When it comes to the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finds himself on the proverbial horns of a dilemma. There are serious political consequences for his Liberal federal government if he now allows the project to proceed. There are likewise serious political consequences if he doesn’t.
Continue readingAuthor: David Climenhaga
Alberta Politics: ‘Foreign funded special interests’ and Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party: The ‘New Conspiracism’ comes to Alberta
The new conspiracism has come to Alberta! What is the “New Conspiracism,” you ask, and how is it different from the old conspiracism? “‘Classic’ conspiracy theories … arise in response to real events – the assassination of John F. Kennedy, say, or the terrorist attacks of September 11th,” observed Elizabeth Kolbert
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Irked by news site’s critical reports, Jason Kenney hints at retaliation as PressProgress fires back
Apparently the stenographic efforts of Postmedia’s Alberta newspapers as a virtual wing of the United Conservative Party campaign team were not enough for the victorious Jason Kenney, Alberta’s premier designate. Journalists and publications that provided less obsequious coverage of the campaign leading up to the April 16 election will be
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Pundits want you to believe negative campaigning hurt the NDP – it likely saved their bacon!
There are plenty of serious mistakes the Alberta NDP made during their four rocky years in power, but one of them wasn’t running a negative campaign that attacked Jason Kenney’s character and the attitudes of many of the candidates and advisors around him. Indeed, it’s said here the NDP’s negative
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jobs! Pipelines! Help is on the way! Or … maybe not: Election hot takes from Alberta
Tuesday night’s Alberta election results pretty well put paid to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “Grand Bargain” with Alberta on climate change, the terms of which were basically that the province could have a pipeline to tidewater if we play nice and put a price on carbon. Premier-elect Jason Kenney has
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Moccasin Square Gardens by Richard Van Camp 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 April 14, 2019. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Moccasin Square Gardens – Richard Van Camp * 2. The Secret
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney, having delivered victory to his UCP, sounds like man with his eye on Ottawa
Give Jason Kenney his due: The man delivered a convincing enough victory for his United Conservative Party last night that no one can call him a political flop if at some point soon he wants to make a return trip to Ottawa. And his long-winded victory speech at the Calgary
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Nearly a third of Alberta’s electorate voted in advance polls – whatever can it mean?
One of the mysteries of the 2019 Alberta election campaign that comes to an end with today’s election is the truly astonishing number of advance ballots cast. Nearly 700,000 Albertans voted in advance polls. That is close to 30 per cent of the electorate. This is unheard of in Alberta,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rachel Notley, one of the finest political orators of her generation, raises the rafters with optimistic speech in Edmonton
Rachel Notley looked and sounded like a politician on a roll yesterday afternoon as she addressed at least 1,500 people sardined into Edmonton’s Polish Hall – energized, by turns forceful, funny, and inspiring. This runs counter to the media narrative about this 2019 election campaign from the get-go, of course,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Captive audience? Continuing care operators’ ‘reference document’ pushes residents, families to vote for UCP, shows NDP in negative light
A “reference document” implying residents of private for-profit and not-for-profit seniors’ care facilities and their families should vote for the United Conservative Party has been distributed by the Alberta Continuing Care Association. In addition to creating the misleading impression the UCP is more committed to creating housing for seniors than
Continue readingAlberta Politics: RCMP raid on UCP candidate’s business, polling trends, hordes of advance voters wind up the Internet
Alberta’s Internet was in a furious swivet last night. There seemed to be something to wind everyone up as we enter the final stretch of a provincial election both sides have characterized as an epochal event sure to seal the fate of the province if it goes the wrong way.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Notice to public employees: Jason Kenney and the UCP are eyeing your pensions again
If you’re a public employee in Alberta and you’ve been deferring your salary for years to build a secure retirement through your modest pension, Jason Kenney would like to take it away. If he can’t do that, he at least wants to ensure no one else can have the same
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A question begged: Where were the UCP’s top operatives if they weren’t vetting candidates?
Apparently someone in the United Conservative Party could run a sophisticated vote-diversion scheme but the party didn’t have the technical wherewithal to operate a simple candidate vetting process capable of eliminating candidates with a high potential for causing embarrassment. And not at the same time either, so it’s not as
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Now for something completely different: The Agenda with Steve Paikin … and Yours Truly
’Tis late, it’s been a long day, and your blogger is tired, so I’m going to leave you, dear readers, with some audio and visual commentary on next week’s Alberta election to chew over this morning. I had the pleasure of being invited to take part in yesterday’s edition of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The declining impact of ‘bozo eruptions’ – are Albertans the proverbial frog in a pot of boiling water?
Have Albertans grown so inured to Conservative “bozo eruptions” they no longer have much impact? To put that another way, have we grown so accustomed to the Lake of Fire that we imagine we can bathe in it comfortably without putting on an asbestos swimsuit? That’s likely at least part
Continue readingAlberta Politics: An election’s coming and the PM’s treading water – where’s a Russian to blame now that we need one?
It was a year ago Friday that the government of Canada declared Kirill Kalinin and three other Russian diplomats persona non grata and sent them packing for using, in the words of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, “their diplomatic status to undermine Canada’s security or interfere in our democracy.” Nobody bothered
Continue readingAlberta Politics: There Are Not Enough Sad Songs, poetry by Marita Dachsel, tops Audreys Books Fiction Bestseller List
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton during the week ended March 31, 2019. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. There Are Not Enough Sad Songs – Marita Dachsel * +
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rachel Notley and Jason Kenney escape relatively unscathed in Alberta election leaders’ debate
Last night’s Alberta election leaders’ debate was an unedifying experience, as these things often are. If anyone except hard-core political junkies kept their hands off the remote, I’d be surprised. Debate stuck to talking points we’ve heard before, the broadcast aired at a weird hour when many viewers were still
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Were Mark Smith’s comments on gay love a Lake of Fire moment for the UCP, or just another insignificant bozo eruption?
With the revelation United Conservative Party candidate Mark Smith holds the offensive view gay love can never be real love, and equates LGBTQ people with pedophiles, it appeared that Alberta’s United Conservative Party was finally having its own genuine Lake of Fire moment. But was it? It certainly looked like
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A generation of impulsive right-wing politicians ruins Preston Manning’s dream of ‘green capitalism’ – what’s next?
Let’s start with a pop quiz. Who said this? “One of the biggest issues will be the question of how much of current revenue from non-renewable resources should be saved and how those savings should be invested … so that, if the day ever comes that oil and gas isn’t
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