Surprisingly, as far as we know, neither Opposition Leader Jason Kenney nor any members of his United Conservative Party Legislative Caucus made it to the Flat Earth International Conference at the appropriately named Fantasyland Hotel in Alberta’s capital city Thursday and yesterday. “Flat-earthers from around North America came to listen
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Alberta Politics: Good new/bad news: Things are looking up for Athabasca University, so why is there no progress on a contract with faculty?
If readers will forgive me for turning away for a moment from the fascinating and highly entertaining topic of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s bizarre attempt to mud-wrestle Canada into submission, we need to look at a topic a little closer to home, to wit: Athabasca University. Readers will recall
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Billy-Ray Bellcourt’s This Wound is a World returns to top of Audreys Books Edmonton Bestseller List
Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended Aug. 8, 2018, compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. This Wound is a World – Billy-Ray Belcourt * + 2.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Report on Calgary civic election polling failures sharply criticizes Postmedia coverage of ‘radically mistaken’ polls by partner firm
A report by three high-profile academics with expertise in public opinion research who were commissioned to look into polling failures that marred the 2017 Calgary municipal election campaign sharply criticizes the role of the city’s media in covering and sponsoring the polls. Christopher Adams of the University of Manitoba, Paul
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What’s the appropriate response to Riyadh’s diplomatic hysterics? How about reopening our embassy in Tehran?
Is there an appropriate response by Canada to the bizarre events of the last few hours on the diplomatic circuit? It’s not just that Canada’s ambassador has been kicked out of Saudi Arabia for Tweets by Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and an official in her department that by
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Will Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic tantrum provoke a moment of cognitive dissonance for Canada’s ‘ethical oil’ crowd?
Saudi Arabia has given the Canadian ambassador 24 hours to pack his bags and go home because, the Saudi Foreign Ministry complains, Canada is meddling in the internal affairs of the oil-soaked feudal theocracy by expressing concern in Tweets about its arrests of human rights activists, clerics and journalists. Last
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rich Larson’s sci-fi thriller Annex tops Audreys Books’ list of Edmonton bestsellers
Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended July 29, 2018, compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. Sorry I was a little slow processing this one this week. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Grande Prairie Hospital saga: PC political motives, terrible planning, and past ministerial meddling haunt project
The battle between Alberta government officials and a Calgary construction company over long delays building a new hospital in Grande Prairie that boiled over this week is more than a mere political he-said/she-said story. There’s a backstory that started the late days of Alberta’s 44-year Tory Dynasty – partly acknowledged
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Respected community advocate and educator Janis Irwin to seek NDP nomination in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood
Former high school teacher, vice-principal, university lecturer and education curriculum specialist Janis Irwin announced to a packed auditorium of supporters last night she will seek the NDP nomination in the Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood riding. Ms. Irwin will have to forgive me for introducing her this way. Her news release acknowledged her background
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Sudden closing of polling oversight group could mean Albertans never see report on botched Calgary polls
If you were wondering about that inquiry by the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association into inaccurate polling that marred the October 2017 Calgary civic election, don’t hold your breath. Publication of the inquiry by three panelists engaged by the national standards association for public opinion research companies was expected soon
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The poll puts Jason Kenney’s UCP in slam-dunk range over NDP; the pollster has a bit of a history
Yesterday, United Conservative Party MLAs were Tweeting around a graphic from a new poll that showed their party with a wide lead over the New Democratic Party in all regions of Alberta, including the Edmonton area, which lately has been seen as an NDP stronghold. Mysteriously, the UCPers didn’t include
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Surely it’s time for us in the reality based community to act on our convictions as decisively as conservatives do
Surely it’s time for the reality based community – that’s us, my progressive friends – to start making some new democratic realities! In 2015, as you will recall, many of us overcame our reservations and voted for Justin Trudeau’s Liberals on the basis of his firm, clear, unequivocal promise to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Didn’t care or didn’t know? UCP MLAs endorse author of offensive social media posts for nomination
Well, that certainly didn’t take long! Mere hours after AlbertaPolitics.ca published its semi-satirical, semi-serious “Jimmy the Geek” Vegas odds piece about the potential for bozo eruptions among the current members of the United Conservative Party Legislative Caucus than, well, some of the bozos erupted. Yesterday’s AlbertaPolitics.ca post assigned Rick Strankman,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Odds-on favourites for disaster … ‘Jimmy the Geek’ sets Vegas odds for the UCP MLAs most likely to resign next
Now that Alberta’s Opposition United Conservative Party has been around for a year – it’s first anniversary was on Sunday – we note that the right-wing party has seen the resignation of no fewer than six of its MLAs for various reasons in its first year of operation. In fairness,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Nothing has changed since February except that Canada now really does own the Trans Mountain Pipeline – so keep it public!
If the Trans Mountain Pipeline is so essential to the economic wellbeing of Canada and the price of Alberta bitumen is going to rise dramatically as a result of our ability to get that stuff to “tidewater,” why the heck is the federal government, having paid a premium to buy
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Perennial Audreys fiction bestseller Billy-Ray Belcourt leads again with This Wound is a World
Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended July 22, 2018, compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. This Wound is a World – Billy-Ray Belcourt * + 2.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: So sorry to see you go so soon, Manning Centre … here’s your hat
Shed a tear for the Calgary-based Manning Centre, which Postmedia’s Cowtown website of record sadly reported yesterday is “stepping back from its advocacy work.” Since polishing up Tiny Tories to make them acceptable for election door-knocking and serving as a launch pad for development-industry-financed attacks on Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Freedom Conservative Party’s Derek Fildebrandt demonstrates his talent for getting up his opponents’ noses
Derek Fildebrandt, the self-described “Alberta redneck” who now leads the minuscule Freedom Conservative Party, has a talent for getting up his opponents’ noses. This has served the university-educated Ottawa native extremely well in his tireless quest to earn himself a place in the headlines, and it worked for him again
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Saskatchewan, Ontario have no constitutional case against Ottawa’s carbon tax, only a political strategy
By vowing to go to court to fight the federal government’s carbon tax, Saskatchewan and now Ontario are rejecting the most cost effective way to reduce carbon pollution, the Pembina Institute complained yesterday. “It is deeply irresponsible of the Saskatchewan and Ontario governments to reject carbon pricing,” said Isabelle Turcotte,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Fildebrandt Agonistes: Hell hath no fury like a ‘Liberty Conservative’ scorned
Hell hath no fury like a “Liberty Conservative” scorned! Derek Fildebrandt, the former Wildrose Party and United Conservative Party finance critic scorned by UCP Leader Jason Kenney after a series of unfortunate events turned him into him the Lemony Snicket of the Alberta conservative movement, has joined the Freedom Conservative
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