PHOTOS: Buses like these may be waiting to ferry Jason Kenney supporters wherever they’re needed. Below: Mr. Kenney on the campaign trail with former prime minister Stephen Harper, and, by the look of this photo grabbed from Facebook, some well behaved young people. Today is the deadline for new entries
Continue readingAuthor: David Climenhaga
Alberta Politics: If Alberta PCs can’t ensure basic rules around inclusivity and harassment, they’re not fit to govern: Rachel Notley
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley at yesterday afternoon’s press conference in the Legislature media room. Below: U.S. President Elect Donald Trump and his unsuccessful Democratic Party challenger, Hillary Clinton (Photo by Gage Skidmore, Flickr). When a few journalists showed up in the Legislature’s media room yesterday afternoon for Rachel Notley’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Both women in the race to lead the Alberta PC Party drop out; one cites harassment and intimidation
PHOTOS: Sandra Jansen, MLA for Calgary-North West, who dropped out of the race to lead the Alberta PCs yesterday. Below: Donna Kennedy-Glans, former Calgary MLA, who did the same thing; political strategist Stephen Carter; PC candidate Jason Kenney. The story is not likely to get the attention it deserves amid
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Wildrose whip condemns racist imagery after the fact? That dog won’t hunt! Jason Nixon should have walked away
PHOTOS: A shot from the Twittersphere of Saturday’s anti-carbon-tax protest in Red Deer (grabbed from @IamBunbury). Below: A close-up from the photo of a person who appears to be Jason Nixon speaking to one of the protesters, and a photo of Mr. Nixon from a Wildrose event in 2015. Below
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thinking about my dad on the 100th anniversary of his birth and Canada’s need for public post-secondary education
PHOTOS: My dad, John L. Climenhaga, as a University of Saskatchewan undergraduate. Below: My father, in the foreground, circa 1917, about the time the asteroid now named Climenhaga in his honour was discovered, and, many years later, in his modest office at the University of Victoria. Below those shots, the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The game’s afoot: Jason Kenney buses unfamiliar faces in camo caps to Tory youth meeting at Red Deer PC convention
PHOTOS: Candidates for the Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership in Red Deer, from left to right, Stephen Khan, Jason Kenney, Byron Nelson, Richard Starke, Sandra Jansen and Donna Kennedy-Glans (photo by Dana Popadynetz, used with permission). Below: Stephen Harper, as seen at the PC policy convention in Red Deer, and one
Continue readingAlberta Politics: In the debate over home schooling and ‘parents’ rights,’ we need to remember children have rights too
PHOTOS: Alberta Education Minister David Eggen. Below: Wildrose Opposition Leader Brian Jean and film director and former American evangelical Frank Schaeffer (Salon photo). Controversy in Alberta over the provincial government’s decision to withdraw funding and accreditation from a private Christian school association that oversaw about a third of the province’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The question must be asked: Was Brad Wall’s party being paid to undermine Alberta’s NDP?
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, not looking quite like himself, were still smiling and standing side by side at the start of the July 2015 premiers’ meeting in St. John’s. A week later? Now? Not so much. Below: Mr. Wall as we’ve come to know
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Database shows how schools, cities, charities, plus media and Alberta firms bankroll Brad Wall’s Saskatchewan Party
PHOTOS: Premier Brad Wall, whose Saskatchewan Party has been receiving donations from such taxpayer-supported institutions as municipalities, a health region, public libraries, school boards, universities, colleges, a Crown corporation and registered charities. Below: Progress Alberta Executive Director Duncan Kinney; blogger and non-New Democrat Dave Cournoyer; and former Wildrose Party leader
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Clown costumes verboten today in Fort Mac schools … but are Canadians safe when costumed mimes can walk our streets?
PHOTOS: Mump and Smoot, Edmonton’s clowns of horror. They’re not welcome in Fort McMurray’s public schools today. Below: Something new to worry about … the New York subway’s Mime of Horror! Another photo of Mump and Smoot, from their Facebook page just like the one above, no doubt reacting the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Brian Jean goes full Trump for the Wildrose masses: Total disaster! We need to Make Alberta Great Again! Believe me!
