UN Climate Conference Snubs Big Oil

By Tsvetana Paraskova - Sep 20, 2021

BP and Shell will have a lower profile than they have hoped for at the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP) in Glasgow in November because the oil sector hasn’t agreed yet on science-based targets initiative to reduce emissions, The Wall Street Journal reports. 

The COP26 conference, hosted by the UK in Glasgow, Scotland, will run between October 31 and November 12. But it will not have any oil firm—not even BP and Shell which are listed in London and have major operations in the UK and the North Sea—as a “principle partner.”

BP and Shell officials are disappointed with this snub at the major climate event, sources with knowledge of the issue told the Journal.

Both supermajors have set targets to become net-zero emission businesses by 2050 or sooner, and they have both confirmed their oil production would only drop from now on. Shell said earlier this year that its oil production peaked in 2019, while BP looks to cut its oil and gas production by 40 percent by 2030 through active portfolio management and no exploration in new countries.

Despite these pledges, the organizers of the COP climate event in the UK have set as a prerequisite for involvement firms to have their plans viewed as credible by the Science Based Targets initiative.

The initiative is working with the oil industry on such plans, but they are yet to be finalized, a spokeswoman for the Science Based Targets initiative told the WSJ.

“I think the U.K. government is definitely trying to send a message that the fossil fuel industry is under the gun to lead the energy transition and set targets for how they will do that,” Dirk Forrister, CEO at the International Emissions Trading Association, told the Journal.

Both BP and Shell are members of the association.

The principal partners of the COP event include major retailers, consumer groups, and technology firms, including Microsoft, Unilever, Reckitt, as well as utilities with major renewables operations such as SSE and ScottishPower.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

 

Deadwood Releasing 10.9 Gigatons of Carbon Every Year – More Than All Fossil Fuel Emissions Combined

TOPICS:Australian National UniversityClimate ChangeForests

By AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

Credit: Australian National University

Decaying wood releases around 10.9 gigatons of carbon worldwide every year, according to a new study by an international team of scientists.

This is roughly equivalent to 115 percent of fossil fuel emissions.

Co-author of the study Professor David Lindenmayer from The Australian National University (ANU) says it’s the first time researchers have been able to quantify the contribution of deadwood to the global carbon cycle.

“Until now, little has been known about the role of dead trees,” Professor Lindenmayer said.

“We know living trees play a vital role in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But up until now, we didn’t know what happens when those trees decompose. It turns out, it has a massive impact.”

Professor Lindenmayer said the decomposition is driven by natural processes including temperature and insects.

“The decomposition of wood and the recycling of those nutrients is a critically important process in forests,” he said.

The research showed decomposition can’t happen without wood-boring insects such as Longicorn Beetles.

“We knew insects such as termites and wood-boring Longicorn beetles can accelerate deadwood decomposition,” study co-author Dr. Marisa Stone from Griffith University said.

“But until now, we didn’t know how much they contribute to deadwood carbon release globally.

“Insects accounted for 29% of deadwood carbon release each year. However, their role was disproportionately greater within the tropics and had little effect in regions of low temperatures.”

The global research project encompassed 55 forest areas on six continents. The research team studied wood from more than 140 tree species to determine the influence of climate on the rate of decomposition.

“Half the wood was placed in mesh cages which kept out insects, allowing us to study their contribution,” Professor Lindenmayer said.

“We found both the rate of decomposition and the contribution of insects are highly dependent on the climate, and will increase as temperatures rise. Higher levels of precipitation accelerate the decomposition in warmer regions and slow it down in lower temperature regions.”

Tropical forests contribute 93 percent of all carbon released by deadwood, due to their high wood mass and rapid rates of decomposition.

The study was led by Dr. Sebastian Seibold from the Technical University of Munich.

“At a time of global change, we can see some dramatic declines in biodiversity and changes in climate,” Dr. Seibold said.

“This study has demonstrated that both climate change and the loss of insects have the potential to alter the decomposition of wood, and therefore, carbon and nutrient cycles worldwide.”

The study has been published in Nature.

