Opposition party members prepare to run against the Progressive Conservative candidates, uncertain why they are being made to race with sacks on their feet while the Tories aren’t. Actual Alberta politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated. New faces below: The NDP’s Jennifer Burgess; the Tories’ Mike Ellis. Premier Jim
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Alberta Diary: Time for Tories to place a bet: Jim Prentice reaches a crucial moment in a high-stakes game
Prentice… James Prentice… Alberta’s premier eyes the opposition as the time grows near to decide whether to hold ’em, fold ’em, or just run. No way he can walk away now! Actual PC politicians dealt a lousy hand may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Mr. Prentice; Calgary-Nose
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The best candidates aren’t necessarily the best candidates in important Edmonton-Whitemud by-election
Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith introduces her party’s Edmonton-Whitemud candidate, Tim, Grover, at a news conference in the riding yesterday. Below: NDP Candidate Dr. Bob Turner, Mr. Grover again, and former Edmonton mayor, unelected health minister and PC candidate Stephen Mandel. In the race to knock off an unelected health minister
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta Premier Jim Prentice repudiates controversial Redford Era triple-entry financial bookkeeping scheme
Alberta Health Minister Stephen Mandel and Premier Jim Prentice, neither elected just yet. Below: Former finance minister Doug Horner, current Education Minister Gordon Dirks, also unelected, and Emperor Augustus. Notice the similarity of the emperor to Mr. Mandel. Well, nuts to you, Doug Horner! Alberta Premier Jim Prentice continued his
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Brian Gallant has a thin resume? Stephen Harper hasn’t held a real job since he quit the mailroom in ’79 or whenever!
New Brunswick Premier-designate Brian Gallant, grabbed from his campaign website. Below: Cranky old National Post opinion thingy Kelly McParland, age undetermined; Justin Trudeau, 42, getting off an airplane with some old guy, 62; Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair, 59. As the present now will later be past The order is rapidly
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Calgary’s new ‘Band-Aid’ schools: just the thing for a government suffering the death of a thousand cuts
Temporary structures like the army huts in the background, built in 1939 and ’40, were still in use when this shot was taken at the just-formed University of Victoria circa 1963, and a few of them are still in use today. Below: Alberta Premier Jim Prentice, Wildrose education critic Jeff
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Be careful what you ask for! Jim Prentice walks away with the Wildrose political play book
Premier Jim Prentice. Below: Wildrose Party Leader Danielle Smith and former party strategist Tom Flanagan, this time on the button. As the expression goes: be careful what you ask for! You might just get it. There is irony – perhaps even bitter irony – in what newly minted Alberta Premier
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Rob Anders, Canada’s Worst MP, has been handed his great big hat a second time
Calgary West MP Rob Anders waves farewell from the back of a pickup truck, a type of vehicle that along with firearms was numbered among his most loved things. Below: Nomination victor Martin Shields; Mr. Anders in one of his favourite poses, with a great big pistol, and asleep in
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta Premier Jim Prentice plucks the low-hanging fruit – now for the hard stuff…
If getting rid of SAM wasn’t that easy, imagine what the green eggs and ham are going to be like! Above, Premier Jim Prentice with the licence plate Alberta won’t be dumping after all. (CBC photo) Below: The typical Progressive Conservative, not necessarily exactly as illustrated. It’s one thing to
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Ex-leadership candidate Thomas Lukaszuk vows to pen tell-all book on Alison Redford’s rule
Your blogger with budding author Thomas Lukaszuk, back during the former deputy premier’s campaign to lead the PC Party. Below: Former PC premier Alison Redford; current PC Premier Jim Prentice. I’ve gotta say, I’m really looking forward to my free copy of Thomas Lukaszuk’s tell-all book about how he tried
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Dear Scotland: Do whatever you think is best … but remember, the Globe and Mail never has your interests at heart
A typical Western Canadian scene: snapped in Edmonton, Alberta, in 2014. The Scotch, as we used to say when I was growing up in B.C., pretty much built Western Canada, leastways the European superstructure of buildings, roads and railways that lies atop the land of the first inhabitants. You need
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Unelected and unknown education minister looms as first major blunder of Jim Prentice’s New Tory Government
Still on track? Jim Prentice’s New Tory Government experiences its first full day of governing. Below: Unelected Education Minister Gordon Dirks. The appointment of Gordon Dirks as unelected minister of education by Premier Jim Prentice on his first day in office has the potential to become the first serious political
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Privatization of Alberta’s air fleet will cost citizens money and change nothing
A typical government airplane explained. The politics and financing are more complicated. Below: Jim Prentice. Privatization of the Alberta government’s four-plane air fleet, announced this morning by unelected Premier Jim Prentice at his first official news conference, makes plenty of political sense, but will end up costing citizens more and
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Strap on your seat belts? Jim Prentice’s cabinet is more like a drive down memory lane
Jim Prentice prepares to be sworn in yesterday. Below: Health Minister Stephen Mandel and social media gadfly Olav Rokne. Things were going to change in Alberta so much once his capable hands were on the steering wheel, Jim Prentice warned us, that we’d better make sure we’d strapped on our
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Outgoing Premier pro tempore Dave Hancock: 17 years of going along to get along
Another fine mess? No, no, it was a Bitumen Bubble that caused it! Really! Dave Hancock, left, shown explaining cuts to post-secondary education, imposed by Alison Redford, right, back when the bitumen was bubbling. Actual Redford Government officials may not have appeared exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Mr. Hancock,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Political business in great waters: When they that go down to the sea in ships are up to no good!
Prime Minister and First Lord of the Admiralty Stephen Harper. For all we know, actual Canadian prime ministers do appear in silk stockings and tri-corner hats exactly as illustrated. You know, in private. Below: The unlucky Sir John Franklin. O Eternal Lord God, who alone rulest the raging of the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Dispatches from your crazy Uncle Steve: It’s all the fault of the media elite!
“Isn’t that Brian Mulroney talking to some guy … Hey! Isn’t that one-a those Trudeaus?! Mulroney’s just another Trudeau lover! Like the Ottawa media elite!” Yadda-yadda… Below: The real Crazy Uncle Steve, Mr. Mulroney again, Heather Mallick. You can tell she’s a member of the urban Ottawa media elite because
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Cabinet making in a shallow talent pool: what’s Alberta’s Jim Prentice going to do?
The Alberta Tory talent pool in 2014. Shallow, and not much fun for the guy in charge. Actual Alberta PC leaders may not appear as illustrated. Below: The real Mr. Jim Prentice. Main photo grabbed from the Internet. Never mind the transition team. What about the cabinet? It’s not just
Continue readingAlberta Diary: How many PC memberships were given away? It’s time to get to know the known unknowns of the leadership campaign
Alberta’s PCs are smiling today as Jim Prentice, at right, takes over the helm of the RMS Titanic Tory. Actual just-elected leaders of the Progressive Conservative Party may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Jim Prentice as he appeared surrounded by media last night. (Photo by Dave Cournoyer,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Prentice in a walk – but the low voter turnout tells the real story about the fate of the Alberta Progressive Conservatives
This file photo, almost as boring as Jim Prentice’s speech to the troops in Edmonton tonight, and I have it on good authority it was pretty darned boring, will be replaced later if anyone sends me a better one. VICTORIA, B.C. Well! That’s it then. Jim Prentice in a walk,
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