Toronto’s once notorious Rochedale College, now a perfectly respectable apartment building. Below: Outgoing Canadian Taxpayers Federation Alberta Director Derek Fildebrandt and the King’s Noodle Restaurant (grabbed from TripAdvisor). TORONTO It was my intention, since I am away from Alberta on business, not to file an Alberta Diary post this evening.
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Alberta Diary: There’s no better time than right now for non-union employees of the City of St. Albert to look for union protection
St. Albert’s 2013 civic election campaign was pretty dirty, as the illustration above, grabbed from an anonymous blog during the campaign, illustrates. Since those kind of tactics seemed to work, the next one, in October 2017, is likely to be dirtier still. Below: St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse, Spruce Grove-St.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Said to be sought as candidate by Wildrose Party, ‘tax watchdog’ spokesperson’s intentions are for the moment unclear
CTF Alberta spokesperson Derek Fildebrandt last summer at the Legislature in Edmonton. Below: Premier Jim Prentice and political blogger Dave Cournoyer. Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith is “working hard” to recruit Canadian Taxpayers Federation Alberta spokesperson Derek Fildebrandt as a candidate for the next provincial general election in the Calgary-Bow riding,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Annals of Irony: Those alleged Wildrose caucus recordings and Danielle Smith’s 1999 school board ‘opposition research’ escapade
A mean note found in a trashcan or a coffee cup and reassembled. Actual mean notes found in actual trashcans may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Former Wildrose MLA Joe Anglin, Wildrose Party Leader Danielle Smith, former Calgary Herald editorial page editor Peter Stockland, former Calgary Liberal candidate and
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Conservative parties squirm as fired AHS executive triumphs over government, controversial MLA quits opposition caucus
This just in from Alberta’s two conservative parties. Below: former Alberta Health Services CFO Allaudin Merali, Alberta Premier Jim Prentice, MLA Joe Anglin (CBC Photo), Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith, former health minister Fred Horne. Alberta’s governing Progressive Conservative Party and its Opposition Wildrose Party, in addition to sharing an identical
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Guns ’n’ Roses: How ‘High River Gun Grab’ hysteria hurt the Wildrose Party
PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta Diary is closed, but, like Gen. MacArthur, we (I) shall return…
Yeah, we’re closed, but we don’t plan to be closed for long. Below: Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Below him: Alberta Diary’s crack research staff scouring the Internets, looking for blog ideas and royalty-free illustrations to go with them. This may come as a surprise to readers, but actual Alberta Diary researchers
Continue readingAlberta Diary: No change! No change! Jim Prentice’s ‘new management’ is offering the same old Tory stuff
New management … same old owner. It’s all about marketing. Below: Jim Prentice and Fred Horne, advocating the same health care policies. Sustained, uninterrupted privatization of health care, a senior official dumped for daring to speak out about political interference in her supposedly independent work, thousands of dollars in illegal
Continue readingAlberta Diary: New Democrats yesterday were ready for Rachel – can Albertans reach the same conclusion?
Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley, about to be interviewed by the media, moments after her victory speech in Edmonton yesterday. Below: Three scenes from yesterday’s NDP leadership convention, one of Ms. Notley’s buttons, her father, Grant Notley. Rachel Notley’s campaign buttons asked: “Are you Ready for Rachel?” There was never
Continue readingAlberta Diary: As soon as the NDP picks a new leader today, the party’s focus should turn to Edmonton-Whitemud – here’s why
Your blogger with Edmonton-Whitemud NDP candidate Dr. Bob Turner. Yeah, I support the NDP. Live with it! Below: Retiring NDP Leader Brian Mason, Health Minister Stephen Mandel, Alberta Liberal candidate Donna Wilson and NDP leadership frontrunner Rachel Notley. After today, when the Alberta New Democratic Party has at long last
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta sitrep: Return of the Bitumen Bubble, sort of, rains on otherwise cheerful Prentice parade
A little rain fell on Premier Jim Prentice’s parade yesterday, but the tune the was playing was still pretty cheerful. Below: union members tune up to celebrate the demise of Bill 46 yesterday by singing Solidarity Forever this morning. Just when you think you’re finding your way out of the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta may be under ‘new management,’ but we’re getting the same old bait ’n’ switch tactics in health care!
Premier Jim Prentice and Health Minister Stephen Mandel, both PC candidates in the Oct. 27 four-seat mini-election, at yesterday’s “Bed Blocker” news conference in Edmonton. Below: NDP candidate Dr. Bob Turner and Liberal Candidate Dr. Donna Wilson, RN, both running against Mr. Mandel, ex-mayor; Seniors Minister Jeff Johnson; and AHS
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Plot summary for a zombie policy apocalypse: Return of the Living Bed Blockers, Nightmare on Alberta Avenue, Part IV
Even though we know the prescription for curing the “bed blocker” problem, it’s unlikely Alberta can escape the revenge of the conservative zombie policy makers, shown above. Actual Progressive Conservative and Wildrose policy makers may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Zombie policy enablers Jim Prentice and Danielle Smith; ER
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Happy Thanksgiving! Would the Tories praising our health care system please stop trying to privatize it!
Edmonton’s Misericordia Hospital waaay back in the day. Below: The modern Mis, the one in Edmonton’s west end that after 45 years is falling apart. Alberta Health Minister Stephen Mandel. Happy Thanksgiving! With a case of a “potential contagious illness” in an unidentified Edmonton hospital last night, I guess we
Continue readingAlberta Diary: On those Wildrose attack ads: they can hardly say Jim Prentice has ‘no plan’
The harshest of the three Wildrose Attack ads. Just let Youtube play, and you can see the Wildrose Party’s other two current attack ads plus its single positive spot. Below: A screen shot from one of the spectacularly ineffective 2006 No Plan ads attacking then premier Ed Stelmach. The full
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Despite statements by former premier and health minister, AHS has dropped its objection to paying full severance to fired CFO Allaudin Merali
Fred Horne and Alison Redford, back in the day. (CBC photo.) Below: Former Alberta Health Services senior vice-president and CFO Allaudin Merali; former Capital Health Region CEO Sheila Weatherill. Alberta Health Services has thrown in the towel on a key point of the legal dispute with Allaudin Merali and offered
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Welcome to Alberta, where, baby, these are the days of miracles and wonders…
Conservative political leaders distribute loaves and fishes, part of the school lunch program planned for the hundreds of new schools that will be popping up overnight out here in Alberta. Actual Alberta politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Premier Jim Prentice, Opposition Leader Danielle Smith and
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Ten Questions about the Harper Government’s embrace of war with ISIS-ISIL-IS
Ready, Aye, Ready! Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird whips up the War Party in the House of Commons. Below: Stephen Harper, the prime minister, and Edmonton Centre MP Laurie Hawn. Stephen Harper, John Baird, Laurie Hawn and the rest of the boys yesterday finally got the war in Iraq they’ve
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Postmedia-Quebecor deal: Welcome to newspaper hell, where the lowest common denominator will prevail
An unreconstituted Toronto Sun front page. Newspaper hell? Turns out it’s not quite as bad as we imagined it would be, except for the few unfortunates who still work in what’s left of the industry. Below: Tom Kent, who headed the 1981 Royal Commission on Newspapers, which was ignored when
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Remember where you heard it first: privatizing the Alberta government air fleet in haste was a lousy business decision
A flight steward welcomes well-connected passengers aboard a chartered government of Alberta flight sometime in the near future. But don’t worry about it. You’ll never know if Alberta’s privatized air services are not exactly as illustrated because there will be no accountability. Below: Premier Jim Prentice, the business guru who
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