daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: what effect can danny williams have on alberta’s pc leadership contest?

Former Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams traveled to Fort McMurray this week to support Alberta PC leadership candidate Gary Mar and to give the candidate a boost in support from Newfoundland’s diaspora in the northern Alberta community. The retired Newfoundland Premier’s support may be one of the former Calgary MLAs most significant endorsement in […]

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: alberta candidate nomination update – september 2011.

I have updated the list of declared and nominated candidates standing in the next provincial election. Airdrie: The Airdrie City View is reporting that former Airdrie Mayor Linda Bruce is volunteering for Gary Mar‘s PC leadership campaign, adding to the speculation that she may seek the PC nomination to challenge Wildrose MLA Rob Anderson. Banff-Cochrane: […]

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: by airing his party’s dirty laundry, is hugh macdonald hurting the liberal party?

Is Alberta Liberal leadership candidate Hugh MacDanald‘s continuing criticism of the legitimacy of the new “registered supporters” voting system hurting the chances of his party’s next leader? “This list, as it exists, is a mess,” said MacDonald, a longtime Edmonton MLA. “This is not democracy.” (Edmonton Journal, August 31, 2011) Over the course of the Liberal […]

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: alberta liberals register more than 27,000 eligible voters. no surprise that their leadeship contest is a largely urban affair.

The Alberta Liberal Party announced yesterday that over 27,567 Albertans are eligible to vote in their party’s September 10 leadership contest. The eligible group of supporters include 3,690 paid members and 23,877 “registered supporters” who could participate by registering their name and contact information without a fee. Following complaints from leadership candidate and Edmonton-Gold Bar […]

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: alberta candidate nomination update – august 2011 (part 2).

Former Green Party leader chosen as Wildrose candidate in Rocky Mountain House-Sundre I have updated the list of declared and nominated candidates standing for the next provincial election. Here are some of the updates: Rocky Mountain House-Sundre: According to Wildrose provincial director Krista Waters, landowners rights advocate and former leader of the Alberta Green Party […]

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: protesters take to the whitehouse over the alberta to texas keystone xl pipeline.

Sixty-five Americans were arrested after a peaceful protest in front of the Whitehouse against the construction of TransCanada‘s Keystone XL pipeline, a 1,700 pipeline that would carry unprocessed bitumen from Alberta to refineries in Texas. The peaceful protesters reportedly received longer sentences than were expected. As noted in a New York Times editorial this weekend, opposition […]

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: ken kowalski will run in his tenth election as mla. love him or hate him, he’s got staying power.

Many Albertans now know Ken Kowalski from his higher duty as the long-sitting Speaker of Alberta’s Legislative Assembly, a position he has held since 1997. The MLA for Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock announced this week that he will seek election for the tenth time since 1979. His long political career has demonstrated a kind of political longevity and […]

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: surprised that gary mar is supporting privatized health care? don’t be. just look at his record.

Was it the beginnings of a complicated political strategy, the osmosis of sitting in the Edmonton Sun offices, or the anticipation of an endorsement from former Premier Ralph Klein that caused Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Gary Mar to come out swinging in favour of privatized health care this week? Speaking to the Edmonton Sun editorial […]

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: alberta senate elections in 2011 or 2012.

Via Postmedia News, Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership candidates are calling for another round of Senator-in-Waiting elections to happen concurrent with the next provincial election: “We want them (Senate nominees) to be current. We don’t want to end up with a stale list,” said Alison Redford, Calgary-Elbow member of provincial legislature and the lone female candidate […]

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: pc leadership candidates wade into education politics.

Earlier this week I had the privilege of sharing some of my thoughts about the Progressive Conservative leadership contest with delegates at the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) summer conference in Banff. On Wednesday morning, all six candidates for the PC leadership (Doug Griffiths, Doug Horner, Gary Mar, Ted Morton, Rick Orman, and Alison Redford) attended […]

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: pearl calahasen backs doug horner. verlyn olsen, dave hancock, fred horne endorse gary mar.

I have updated the list of Progressive Conservative MLAs endorsing leadership candidates to reflect four recent endorsements. Only days after leadership candidates Gary Mar and Alison Redford got into a very public spat over the success of the Safe Communities Initiative (which Ms. Redford spearheaded during her time as Justice Minister), current Justice Minister and […]

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: the katz group proves that all the money in the world can buy some pretty bad political advice.

In their effort to secure more than $225 million in public funding for their proposed Katz Downtown Arena, local billionaire Daryl Katz‘s company, the Katz Group, has proven that even billionaires can buy bad political advice. The CBC revealed last week that the Katz Group has been contacting Edmonton’s Progressive Conservative MLAs asking them to […]

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