Author: David Climenhaga

Alberta Politics: End of exile seems likely for Calgary MLA Deborah Drever, expelled from NDP caucus for tasteless social media posts

PHOTOS: Calgary-Bow MLA Deborah Drever around the time of her banishment from the NDP caucus for tasteless social media posts she had published before her political career (CBC Photo). Below: Lethbridge-East MLA Maria Fitzpatrick and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley. A welcome effort to rehabilitate Independent Calgary MLA Deborah Drever, pilloried

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Alberta Politics: Brad Wall’s call to block refugees from Syria is just more of the same old conservative wedge politics

PHOTOS: Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall (CBC Photo). Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott and B.C. Premier Christy Clark. Bottom: Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is either demonized or ignored by Western mainstream media. In light of the inevitably angry and emotional response to the Paris terror attacks

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Alberta Politics: Bill 6, Alberta’s new farm safety legislation, will be a test both for the NDP Government and the Wildrose Opposition

PHOTOS: Down on the Alberta farm, successive Conservative governments have made sure farm animals had more rights than farm workers. Below: Alberta Labour Minister Lori Sigurdson and Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier, who may be about to fix this. It’s an embarrassing blot on the record of successive Progressive Conservative governments

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Alberta Politics: Will the social conservative elephant in the Wildrose room crowd out the Tories being wooed by party Leader Brian Jean?

PHOTOS: With AGM delegates’ endorsement in hand, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean is calling for Alberta’s right to reunite under his party’s banner. Below: Former Wildrose leader Danielle Smith, in her current role as a radio talk show host (Global News photo) and Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA and former leadership candidate Drew

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Alberta Politics: If we’d been paying attention, perhaps we wouldn’t be so shocked by the U of C’s corporate-influence scandal

PHOTOS: The University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, conveniently located adjacent to the oil corporations’ towers in downtown Cowtown. Below: The writers of the notorious Alberta separatist Firewall Manifesto, which then-premier Ralph Klein wisely tossed into the garbage; Calgary School alumni and Firewall signa-Tories Stephen Harper, Tom Flanagan and

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Alberta Politics: Are the Wildrosers eyeing public service pensions? It’s worth keeping an eye on what they get up to in Cowtown

ILLUSTRATIONS: Can the Wildrose Party control its Tea Party fringe? We’ll get a sense tomorrow and Saturday when the party considers its members’ policy proposals. Below: Party Leader Brian Jean, at right, in Terminator mode; with Wildrose Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt in a stunt with big signs inspired by Mr.

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Alberta Politics: In Flanders Fields? It’s time to encourage another generation of school kids to read some better poems from the Great War

PHOTOS: In Flanders Fields? The reality of the Great war’s battlefields: squalor, incompetence, mechanized industrial death. Below: John McCrae, and a Great War poet still worth reading, Wilfred Owen. A civilization that forgets its poetry is barely worthy of the name. Like fiction and unlike non-fiction, poetry is how a

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Alberta Politics: Alberta Bill 5 and sunshine lists generally are lousy public policy and a serious invasion of privacy

PHOTOS: The Alberta Legislature in the sunshine. It doesn’t matter that no individuals are visible, does it? Below: Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley and Wildrose Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt, back when he was a Canadian Taxpayers Federation agitator. So-called sunshine lists, which publish the salaries of public employees who are paid

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