PHOTOS: Mel Hurtig with his Canadian Encyclopedia, without which, once upon a time, no respectable Canadian home was considered complete. I am grateful to Mr. Hurtig for one thing not mentioned in the short commentary below, and that is my accidental i…
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Alberta Politics: Ottawa’s ethics commissioner should review MP Jason Kenney’s activities and ethics as Alberta PC candidate
PHOTOS: Freshly made up, MP Jason Kenney arrives at his news conference yesterday on the grounds of Alberta’s Legislature, where he one day hopes to have a legal parking spot. (Screenshot of CBC video.) Below: Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner Mary D…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: One year ago, Stephen Harper, master of all he surveyed, called an election – what could possibly go wrong?
PHOTOS: Then prime minister Stephen Harper with his strategic brain trust, back when they still seemed like the masters of Canada’s political universe and would seem so for a few more weeks. (Source unknown.) Below: Screen shots of Mr. Harper’s Aug…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: News Satire: U.S. will not tolerate foreigners acting like Americans, officials say
ILLUSTRATIONS: A map showing some of the countries in which the United States has interfered in the political process (grabbed from Geology.com). Below: U.S. CIA Director John O. Brennan, Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican candid…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: New York Times coverage of Russian hacking deserves another Pulitzer – for fiction!
PHOTOS: Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, who the New York Times blames for everything. (Photo from Kremlin.ru.) Below: Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary R. Clinton; former Nixon speechwriter Patrick J. Buchanan; Republican Party presi…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Brad Wall: a day late and a dollar short on Husky’s Prince Albert pipeline rupture
PHOTOS: Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall speaking with reporters in the halls of Saskatchewan Legislative Building in Regina yesterday (screen grab from the CBC’s feed). Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and the city of Prince Albert on the bank of …
Continue readingAlberta Politics: NDP moves to end secret Klein-era scheme to offload corporate losses on the public – the opposition, predictably, screams
PHOTOS: Deputy Premier Sarah Hoffman, a photo that wasn’t taken yesterday, obviously, but has the advantage of having been taken by your blogger. Below: Wildrose electricity and renewables critic Don MacIntyre, Progressive Conservative interim Leader…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: As assumptions give way to knowledge, we have an opportunity to learn from the shooting in Munich
PHOTOS: Into the evening Friday, the mood in the Bavarian city of Munich was surreal (Polizeipräsidium München image). Below: The scene of Friday’s shooting in Munich. The person I know best in Munich described the mood in the Bavarian city Friday …
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Brad Wall Government’s Saskatchewan beer trade piffle turns out to be all fizz and no flavour
ILLUSTRATIONS: A group of Albertans enjoying one of our province’s excellent craft beers, unfortunately unavailable in Saskatchewan because of the province-to-the-right’s unfair trade practices. (The Wikipedia illustration is actually of François …
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Grim proposed Athabasca University budget to be shown faculty today projects insolvency by 2017-2018
PHOTOS: Athabasca University’s main building in the Town of Athabasca, 130 kilometres north of Edmonton. Below: AU’s logo; Interim President Peter MacKinnon; and Alberta Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt. Athabasca University Interim Presi…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If Jason Kenney’s anti-abortion views don’t matter, why are anti-choice activists supporting him so enthusiastically?
PHOTOS: The young Jason Kenney, speaking out to the San Francisco CNN station against the right of pro-choice activists even to speak in support of their views on the U.S. university campus he attended for one year. Below: St. Albert MLA Marie Renaud a…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Appointment of environmentalist Tzeporah Berman sparks Wildrose hysteria – here’s why
PHOTOS: Environmentalist Tzeporah Berman, whose appointment to the Alberta Government’s climate panel prompted a full-scale freak-out by the province’s right, which, apparently, sees her as, well, an Orc. Below the Orc: B.C. Premier Christy Clark a…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Wildrose Party wins the second-quarter fund-raising horserace – but can the pace be sustained?
PHOTOS: Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean has every right to smile about the party’s second-quarter fund-raising results. The question is: Can they be sustained? (Photo grabbed from Wildrose.ca.) Below: Results for all parties, as compiled by your blo…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: O Canada? Sorry, no ad libbing, please! We’re Canadian!
PHOTOS: Don Cherry, Canada’s best-known right-wing weirdo, wearing a suit that ought to be illegal. (Toronto Star photo.) Below: Boston-born tenor Remigio Pereira, the man who fiddled with the words of O Canada, much to Mr. Cherry’s distress, and B…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: About those conservative coup attempts: once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, but three times has got to be enemy action!
PHOTOS: Jason Kenney and Stephen Harper seal the deal. Actually, I think Mr. Harper was welcoming Mr. Kenney to his cabinet as defence minister in this official looking portrait found on the Internet without attribution. I’m assuming it was created w…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Calgary Stampede’s vital cultural and political role explained, sort of …
PHOTOS: The Stampede chuckwagon races … exciting, but traditionally bad news for horses. Below: Stampede duds last year on Justin Trudeau, Stephen Harper and Thomas Mulcair. Did last year’s effort work out as intended by the Stampede Board? The C…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Does the federal Tory pivot toward Alberta show they’ve given up on power in Ottawa?
PHOTOS: Stephen Harper, the former prime minister, not exactly as he appeared at the Conservative Party’s Calgary Stampede barbecue last night, but close enough. Below: Jason Kenney, Mr. Harper’s former sidekick in Ottawa, whom the former PM endors…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘I had an abortion and I thank God I was able to,’ says MLA, pointedly asking Jason Kenney: ‘Pro-choice or not?’
PHOTOS: St. Albert MLA Marie Renaud. Below: A young Jason Kenney in a 1990 TV interview, Archbishop Emeritus John R. Quinn of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, and British MP George Galloway. Marie Renaud, the New Democrat MLA for St. Albert, is a brav…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney makes it official with fresh-faced extras and unattributed tribute to the Nixon Era
PHOTOS: A screen grab from yesterday’s video feed of Jason Kenney announcing his candidacy for the leadership of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party in Calgary. Immediately behind him is Caitlyn Madliner, who has prominently figured in anti-PC…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Cue the crickets: Where are the media warnings Canada Post bosses are ‘holding the country to ransom’?
PHOTOS: Locked out postal workers in a past dispute in Halifax (HalifaxMediaCoop.ca photo). Below: St. Albert resident’s illegal “Restore door to door” sign (CBC photo), Controversial Canada Post CEO Deepak Chopra, CUPW President Mike Palecek, an…
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