Common sense would suggest the recommendation of the National Energy Board yesterday that Ottawa approve the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project despite significant risks to the environment is a small but significant step toward eventual completion of the controversial multi-billion-dollar megaproject. But as was already evident in the immediate reaction
Continue readingAuthor: David Climenhaga
Alberta Politics: Where’s the beef? Smells like what Restaurants Canada is serving you is nothing but baloney!
Baloney: a large smoked, seasoned sausage made of various meats. Where’s the beef? In an opinion piece in the Calgary Herald last week, Restaurants Canada claimed that “a perfect storm of tax increases and painful policy changes … have worsened conditions for restaurants over the past four years.” This was
Continue readingAlberta Politics: You can’t slash Alberta Health Services’ lean and efficient management without hurting front-line care
Just a reminder, folks: You can’t cut Alberta Health Services management without cutting front-line health care. One of Opposition Leader Jason Kenney’s standard talking points is that he’ll never cut front-line health care, only needless, redundant, expensive managers cluttering up the system. And since I’m a good union guy, some
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney’s ‘Public Health Guarantee’ isn’t worth much, but that may be good enough for many voters
No one ever said Jason Kenney isn’t a shrewd politician who knows how to run a campaign, so give the man some credit for his clever effort yesterday to look strong on a weak file for his party and make the NDP look a little weaker on its strongest. The
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Hey, Andrew Scheer! Do you know whose truck that is you’re riding in?
What are we to make, fellow Canadians, of federal Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer’s now justly famous Louis Riel Day Tweet? Bear with me while we ponder this. There is a troubling point. It will take us only a moment to get there. Mr. Scheer, who leads the Canadian political party
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Sounds as if the Trudeau Liberals are listening to their Natural Governing Party lizard brain, finally
Amid all the hoo-ha emanating from the nation’s capital over the partial holiday weekend, the bit that didn’t seem to fit was the dispiriting news – for many Albertans, anyway – that the federal cabinet won’t make a decision until summer at least on whether the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Free votes’ on ‘matters of conscience’ may seem incongruous for a guy like Jason Kenney, but then again, maybe not …
Last Thursday, presumably hoping to distract from the NDP’s launch of an advertising campaign illuminating the dark side of Jason Kenney, the United Conservative Party leader announced a passel of policy ideas that would include significant changes to how the Legislature operates. Among Mr. Kenney’s ideas were a ban on
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A holiday toast to Don Getty, the father of Family Day, even if it was pretty much the only thing he achieved in office
Lord knows, Canadians need a February holiday! So thank God for small favours and, come to that, for Don Getty! As favours go, Mr. Getty, 11th premier of Alberta, was a pretty small one. Just the same, this was one for the ages! So, 30 years ago today, with an
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Janice MacDonald’s Eye of the Beholder spends another week atop Audreys Books’ Edmonton Bestseller List
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended Feb. 10, 2019. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. The Eye of the Beholder – Janice MacDonald
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The realpolitik of real politics: attack ads work, and sometimes they’re necessary
One of the enduring myths of our era is that Albertans (or Canadians, or whomever) don’t like negative political advertising, and therefore that political attack ads won’t work here. Now that Alberta’s New Democratic Party has published a website attacking Opposition Leader Jason Kenney’s record as a federal Conservative MP,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Happy Valentine’s Day! Don’t worry, even with a fair minimum wage, you can take your sweetie to a restaurant tonight!
Readers whose hearts are breaking at Restaurants Canada’s tale of woe supposedly caused by increases in the minimum wage and other calamities can take some Valentine’s Day comfort from the fact that despite all the tears Albertans have been dining out in record numbers. Last fall’s annual report on the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Restaurant lobby launches campaign to elect UCP, roll back $15-per-hour minimum wage
Alberta’s perpetually dissatisfied restaurant owners find themselves in such difficult straits they’re investing their hard-earned dollars in a high-profile PR campaign to make sure we all understand just how tough they have it – and while they’re at it, maybe they can get us to elect a right-wing government that
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Now, about that unconstitutional dog that ate Stephen Mandel’s homework …
It’s time for something completely different: a podcast! Don’t worry, it’s not mine. We’re not about to start podcasting here at AlbertaPolitics.ca, where old-timey newspaper columns that have a beginning, a middle, an end, and usually make a fairly strong point are our thing. Normally at this blog we strive
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What was John Carpay’s goal when he in effect withdrew his apology for comparing Pride flags to swastikas?
John Carpay is a clever man. The high-profile Alberta social conservative leader puts careful thought into what he says and how he says it. A lawyer by profession, he constructs his sentences precisely and deliberately. He knows exactly what he is saying when he says something. So one has to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Former CBC journalist John Archer acclaimed as NDP candidate in Edmonton-South West
Former CBC journalist John Archer was acclaimed as the NDP candidate in the Edmonton-South West riding last night. Mr. Archer may not have surprised everyone, but he certainly surprised me in 2015 when he left what had been a very successful career with the national broadcaster to work for Premier
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Mr. Mandel Regrets: Political drama, Alberta Party style … this may be theatre, but it ain’t no masterpiece!
Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel now says he regrets missing the deadline for filing his nomination candidate expense paperwork, but nevertheless expects the courts to make the problem go away! Well, good luck with that. He blames a retired party financial functionary for the filing fiasco that resulted in six
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Paperwork SNAFU! Elections Alberta says Stephen Mandel can’t run! Alberta Party lawyers say he can! Stand by for video!
This just in! Elections Alberta’s updated list of candidates ineligible to run as candidates or serve as chief elections officers includes at least one name most Albertans will recognize. To wit: Stephen Mandel. Yes, that Stephen Mandel. That is, the Stephen Mandel who leads the Alberta Party. The former Edmonton
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Has anyone thought about the impact regime change in Venezuela will have on Alberta’s oilpatch? It won’t be pretty!
In the stampede by Canadian politicians of all ideological stripes to support Venezuela’s self-declared “interim president,” has anyone given even a nanosecond’s thought to the impact the handover of the troubled South American petrostate’s government to Juan Guaido would have on Alberta’s oilpatch? It won’t be pretty. The federal government’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Eye of the Beholder, a mystery by Edmonton’s Janice MacDonald, returns to top of Audreys Books Edmonton Fiction Bestseller List
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended Feb. 3, 2019. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. The Eye of the Beholder – Janice MacDonald
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Former Alberta immigration minister asks federal immigration minister for investigation of UCP candidate’s alleged immigration practices
Former Alberta employment and immigration minister Thomas Lukaszuk has written federal immigration minister Ahmed Hussein urging him to open a formal investigation into serious allegations a temporary foreign worker was improperly treated by a business person who is now a United Conservative Party candidate in Calgary. Mr. Lukaszuk, who was
Continue reading