PHOTOS: U.S. President Donald Trump – he’s lookin’ at you, Canada. (Photo by Gage Skidmore, Flickr.) Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley. If Alberta’s conservatives imagined U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision immediately after his election last November to push the Keystone XL Pipeline project forward would provide an opening for them
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Alberta Politics: Make American Dairy Farms Great Again! Adopt supply management
PHOTOS: Dairy cows in a mass milking machine at a U.S. farm, a pretty well run one from the look of this photo from the Wikipedia. Below: Not what dairy farming looks like any more; U.S. President Donald Trump, hero to the Globe and Mail editorial board, giving Canada, or
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Here we go again: Opacity not transparency characterizes Alberta’s right-wing merger talks
PHOTOS: Wildrose Opposition Leader Brian Jean and Progressive Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney uncomfortably shake hands in this obviously staged photo in what appears to be Mr. Jean’s office. (Wildrose Party photo.) Below: Tanis Fiss, chair of the insider committee working behind closed doors to unite the two parties (from
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Holy smoke! Saskatchewan court’s Catholic education ruling is a bombshell
PHOTOS: Calgary Catholic School District headquarters (Screen grab from Google Street View). Below: Mr. Justice Donald Layh being sworn in in 2014 (Yorkton Today), Edmonton Catholic School District Headquarters, Edmonton Public School Trustee Michael Janz. Holy smoke! The ruling Thursday by a Saskatchewan judge that the province’s government may no
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Premier Rachel Notley’s NDP wins Alberta’s first-quarter fund-raising sweepstakes, continuing trend from 2016
ILLUSTRATIONS: Elections Alberta’s icon on a canola-yellow field. Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark, just to pluck a couple of names out of the story. Alberta’s New Democratic Party outraised each of the province’s other political parties in the first quarter of 2017, ended March
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thin Air of the Knowable by Wendy Donawa tops Audreys Books list of fiction bestsellers last week
Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended April 16, 2017, compiled on April 18, 2017, by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Thin Air of the Knowable – Wendy
Continue readingAlberta Politics: One big problem for Alberta’s ‘unite-the-centre’ effort: the NDP already occupies that space
PHOTO: Stephen Mandel, would-be uniter of Alberta’s “centre,” when he was a Tory minister. The effort by a group of politicians previously associated with the Progressive Conservative, Liberal and Alberta parties to “unite the centre” suggests divisive social conservative doctrines that increasingly dominate the Wildrose and PC parties are starting
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thin Air of the Knowable by Wendy Donawa tops Audreys Books list of fiction bestsellers last week
Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended April 16, 2017, compiled on April 18, 2017, by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Thin Air of the Knowable – Wendy
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Premier Rachel Notley’s NDP wins Alberta’s first-quarter fund-raising sweepstakes, continuing trend from 2016
ILLUSTRATIONS: Elections Alberta’s icon on a canola-yellow field. Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark, just to pluck a couple of names out of the story. Alberta’s New Democratic Party outraised each of the province’s other political parties in the first quarter of 2017, ended March
Continue readingAlberta Politics: One big problem for Alberta’s ‘unite-the-centre’ effort: the NDP already occupies that space
PHOTO: Stephen Mandel, would-be uniter of Alberta’s “centre,” when he was a Tory minister. April 19, 2017 – The effort by a group of politicians previously associated with the Progressive Conservative, Liberal and Alberta parties to “unite the centre” suggests divisive social conservative doctrines that increasingly dominate the Wildrose and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Silence on the right and in the media about NDP role as Alberta adds an impressive 20,000 full-time jobs in March
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, who is not getting any credit for her economic successes from the Opposition or the media. Below: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci; Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall; and University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe (CBC photo). Alberta added an impressive 20,000 full-time jobs in March, according
Continue readingAlberta Politics: No redemption for the Wildrose, outed in a Lake of Fire five years ago today, and it’s Eastertime too
PHOTOS: Rev. Allan Hunsperger, whose beliefs about the eternal fate of people who live a gay lifestyle contributed mightily to the downfall of the Wildrose Party. (Wildrose Party photo, circa 2012.) Below: Then Wildrose leader Danielle Smith; Jason Kenney, leader of the Progressive Conservatives today; and former PC premier Alison
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Week in Review: We know where the Wildrosers are, but where’s Jason?
ILLUSTRATIONS: Where’s Jason? If anyone spots PC Leader Jason Kenney, who doesn’t have to show up in the Legislature because he’s not an MLA, please let a responsible grownup know. Below: Education Minister David Eggen and Opposition Leader Brian Jean. There’s no doubt about where Mr. Jean will be found,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: This Accident of Being Lost and two others by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson on Audreys bestseller lists for last week
Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended April 9, 2017, compiled on April 11, 2017, by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. This Accident of Being Lost – Leanne
Continue readingAlberta Politics: NDP plan to change funding model for agricultural commissions is unlikely to much help farmers or the government
PHOTOS: Alberta Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier with some of the members, staff and leaders of the province’s agricultural commissions at a sparsely attended news conference in Edmonton yesterday to announce the Marketing of Agricultural Products Amendment Act 2017. Below: Mr. Carlier, at left, chats with Alberta Beef Producers Chair Bob
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Cell phone video of Nazi comparison in Red Deer Catholic high school class on abortion should raise political questions
PHOTOS: A screen shot of the video at the moment it makes its controversial comparison. Below: Alberta Education Minister David Eggen, Progressive Conservative Leader Jason Kenney as a young man giving his views on women’s reproductive rights, Red Deer Catholic Regional School Board Chair Guy Pelletier, and U of A
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Big changes coming to academic faculty, graduate student and postdoctoral bargaining rights in Alberta
PHOTOS: Could we someday see scenes like this one at Boston University in 1979 at an Alberta University? The late Howard Zinn, author of the People’s History of the United States (banned in Arkansas), is visible, quite naturally, I suppose, near the front on the left. (Photo from the Boston
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Here’s your hat … Jason Kenney’s reconstituted PCs bid farewell to former party president Katherine O’Neill
PHOTOS: Departed Progressive Conservative Party president Katherine O’Neill (CBC photo). Below: PC Leader Jason Kenney and former leadership candidates from the party’s progressive wing, Sandra Jansen and Steve Khan. Katherine O’Neill has departed, smiles and warm sentiments all ’round. Ms. O’Neill was president of the Progressive Conservative Party, the one
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s first woman premier calls for more than talk about the deplorable treatment of women in politics
PHOTOS: Former Progressive Conservative Premier Alison Redford smiles sadly as she leaves Government House in Edmonton on March 13, 2015, the day her Progressive Conservative caucus made the first steps toward firing her. Below: NDP Premier Rachel Notley, CBC morning show host Mark Connelly and NDP Status of Women Minister
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘My Decade at Old Sun, My Lifetime of Hell.’ by Arthur Bear Chief tops Audreys Books non-fiction bestseller list
Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended April 2, 2017, compiled on April 4, 2017, by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Believing is not the same as Being
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