tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10536145.post7374782127685609004..comments2023-10-08T09:01:17.216-07:00Comments on The Murgatroyd Blog: The Incompetence of Jason KenneyStephen Murgatroydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14407855028282306596noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10536145.post-30236321753116736452020-12-02T10:11:54.982-07:002020-12-02T10:11:54.982-07:00I entirely agree with this analysis - that Kenney ...I entirely agree with this analysis - that Kenney is not incompetent but doing things that further his and others' aims - Harper, O'Toole, Ford, and those behind the scenes - there is nothing accidental in all this - he just hopes the majority of the voting public don't catch on before the next election. It is much more concerning and, indeed, frightening than mere incompetence.Alberta retired business womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04941322440608667530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10536145.post-29729673850836128202020-12-02T00:20:56.556-07:002020-12-02T00:20:56.556-07:00I agree that he has done all you say. I disagree w...I agree that he has done all you say. I disagree with your main premise, however. I do not think Kenney is incompetent. He says the things he does will have a certain outcome, like giving money to corporations to create jobs, because he assumes most Albertans will believe it. He knows it's not going to create jobs. He knows exactly where the money will wind up.<br /><br />I take the rather more cynical view that what he is doing has purpose. He has an agenda and goals. None of them benefit Albertans. That was not his intention. Based on all the information revealed during the investigation into the UCP leadership race, it appears there was a fairly sophisticated strategy involved in making Kenney leader of the party. It was not politics as usual. <br /><br />Jason Kenney is a product of years of involvement in far-right activities, from his anti-abortion activism and efforts to prevent men dying of AIDS to have their loved ones visit in San Francisco in the 1990s, to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, to being an MP for the Reform Party/Canadian Alliance Party/CPC. He is ideologically driven. <br /><br />Everything he has done, if seen through the lens of the Harper tradition, appears to be intended to further hard-right conservative goals. Including social conservative ideals. Removing protection from students who join a GSA, cutting environmental protections, opening areas up for coal mining, union busting efforts, Rewriting curriculum to teach kids "the dignity of work" and learn creationist Bible verses as poetry, removing the word "Public" from schools, de-indexing AISH payments and making it harder to be eligible for AISH, tearing up the doctors' contract, cutting educational spending and firing educational aids and teachers, threatening to fire nurses and other health care workers, privatizing health care support, giving money to corporations, trying to pass a law that would allow doctors and pharmacists and other health professionals to refuse a patient based on "conscience"... He appears to be trying to collapse our health care system so that we will become desperate enough to accept a for-profit model...<br /><br />It you look at things with acceptance of the idea that he may not be trying to do his best for Albertans, that he may, in fact, have an entirely different set of priorities, what he has been doing makes sense. What appears to be incompetence, I propose, is an ideologically-driven strategy. People assume our government is going to work for the public good. But what if they are not interested in the public good? What if they are lining the pockets of their friends and donors while padding their own bank accounts? All the while, furthering their vision of an austere, theocratic, authoritarian state... The Cailleach: Another Blogging Gingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01591642605157707451noreply@blogger.com