Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, back from an ill-timed and seemingly mostly fruitless trip to Washington D.C., pleaded for federal Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole’s political life yesterday at a typical Alberta Government news conference about nothing in particular. “I would just say this to my friends in the federal Conservative
Continue readingAuthor: David Climenhaga
Alberta Politics: A not-so-bold prediction: that $9.5-million GoFundMe pot will be a tempting target for Ottawa civil lawyers
The mysteriously sourced “Freedom Convoy 2022” account on the GoFundMe crowd-funding site sat at more than $9.5 million yesterday. Its fund-raising goal, which has been repeatedly ratcheted up over the past two weeks, is now $10-million. Meanwhile, as the occupation of their city by far-right “freedom convoy” anti-vaccine-mandate protesters continues
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Did Jason Kenney’s support for Ottawa anti-vaxx-mandate convoy protest encourage copycat Coutts blockade he now condemns?
It would be ironic if Premier Jason Kenney’s baseless claim a week ago that Ottawa’s vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers had led to empty shelves in Alberta grocery stores ended up causing real shortages. Mr. Kenney’s tweets of photos of empty grocery shelves and his tendentious assertions that “with a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: We are judged by the company we keep: a harsh lesson Michael Cooper and many other Conservative MPs are about to learn
ST. ALBERT, Alberta – Michael Cooper, Member of Parliament for this small suburban city and a part of Edmonton next door, is going to wake up to a big problem this morning that’s unlikely to go away any time soon. Mr. Cooper’s problem is a microcosm of the troubles now
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Perennial favourite Five Little Indians by Michelle Good returns to top of independent bookshops’ Alberta fiction bestseller list
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. ALBERTA FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Five
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Very fine people on both sides? Jason Kenney defends convoy participants; says NDP welcomes ‘eco-terrorists’ to protests
Yesterday, the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Commons warned Members of Parliament that individuals associated with the anti-vaccine-mandate truck convoy nearing the nation’s capital have been trying to suss out the location of their Ottawa residences. House of Commons Sergeant-at-Arms Patrick McDonell (Photo: Creator not identified). Also yesterday, Jason Kenney
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP MLAs on Legislature committee block Auditor General from reporting findings on how government handled COVID-19
Alberta’s Auditor-General has completed six performance audits of the United Conservative Party Government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. But as you may already have seen on social media, Doug Wylie won’t be allowed to tell anyone about them. Alberta Auditor General Doug Wylie (Photo: Office of the Auditor General). That
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Maverick Party obviously has no problem with its party secretary’s role in anti-vaccine-mandate truck convoy protest
The Medicine Hat woman who is the public face of the GoFundMe campaign that has now theoretically raised more than $5 million to support the “Freedom Convoy 2022” motorcade protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates remains a senior officer of the separatist-leaning Maverick Party. The Maverick Party website identifies Tamara Lich
Continue readingAlberta Politics: With ‘red alerts’ plaguing Alberta ambulance calls, health minister Jason Copping forms advisory committee to search for a fix
With EMS “red alerts” spiking in Alberta and both Calgary and Edmonton running out of ambulances to respond to emergencies roughly every 90 minutes, Health Minister Jason Copping yesterday announced he’s forming an advisory committee to study how to improve ambulance services in Alberta. To be fair, Mr. Copping also
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Is the UCP suggesting it’s time to show Russia a thing or two by halting the TMX pipeline expansion?
Will members of all Canadian political parties soon demand that we halt the TMX pipeline expansion project? I ask because, with the current great power tension in Ukraine likely to reach some kind of a climax soon, we are already hearing fierce calls in Canada for severe and even warlike
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Online fund-raising campaign for rolling truck blockades to protest vaccine mandates linked to right-wing separatist groups
An online fund-raising campaign organized by a person associated with the Maverick Party and other western separatist causes has raised more than $1.6 million in a week to bankroll highway disruptions by truckers angry at Ottawa for imposing a vaccine mandate on cross-border essential workers. The “Freedom Convoy 2022” campaign
Continue readingAlberta Politics: To Paradise by American novelist Hanya Yanagihara tops Independent bookshops’ Alberta fiction bestseller list
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. I don’t have much to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Not much edification in yesterday’s COVID-19 newser as Premier Kenney and officials ‘filibuster’ the hard questions
There was little informative or edifying about the mostly successful effort by Premier Jason Kenney and three of his senior health care enablers to run out the clock on reporters’ questions at yesterday’s COVID-19 news conference. Facing not only the potential for difficult questions about the chaos in Alberta’s schools
Continue readingAlberta Politics: As energy minister, acting Alberta justice minister Sonya Savage also has a less-than-stellar record
While Kaycee Madu cools his jets in the political penalty box for phoning Edmonton’s police chief about a traffic ticket, it’s worth noting that acting justice minister Sonya Savage has not exactly covered herself in glory during her two and a half years as energy minister. Touted as a high-profile
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What did Jason Kenney know about Kaycee Madu’s phone call and when did he know it?
What did Jason Kenney know and when did he know it? Those are the most important questions arising from now-suspended justice minister Kaycee Madu’s telephone call a little over 10 months ago to tell Edmonton Police Chief Dale McFee he’d been ticketed by an city traffic cop for distracted driving.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Kenney benches Justice Minister Kaycee Madu after revelation he phoned Edmonton police chief about traffic ticket
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney put his justice minister on the bench last night after a CBC story revealed one of the first things Kaycee Madu did after a traffic cop handed him a $300 distracted driving ticket for talking on his cellular phone as he motored through an Edmonton school
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Research paper argues Canadian Taxpayers Federation pushed ‘anti-Indigenous political rhetoric and policy’ over 21 years
Locating the Canadian Taxpayers Federation clearly in the ecosystem of neoliberal advocacy, a recent paper in the Canadian Review of Sociology analyzes more than 400 documents published by the CTF over 21 years to argue the organization has pushed “anti-Indigenous political rhetoric and policy.” Lead author Kyle Willmott, a professor
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Concordia University of Edmonton strike ends as faculty association members ratify new collective agreement
After 11 days on the picket line, members of the Concordia University of Edmonton Faculty Association have ratified a tentative agreement, ending the first strike by university faculty members in Alberta history. The agreement opens the door for classes to begin at the university on Wednesday, Jan. 19, the faculty
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard tops independent booksellers’ non-fiction bestseller list for week ended Jan. 9
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. I was mildly disappointed not
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If the UCP’s Leela Aheer still has political ambitions, she’ll likely need a new political party to pursue them
If Leela Aheer hopes to continue her career in Alberta provincial politics, she’ll probably need to find a new political party. Well, sure, the United Conservative Party MLA who lately has become a frequent and vocal critic of Premier Jason Kenney could theoretically still win the United Conservative Party nomination
Continue reading