I’m going to be blunt in this piece. As a resident of Alberta and someone trained to recognize threats to democracy, I have an obligation to be. The United Conservative Party is an authoritarian force in Alberta. Full stop.I don’t come by this argument lightly. It’s based on extensive evidence that I present below, followed by some concrete actions Albertans can take to push back against creeping authoritarianism.Drawing the lineThere’s no hard-and-fast line between democracy and authoritarianism. Just ask people from autocracies: you don’t simply wake up one day under arbitrary rule.They’re more like opposite sides of a spectrum, ranging from full participation by all citizens in policy-making at one end (democracy) to full control by a leader and their cadre on the other (authoritarianism).Clearly, Alberta politics sit somewhere between these two poles. It is neither an ideal Greek city-state nor a totalitarian hellscape.
Why the UCP Is a Threat to Democracy | The Tyee