Reference: “The contribution of insects to global forest deadwood decomposition” by Sebastian Seibold, Werner Rammer, Torsten Hothorn, Rupert Seidl, Michael D. Ulyshen, Janina Lorz, Marc W. Cadotte, David B. Lindenmayer, Yagya P. Adhikari, Roxana Aragón, Soyeon Bae, Petr Baldrian, Hassan Barimani Varandi, Jos Barlow, Claus Bässler, Jacques Beauchêne, Erika Berenguer, Rodrigo S. Bergamin, Tone Birkemoe, Gergely Boros, Roland Brandl, Hervé Brustel, Philip J. Burton, Yvonne T. Cakpo-Tossou, Jorge Castro, Eugénie Cateau, Tyler P. Cobb, Nina Farwig, Romina D. Fernández, Jennifer Firn, Kee Seng Gan, Grizelle González, Martin M. Gossner, Jan C. Habel, Christian Hébert, Christoph Heibl, Osmo Heikkala, Andreas Hemp, Claudia Hemp, Joakim Hjältén, Stefan Hotes, Jari Kouki, Thibault Lachat, Jie Liu, Yu Liu, Ya-Huang Luo, Damasa M. Macandog, Pablo E. Martina, Sharif A. Mukul, Baatarbileg Nachin, Kurtis Nisbet, John O’Halloran, Anne Oxbrough, Jeev Nath Pandey, Tomáš Pavlíček, Stephen M. Pawson, Jacques S. Rakotondranary, Jean-Baptiste Ramanamanjato, Liana Rossi, Jürgen Schmidl, Mark Schulze, Stephen Seaton, Marisa J. Stone, Nigel E. Stork, Byambagerel Suran, Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, Simon Thorn, Ganesh Thyagarajan, Timothy J. Wardlaw, Wolfgang W. Weisser, Sungsoo Yoon, Naili Zhang and Jörg Müller, 1 September 2021, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03740-8

#P3 PUBLIC PENSIONS FUND PRIVATIZATION

Canadian pension funds part of consortium paying $8.1 billion for full control of Sydney tunnel network

Consortium led by Australia's Transurban Group includes CPPIB and Caisse as members


Publishing date:Sep 20, 2021 •

Traffic passes under the E Tag electronic tolls on the Transurban Group toll highway outside Melbourne, Australia.

 PHOTO BY PHIL WEYMOUTH/BLOOMBERG NEWS FILES

A consortium led by Australia’s Transurban Group will pay A$11.1 billion (US$8.06 billion) for a near half stake of the country’s longest auto tunnel network, giving it full ownership of the asset and dominance of Sydney’s toll road network.

Transurban already owned 51 per cent of WestConnex, a roughly 70 kilometre (44 mile) system of toll roads linking Sydney’s sprawling metro area, along with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and domestic pension fund AustralianSuper. The New South Wales state government owned the remaining share.

Buying out the 49 per cent share from the state gives the group — of which Transurban owns a half share — the full financial benefit as more sections of the giant capital works project open to traffic in the next few years. The consortium added Canada’s Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec as a member, Transurban added.

“WestConnex is one of the largest road infrastructure projects in the world (and) a key component of the New South Wales government’s integrated transport plan to ease congestion and connect communities in Sydney,” said Transurban CEO Scott Charlton in a statement.

“We feel privileged to take Sydney Transport Partners’ holding in this critical asset to 100 per cent,” he added, using the name of the consortium.

Transurban said it would raise A$4.22 billion in a stock issue to fund its part of the purchase, which already had the necessary regulatory approval. The company owns most Sydney toll roads and dominates Australia’s toll road market from coast to coast.

Australia has been experiencing a spike in mergers and acquisitions activity over the past year as lockdowns put downward pressure on asset valuations while rock-bottom interest rates make it cheaper for investors to raise capital.

Also on Monday, power grid owner AusNet Services Ltd, said it would open its books to Canadian investment giant Brookfield Asset Management after it made a A$9.6 billion indicative offer.

KAPITALI$M IS KRISIS EVEN STATKAPITALI$M

Fear grips markets as China's Evergrande struggles with massive debt

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After run of gains, fear has returned to stock market sentiment

CBC News · Posted: Sep 20, 2021 1:44 PM ET | Last Updated: 3 hours ago

Evergrande shares plunged again on Monday, and have now lost 90 per cent of their value in a year. (Kyle Lam/Bloomberg)

Financial markets around the world had their worst day in weeks on Monday, as worries about embattled Chinese property developer Evergrande had investors worried about what the fallout might be.

