“In queue for Queen, Premier Kenney indicators order banning distant work possibility for civil servants.”
Actually, there was nothing for Alberta Premier Jason Kenney to signal. Alberta’s civil servants had been ordered again to their places of work months in the past, on April 4.
However that little social media quip Friday by University of Alberta political scientist Jared Wesley was so on model for Alberta’s premier – who on the time was ostentatiously tweeting away whereas ready in line to pay his respects to Queen Elizabeth as she lay in state on the Palace of Westminster in London – that loads of people swallowed it hook, line and sinker.
This was in all probability the tweet from Mr. Kenney that impressed Dr. Wesley’s sly sense of humour: “N.B.” (the premier meant nota bene, people, not New Brunswick) “I’m doing briefings & work calls from the queue, and will probably be again in Edmonton on Monday for Alberta’s memorial service for our late Queen… .”
Effectively, presumably that raises the query of who’s paying for Mr. Kenney’s mobile calls, if not for the journey, which the premier stated in an adjacent tweet was “fully at private expense.”
Apparently having seen the identical tweet, former Progressive Conservative deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk sarcastically warned Mr. Kenney, “Watch that mobile phone invoice”!
Alert readers will recall that Mr. Lukaszuk was excoriated by his political enemies in 2014 for operating up a $20,000 mobile phone invoice after being requested by the workplace of premier Alison Redford to cope with a distraught cupboard member whereas the deputy premier was on trip in Poland (additionally fully at private expense).
A abstract of the “tawdry” circumstances that led to the leak of Mr. Lukaszuk’s telephone invoice by somebody in Ms. Redford’s workplace was provided by Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid back in 2016. Presumably since then somebody within the Premier’s Workplace has thought to buy a roaming plan for for roaming officers’ telephones.
Now look, I’m not going to criticize the premier if he’d at all times promised himself he’d be available for Her Majesty’s dying.
“I don’t apologize for having been an avid monarchist my entire life and admirer of the Queen,” Mr. Kenney instructed the Calgary Herald. “I assumed it was particularly vital in my position to characterize Alberta, at pure private expense, and it’s only a very fast 36-hour journey, however for me, it was simply mandatory. I imply, it is a girl who gave her life in service, partially to Canada. And the least I can do is stand in a queue for 15 hours to say thanks.”
The Herald’s reporter went on to clarify: “He mentioned when he was 14, he awakened within the early hours of the morning throughout a visit to Victoria to ensure he had a spot to see the Queen and Prince Philip. After that, he had promised himself he can be in attendance for the Queen’s funeral.” (Emphasis added.)
Verily, expensive readers, I reduce and pasted that proper out of the Calgary Herald. I didn’t make up a phrase!
I’ve to inform you, although, that from my perspective, and apparently that of many others, this appears greater than somewhat bizarre.
However then, given his many obsessions and hobbyhorses, Alberta’s soon-to-depart premier will be pretty described as a weirdo virtually on a par with William Lyon Mackenzie King.
And, anyway, the man’s about to be put out to pasture by his personal social gathering, so why the heck wouldn’t he simply take a few days off?
Certainly, if it’d been me in his sneakers – which I hope for Mr. Kenney’s sake had been extra comfy than that go well with he was sporting seemed – I’d have taken a few further days to pattern the intense spots of the previous imperial capital and possibly purchase a cheerful necktie or two on Carnaby Road, if certainly that place remains to be a going concern.
Had Mr. Kenney taken such a aspect journey, maybe he may even have bought some vibrant socks to counter his fame as a pedantic bore. You understand, just like the blue and black stripey ones Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wore to his tête-à-tête with the brand new king.
It will need to have royally griped Mr. Kenney to be taught that whereas he needed to wait in line for 14 or 15 hours with out a authorities of Alberta flunky to carry his bag and carry his water, the prime minister got to slip into the line through the foreign-dignitaries side-door and meet King Charles.
However that’s what occurs once you’re a lame duck premier, with out a dwelling, like an entire unknown, like a rolling stone.
It’s not defined how Mr. Kenney sustained or relieved himself throughout these interminable hours as he inched alongside the chilly Thames Embankment, nor do I feel we Albertans actually require that data except there was some price to the taxpayer.
Talking personally, I wish to know if the thriller man with the shoulder bag and pony tail recorded by the BBC within the lineup instantly behind the premier was only a random mourner or somebody working with the premier in some capability.
On the very least, although, now that such revelations are a longtime follow, absolutely we’re entitled to the grand whole of Mr. Kenney’s telephone invoice and some other incidental bills of state while he sojourned in London.
Author: ” — albertapolitics.ca ”