Author: David Climenhaga

The decline in oil prices to the sub-$50-per-barrel level may not be a pleasant experience for those of us here in Alberta, especially the Progressive Conservative rulers of our province, but it does offer the potential for what might be called a useful teaching and learning moment for other Canadians.

Today, or possibly yesterday, is the 200th anniversary of the birth of John Macdonald, first prime minister of Canada, arguably the person most responsible for the creation of our country and surely the one who deserves the most credit for it surviving as long as it has. Read more at

How does Alberta Premier Jim Prentice get to be optimistic and pessimistic about the same thing at the same time in order to reach contradictory conclusions? Can someone explain to me how this is supposed to work? Read more at AlbertaPolitics.ca.

The intense furor over the defection of majority of Alberta Wildrose Opposition to the Progressive Conservative government seems to have prompted new clarifying statements from two of the MLAs widely reported to have played key roles in the negotiations between the two parties. Read more at AlbertaPolitics.ca.

According to the unintendedly ironic and transitory layout on CBC Calgary’s news page yesterday afternoon, it looked as if former Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith is up Schitt$ Creek. Actually, this is probably a pretty good assessment of the reality faced by Smith, at least with a small allowance for

Airdrie MLA Rob Anderson, understood to have been one of the key leaders in the controversial effort to get the majority of the Wildrose caucus to defect to the Progressive Conservative Party on Dec. 17, announced on Facebook just before midnight he intends to leave politics after the next Alberta

Fallout from the march of the Mudville Nine from the Opposition Wildrose benches to the government’s Progressive Conservative caucus continues to drift across Alberta. So serious is the contamination in some conservative circles that whole regions of the province may have to be declared Zones of Alienation like the area

Why are Albertans so angry about the defection of 11 Wildrose opposition members to the government’s benches? I mean, why are they really so furious? The reason — and it’s surprising there’s been so little commentary that comes right out and says this — is that Albertans accepted the basic

Support for the Wildrose Party is plummeting as supporters angered by the defection of 11 MLAs to the governing PCs have turned on the five Wildrose MLAs who didn’t cross the floor. Go figure! Read more on AlbertaPolitics.ca.

Lacombe-Ponoka MLA Rod Fox sure didn’t sound very enthused about his recent switch from the Wildrose Party to the Progressive Conservative Party in the apologetic open letter he wrote to his constituents that was published yesterday in a Central Alberta community newspaper. Click here to read more on AlbertaPolitics.ca.

It may be 2015 now, but a 2014 problem continues to haunt the government of Premier Jim Prentice. I’m not talking about the Mudville Nine Wildrose defectors. Instead, you can blame Dave Hancock for the Alberta government’s likely next big crisis. Click here to read more on AlbertaPolitics.ca.

What was really interesting and possibly unique about the final political act of 2014 here in Ozberta was that it didn’t take Dorothy, Toto and their three metaphorical friends to pull back the green curtain to reveal the Wizard at work. Click here to read more on AlbertaPolitics.ca. Note to

Guest post by John Ashton An awful lot of New Democrats are asking if the Tory tomfoolery with Wildrose MLAs should cause the Alberta NDP faithful to be filled with horrific anxiety or gleeful, shameful, joy. The answer, as is so often the case, is neither. Click here to read

Typical bloggers, waiting for their web hosting service to let them be free to post. Thanks to all of you who have asked if the new site at AlbertaPolitics.ca has been hacked or wondered what is going on. It’s not a hack, it’s a fairly typical problem with a hosting