The Toronto Stock Exchange was off by about 500 points, or about 2.5 per cent, nearing midday, while in New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 800 points for a similar percentage point drop.

The main catalyst for the gloom was Chinese property firm Evergrande, a real estate developer that appears to be crumbling under a $300 billion US debt load. The company missed an $80 million interest payment on its debts on Monday, and is poised to miss another bond payment on Thursday, which has prompted fears the company may default.

• Everything you need to know about Evergrande and why it matters

While a total collapse is unlikely, a potential violent unwinding of China's property bubble spooked investors around the world about where the reverberations may be felt.

"Fears that this could potentially ignite a wider financial crisis have been weighing on world markets to start the new trading week," said Colin Cieszynski, a strategist with SIA Weath in Toronto.

An 'area of uncertainty'

Financials were hit hardest, even though the vast majority of Evergrande's debt load is held by Chinese lenders. 

"You're seeing the banks sell off most, because that's the area of uncertainty," said Kash Pashootan, CEO of Toronto-based investment firm First Avenue Investment Counsel. "Does this affect how they decide to lend moving forward? Do they have some of this on their books?"

• ANALYSIS
  Fears of a market bubble are growing as stocks trade like bitcoin

While it's unlikely any major North American lenders have enough of Evergrande's debt on their books to make a major impact, when markets have risen so quickly, it doesn't take much debt to make investors fearful about whether or not things can keep going.

"It's less about the specific event — it's about investors deciding they want to take a step back and reassess how greed and fear play out over the coming quarters," Pashootan said. "It spreads to the psyche of the investor to say, 'You know what, I've done really well the last year and a half, I think it's time to take some profits off the table.'"

Evergrande may be the major catalyst, but investors are also casting an eye to the U.S. central bank, which is poised to reveal its latest decision on interest rates at a two-day meeting that starts on Tuesday. The bank is not expected to raise its rate from its current record low, but any indication that it may be getting closer to doing so makes markets jittery.

That's because "low interest rates are a real catalyst for basically every business," Pashootan said. Cheap money not only convinces businesses to borrow and invest, "but also even at the consumer level, low interest rates encourage consumers to buy bigger houses, spend more money on renovations and buy stuff."

• Playstations scarce, automakers stalled amid semiconductor shortage brought on by pandemic

Urging political action, Cafe Owner Chris Scott instructs tens of thousands of followers to bring down Premier Kenney

College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta to discuss warning to anti-vax doctors

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Emergency meeting scheduled for Monday night to discuss standard of care statement

Charles Rusnell · CBC News · Posted: Sep 20, 2021 

Alberta has the highest rate of unvaccinated people in Canada and its intensive care units have been overwhelmed in the past week. (Cindy Liu/Getty Images)

Some Alberta doctors have issued vaccination and mask exemptions to patients while others are actively spreading misinformation on social media, the president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta said Monday.

The college is holding an emergency public meeting tonight to discuss issuing a statement to doctors about their obligation to adhere to practice standards set by the provincial regulator, college president Dr. Louis Francescutti said in an interview Monday.

"There are very few, it is very rare," Francescutti said. 

"The ones that do that come to our attention, receive a phone call from someone at the college.

"And if it contravenes what we believe is in the best interest of the public, they are given a verbal warning and the majority of them go, 'Oops, sorry about that,' and change their practice and the ones that don't run the risk of having a complaint filed against them."

CBC News was directed to several Alberta doctors promoting vaccination and masking misinformation on social media, including Dr. Rashad Chin, an Edmonton emergency room doctor. 

Chin's Twitter feed is filled with retweets that question COVID-19 lockdowns and the value of vaccines, including videos of People's Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier. 

Bernier and the PPC are vocal critics of vaccine passports and mask mandates, arguing the party is standing up for freedom of choice.

Chin did not respond to several requests for comment. On Monday afternoon the Twitter account was switched from public to protected meaning people have to be approved to view tweets.    

Francescutti confirmed the college is aware of Chin's social media presence and that of other doctors.

