PHOTOS: Interim Alberta Tory Leader Ric McIver and another PC are ejected from the Legislature yesterday by the Sergeant at Arms. Actual Alberta MLAs may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: The Real Ric McIver and Edmonton Public School Board Cha…
Continue readingAuthor: David Climenhaga
Alberta Politics: If you were secretly relieved by yesterday’s NDP Alberta budget, you weren’t alone …
PHOTOS: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci addresses the media during a lockup early yesterday afternoon in Edmonton before reading the 2016 Budget Speech to the Legislature. Below: CFIB Alberta spokesperson Richard Truscott, Edmonton-Centre MLA David S…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Just when the nattering nabobs of neoliberal negativism felt safe to write off the NDP, the crack of Doomsday opens!
PHOTOS: Actor David Suchet as Agatha Christie’s imaginary Hercule Poirot. Below: Postmedia Alberta Frankenpaper political columnist Lorne Gunter, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Alberta Prosperity Fund President Barry Mc…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The federal NDP’s ‘Leap’ of faith advocates and Alberta’s right-wing opposition: strange bedfellows?
PHOTOS: Rachel Notley pushes back against the Leap Manifesto Monday in this screen grab from a CBC broadcast. Below: Outgoing federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, Vancouver environmentalist Tzeporah Berman, ProgressAlberta.ca blog author Duncan Kinney, a…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The mystery of NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair’s long fall: Why didn’t he see it coming?
PHOTOS: NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair accepts his defeat at his party’s national convention in Edmonton yesterday. Below: Deputy Premier Sarah Hoffman, Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan, former Ontario NDP leader Stephen Lewis and Albert…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: On stage in Edmonton: The tough Rachel Notley who frightens conservatives, and may scare certain New Democrats too
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is not tall, but she casts a long shadow on both sides of the political aisle. She is seen here addressing the national NDP convention in Edmonton yesterday in a tough, memorable speech. Below: Federal NDP Leader T…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Pipeline perceptions, percentages and past Parliamentary performance dog NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair in Alberta’s capital
PHOTOS: Thomas Mulcair in Edmonton … shortly before the disappointing federal election on Oct. 19, 2015. Below: Canadian Labour Congress President Hassan Yussuff, former NDP MP and leadership candidate Peggy Nash, and influential Alberta union leader…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Former Alberta Health Services CEO’s accusations of NDP ‘interference’ raise more questions than they answer
PHOTOS: Former Alberta Health Services CEO and president Vickie Kaminski, who was back in the news yesterday. Below: Former Progressive Conservative health minister Stephen Mandel; NDP health Minister Sarah Hoffman. Vickie Kaminski’s self-justifying …
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Acclaimed to party official’s job, social conservative activist Craig Chandler is sure to embarrass Ric McIver and his sad sack PCs
PHOTOS: Craig Chandler – about the closest thing there is to ballot box poison in Alberta. (Photo from Mr. Chandler via the CBC.) Below: Progressive Conservative interim Leader Ric McIver. Craig Chandler – just about the closest thing to ballot box…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Former justice Frank Iacobucci’s recommendation proves one thing: Alison Redford haunts us still
PHOTOS: Alison Redford, back in the day. … She haunts us still. Below: Former Supreme Court of Canada justice Frank Iacobucci, former Alberta ethics commissioner Neil Wilkinson, Alberta Ethics Commissioner Marguerite Trussler and Parkland Institute E…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Time to share the pain and stop wasting taxpayers’ dollars on elite private and cherry-picking charter schools
PHOTOS: A typical Alberta charter school class, at least as imagined by supporters of the expensive idea. Actual charter and private school students in 2016 may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Progressive Conservative Party interim Leader Ric…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Albertans will soon be able to ‘tap’ for ambulance service with new smartphone app
PHOTO: An artist’s rendering of what one of a new TAP-ulanceRX emergency care vehicle might look like. TAP-ulance Premium emergency vehicles will resemble conventional ambulances but offer a higher grade of gurney and a premium sound system, plus an …
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A class of refugee the National Post and Wildrose Party can finally love: billionaires in tax flight
PHOTOS: N. Murray Edwards talking about himself in a screen capture from a Facebook video. Below: The National Post’s Kevin Libin and the Wildrose Party’s Derek Fildebrandt, united in their fearless championing of the Canadian overdog. Bottom: Wild…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Postmedia’s symbiotic relationship with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation fails to offer much illumination
PHOTOS: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s misleading “debt clock” trailer back when Alberta’s debt wasn’t $10 billion. Now it isn’t $17 billion. Below: CTF Alberta Director Paige MacPherson, telling Okotoks Online that 44,000 teachers sho…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Do billionaires fleeing Canadian taxes deserve public subsidies for their Alberta franchises?
PHOTOS: CNRL Executive Chairperson N. Murray Edwards, a billionaire. (Wikipedia photo). Below: Twitter gadfly Dave Beninger (Facebook grab), Law Professor Catherine Brown (University of Calgary photo), former Alberta Premier Alison Redford and billiona…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Questions without answers: Why are our U.S. allies so ambivalent about ISIS, and what does it mean for Canada?
PHOTOS: U.S. State Department spokesperson Mark Toner. (Screen grab from C-SPAN.) Below: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Conservative interim Opposition Leader Rona Ambrose and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. For all we know, Syrian President Bashar a…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Tory victory in Calgary-Greenway riding turns ‘unite the right’ merger on Wildrose terms into political roadkill
PHOTOS: Progressive Conservative candidate Prabhdeep Gill, centre, celebrates after last night’s results were announced in the Calgary-Greenway by-election. (CBC photo.) Below: The night’s biggest loser, arguably, was Opposition Leader Brian Jean. …
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Whatever the outcome, today’s Calgary-Greenway by-election is sure to be a spinner’s dream
PHOTOS: Some of the candidates in today’s Calgary-Greenway by-election. (CBC photo) Below: Manmeet Bhullar, the PC MLA for the riding killed in a highway crash last November, NDP candidate Roop Rai and PC candidate Prabhdeep Gill. Today is the day of…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Deplorable Wildrose attack on new government negotiator offers a glimpse of what party leaders really think
PHOTOS: Kevin Davediuk, whose appointment as a senior public sector negotiator by the Alberta Government was announced on March 9. (Screenshot of Global News broadcast.) Below: Recently retired Canadian ambassador to the United States Gary Doer and the…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Retired journalist’s call to privatize control of Legislature media access unlikely to defuse controversy for NDP
PHOTOS: Former Canadian Press journalist Heather Boyd, author of yesterday’s report on media accreditation and access to the Alberta Legislature. Below: Right-wing Internet commentator Ezra Levant, who started the controversy that led to Ms. Boyd’s…
Continue reading