In the wake of the failed attempt at a coup by supporters of Donald Trump, conservatives across the country are scrambling to distance themselves from Trumpism and the far-right media-grifter complex that propped it up. Closer to home, Alberta conservatives are scrambling to distance themselves from something too--their own leader.

Jason Kenney’s approval ratings are in the gutter after we all learned last week that six of his caucus members and a whole whack of his staff ignored the pandemic restrictions they’ve imposed on all of us to go party in Hawaii, Mexico, London and Las Vegas, and it doesn’t look like everyone in the UCP caucus wants to follow him there.

An analysis of every active certificate issued by the Alberta Labour Relations Board in 2020 shows that more a third–38 per cent–were issued to unions or employee associations that are not considered to be a part of the broader labour movement.

This newsletter would usually spend its first 300 or so words eviscerating the Kenney government for the latest scandal. And make no mistake this is a huge scandal, the UCP have demonstrated that there is one set of rules for regular folks who locked down over Christmas and one set of rules for them. Tracy Allard, Jamie Huckabay, Tanya Fir, Pat Rehn, Tany Yao, Jason Stephan. These are the conservative political elite who looked around at the damage wrought by their catastrophic bungling of the COVID-19 response and thought, yeah, I’m going to take an international holiday right now.

Shannon Phillips, the NDP MLA for Lethbridge West, breaks down Alohagate with us. Producer Jim Storrie joins host Duncan Kinney to wrap up the pod and gets some things off his chest about this scandal. 

Friends, 2020 was… not great. But it was also the first full year of existence of the Progress Report, our full-time media project, and there’s a lot to be proud of. Our small but mighty independent news site broke huge news, told stories that other media organizations wouldn’t touch, and hosted fearless conversations on our podcast. 

But before we get to the highlights we have one thing to ask. Can you become a monthly donor to the Progress Report and help us become financially sustainable? 

Jeremy Appel, the author of our recent investigative piece on the "Alberta Model" approach to the opioid crisis, joins the the Alberta Advantage crew and Garth Mullins, the host of Crackdown. They discuss Jeremy's piece as well as the wider sociological and ideological issues around the Alberta government's mishandling of the opioid poisoning crisis that has led to record amounts of death and destruction. 

There have been 904 opioid poisoning deaths in Alberta in just the first 9 months of 2020, compared with 790 COVID deaths to date. There are two public health crises racking our province simultaneously but one of them doesn’t get a daily briefing and endless press coverage.

 And while the opioid crisis rages on Premier Jason Kenney and his United Conservative Party (UCP) have made good on their promise to support abstinence-only, privately-run recovery centres, cracking down on harm reduction programs while showering money on rehab facilities that lack oversight and public accountability. 

Content creator king Abdul Malik joins us to talk about what is to be done about the lack of enforcement at COVID-19 superspreader rallies, Kenney's bizarre Xmas message, prominent Alberta columnists engaging in centrist fanfic and the little matter of the government of Alberta giving the NHL $4 million for a "unique partnership."

Holiday celebrations are more or less canceled for most of us now, but it looks like Christmas has come early for Jason Kenney.

The federal Liberals have handed him two great gifts. First--a COVID-19 vaccine, which is being distributed to medical workers this week. Second--they’ve announced that the carbon tax will begin to increase, gradually reaching $170 per tonne by 2030.

They’re two things the Premier can talk about that aren’t his disastrous bungling of the pandemic response, and he’s wasted no time getting them in the message box.

The Progress Report has obtained more details on the $4 million sole-source contract for a “unique partnership opportunity” given to the NHL by the Alberta government during the Edmonton playoff bubble.