Some stories are just too confusing for ordinary bloggers to explain. That’s when we turn to the expert knowledge offered by distinguished academics such as Perfesser Dave, The Answer Guy™, Canada’s No. 1 expert on Alberta politics. As a result of his years of studying Alberta politics, Perfesser Dave knows
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Alberta Politics: Athabasca University and its faculty approach an impasse in bargaining; the province drops a hint of what might be next
Is Alberta’s NDP Government getting ready to bring some serious pressure to bear if that’s what it takes to get a contract agreement between Athabasca University’s administration and its faculty association? If I’m right about the meaning of changes to the Athabasca University Regulation ordered by the provincial cabinet last
Continue readingAlberta Politics: With friends like these … it’s sure depressing to compare Canada in 1979 to the U.S. in 2018
Canadians of a certain vintage will clearly remember “the Canadian Caper,” that dangerous moment in 1979 when our diplomats put their lives on the line to smuggle six of their American colleagues out of revolutionary Iran. Given the situation in Iran – revolutionaries storming the U.S. Embassy, diplomats held hostage,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta separation: Are Russian bots messing with our province, or just homegrown right-wing agitators?
Are Russian bots behind the recent busy social media campaign to persuade Albertans they want to separate from Canada, a la Brexit? Or is this just the work of right-wing Canadian agitators using well-tested digital agitprop techniques to undermine the Liberal Government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau? You can’t rule
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Indian Horse by the late Richard Wagamese tops Audreys Books Edmonton Bestseller List for week ended Dec. 12
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended Dec. 9, 2018. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Indian Horse – Richard Wagamese 2. Washington Black
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Some personal thoughts on Marie Renaud’s victory at last night’s St. Albert NDP nomination vote
St. Albert, Alberta I hope readers will forgive me if I don’t do my usual newsroom shtick and instead just make a few personal observations about last night’s NDP nomination meeting here in St. Albert, where I live. I won’t keep you in suspense. Marie Renaud, MLA for St. Albert,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Defeated in UCP nomination battle, Highwood MLA Wayne Anderson takes complaint to Elections Alberta
Is it just seasonal, or is this the new normal? No, I’m not talking about the weather and climate change. I’m talking about the daily stream of revelations about unsavoury goings on inside Alberta’s United Conservative Party under the leadership of Jason Kenney. Highwood MLA Wayne Anderson has filed a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Why is the UCP keeping the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties on life support?
Inquiring minds want to know: Why is Opposition Leader Jason Kenney keeping the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose Parties around? Media generally refer to Mr. Kenney as the United Conservative Party leader. But in reality, he’s the leader of the United Conservative Party, the Progressive Conservative Party and the Wildrose Party,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Former UCP MLA alleges ‘suspicious donations’ from PAC associated with Jason Kenney used in 2017 to undermine Brian Jean
Calgary-Greenway MLA Prab Gill used the final Question Period of the fall 2018 session of the Alberta Legislature Thursday to allege that “more than $40,000 in very suspicious donations” was given to a United Conservative Party leadership candidate to undermine candidate Brian Jean. Mr. Jean was the former leader of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Think rail cars, guns and Liberals, this stuff will hit the fan!
Having bought Canada a pipeline it may or may not want at considerable expense, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues to spend political capital on Alberta as well, now saying the federal government is prepared to help the province finance the purchase of additional railroad tanker cars to raise the volume
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Prab Gill is back in the news, rumoured eyeing Freedom Conservatives, so stand by for another attack on Tzeporah Berman!
Prab Gill is back in the news, offering up the potential for more embarrassment for Jason Kenney and the United Conservative Party. Stand by for Mr. Kenney to attack … Tzeporah Berman! Isn’t that what always happens when Mr. Gill hits the news? Mr. Gill is the former Progressive Conservative
Continue readingAlberta Politics: 2018 short story Advent calendar tops Audreys Books Edmonton fiction bestsellers
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended Dec. 2, 2018. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. 2018 Short Story Advent Calendar – Michael Hingston
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Seriously, what’s the good of an effective carbon tax if it’s politically impossible to implement?
Recent political developments in France and Alberta, though quite different in tone, suggest carbon taxes may not be a viable way to address climate change – leastways not without reaching an unlikely consensus they must be imposed. You may not believe me yet, but you can count on it, politicians
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Day After: Alberta heavy crude prices squirt upward in wake of Rachel Notley’s production cap announcement
It was nice for Alberta’s New Democratic Party Government that the first thing the price of Alberta heavy crude did the morning after Premier Rachel Notley’s announcement her government would cap production of Alberta oil by 8.7 per cent for three months was to squirt upward. On Friday night, Western
Continue readingAlberta Politics: In cutting oil production, Rachel Notley gives a bravura performance – but will it play in Ponoka?
As expected, Premier Rachel Notley announced tonight that her government will order an oil production cut of 325,000 barrels a day, 8.7 per cent of the province’s production, to squeeze some of the air out of the bitumen price differential that has bedevilled Alberta for several years. The short-term production
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If Rachel Notley caps Alberta oil production tonight, how quickly will Jason Kenney change his tune?
If Rachel Notley uses the Alberta Government’s power to put a cap on oil production tonight, as she hinted she would do in a newspaper op-ed Friday, how long will it take Opposition Leader Jason Kenney to change his tune? Not long, one imagines. Of course, if Mr. Kenney does
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Professors protest Moe Government plan to shutter archives in four locations, including University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon
SASKATOON, Sask. No sooner did the government of Saskatchewan oh-so-discreetly announce it is about to close four branches of the provincial archives and consolidate it all in one location in Regina than more than 30 Canadian scholars had an open letter of protest circulating on the Internet. When the branch
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thoughts from the road: General Motors, China and Alberta, a new landscape emerges from Monday’s dust
OTTAWA Now that the dust is settling from Monday’s announcement General Motors Corp.’s last auto assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont., will soon be closed, the emerging landscape is not promising for Alberta. Leastways, it’s not hopeful from the perspective of an Alberta that has no plan to transition from a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta politicians need to tread carefully when they comment on the coming job losses at GM Canada in Oshawa
We don’t yet know why General Motors Corp. has decided to walk away from its last auto-assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont., which CTV reported last night the Detroit-based company will announce it is doing at 10 o’clock this morning. I’m sure there will be plenty of suspects. I have one
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If other Canadians don’t think Alberta should go suck a lemon, they probably soon will
Alberta! Go suck a lemon! I don’t endorse that sentiment, of course. I’m an Albertan, after all. The person who did say something like that, as it happens, didn’t say it about Alberta. It was a long, long time ago, 1976 as a matter of fact, when Catherine Ford said
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