PHOTOS: No love lost for pipelines in B.C. – and all of a sudden that could have an impact on politics in Alberta (Rabble.ca photo). Below: Mainstreet research President Quito Maggi, B.C. Liberal Premier Christy Clark and Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley. Two polls were published this week by Mainstreet
Continue readingAuthor: David Climenhaga
Alberta Politics: David D. Orr’s ‘Encountering Riel’ is this week’s Edmonton fiction bestseller, Audreys Books reports
Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended Feb. 17, 2017, compiled on Feb. 21, 2017, by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Encountering Riel – David D. Orr*† 2.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Canada had better plan for an unprecedented refugee crisis as U.S. lurches toward ‘ethnic cleansing’
PHOTOS: Austrian police and Syrian refugees crowd a train platform in Vienna on Sept. 4, 2015 (photo by Josh Zakary). Below: U.S. President Donald Trump (photo by Gage Skidmore) and a Syrian refugee camp in Turkey in 2016 (European Parliament photos). Canadians should be deeply concerned about stated plans by
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Are non-Albertans who FRWN on progress behind many of the online threats against Premier Rachel Notley?
PHOTOS: Part of the uninspiring, sometimes troubling, field of Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidates. Their names? Frankly, it’s too much work to note them all down (CBC photo). Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former prime minister Stephen Harper (CBC).
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It won’t hurt NDP for centrist voters to understand how close Rachel Notley’s energy policy is to Jim Prentice’s proposals
PHOTOS: Jim Prentice during his time as premier of Alberta. Below: Premier Rachel Notley, Prentice co-author Jean-Sébastian Rioux (Twitter), and journalist Jason Markusoff (Twitter). The revelation that the moderate and thoughtful energy policy proposed by the late Jim Prentice soon after he left politics in 2015 was very similar to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Canada’s Conservative Party, a once-great national organization, is being overwhelmed by its own extremists
PHOTOS: Federal Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi, a hard-working and talented former Edmonton Transit bus driver. Below: Alberta Infrastructure Minister Brian Mason, a hard-working and talented former Edmonton Transit bus driver. Mr. Sohi, a Liberal, and Mr. Mason, a New Democrat, are both used to cheap conservative shots about their former
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What you should worry about when you worry about President Trump – hint: not where Ivanka sits!
PHOTOS: The controversial photo of Mr. Donald, Ivanka Trump and Enrique Peña Nieto … Wait! That’s Joe Trudeau! Below: U.S. Presidents whose “First Ladies” weren’t necessarily their wives, for one reason or another … Thomas Jefferson, who predated the whole First Lady phenomenon; Martin van Buren, a widower; Grover Cleveland,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Break, by Katherena Vermette, returns to top of Edmonton Bestseller List
Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended Feb. 10, 2017, compiled on Feb. 14, 2017, by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. The Break – Katherena Vermette 2. A
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Appalled maybe, but no one should be surprised by the ugly threats against Rachel Notley
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley. She has been threatened more than any other Alberta premier, and she reacts with aplomb. Below: British politician Jo Cox, murdered last year by a right-wing extremist for her beliefs; federal Conservative leadership candidate Chris Alexander while a right-wing crowd chanted “lock her up” about
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Portrait unveiling stands in for the fond official farewell former premier Dave Hancock never had from his PCs
PHOTOS: Former Alberta Premier Dave Hancock in a typical pose, as he addresses the crowd at the unveiling of his official portrait yesterday. Below: The portrait, by artist Tom Menczel, former Tory cabinet ministers Doug Horner and Richard Starke. The unveiling of Dave Hancock’s portrait in the Legislature yesterday may
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Leduc No. 1 and all that: Was February 13, 1947, Alberta’s unluckiest lucky day?
PHOTOS: Dignitaries stand around and have their photos taken at the Leduc No. 1 well near Devon on – if the Internet is to be believed – this day in 1947. Not sure if I believe that, seeing as the first photo below was supposed to have been taken on
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Advocates of more choice in education unite to condemn public school board chair’s call for more choice in education
PHOTOS: Edmonton Public School Board Chair Michael Janz, at the podium and on the job. Below: Canadian Taxpayers Federation Communications Vice-President Scott Henning, Parents for Choice in Education Director Donna Trimble, and the Edmonton Christian High School, which is run under the auspices of the EPSB. Conservative politicians, their vocal
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Former Alberta premier Dave Hancock to be the subject of a hanging Monday afternoon at the Legislature
PHOTOS: The official portrait of premier Dave Hancock, second-to-last Progressive Conservative premier of Alberta, will not likely look like this, although one could make a strong case it really should. After all, consider what Mr. Hancock was left to deal with by his predecessor, Alison Redford, whose official portrait is
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Brian Jean makes it clear, any new Alberta conservative party will be the Wildrose Party
PHOTOS: Hate to burst your balloons, Tories, but Brian Jean says any new new united right-wing party will be the Wildrose Party, and nothing else. (Wildrose.ca photo.) Below: Wildrose Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt, front-running Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Jason Kenney and a group of smokers … actual young Alberta tobacco
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Armando Correa’s The German Girl at top of Audreys Books Edmonton Bestseller List
Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended Feb. 3, 2017, compiled on Feb. 7, 2017, by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. The German Girl – Armando Correa 2.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: In subversive move, Edmonton school board chair calls for optional Catholic programs in public schools
PHOTOS: Edmonton Public School Board Chair Michael Janz. Below: CBC evening drive show host Portia Clark, and the logos of the Alberta Catholic School Trustees’ Association and Edmonton Public Schools. In a brilliantly subversive move, Michael Janz, chair of the Edmonton Public School Board, has publicly wondered in a blog
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta public employees, subject to constant Wildrose and media vilification, win national award for effective service
PHOTOS: An image of the May 2016 Fort McMurray fire taken by Alberta Government photographer Chris Schwarz. Below: The Wildrose Party sees government workers like forest fire fighters (GoA photo) and Licensed Practical Nurses (AUPE photo) as “union bosses.” Just guessing, but you probably won’t read much news coverage about
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Why Canadians are lucky Rona Ambrose was hanging around the Caribbean with a billionaire
PHOTOS: The scene abroad N. Murray Edwards’ yacht imagined. Actual Canadian bitumen billionaires and their onboard guests may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: The real N. Murray Edwards, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau aboard a helicopter, although not the Aga Khan’s, Opposition Leader Rona Ambrose in a yacht harbor, and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Wildrose reaction to proposed raise for front-line health workers illustrates the party’s rightward shift
PHOTOS: Rob Anderson, on the right, the Wildrose Party’s finance critic under Danielle Smith, at a rally supporting public sector workers in 2012. With him are AUPE President Guy Smith, left, and Alberta Liberal Leader David Swann, centre. Below: The Wildrose Party’s intemperate current finance critic, Derek Fildebrandt, Ms. Smith,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: This feels like it’s happened before … it’s Groundhog Day and the Liberals have just broken a promise!
PHOTOS: Can you not quite shake the feeling, like the Canadian voter at left, things keep happening over and over again? Actual Canadian voters may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair and NDP Democratic Reform Critic Nathan
Continue reading