Jennifer Johnson in, Marshall Smith out, Rob Anderson still in
Jennifer Johnson welcomed into the UCP Caucus, Rob Anderson to replace Marshall Smith as Premier's Chief of Staff
The leaves are changing, the nights are getting cooler, and the days are getting shorter. It’s fall in Alberta. And while many Albertans are enjoying a fairly pleasant change of seasons as we reluctantly brace ourselves for the inevitable shock of the first snowfall, politics in our province is just starting to heat up.
Government and opposition MLAs will return to the Legislature at the end of this month for what is expected to be a painfully contentious and controversial session. And a rowdy crowd of more than 5,400 partisans are expected to converge on Red Deer for the United Conservative Party’s annual general meeting and leadership review during the first two days of November.
And like the changing of the seasons, there will be a few notable changes in the ranks of the UCP when these two big events happen at the end of the month.
1. UCP MLAs vote to let Jennifer Johnson join their caucus
The UCP Caucus is one MLA larger. After delaying the decision for months, UCP MLAs voted this week to let Lacombe-Ponoka MLA Jennifer Johnson join the government caucus.
Johnson was a UCP candidate in last year’s election but was banned from sitting in the party’s caucus by Premier Danielle Smith after a recording was discovered of her describing transgender children in Alberta schools as “more than a teaspoon of poop in the cookie batch.”
Despite making such a vile comment dehumanizing vulnerable school children, Johnson was elected with 67.5 percent of the vote in the central Alberta riding and sat as an Independent MLA in the Legislature, although it is widely acknowledged that she has worked closely with MLAs in the governing UCP Caucus.
Internal pressure had been building for months, with constituency associations in Lacombe-Ponoka and Red Deer-South, and vocal party activists, calling on UCP MLAs to let Johnson join the caucus. So Johnson joining the UCP Caucus isn’t a big surprise, but the timing of her return is.
Premier Smith recently said that Johnson would not be invited to join the UCP Caucus until after the government passed its new law restricting medical treatment for transgender youth. It appears UCP MLAs disagreed.
During her race for the UCP nomination in Lacombe-Ponoka, Johnson’s social media feed showed her attending events organized by the separatist Alberta Prosperity Project and COVID-19 skeptical Canadians For Truth group. She scored a first ballot win with 75 percent of the 1,295 votes cast in the party’s nomination in the riding on February 17, 2023.
2. Marshall Smith stepping down as Chief of Staff
Premier Smith confirmed rumours on Tuesday that her Chief of Staff, Marshall Smith, will be leaving his job by the end of the month. Smith joined Smith’s office in 2022 after working as as Chief of Staff to Mike Ellis, who was then the Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addiction.
Unlike most of his predecessors who avoided the public spotlight, Chief of Staff Smith had an unprecedented high-profile role as the champion of the government’s “Alberta Recovery Model” approach to addictions treatment, leading some senior UCP staffers describe him as their “spiritual guide.”
Smith has many critics among those who work in addictions and mental health, but that didn’t stop him from playing a large role in helping the UCP politically outflank the NDP on these issues and making it a central part of the UCP’s crime and social disorder agenda.
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