"That is what this meeting is about tonight," he said. "To address social media and how far physicians can go on social media when they are at times in opposite disregard to what the science is telling us." 

College to issue guidance letter to doctors 

Francescutti said the meeting will determine exactly what a letter to the profession will say. 

Francescutti  acknowledged any letter would not be binding, but he expects it will remind doctors of the college's "expectations around the pandemic and how the profession should be behaving."

The letter will also help provide guidance to doctors who may be pressured by patients to provide vaccine or mask exemptions. "The college isn't looking for a fight with anyone," he said.

"It just wants to make sure that the public understands physicians will not tolerate any kind of abuse. And if a patient goes into a physician's office and is abusive to staff or to the physician, then the physician can discharge that patient."

Alberta has the highest rate of unvaccinated people in Canada and its intensive care units have been overwhelmed in the past week. 

Francescutti stressed there are very few medically legitimate vaccine and mask exemptions.

He acknowledged the behaviour of some doctors is not helping the dire situation in Alberta's intensive care units.

"The majority of people are doing the right thing and I applaud them for that," he said, adding that there are a handful of doctors, nurses, lawyers and people in other professions who spread misinformation. 

"We have to try and be patient and explain to them that this is for real," he said. "It is too bad they don't come and spend some time in the intensive care unit and see people gasping for breath." 

If you have information for this story, or information for another story, please contact us in confidence at cbcinvestigates@cbc.ca

PANDEMIC ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE IN ALBERTA

Transportation delays cause capacity issues at Alberta morgues

by Josh Ritchie
POSTED SEP 20, 2021 

3d rendering of a macabre autopsy room


EDMONTON — Alberta Health Services says after experiencing capacity issues at a pair of morgues in the province, the issue has now been resolved.

In a Tweet on Monday, AHS says due to transportation delays to funeral homes, The Royal Alexandria Hospital and the University of Alberta Hospital did experience temporary capacity issues.

“When temporary capacity challenges happen, AHS engages with funeral homes to ease pressure on our hospital morgues,” AHS said on Twitter. “Funeral homes have ample capacity in the zone to assist AHS with the transfer of the deceased.”

AHS concluded the Twitter thread saying the COVID situation in Alberta is extremely serious and urged anyone who hasn’t yet got vaccinated to do so.

Election 2021

Federal election: NDP nabs a second seat in Edmonton; Liberals' best shot remains too close to call

Author of the article: Ashley Joannou
Publishing date: Sep 21, 2021 •

The federal NDP doubled its presence in Edmonton – and Alberta – after winning two seats in the region in Monday’s election.


While the province remains a Conservative stronghold, NDP MP Heather McPherson was re-elected in Edmonton Strathcona and newcomer Blake Desjarlais nabbed Edmonton Griesbach.

After the last federal election saw the Conservatives win all but one of Alberta’s 34 ridings, the Liberals’ best shot at a seat in Edmonton this go-around remained too close to call late Monday.

McPherson, the sole non-Conservative elected in Alberta in the 2019 federal election, said Monday that this election was an unnecessary one, with Canadians voting in another Liberal minority government.

She said her main concern now that she has been re-elected is the “collapsing health-care system” in Alberta.

“There shouldn’t be a higher priority for any parliamentarian from Alberta,” she said.

“Right now, in Alberta, we are suffering the ill effects of (Premier) Jason Kenney, and the terrible reality of the fourth wave and what it has done to our health-care system and so the federal government will need to step in and help and I will be doing everything I can to make sure that happens.”

The NDP put a significant amount of time and resources during the campaign into Edmonton Griesbach, hoping Desjarlais could unseat long-time Conservative incumbent Kerry Diotte.

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh came to the riding twice during the election campaign and polling in the lead-up to the election showed that it was going to be a tight race.

With no incumbent MPs in Alberta, the Liberals have nowhere to go but up in this election.

In the Edmonton region, Liberal candidate Randy Boissonnault was fighting to regain the seat he lost to Conservative James Cumming in Edmonton Centre in 2019. The two men traded the lead back and forth through much of the early evening. By later that night NDP candidate Heather MacKenzie had also earned a significant portion of the vote making the riding a close three-way race.

By press time Monday it remained too close to call.

