalism and more outright attempts to lessen the power of unions.

Before you get your back up, ask yourself if anything Jason Kenney does is a coincidence.

But hey, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but as conspiracy theories go, it’s pretty tame compared to what’s circulating these days, though probably more believable.

Locally, there’s an Alberta Day event at the Monarch Theatre on Saturday – complete with grant funding from the province. It sounds like a good afternoon out.

In a “Labour Day” vein, the local District Labour Council will accept food bank donations at a fundraiser on Monday, from 11 a.m. to 3 pm., in the Superstore parking lot. Good cause.

By they way, don’t mention the new celebration to Saskatchewan. It also became a province on Sept. 1, 1905, and there could be weird feelings. Confederation is fractured enough without a sibling rivalry.

Speaking of…

… weird happenings, Saskatchewan and hurt feelings, we’re in week two of controversy about federal government workers accessing private land in Saskatchewan and that government making a big issue about it.

It became a key talking point in the Alberta (where oil and gas companies exercise entry rights freely) as sovereignty plays large in the UCP leadership race.

This is the biggest dust-up caused by a Saskatchewan premier since that Sask-licence-plates-on-Alberta-jobsites controversy, which was neither explained nor settled in 2015.

But this one is wrapping the needle on social media – one of the issues the traditional media ignores, supposedly, and is proof of an ominous agenda in Ottawa.

As for the media ignoring the the issue, Premier Scott Moe himself cited and thanked the Moosomin World-Spectator (greatest small town paper name, by the way) for uncovering details of Health Canada’s involvement.

Not mentioned by the Saskatchewan Party at all was that the Regina Leader-Post reported Friday the province actually requested the federal workers conduct that type of pesticide testing, agreed to four years ago by the province.

But, what’s the harm in playing a little politics?

Well, it’s up to ag producers to decide if it’s right to play cute with such a near-and-dear issue. But in general, people are in no mood for it.

Already, the spreading rumour is the trespassing feds caused the anthrax outbreak in cattle near Piapot – hundreds of kilometres away – last week.

The situation is tinder dry, so let’s take a break and enjoy some football.

A look ahead

Council convenes Tuesday to discuss the potential for keeping urban hen houses in a pilot project among other business. The federal Conservative Party leadership contest will conclude on Saturday, Sept. 10.

Also, with the WHL preseason camp going this weekend, is it too soon to wonder who will do the radio play-by-pay this year?

100 years ago

A five-man “motor bandit party” cut all communication, power and road access to the Village of Foremost before binding the staff Union Bank to their beds in the bank attic and blowing the safe, the News reported on Aug. 29, 1922.

The take was $12,000 in cash, said police, who believed the caper was the work of professionals headed for Montana.

A spectacle of old-country football matches adorned the Labour Day sports day, Sept. 5, when a headline travelling squad from the CPR sheds in Calgary beat the Hat All-Stars 3-2.

Juvenile Church league baseball ended with the Washers (Washington Ave.) downing the Knoxites.

New this year: a Redcliff to Medicine Hat road running race was held between the town’s post-office and Athletic Park in the city.

The Hedley Shaw Milling Co. moved its Western Canadian head office into the Bank of Montreal building at the corner of Third Street and S. Railway Street in Medicine Hat.

Miss Jean Fleming won the “misspelled words” contest in the News – finding the correct number of intentional typos in advertisements – to secure a number of additional votes in the Carnival Queen contest and a chance at the $5 grand prize.

Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com