UCP website outage just a server issue: party official
The United Conservative Party website was nothing but a broken link Thursday, invisible along with the “Best Summer Ever” hats and the “No Vaccine Passports Survey” link.
Unitedconservative.ca was displaying a “host error” the day after the governing party took a sharp turn by reinstalling COVID-19 restrictions and introducing a vaccine passport of sorts, something the Premier said for months that he wouldn’t do.
- 'I apologize': Kenney says Alta. wrong for COVID-19 pandemic to endemic shift, not sorry for Open for Summer plan
- 'It's so unclear': Businesses groan over complicated measures, understand need for COVID rules
- 'It should never have come to this': Notley on new rules
The UCP said nothing about the outage on its social media channels, and a party official insisted it was just a “server issue,” several hours after being first contacted by CTV News Edmonton.
Speculation about the website bubbled on social media Thursday - fuelled by another UCP MLA speaking out against his party’s decisions.
Richard Gotfried is not the first, and likely not the last, according to a former UCP MLA who has called for Jason Kenney to resign as Premier and party leader.
"There was a lot of dysfunction in the caucus, and I don't think that dysfunction has improved," now-independent MLA Todd Loewen said of the party’s troubles Thursday. "In fact, I think it's probably gotten even worse."
Former deputy premier - and outspoken UCP critic - Thomas Lukaszuk tweeted about the website crash saying the UCP “folded its big tent.”
Mount Royal University political scientist Lori Williams said it’s clear there’s cracks in the party.
"Jason Kenney has been desperately trying to hold a United Conservative Party together by basically pandering to those further on the right, and I think it might mean defections,” she said.
But UCP Director of Communications Dave Prisco stated it was a technical issue, when asked if dissenting voices or a hack played a factor on the website crash.
And he didn’t respond to a question about the party scrubbing old policies away.
A survey on that site recently requested feedback “on our fight against vaccine passports,” and asked for donations of up to $150.
A Google link to that survey still exists but returns only an error message when clicked on.
Another UCP-related website went down in 2018 after Kenney overruled his party members on a policy concerning gay-straight alliances.
At the time, Kenney said the outage of his grassrootsguarantee.ca website was due to an “IT issue.”
With files from CTV News Calgary’s Timm Bruch
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cisco reveals security breach, warns of state-sponsored spy campaign
State-sponsored actors targeted security devices used by governments around the world, according to technology firm Cisco Systems, which said the network devices are coveted intrusion points by spies.
I just don't get Taylor Swift
It's one thing to say you like Taylor Swift and her music, but don't blame CNN's AJ Willingham's when she says she just 'oesn't get' the global phenomenom.
From New York to Arizona: Inside the head-spinning week of Trump's legal drama
The first criminal prosecution of a former president began in earnest with opening statements and testimony in a lower Manhattan courtroom. But the action quickly spread to involve more than half a dozen cases in four states and the nation's capital. Twice during the week, lawyers for Trump were simultaneously appearing in different courtrooms.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
Invasive and toxic hammerhead worms make themselves at home in Ontario
Ontario is now home to an invasive and toxic worm species that can grow up to three feet long and can be dangerous to small animals and pets.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
opinion RFK Jr.'s presidential candidacy and its potential threat to Biden and Trump
Although it's still unclear how much damage Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s candidacy can do to either Joe Biden or Donald Trump this election, Washington political columnist Eric Ham says what is clear is both sides recognize the potential threat.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.