Across Canada, hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots are slated to be counted on Tuesday.

Reached by phone Monday night, MacKenzie said she was feeling good.

“I think we all knew it was going to be a tight race here in Edmonton Centre so the results are obviously to that effect,” she said.

“My volunteers and I kind of saw it coming so we’ve been gearing up for it.”

Despite the close race, MacKenzie said they wouldn’t make any decisions on calling for a recount of votes until all the special ballots have been counted.

Another race that was expected to be close was Edmonton Mill Woods, where in 2019 Conservative Tim Uppal upset former Liberal cabinet minister Amarjeet Sohi. In the end, Liberal candidate Ben Henderson was not able to unseat Uppal who will be returning to Ottawa for his second-consecutive term. Sohi is running for mayor of Edmonton in October’s municipal election.

Conservative MPs were also declared elected in the rest of the ridings in the Edmonton region.

Election day came as Alberta battles a fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that has put significant pressure on the health-care system. Political-watchers have questioned whether Kenney’s low approval ratings would have an impact on the federal election result.

Throughout the campaign, both Singh, and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau frequently mentioned Kenney in efforts to link him to Conservatives generally and Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole specifically.

Federal election: Conservatives and NDP fight it out in Edmonton Griesbach
Author of the article:Lisa Johnson, Kellen Taniguchi

Pedestrians make their way past signs for Edmonton Griesbach Federal election candidates Blake Desjarlais and Kerry Diotte, near 70 Street and 112 Avenue in Edmonton, Tuesday Sept. 7, 2021.

David Bloom/Postmedia

Conservatives and NDP were neck-and-neck in Edmonton Griesbach at press time, with newcomer New Democrat Blake Desjarlais pushing to win a second orange seat for the party.

Desjarlais, who would be Alberta’s first Métis MP if elected, had a thin lead over longtime Conservative incumbent Kerry Diotte with more than half of polls reporting in Monday’s federal election.

Diotte was hoping to hold on for a third term in the nation’s capital despite a close race.

The riding is one of the city’s most contested.

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh visited three times in the past three months in an effort to turn it orange.

Desjarlais has said another NDP seat in Edmonton would signal that the city is ready for change and to have diverse opinions from the province heard in Ottawa.

He has also said that Diotte has often been absent and Albertans have been “starved” of good representation.

“I think the floor is quite low, but I’m excited to punch through the ceiling and make sure Edmonton Griesbach is at the top of the list,” he said, adding that with an Indigenous population of over 10 per cent in the riding, it makes him proud that many young Indigenous persons like him were inspired to cast a ballot.

During the latter days of the campaign, Diotte positioned the Conservative Party of Canada as the only choice for voters hoping to unseat Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, but he also took aim at the NDP.

“Jagmeet Singh and the NDP have turned their backs on union members and they know they have a home in Erin O’Toole’s Conservative Party of Canada where we really care about developing natural resources and the good jobs they create,” he wrote in a Facebook post.

In 2019, Diotte easily fended off challenges from Liberal and NDP candidates, taking 51.4 per cent of the vote. However, in 2015, NDP candidate Janis Irwin took 34 per cent of the vote compared to Diotte’s 40 per cent.

Diotte, a former Edmonton Sun columnist and municipal politician, was first elected in 2015.

Diotte’s campaign declined to comment Monday until the final results were in.

ktaniguchi@postmedia.com

AUPE taking province to court over National Truth and Reconciliation Day

by News Staff
POSTED SEP 20, 2021

People stand on Parliament Hill alongside a memorial for children who died at Indian Residential Schools, during a rally to demand an independent investigation into Canada's crimes against Indigenous Peoples, in Ottawa on Saturday, July 31, 2021. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

EDMONTON – The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees is taking the province to court over its decision not to recognize National Truth and Reconciliation Day on Sept. 30.

The AUPE has filed a formal policy grievance in court, hoping that the government will change its mind and recognize the day.

The province announced last month that it would be up to individual businesses to decide if they want to recognize the day and grant employees a paid day off.
RELATED:

City of Calgary to recognize National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Concerns raised around Truth and Reconciliation Day plans

AUPE’s vice president, Bobby-Joe Borodet, says Alberta’s stance defies common sense and decency.

