PHOTOS: B.C. Lieutenant-Governor Judith Guichon reads the notorious Throne Speech attacking Alberta on Tuesday. Below: B.C. Premier Christie Clark, NDP strategist Brian Topp, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and B.C. NDP leader John Horgan. You no longer …
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Alberta Politics: Go figure! Jim Prentice, failed former politician, resurfaces with sweet gig at Washington think tank
PHOTOS: Those were the days! This time last year, Jim Prentice was everyone else’s favourite Albertan, or so it seemed. Now look at him, already the last Conservative premier of Alberta. Below: Woodrow Wilson, the only American president with a PhD a…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Uniting the Right: Is Wildrose Leader Brian Jean starting to wonder, ‘With friends like these, who needs enemies?’
PHOTOS: It’s getting crowded on the Wildrose Party’s “unite the right” bandwagon … and not necessarily with the “right” people from leader Brian Jean’s perspective. Actual Alberta political bandwagons may not appear exactly as illustrat…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Will simply uniting Alberta’s right add up to victory over the NDP? A conservative strategist concludes it won’t
PHOTOS: Oh, what fools these Tories be? Please forgive this Puckish caption. Former Progressive Conservative campaign manager Susan Elliott, below left, suggests that her party’s members think carefully before they let themselves get hitched to the p…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Poll puts NDP in third place among Albertans – a plausible result despite a pollster’s debatable analysis
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley. Below: Pollster Quito Maggi of Mainstreet Research, grabbed from his Twitter account, and former PC premier Ed Stelmach, whose personal popularity held through the economic downturn of 2007 and 2008. Late last wee…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Grits in Ottawa and Dippers in Edmonton: far from the worst combination for keeping Alberta’s economy in motion
PHOTOS: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley take questions from the media in this screen shot of the government’s video. Bloggers were not invited, but I’m blaming the feds and promising not to go all Rebel Medi…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Premier Rachel Notley introduces six new cabinet members … pretty flawlessly
PHOTOS: Premier Rachel Notley introduces her expanded, 19-member (that is, 18 full + 1 associate member) cabinet to the media at Government House yesterday morning. (Photo by Dave Cournoyer, used with permission.) Below: New cabinet members Christina G…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan assails Notley Government’s royalty ‘mistake’
PHOTOS: Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan. Below: Mr. McGowan with federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair; Calgary Sun columnist Rick Bell. Many progressive Albertans who were shocked and troubled by the Notley Government’s dramatic rever…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Second verse, same as the first! Notley Government decrees no change to Alberta’s royalty regime
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, surrounded by Calgary New Democrat MLAs in this screen shot of yesterday morning’s news conference in Calgary, announces her new government’s new royalty policy, which is pretty much the same as the old govern…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Tories’ Senate gambit shows Harper still runs the party and the party still holds Parliament in contempt
PHOTOS: The Senate chamber, empty, as it should be. Below: Stephen Harper, apparently still the de facto leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The Conservative Opposition…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: NDP to release new energy royalty framework at week’s end – brace yourself for Apocalypse Friday!
PHOTOS: The next Apocalypse is scheduled for Friday morning. There will be an embargoed media briefing first. Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean and Royalty Review Advisory Panel Chair Dave Mowat. Brace yourself for a stor…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: C’mon … admit it, Wildrosers! Denis Coderre’s zinger burned because it landed a little too close for comfort
PHOTOS: Welcome to Bedrock City, AB. Actual rural Wildrose ridings in Southern Alberta may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Alberta Opposition Leader Brian Jean (CBC photo), Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, former Canadian Alliance leader Stockwe…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Below the radar: Athabasca University and St. Albert quietly discuss partnership to develop joint office space near Edmonton
PHOTOS: St. Albert City Hall on a nice warm summer night, as seen from the possible location of a joint office building that’s been discussed by the city and Athabasca University. Below: The sign welcoming visitors to Athabasca University in the Town…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A good day for Rachel Notley – but you’d never know it with media and opposition in full-scale, unrestrained meltdown
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne at yesterday’s press conference in Toronto. Below: Ms. Notley, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, British Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn and U.S. Democratic Presidential candidat…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Hints of Sun news-management style emerge in plans for Edmonton’s combined Postmedia newsrooms
PHOTOS: “Well, Fred, they used to wrap the grocery flyers in these things. They were called ‘newspapers.’” Below: Gerry Nott, senior Postmedia functionary, and Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister most hated by the Canadian newspaper ind…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Meditations on booms, busts, oil prices, sales taxes, Albertans and their governments
PHOTOS: Alberta in the spring of 2014. Actual Alberta drilling operations may not have appeared exactly as illustrated. Below: Conservative premiers Peter Lougheed and Ralph Klein. If God gives us another oil boom like the one us Albertans are all pray…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Can one newsroom plus one editor add up to two newspapers? That’s Postmedia’s story and they’re stickin’ to it!
PHOTOS: The Edmonton Journal’s building in downtown Edmonton as it appeared today. Below: Margo Goodhand, Paul Godfrey (Toronto Star photo) and Stephanie Coombs. After a day of merger mania accompanied by brutal newsroom cuts at Postmedia’s daily n…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Senior editorial heads roll at Edmonton Journal and more may drop soon
PHOTOS: The Edmonton Journal’s headquarters in downtown Edmonton, one of the Postmedia assets that still retains some value. Below: Departing Journal editor-in-chief Margo Goodhand and managing editor Stephanie Coombs. There’s already blood on the …
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Disturbing echoes of ‘Organized Pseudolegal Commercial Arguments’ heard in Alberta #kudatah talk
PHOTOS: Edmonton’s courthouse, home of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench, not long after it was built. Below: Associate Chief Justice John Rooke of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley. Anti-NDP petitioners tacitl…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It’s not just the #kudatah – it’s the feeling Alberta’s conservatives are all boarding the Crazy Train
PHOTOS: George Clark, Alberta’s answer to Joan of Arc. (Screen grab from Youtube.com.) Below: Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean, who with his MLAs is tacitly supporting Mr. Clark’s efforts; the origin of the #kudatah meme; Preston Manning, a conserv…
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