Typical Alberta Progressive Conservative Party members. Or, wait, are those Wildrose members? Alberta’s rural elite may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths, Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel. Where’s the NDP when we need them? Here it is 2013, the Earth is
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Alberta Diary: Minuscule Canadian Taxpayers Federation in running for ‘Turfy Award’
Former Canadian Taxpayers Federation Alberta Director Scott Hennig, now the group’s Communications VP, in a nice AstroTurf-coloured sweater at last weekend’s Ottawa conference of the Manning Centre for Undermining Democracy. Below: CTF President Troy Lanigan; CTF member … rrrrrrr … supporter, Riley Climenhaga; CTF Operations VP Shannon Morrison. When it
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Is the right-wing Manning Centre plotting ‘Manchurian Municipal Candidates’?
Former Texas Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul, the crazy uncle of American politics, with some of his young acolytes at this weekend’s Manning Centre “Big Ideas” conference. Below: anti-medicare crusader Dr. Brian Day, a sign directing conferees to advice on how to sell their kidneys, and Mr. Manning himself.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Former Aussie PM’s unintended message to Canadian progressives: coalitions work!
Former Australian PM John Howard at the Manning Centre’s Ottawa gabfest Sunday. Below: Tom Flanagan pictured on a button worn by many at Preston Manning’s “big-tent” conservative revival meeting, “Calgary School” professor Rainer Knopff seen in passing sporting his Flanagan button. OTTAWA Was former Australian PM John Howard sending Canadian
Continue readingAlberta Diary: With Liberals in rear-view mirror, conservative deep thinkers ponder greener look
Your blogger offers Preston Manning a couple of big ideas for conservatives to think about. Below: Liberal Justin Trudeau, pollster Andre Turcotte. OTTAWA While the Forum Research polling company was proclaiming that if an election were held today, Justin Trudeau would be prime minister, conservatives of an assortment of exotic
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Close enough for government work: Alberta Tories manage to hold their centre-right turf
Finance Minister Doug Horner preps Albertans for yesterday’s budget. Actual Alberta finance ministers may not appear exactly as illustrated – but that’s the trick, isn’t it? Below: The real Doug Horner. All in all, I guess, you could make a good case this was a pretty lousy budget. It’s deeply
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta budget primer: when they say ‘tough decisions,’ they really mean … ‘decisions that will be tough on you’
Typical Albertans await tomorrow’s budget aboard the Good Ship Richest Place on Earth. Alberta may not actually be as damp as illustrated. Below: Premier Alison Redford. Why is this woman smirking? Oh, we’ll squeeze you till the pips squeak, Premier Alison Redford seemed to be promising Albertans yesterday, as we
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Two polls show how, and maybe why, Alberta’s Tory coalition is crumbling
Weakened but still standing: The mighty Tory edifice. Don’t panic. This is a metaphor! Below: Alberta Premier Alison Redford. It’s interesting to juxtapose the results of two new polls on related but different topics that were released yesterday – a Think HQ poll of Alberta voter intentions and an Environics
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Are Alberta’s cannily incompetent Conservatives quietly awaiting a ‘Bitumen Gusher’?
Everybody should be as happy about Alberta’s “Bitumen Gusher” as these two guys, your blogger and former Finance Minister Ron Liepert. Below: AUPE’s chart of the price differential between Alberta bitumen and West Texas Intermediate crude. Below that: The Alberta government’s chart showing its natural resource revenue projections to 2022,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Despite neocon flameout distraction, Redford Tory bumbling dominates Alberta news
Neocon Icarus Tom Flanagan (appropriately covered, thank goodness) at right, falls to earth after flying too close to the sun. Preston Manning hovers nearby. The flameout of actual neoconservative avatars may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Health Minister Fred Horne, Education Minister Jeff Johnson, and retired judge John Z.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Tom Flanagan, neoconservative spiritual leader, consigned to utter darkness
Conservative icon Tom Flanagan’s defining moment. Below: Dr. Flanagan in happier times; the six signatories of the Alberta separatist Firewall Manifesto; Richard Nixon saying goodbye during his 1952 Checkers speech. Unlike Dr. Flanagan’s likely career trajectory, Mr. Nixon came back. Who could have predicted that yesterday would be the pope’s
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Looking back in perplexity: where did all of Alberta’s money go again?
First World money and Third World roads. If we’re so rich in Alberta, why do we seem so poor? A motorist negotiates one of Edmonton’s famed potholes. Actual Edmonton drivers may not have snappy uniforms like this fellow. Below: Author, professor and former Alberta Liberal politician Kevin Taft, the cover
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Education minister’s bluff called by apoplectic schoolteachers! Now what?
The trading pit: Is this what Alberta Education Minister Jeff Johnson sees when he thinks of the Alberta Teachers Association? Actual Alberta schoolteachers may not be exactly as illustrated. Then again, these days … Below: Mr. Johnson and ATA President Carol Henderson. OK, Alberta Education Minister Jeff Johnson’s bizarre attempt
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Why is Alberta’s medical queue-jumping inquiry uninterested in dramatic 1990s case?
Dr. Ron Bridges of the Helios Wellness Clinic testifying yesterday in a screen grab from CBC’s broadcast. Below, Dr. Ciaran McNamee, who hasn’t been called to testify. What are we to make of the fact Alberta’s preferential health care access inquiry has failed to call a witness who was at
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Renting seniors’ beds is a formula for failure – and it’s time for Alberta to stop doing it
Fresh air and yogurt might have helped these guys live to be 160, but if they’d lived in Alberta, instead of Russia, where could they afford to sleep? Below, seniors care in Calgary, back in the day, before oldsters all carried tennis racquets, rode bicycles and looked like fashion models,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: One single Alberta government bargaining agency is likely to end badly for Redford PCs
Premier Alison Redford, in lab coat, centre, and her Progressive Conservative cabinet get ready to bring Consolidated Bargaining to life. Actual Alberta politicians may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Albert Einstein, the well-known genius, and Charles Darwin, who gave us the idea for the Political Darwin Awards. Chances are
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Taxpayers and students have a right to know what’s happening at Athabasca University
Athabasca University from the air, with the town of Athabasca in the background. Below: Former VP Academic Margaret Haughey, President Frits Pannekoek and former VP IT Brian Stewart. What the heck is going on at Athabasca University? It was revealed to the university’s faculty earlier this week that four senior
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta queue-jumping inquiry update: Who pays $10,000 a year for yoga and diet advice?
Members of the public line up at Forzani and MacPhail Colon Cancer Screening Centre. While it is true there are no actual well-heeled clients of the Helios Wellness Clinic in this lineup, actual lines of Calgarians awaiting medical tests may nevertheless not be exactly as illustrated. Below. Retired justice John
Continue readingAlberta Diary: President’s memo cites executive reshuffle at Athabasca University
Athabasca University – safe for the moment, president says. Major executive changes have been made at Athabasca University, with the departure of several senior executives widely rumoured among university staff today. In an email to faculty sent early this afternoon, Athabasca University President Frits Pannekoek tried to reassure employees about
Continue readingAlberta Diary: ‘Freddy Lee’ Morton, the journalistic sequel: We’ve already seen this horror movie, thanks!
Freddy Lee Morton, in happier times, with your blogger. Below: Firewaller Tom Flanagan; the entire separatist 2001 Firewall team (grabbed from the National Post). Freddy Lee “Ted” Morton, the worst premier Alberta never had, was back in the pages of the Calgary Herald the other day, bloviating at length about
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