“If the government was going to leave this important responsibility up to employers, they should have taken a leadership role and honoured the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation themselves,” said Borodet in a release.

“How can an employer, let alone the provincial government, say they are working to act on reconciliation while refusing to acknowledge the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation? If they are still searching for something to act on, here it is.”

AUPE says previously the government had told the union it was still considering whether or not to recognize the day.

RESIGN CALL AN ELECTION WE WANT A GOVERNMENT THAT WORKS

Braid: For the UCP, Kenney’s future is hotter topic than federal election

On Monday the chief political topic in Kenney’s government wasn’t the federal vote, but rampant rumours that Kenney is about to quit

Author of the article: Don Braid • Calgary Herald
Publishing date: Sep 20, 2021 • 

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney during a news conference regarding the surging COVID cases in the province in Calgary on Wednesday, September 15, 2021. 

PHOTO BY AL CHAREST / POSTMEDIA

Today Premier Jason Kenney will be blamed for contributing to the federal Liberals’ relatively strong showing in Canada’s election.

Even worse for him, many in his own government and party are hoping for his resignation and think they might get it.

Kenney has become so toxic that Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole wouldn’t even utter his name, for fear that the Liberals and NDP would use the quote in a last-minute attack ad.

Alberta was the lost province during the federal election campaign. The premier who built a party on hostility to Liberal Ottawa hardly said a word.

He went on vacation and returned just as COVID-19 started its surge to unprecedented levels, taking more lives and threatening the whole health system in the province.

All this explains why, on Monday, the chief political topic in Kenney’s government wasn’t the federal vote but rampant rumours that Kenney is about to quit.

People were talking about who might serve as temporary premier, elected by the UCP caucus, until a leadership convention is held.

One of the key names, along with Finance Minister Travis Toews, is Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver, who was interim leader of the old PC party after the defeat in 2015.

The president of McIver’s Calgary-Hays riding association, Al Browne, recently sent an email to many UCP riding activists with a resolution calling for a leadership review before March 1, 2022.

If 22 ridings pass the identical motion, the party must heed the call for a review.

Browne says he’s not part of any rebellion. He’s just co-ordinating a drive to find a compromise among UCP riding people who want a review immediately, some who would rather wait until the annual convention in November, and others who say it should happen in 2022.

Browne, a longtime friend of the Kenney family, says he’s pained by the premier’s difficulties.

But the party is in a full-blown uproar over Kenney’s massive failure on the pandemic. Only the federal campaign has kept a lid on this pressure cooker.

The hostility toward Kenney is more intense than any faced by Alison Redford before she quit as PC premier in 2014.

And the failure behind Kenney’s fall — losing control of a pandemic that is now killing people daily for the fourth time — is much more visceral than Redford’s problems.

She was followed as premier by Dave Hancock, who was elevated by a caucus vote. It’s the same scenario some in the UCP envisage today.

A UCP caucus meeting is scheduled for Wednesday. Depending on the outcome, prominent candidates may run for the party’s presidency in order to argue for leadership change at the November annual convention.

One article of faith in the UCP is that Kenney has a hammerlock on the current party executive — the body that has to approve a leadership review — and so far says one won’t be held until fall of 2022.

A crack appeared in that monolith when Joel Mullan, the policy vice-president, recently emailed the party to call for an early review.

Mullan confirms that he will run to be party president.

“What I would really like to see is a resignation with a solid end date,” says Mullan, who plans to make a detailed announcement Tuesday.

The presence of pro-review candidates at the convention would turn the vote into a referendum on Kenney himself.

The compromise solution for Kenney might be to accept a leadership review before March 1 next year, thus agreeing to the resolution now before many of the province’s constituency associations.

“I hope this would appeal to reasonable people,” says one senior UCP insider.

And yet, it may not. Many others think Kenney has to resign soon because the political carnage of the failure on COVID-19 is just too destructive for the government.

There’s talk that several MLAs, and even some ministers, could resign cabinet or quit caucus if they don’t like what they hear at Wednesday’s meeting.

We’ve heard that before and the exodus never quite gets started.

But it’s hard to see how Kenney stays on for much longer, with the public bitterly angry and so many of his own people finally united — around the desire to see him out.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald.