PHOTOS: United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney in a typical pose. He said in Lethbridge last week he’s opposed to harm-reduction efforts like supervised injection sites to deal with the opioid crisis. But what does he support? Below: Mr. Kenney’s brother David Kenney (Photo: Once posted on LinkedIn); NDP Banff-Cochrane
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Alberta Politics: The Annals of Alberta Political Discourse: Wildrose/UCP MLA Grant Hunter compares NDP to 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami
PHOTOS: Cardston-Taber-Warner MLA Grant Hunter, with a suitably dramatic backdrop created by Press Progress. Below: Mr. Hunter and UCP Leader Jason Kenney shake on it, soon after the former Wildroser endorsed Mr. Kenney’s ultimately successful party leadership bid (Photo: Screenshot of Global News broadcast), and Mr. Hunter’s economic exemplars, Ronald
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Third quarter financial results released by Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci suggest NDP economic strategy is working
PHOTOS: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci, basking in the fiscal sunshine. Below Joe: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, like Mr. Ceci, a New Democrat; Opposition UCP Leader Jason Kenney; and Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel. In one regard, Alberta’s NDP Government and its principal Opposition parties are in agreement about how
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Maia Caron’s Song of Batoche remains atop Audreys Books’ Edmonton Bestseller List this week
Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended Feb. 25, 2018, compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Song of Batoche – Maia Caron 2. The Boat People –
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Stephen Mandel to lead Alberta Party; probably won’t take Tory insider’s advice to go ‘ultra-left’
PHOTOS: Stephen Mandel, always a natty dresser, was chosen as the leader of the Alberta Party last night. He was dressed more conservatively than in this old picture, though, which has the advantage of having been taken by your blogger back when Mr. Mandel was Jim Prentice’s unelected health minister.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Andrea Horwath will be Ontario’s next premier – remember where you heard it first, Albertans
PHOTOS: Andrea Horwath, leader of the Ontario NDP. Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, sometime Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leader Patrick Brown, the late Jim Prentice when he was PC premier of Alberta, and former Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak. (All photos except those of Mr. Prentice and Ms. Notley are
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Trudeau in India, Part II: Canadian governments, and not just Liberals, have a history of playing footsie with bad actors
PHOTOS: A screenshot of what looks like a video of the controversial snapshot of Jaspal Atwal and Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, grabbed from Twitter. The ownership of the photo is attributed variously, usually to the last place someone saw it. What does seem clear is that Mr. Atwal was almost as
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Trudeau in India, Part I: PM’s family goes full Bollywood; Conservatives freak out; some alterations suggested
PHOTOS: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau and their children visit the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, India, during Mr. Trudeau’s official visit to that country. Below: Mr. Trudeau, resplendent in gold and making it work. Below him, his late father, prime minister Pierre Trudeau, doing his famous
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Who blinked? Doesn’t matter: There are plenty of reasons to doubt B.C. and Alberta’s differences are settled
PHOTOS: A map showing the route of the Trans Mountain Pipeline. Below: B.C. Premier John Horgan, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Alberta Opposition leader Jason Kenney, and B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman. No sooner was a truce declared in the Alberta-British Columbia war of wine and oil yesterday afternoon than claims
Continue readingAlberta Politics: In case you missed it … Conservatives are in the news, making sure today’s bad ideas are tomorrow’s horrible reality! For you!
PHOTOS: Former Canadian Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, now leader of the Conintern. (Photo: Remy Steinegger, Wikimedia Commons.) Below: Margaret Thatcher, just another moderate leader of the “centre right.” Dig those pointy collars! Mr. Harper’s former lieutenant Jason Kenney, who is now the leader of Alberta’s “centre right.” Stephen Harper
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Maia Caron’s Song of Batoche leads Audreys Books’ Edmonton Bestseller List for fiction this week
Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended Feb. 18, 2018, compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Song of Batoche – Maia Caron 2. Marrow Thieves – Cherie
Continue readingAlberta Politics: OK, maybe B.C. has a case against Alberta’s wine embargo … but so what?
PHOTOS: Well! Now we’re trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored! (Photo: Asociación De Vecinos “virgen Coronada,” Creative Commons.) Below: Alberta Trade Minister Deron Bilous and his British Columbia counterpart, Bruce Ralston. It certainly seems like British Columbia has a strong case against Alberta’s wine embargo
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney tries to look tough, but that ship’s already sailed with Rachel Notley at the helm
PHOTOS: The real Rachel Notley, looking tough and determined, as she is. Below: The new slimmed down, but still not very scary looking, Jason Kenney, trying to scare us of course. (Yes, the message from Mr. Kenney’s social media meme has been modified by your poor-sport blogger.) The real Dr.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Elke Blodgett was a passionate environmentalist, artist and committed friend of St. Albert
PHOTO: Elke Blodgett in 2016. (Photo: Screenshot from City of St. Albert video.) ST. ALBERT, Alberta I once described Elke Blodgett as not just a passionate advocate for our natural environment, but a force of nature herself. So it was particularly shocking to learn yesterday that Elke, environmentalist, artist, and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A modest proposal to defuse the looming constitutional and national unity crisis caused by Western Canadian pipeline plans
PHOTOS: Protesters opposed to expansion of the Kinder Morgan Pipeline in Vancouver last fall. (Photo: William Chen, Creative Commons.) Below: Police and protesters square off in Burnaby, near Vancouver, where the terminus of the existing KM Pipeline is located. (Photo: Mark Klotz, Creative Commons). It sure looks as if we
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Ex-MLA Joe Anglin continues his court fights with Elections Alberta and studies law in the United States
PHOTOS: Joe Anglin, speaking on the steps of the Alberta Legislature in his heyday as the Wildrose Party MLA for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre. Below: Mr. Anglin in November 2015, after his election loss as an Independent to Jason Nixon, his former constituency association president, who won the Wildrose nomination in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: This Wound is a World by Billy-Ray Belcourt tops Audreys Books’ Edmonton Bestseller List this week
Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended Feb. 11, 2018, compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BEST-SELLERS 1. This Wound is a World – Billy-Ray Belcourt* 2. The Grave’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Is just talking about restricting diluted bitumen in pipelines an unconstitutional impediment to trade?
PHOTOS: Some of the Fathers of Confederation looking, well, fatherly. Below: Steely eyed Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, B.C. Premier John Horgan, and would-be premier Jason Kenney. In case you missed it, a new constitutional doctrine seems to be developing in Alberta. To wit: the idea that creating business uncertainty violates
Continue readingAlberta Politics: He’s no bot, but Russia’s social media and press guy in Canada manages to stir up controversy just the same
PHOTOS: Kirill Kalinin, Press Secretary of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Ottawa, in a reception room of the Soviet-era structure on Charlotte Street. Below: An image shot last week of the exterior of the Embassy, built in 1956 after the original building on the site burned down; the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Is the decade-long Brian Mulroney rehabilitation project finally paying off … for his daughter?
PHOTOS: Caroline Mulroney (Photo: Wikimedia Commons). Below: Former Canadian Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney in his heyday (Photo: Wikimedia Commons), lobbyist Robin Sears, conservative godfather Preston Manning, and Ontario Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne. It’s now been more than a decade since Stephen Harper ordered all members of his government’s Parliamentary
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