I’ve seen lots of people talking about how @UniteAlberta is catering to his rich pals and cutting red tape and easing regulations to make it easier for his rich pals to make money. And that is true. However, there’s something more insidious going on... 1/

...and you can really see it in the legislation that the UCP rammed through and/or has on deck. The goal of this new style of right-wing government isn’t just to create a favourable business environment. The goal is to make it nearly impossible for a progressive government... 2/

...to ever take power again. You can see it in the wholesale dismantling of checks on the government’s power. You can see it in the deep structural changes that they hope to bring to things like school divisions, curriculum, election financing, collective bargaining, etc. 3/

There’s already a web of influence, of which we can only see the tip of the iceberg. It shows up as shady payments to kamikaze campaigns, as patronage appointments to powerful positions, as the stacking of boards with donors and friends. 4/

It shows up in think tanks like the Manning Centre and the CTF that funnel money into shadowy social media campaigns (eg Canada Proud and their ilk) and of course the symbiotic anti-choice movement who also demand their pound of flesh. All of these groups... 5/

Have a vested interest in ensuring that a labour- and environment- friendly government NEVER wins another election. The chaos we’re seeing in #ableg is by design. Kenney himself bragged about how rapid change “creates its own momentum” that is difficult to counter. 6/

Because the changes they’re ramming through are so radical, they are best accomplished in a grapeshot approach that keeps any opposition in a destabilized position. The UCP has opened so many fronts that it’s hard for the NDP and their allies to fight back. 7/

By now the UCP have shown that they consider themselves beyond the reach of public opinion. They don’t care because they know that by the end of their 4-year term, Alberta will have a completely different set of laws that will make it incredibly difficult for another...8/

...party to get elected. They are not simply gaming the system, they are shaping it in their image. They will ensure that any potential pocket of resistance (unions, the disabled, low-income earners, indigenous communities) are stripped of whatever resources they might have...9/

...that would enable them to fight back in a meaningful way. Kenney and his unelected cronies, now in positions of power throughout the civil service, will perpetuate this dastardly philosophy of unfettered free-market capitalism and corporate welfare until...10/

...the oil’s all gone, and the crops fail year after year, and Alberta is a smoking ruin, the UCP having choked the life out of it in their pursuit of power for the sake of power. #ableg