PHOTOS: I tell you, it’s a total disaster! Believe me! Brian Jean speaks with members after his Trump-like Friday evening speech at the Wildrose Party’s 2016 AGM in Red Deer (CBC photo). Below: Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, whose former speech-writers may soon be able to find productive work
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Location of immigration office in Vegreville steeped in Mulroney Era pork barrel politics, and never made sense
PHOTOS: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s soon-to-be-moved national case-processing centre in Vegreville, Alberta. Below: Mulroney Era deputy prime minister Don Mazankowski, the man who pushed for the centre to be located in his riding; Vegreville’s famed giant Ukrainian egg; and Vegreville Mayor Myron Hayduk. News Ottawa is at long last
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Never mind the evidence! Full speed ahead! An expert unpacks Alberta’s unending experiment in health care staffing
PHOTOS: Nursing professional responsibility advisor Joshua Bergman addresses UNA’s annual general meeting in Edmonton Wednesday (Dave Cournoyer photo). Below: Conservative premier Ralph Klein, whose government began the province’s long experiment in health care staffing mixes as part of an ideologically motivated attack on social programs. For nigh on 20 years,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: This shouldn’t be a surprise: Trudeaumania 2.0 fails to deliver in Medicine Hat
PHOTOS: Trudeaumania 1.0, the real thing, in 1968. Below: Trudeaumania 2.0, not nearly as effective, in Medicine Hat, Alberta, on Oct. 13, 2016. Below: Conservative by-election winner Glen Motz, Rudyard Kipling, poet of empire and saviour of the Hat part of the Hat, and unsuccessful Liberal challenger Stan Sakamoto. Well,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Pigs will fly before the fantasy that Ottawa’s carbon tax ‘invades provincial jurisdiction’ will ever persuade a court
PHOTOS: Who says Jason Kenney is full of baloney? These guys do! And they’re the Fathers of Confederation! Below: PC leadership candidate Mr. Kenney; federal Liberal Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr, MP for Calgary Centre; and Brian Jean, leader of the Wildrose Opposition in the Alberta Legislature (Wildrose.ca photo). Ottawa’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Schiaparelli lander missing; ground control still in contact with Postmedia; prognosis grim for both
PHOTOS: An artist’s impression of the Schiaparelli Mars Lander descending gently toward the Martian surface. Schiaparelli’s actual Mars landings may not have unfolded exactly as illustrated by the European Space Agency. Below: The evocative cover of today’s National Post. About 178 million kilometres from us yesterday, give or take, Europe’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta right now: The state of the province, its parties, and its oil after 1 year without Stephen Harper
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley addresses supporters for her “state of the province” speech in Calgary’s Jack Singer Concert Hall yesterday. (Photo from the Premier of Alberta’s Flickr account.) Below: Would-be Progressive Conservative leader Jason Kenney and current Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean. It was so busy in political Alberta
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Just say no to term limits! They’re fundamentally undemocratic and that’s why the right likes them
PHOTOS: Given the alternatives, most of the world would be delighted if this scene could be repeated, don’t you think? Probably most Americans would be too. Below: Four-time presidential winner Franklin D. Roosevelt and other presidents who contemplated third terms, but were thwarted for on reason or another, Ulysses S.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: This just in from Elections Alberta: New Democrats out-raise Wildrose Party and PCs combined in 3rd Quarter
ILLUSTRATIONS: The Alberta fund-raising horse race. From left to right, Wildrose leader Brian Jean, NDP Leader and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and PC interim Leader Ric McIver. Below: The real Ms. Notley, Mr. Jean, Mr. McIver and PC leadership contender Jason Kenney. Never mind the gloomy mainstream narrative – Alberta’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Taxpayers Federation’s’ true Astro-Turf nature finally worms its way into public consciousness
PHOTOS: Canadian Taxpayers Federation Communications VP Scott Hennig at the 2013 Manning Conference in Ottawa, the annual spring bean-fest for right-wing activists organized by Preston Manning’s eponymous training camp for market-fundamentalists. Below: Winnipeg commentator Dougald Lamont, author of an opinion piece published yesterday by CBC Manitoba about the CTF; CTF
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