What Alberta Advantage? Dr. Stanford as he addressed the Alberta Federation of Labour mid-term forum in Calgary yesterday (Photo: Twitter/Alberta Federation of Labour). A new report by economist Jim Stanford shows how working people in Alberta are experiencing unprecedented reductions in incomes, purchasing power, and living standards. Alberta’s Disappearing Advantage:
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Alberta Politics: Edmonton Police Commission locks its doors, retreats to the Internet, to avoid facing peaceful protesters
Almost a week after some of his officers violently cleared out a peaceful Palestine solidarity protest on the University of Alberta campus, Edmonton Police Chief Dale McPhee finally showed up yesterday to make his case at a police commission meeting. Edmonton Police Service Chief Dale McFee (Photo: X.com/DMMMcFee). But not
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Anger continues to grow at university administrations and police over Palestine solidarity encampment clearances
Gratuitous police violence on campus in the wee hours last Saturday has obviously exacerbated the foolish blunder made by University of Alberta President Bill Flanagan when he called in the riot squad to clear out a small encampment of students protesting the ongoing destruction of Gaza. University of Alberta President
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Gil McGowan, who quit NDP leadership race yesterday, was the only candidate to make an issue of the party’s relationship with workers
It was obvious the writing was on the wall when Gil McGowan summed up his pitch at Saturday’s NDP leadership forum: “If I don’t raise another $50,000 soon,” he told the audience, “I’m toast.” Rakhi Pancholi, who dropped out of the NDP leadership race the day Mr. McGowan dropped in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta NDP now has more than 85,000 members, party says; Gil McGowan drops out of leadership race
The Alberta NDP now has 85,144 members eligible to vote in the party’s leadership race, chief returning officer Amanda Freistadt said in a news release yesterday. Meanwhile, this morning, candidate Gil McGowan announced in an email to supporters that he is dropping out of the race. “I’m writing today to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Were the presidents of Alberta’s two largest universities pushed to call the cops to remove Gaza protesters, or did they jump?
Were the presidents of Alberta’s two largest universities pushed to use cops dressed up as stormtroopers to violently clear campus encampments used by students for a few hours to peacefully protest the continuing deadly assault on Gaza? University of Alberta President Bill Flanagan (Photo: Queens University). Or did they jump
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A timely message to our many anti-woke friends and acquaintances: Sorry about yer Rex Murphy!
Back in the day when the Calgary Herald was still a real newspaper with a newsroom, dozens of reporters, and a capital T in the first word of its title, there was a bit of gallows humour that by custom had to be performed by the first journalist to learn
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It’s never too early to panic! UCP introduces bill to extend its term and ‘control everything, everywhere, all at once’
The United Conservative Party announced yesterday it would use the potential for spring forest fires three years from now as an excuse to extend its term in office by four and a half months. Opposition Justice, Public Safety and Emergency Services Critic Irfan Sabir (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). The government’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Naheed Nenshi’s 2019 letter asking UCP to suspend unionized Calgary employees’ contract rights sparks sharp rebukes
Has Naheed Nenshi just had his reverse chicken salad moment? NDP leadership candidate Gil McGowan, who is president of the Alberta Federation of Labour (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). It was future U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson, then the Senate Majority leader, who astutely observed of Richard Nixon in 1958 that
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Environmental action then and now in Alberta – don’t hold your breath waiting for promises to be kept
RED DEER – Alberta has struck a new committee “to help reclaim tailings ponds” in the province’s oilsands, says the headline on a news release published yesterday. Former Alberta environment minister Lorne Taylor (Photo: Screenshot of video found at alchetron.com). There’s something about the wording of that headline that reminds
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Another little flaw with Bill 20: It’s not just bad law, it’ll probably make life hell for UCP backbenchers
Alberta’s United Conservative Party MLAs are likely to soon get a hard lesson in what the late Colin Powell supposedly called the Pottery Barn Rule. The late Colin Powell, U.S. secretary of state, the guy who gets credit for mentioning the Pottery Barn Rule, whether he did or not (Photo:
Continue readingAlberta Politics: May 6, 2015: Alberta awakes to the realization it’s just elected a majority NDP government, surprising everyone, including the NDP
What can you say nine years after we all woke up and realized that the night before Albertans really had elected a majority NDP government? Well, it was a great night, a great morning after, and, despite some disappointments, the government run by Rachel Notley wasn’t a bad one by
Continue readingAlberta Politics: High-speed rail in Alberta: STILL a terrible idea that won’t go away!
Alberta has a plan to create a “master plan” for a huge passenger rail network around the province! Really. OK, the unidentified man on the left above is Devin Dreeshen, who nowadays is the minister of transportation and economic corridors in Ms. Smith’s Government – if anyone spots an economic corridor,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP executes screeching reversal of plan to stop funding low-income transit pass program
Less than 24 hours after the Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government pulled the plug on low-income transit programs in Edmonton and Calgary, Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon executed a screeching bootlegger turn this morning and completely reversed course. Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon, who
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Edmonton and Calgary mayors appear gobsmacked by unexpected UCP move to slash funds to low-income transit pass program
Having announced Monday it would spend $9 million cooking up a fanciful provincial railway “masterplan” that includes a public transit component, the United Conservative Party Government yesterday informed Edmonton and Calgary it is ending its contribution to their low-income transit pass programs. Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek (Photo: Calgary.ca). The mayors
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The NDP leadership campaign so far: pretty boring, and seriously distracting when the UCP is running wild
The worst thing about the seemingly endless Alberta NDP leadership race isn’t that it’s boring, although it is. NDP leadership candidate Kathleen Ganley (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). It’s that the NDP Caucus in the Legislature appears to be totally distracted by it at a time the United Conservative Party Government
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Municipal Government Act already gives the government power to fire councillors – so why fix what ain’t broke?
When then municipal affairs minister Danielle Larivee fired three Thorhild County councillors in 2016, the county’s reeve accused the Alberta NDP of “Soviet-style government.” Former NDP MLA Deron Bilous, who served as municipal affairs minister immediately before Ms. Larivee (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Under the circumstances, this hardly seems fair.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP’s legislation sets stage for municipal political parties, arbitrary nullification of bylaws, and firing of councillors by cabinet
We may be living in the 21st Century, but Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Government is apparently still suffering from the 19th Century distrust of voters and democracy that convinced the Fathers of Confederation to give us that unelected Senate. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). So, yesterday, Alberta
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Plan to have patients at Calgary clinic pony up ‘membership fees’ might have had a chance if the UCP’s War on Ottawa had heated up sooner
Timing is everything, so Dr. Sally Talbot-Jones must have been kicking herself yesterday for launching her effort to charge patients as much as $4,800 a year up front to see a doctor in a timely fashion when she did. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). It must have been
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Busted! Globe outs Danielle Smith’s unpublicized pandemic data ‘task force’ headed by physician who attacked COVID restrictions
When Alberta Premier Danielle Smith mused in the midst debate over her government’s new funding turf war with Ottawa that “we could also establish our own research programs” to ensure ideological balance in academic research, many Albertans suspected they understood precisely what she had in mind. Dr. Gary Davidson, the
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