Bill 2: Remember that Hitler didn't start with the gas chambers

Much like the frog that gets boiled alive slowly, history's greatest atrocities in hindsight are usually a series of events that society gravely underestimates.

Hitler originally attempted to take power through revolutionary means with a failed coup, but subsequently realized that it would be far easier to grab power through the legal system.

The first step was building a political machine that extended beyond politics, like the Hitler Youth and SS movements.

Next was appealing to the conservatives in power that Hitler's charisma could be an "asset" for their own conservative causes. He was subsequently made chancellor.

Once he was made chancellor, he leveraged the Reichstag fire and scapegoated his political opposition to pass emergency legislation to limit civil liberties that were used to attack political opponents.

The next step was the Enabling Act which allowed Hitler to pass new legislation without parliamentary consent.

From there things steadily snowballed from banning trade unions, to taking over the media, to murdering political opponents, to well the rest is history.

But you can see a lot of parallels to the UCP playbook.

1. Crossing the line with the Wildrose party and being embraced by the conservative government because her skills and appeal with certain demographics was seen as an asset.
2. Attacking public education and while investing heavily in politically "aligned" education with Charter schools that have key party figures on the board of directors.
3. Scapegoating public administrations as "woke indoctrination machines" while ensuring that if anybody is doing any indoctrination it is them. See Danielle Smith's 2018 Op-Ed and a dive into the Charter School lobby.
4. Attacking constitutionally protected rights and freedoms with legislation. (Bill 2)
5. Passing legislation without following due process and forcing MLAs to support the legislation without allegedly even being given the bill to review before voting. Inserting provisions in the legislation to protect the government from legal repercussions from the Bill. For example, not being able to sue for "unjust enrichment"
6. Attacking trade unions and taking power with the media (Danielle Smith radio show).

Democracy is easy to exploit if the people are easily manipulated or otherwise apathetic to a steady steam of steps that over time can lead to massive issues. Very few were worried about what Hitler was up to in 1933.

Ignoring these instances where the government has overstepped is playing Russian roulette to our own peril.