Perfesser Dave with Gene Zwozdesky, a.k.a. Mr. Speaker, the Speaker of the Alberta Legislature, with that rara avis, a recent Alberta Throne Speech. But not the one for March 5, 2013. Quick quiz: Why is that? Below: Alberta Premier Alison Redford in a screen grab from last week’s “State of
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Alberta Diary: Preston Manning’s well-funded ideological hobbyhorse takes aim at civic progressives
Calgary City Hall: The next target for former Reform Party leader Preston Manning’s not-very-merry band of far-right ideologues? Below: Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi and neoconservative ideological guru Manning back in the day. Is the so-called Manning Centre for Building Democracy preparing to target Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi and other progressive
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Postponing the Day of Reckoning, Alberta-style
Alberta Premier Alison Redford beseeches the Almighty for higher petroleum prices as Wildrose Finance Critic Rob Anderson looks on. Actual Alberta politicians may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Social democratic men of God J.S. Woodsworth (Methodist), Tommy Douglas (Baptist) and Stanley Knowles (United). So what’s with the Redford Government’s
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Premier’s fireside chat: No fire, few facts, and no there there
Alberta Premier Alison Redford earnestly explains the “Bitumen Bubble” to TV viewers last night. Is that really a radio on the credenza? Below: Ms. Redford fades to Tory blue. When Alberta Premier Alison Redford’s $55,000 fireside chat wrapped up after eight thoroughly unsatisfactory minutes last night, Albertans didn’t know anything
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Uh-oh! Premier Alison Redford wants to have a ‘conversation’ with us
Fireside chats? Alberta Premier Alison Redford as she’ll likely see herself while softening up the province’s citizens for the March 7 Budget Speech on CTV tonight. Below: Ms. Redford as Albertans may see her. Below that: the real Ms. Redford; Conference Board Chief Economist Glen Hodgson. Oh dear. Premier Alison
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Sun News Network pleads with anti-choice group to back its quest for ‘right to life’ subsidy
Sun News Network commentator back in the day complaining about how media outlets want the government to solve everything. This goes for Sun News Network and its financial problems too, it turns out. Below: Anti-choice Sun News commentator Michael Coren. As part of its full-court press to get the CRTC
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Why is Alberta studying seniors’ care at the same time as it’s privatizing it?
Coming soon to seniors’ centres in Alberta, a new model of elder care? Below: Health Minister Fred Horne. On Monday, Alberta Health Minister Fred Horne announced a year-long project to study seniors’ residential centres and figure out the best way to fund and run them. Sounds good, lots of Albertans
Continue readingAlberta Diary: With no market for hate and right-wing drivel, Sun News comes cap in hand for public subsidy
More gruel, sir? The face of Sun News Network that Sun News Network would like you to see as they beg for public subsidies. Below: The real face of Sun News Network. Sun News Network, that fearless foe of state subsidies for the CBC, wants you, Dear Television Viewer, to
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Idle No More protests successfully wind up Alberta solicitor general
Alberta Solicitor General and Justice Minister Jonathan Denis, right, reacts to word of an Idle No More road blockade while Calgary Sun columnist Rick Bell looks on. Actual Alberta politicians and commentators may not appear precisely as illustrated. Below: the real Denis the Menace before he popped a gasket and
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta’s health care queue-jumping inquiry finds itself at a crucial fork in the road
Is Alberta’s queue-jumping inquiry a real inquiry, or a kabuki play, as above? We’ll know soon. Below: Alberta NDP leader Brian Mason on the steps of the Legislature … with a reference to Alberta Liberal Leader Raj Sherman in the background. With the revelation earlier this week of systematic queue
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Inquiry testimony suggests pricey private clinics – nudge-nudge, wink-wink – really can engineer preferential access
Wheeling and dealing: Staff of private clinics use advanced clinical techniques to decide which patients go to the front of the line for quick medical tests. Alberta medical insiders may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Retired judge John Vertes, Alberta Health Minister Fred Horne. What appears to be the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Redford Tories’ conundrum: Progressive reason versus Conservative passion
They kissed us once. Will they kiss us again? Alas, in Alberta right now, there’s no way to be cert- cert- certain. Alison Redford chats with a typical Alberta voter last spring – although, Alberta politicians and their supporters may not turn out to be exactly as illustrated. Below: The
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Misleading with statistics: the Fraser Institute on health care and ‘value for money’
This just in! The latest mainstream media news straight from the Vancouver studios of the Fraser Institute, complete with no fact checking! No sooner noted than illuminated – yesterday morning mainstream media was credulously reporting another “Fraser Factoid,” this one a report by the far-right political lobby group purporting to
Continue readingAlberta Diary: In 2011, Fraser Institute continued to take Koch Brothers donations and file tax returns claiming no political activity
Michael Walker, right, President of the Fraser Institute Foundation and former director of the Fraser Institute, looks at a copy of the Edmonton Sun with a well-known columnist from that newspaper. The great public intellectuals of the Canadian right may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Consistent Fraser Institute donors
Continue readingAlberta Diary: What’s with Laureen Harper’s stock portfolio selloff? Fiscal Götterdämmerung? Or what?
Laureen Harper tuning up her pipes for the fiscal Götterdämmerung? Canadian political spouses may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Mrs. Harper; the unreal Mr. Harper, long rumoured to be in the doghouse. Terribly rude of me to ask, I know. Positively un-Canadian! But what’s with Laureen Harper’s
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Freedom from gun terror: why understanding American history can help keep Canadians sane
An American militia in 1773 … before they were well regulated and illustrating why they needed to be. Most militia units, said Gen. George Washington, were “totally unacquainted with every kind of military skill.” Below: President Washington; President Thomas Jefferson. One of the effects of the horrific tragedy at Sandy
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The cheek of Jim Flaherty … expensing his Maybelline while preaching austerity!
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty before application of his Smashbox and Cover Girl. Below: Mr. Flaherty after his makeup makeover. Warning: Any resemblance to J. Edgar Hoover is certainly purely coincidental. Below that: FBI icon J. Edgar Hoover and the real Mr. Flaherty. Jim Flaherty portrait by Edmonton artist William Prettie.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: A tsunami of Tory troubles? Naw, the Alberta universe is unfolding as it should…
All we want are the facts, Ma’am. A couple of investigators hired by Alberta Chief Electoral Officer O. (for Olaf) Brian Fjeldheim prepare to go through the files of friends, relatives and employees of billionaire Daryl Katz who may or may not have donated money to the Redford Tories. Actual
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Eureka! Labour relations in Alberta explained by, of all things, NHL hockey!
An Alberta Labour Relations Board official suddenly realizes how the world works, and immediately rules in favour of the employer. Application of the law in Alberta may be pretty much exactly as illustrated. All but forgotten amidst the rejoicing about the tentative end of the National Hockey League lockout reached
Continue readingAlberta Diary: With the NHL back on the ice, why not let Chinese taxpayers subsidize Canada’s billionaires?
The Great Leap Forum: what Edmonton’s luxurious new ice hockey palace could look like with a little gesture of internationist solidarity from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Communist Chinese friends. Conceptual art by Dave Cournoyer used with permission. It’s a moment of such perfect convergence that it’s astonishing Alberta’s Wildrose Party,
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