Proud father of three. President of the Alberta Federation of Labour. My job is to stand up for Alberta workers. RESIST! https://xitter.cf/t.co/T5wHV2b7oC
Edmonton, Alberta
Joined August 2009
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Check out my interview on @RealTalkRJ. In these times of rising inequality & authoritarianism, the work of the labour movement is inherently political. If we’re not using worker collective action BOTH in the workplace AND on the political stage, then we’re not doing our jobs.
Does @ABFedLabour president @gilmcgowan's outspoken opposition to Premier Danielle Smith actually hurt the labour movement?
We put the question to him directly.
What do you think?
👀 FULL: rtrj.info/080726AFL
🎧 FULL: rtrj.info/080726 #abpoli #RealTalkRJ
Smith is distancing herself from separatism, but not from MAGA. Listen to the language she uses when talking to UCP members about the NDP. “Woke cancel culture” “Open borders” “Gender change” “Defund the police” “Vaccines” She still wants to turn Alberta into MAGA North.
I hope every UCP member and supporter will watch this video.
The referendum is behind us. Albertans gave their answers and our party must honour that mandate.
What comes next is the only fight that matters, and it is twelve months away.
Naheed Nenshi's NDP have told us exactly what they will do with power:
🟠 Reopen the drug consumption sites we closed
🟠 Let minors undergo irreversible gender surgeries without their parents' knowledge.
🟠 Shut down school choice.
🟠 Bring back the production cap and the net zero regulations to phase out our energy sector.
🟠 Open border immigration.
🟠 A carbon tax.
🟠 And Avi Lewis in Ottawa pulling Nenshi’s strings.
United, our party will win. Divided the NDP wins and all Albertans would suffer as a result.
The time for division is over.
The time to unite and fight for a stronger Alberta and Canada is now.
Lots spin in this news conference, but I’ll highlight just one thing that really sticks in my craw. Smith keeps referring to it as a “citizen-initiated referendum.”
Settings aside Q10, which citizens, exactly, initiated the other 9? They were NOT based on citizen petitions.
Taking questions from the media this morning on the referendum results and what comes next for Alberta.
Join me live. xitter.cf/i/broadcasts/1pJkOXlMb…
This is one of the points I made in my statement responding to the referendum results: the nine other questions “were questions from the government itself, not citizens. Collectively, we were forced to answer questions no one was really asking to discuss.” afl.org/statement-celebrate-…
The separatists option got fewer votes than the number of signatures that would have been required to get the question on the ballot had Danielle Smith not changed the law to lower the threshold. In other words, Smith is to blame for putting us through this despicable exercise.
It’s important to note that Smith could have kicked the separatists out of her party at any point over the past three years. The fact that she’s only doing it now — when they’re organizing to oust her — shows that’s she’s more concerned about herself than the province.
Rebel Media’s Alberta bureau chief, Sheila Gunn Reid, literally registered with Elections Alberta as a separatist-side third-party advertiser for the referendum. Let’s stop pretending that they’re anything other than right-wing propagandists dressed up as a legit news outlet.
Gil McGowan retweeted
The gerrymandering is coming tomorrow, folks.
Be ready, it will be the most aggressive attempt to cheat in Canadian history.
Together we saved Canada! But there is another threat brewing, and again it's coming from within the UCP.
Danielle Smith wants to gerrymander our riding maps because she's terrified she will lose. She wants politicians to pick their voters. No way, premier. In Alberta, voters pick their politicians.
Smith’s Immigration Minister claims the referendum gives him a mandate to start implementing a MAGA-style anti-immigration agenda. But, as I point out in the statement we released today, the nine questions were an exercise in bad-faith political manipulation, not democracy.
I would like to extend my gratitude to Albertans for taking time to vote in the referendum. I am pleased to receive a mandate to increase provincial control over immigration, while also taking steps to reestablish balanced levels that strengthen our province.
As I have said all along, Alberta needs immigration, but it must be done sustainably and in line with our economic demand. This has not been the case for several years, and it is exactly why Albertans voted in favour of questions one through five.
Immigration must be done with purpose – economic migrants who bring the skills and expertise who keep our economy growing.
Naheed Nenshi spent months campaigning against these questions, but Albertans were not fooled. Alberta remains proud to welcome newcomers and share the incredible things our province has to offer. But what we’ve faced is unsustainable, and it has had a real impact in several areas such as health care, education, housing, and even on youth finding their first job. This cannot be ignored.
I believe Albertans made the right choice and as Alberta’s Minister of Immigration, I will work with federal counterparts and provincial colleagues to implement the direction we’ve received.
My statement on the results of the referendum: “Let’s take a day or two to rest and celebrate our resounding victory on the separatist question. But, we can’t go back to sleep …. The fight to defend our sovereignty and the well-being of our citizens has only just begun.”
About the nine other questions: “We have to stop behaving as if this was a legitimate exercise in democracy. It wasn’t. It was a bad-faith effort by Danielle Smith to manipulate Albertans into giving her a MAGA-style mandate that she could never have won in an actual election.”
Here’s the full statement. afl.org/statement-celebrate-…
Gil McGowan retweeted
Naheed Nenshi on the immigration questions: "I am happy to have a conversation on numbers. I am not happy to have a conversation on the dignity of newcomers, and I'm not happy to have people voting on whether other people should have human rights."
In her speech and on her podium sign Smith has dropped her oxymoronic catch phrase “A sovereign Alberta within a united Canada” and replaced it with a “Stronger Alberta within a united Canada.” The dogwhistle to her separatist base is gone … but not the stench of it.
Gil McGowan retweeted
Naheed Nenshi on Indigenous turnout in the Alberta referendum: "The very people who've been hurt more by the mistakes of Canada than anybody else, stood up as the proudest champions of Canada."
Gil McGowan retweeted
Thomas Lukaszuk on the future of the UCP: "The United Conservative Party, unfortunately, has become a separatist party. [Danielle Smith] painted herself into a bit of a political corner."
