Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton during the week ended July 21, 2019. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. The Nickel Boys – Colson Whitehead 2. Kingdom of the Blind
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Alberta Politics: Guest Post by Olav Rokne: How Alberta missed a chance to fix the inherent problems of geographically based voting
The troubling rise of Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the United Kingdom and President Donald Trump in the United States can both be traced to the inherent problems of geographically based electoral districts. Before Alberta’s election in April, we had a chance to fix those flaws. Instead, the work of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Can Boris Johnson do what some of history’s most notorious villains failed to do – destroy the U.K.?
Is it likely Boris Johnson will accomplish something neither Napoleon nor Hitler could manage – to wit, destruction of the United Kingdom? Perhaps it’s not likely. States like trees, even badly broken ones, possess a powerful life force. But it’s definitely now within the bounds of possibility. The Royal Navy,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Corporate Mapping Project grant was approved on Stephen Harper’s watch, OK?
On a personal note, it was a disappointing shock to learn of Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s rage tweet yesterday morning blaming Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the $2.5-million Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant to the Corporate Mapping Project that was awarded on former prime minister Stephen Harper’s watch
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jim Stanford Part II: An Australian cautionary tale for Alberta and Canada
What do Albertans imagine will happen if we manage to build more pipelines to tidewater, as the ocean is known out here on the Great Plains of North America? Going into last April’s Alberta provincial election, there was a clear consensus by both Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party and Rachel
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Irony is dead but doublethink thrives as Calgary opts to cut services and subsidize hockey billionaires at once
Really, what can one say about the deal the City of Calgary struck with the Flames professional hockey club yesterday for the former Cowtown’s taxpayers to subsidize half the cost of a new arena for the team to the tune of $225 million at the same moment as this city
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Why are Conservative-run Canadian provinces turning down federal cash? The answer’s in the Republican playbook
When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau observed back on April 16 that the Ontario provincial government led by Premier Doug Ford was throwing roadblocks in the way of Ontario municipalities accessing federal money for needed transportation infrastructure, Conservatives responded with angry denials, and not just in Ontario. The prime minister had
Continue readingAlberta Politics: More questions than answers in last week’s fallout from 2017 UCP leadership campaign
Eight Alberta United Conservative Party MLAs, five of them cabinet ministers, now admit they’ve been interviewed by the RCMP in the federal police force’s ongoing investigation into the curious goings on during the party’s 2017 leadership race, from which Premier Jason Kenney emerged victorious. Every time another UCP Caucus member
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Laini Giles’ Bathing Beauty: A Novel of Marie Prevost tops Audreys Books Edmonton fiction bestseller list
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton during the week ended July 14, 2019. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Bathing Beauty: A Novel of Marie Prevost – Laini Giles *
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Lesson of the Beaver: Something for Alberta’s fossil fuel boosters to think about
If you forget everything else, just remember this about our country’s incessant and often bitter debate about fossil fuels: “Canada is never going to run out of oil, just like we never ran out of beavers.” We owe this pearl of insight to Canadian economist Jim Stanford, late of the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Advice to Jason Kenney’s cabinet: curb your enthusiasms, one conspiracy theory at a time!
It’s sound advice in private and public life to restrict yourself to one nutty conspiracy theory at a time, lest folks start to wonder if you’re the one who’s, well, nutty. Take Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party Government in the context of this sensible and widely held rule of thumb.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Yet another annual message to the Calgary Stampede: real men don’t hurt animals for entertainment
There will be a “thorough review process surrounding chuckwagon safety” after the deaths of six horses during the 2019 Calgary Stampede, which is now mercifully over. Oh, please! There will be no meaningful review of the safety of the horses that are abused for fun at the Stampede, just as
Continue readingAlberta Politics: OK, he said nothing new, but why did Justin Trudeau’s pipeline presser make Conservatives so angry?
Conservatives’ faux shock at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s relatively news free pipeline construction announcement in Edmonton last week was a thing to behold. The tone generally was, “there oughtta be a law,” to wit, a law against making announcements when you have nothing to announce. Only with considerably harsher language,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Andrew Sheer would let Canadians rot in foreign jails before giving up an electoral edge!
I rarely paid much attention to John McCallum during his years as a federal Liberal cabinet minister under three prime ministers and, on the few occasions I did, he never left much of an impression one way or the other. But I was shocked last week both by the specious
Continue readingAlberta Politics: My Eyes Are Dim Part II: AlbertaPolitcs.ca must take another short break from publication
Actually, it’s no longer true that my eyes are dim – one of them is pretty darned clear now. But eyes, like some other body parts, come in pairs and work best that way, so the restoration of my eyesight must now continue to its second act. Accordingly, as was
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s foreign-funded-fossil-fuel defamation inquisition: Stand by for an expensive gong show
Here are three predictions about Jason Kenney’s inquiry into that “foreign-funded defamation campaign” against Alberta’s fossil fuel industry. It will be a gong show It will cost far more than $2.5 million It will end up harming the industry, and Alberta The roots of this likely debacle are found in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Stephen Harper’s proposed restrictions on bitumen exports caused no uproar – so why the fury at Justin Trudeau?
Late last week, Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer was once again accusing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Government of wanting to phase out the oilsands, as he put it, and passing laws to put that putative plan into action. Notwithstanding a lack of persuasive evidence, the popularity of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Five Red Sentries, poetry by Raye Hendrickson, tops Audreys Books Edmonton Bestseller List
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton during the week ended June 30, 2019. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Five Red Sentries (poetry) – Raye Hendrickson 2. Trickster Drift –
Continue readingAlberta Politics: We need an honest inquiry into foreign political funding – unfortunately, Jason Kenney’s ‘witch hunt’ inquiry isn’t it
In truth, Canada needs a thorough and honest inquiry into foreign political funding, online manipulation and influence. Unfortunately, the $2.5-million probe into “foreign funded defamation” of Alberta’s fossil-fuel industry announced by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s government yesterday at a news conference in Calgary isn’t it. How could it be? It’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Parades! Bands! Singers! Tanks! Some thoughts on Independence Day, Donald Trump, and the state of the neighbourhood this July 4
Today is Independence Day, the 4th of July, best known in Canada as the setting for the country gothic hit of the same name but, of course, also our cacophonous cousins’ national holiday. The occasion nominally marks the 243rd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by the citizens of the
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