Author: David Climenhaga

Alberta Politics: Whose side should Canada take if two NATO states start shooting at each other? Don’t laugh … it could happen

PHOTOS: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. If he looks ticked off, it’s probably because he is. (Photo: Kremlin.ru via Wikimedia Commons.) Hey! Don’t blame me if the only good royalty-free pictures of President Erdoğan come from Russia! Below: U.S. President and Commander in Chief Donald J. Trump (Photo: Gage Skidmore,

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Alberta Politics: Stephen Mandel, Janson Kenney and the Messiah Strategy Alberta conservatives are confident will save their bacon

PHOTOS: Alberta’s latest would-be conservative leader, as seen by party insiders and supporters. (Actually, it’s Bonaparte. Alberta conservative leaders may not appear exactly imagined by Jacques-Louis David.) Below: Would-be Tory messiahs Stephen Mandel and the late Jim Prentice, and Jason Kenney. Below them: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley. Stephen Mandel, former

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Alberta Politics: The UCP may be a different party, but ts policy document shows it’s peddling the same old … stuff

PHOTOS: Among other things, the aspirational UCP policy document would have you believe the party could balance environmental protection and the wants of recreational vehicle users if it were the government. What do you think that means? (Photo, for illustrative purposes only, grabbed from SHERP ATV.) Below: Alberta premiers Rachel

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Alberta Politics: Stephen Mandel, past his best-before date but still politically sexy to media, declares Alberta Party leadership bid

PHOTOS: Stephen Mandel makes his Alberta Party leadership campaign announcement yesterday in Edmonton (Photo: Twitter). Below: Mr. Mandel back in the day with premier Jim Prentice, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, former Alberta Party leader Greg Clark, and United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney. Stephen Mandel’s political strategists would like you

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Alberta Politics: Oil’s Deep State by Edmonton author Kevin Taft returns to top of Audreys Books Edmonton non-fiction bestseller list

Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended Dec. 10, 2017, compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. This Wound is a World (poetry) Billy-Ray Belcourt*+ 2. Bellevue Square – Michael Redhill

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Alberta Politics: ‘Blockbuster’ job creation in Alberta leaves UCP in search of new talking points about ‘job killing’ carbon levy

PHOTOS: The Calgary skyline in 2016. After a bad patch, the city is now back in the BMO Capital Markets’ Top Ten performance list, thanks in part to falling unemployment rates. (Photo: Kevin Cappis, Wikimedia Commons.) Below: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci, Alberta Environment Minister Shannon Phillips, and Calgary Chamber

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Alberta Politics: Thanks to Donald Trump, the post-war American imperium that’s run like a Swiss watch is coming unsprung!

PHOTOS: U.S. President Donald Trump’s inaugural parade makes its way through Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2017, just before the stuff hit the fan and everything went to hell in a handbasket. (Photo: United States Navy.) Below: President Trump, former president Barack Obama, the late Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau,

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Alberta Politics: Donald Trump: He’s bad, but I’m here to tell you he’s not the worst president our neighbours have ever had

PHOTOS: Donald J. Trump. Never mind what you think. He’s not the worst American president ever. Actually, he’s probably about the 7th worst … so far. (Photo: Gage Skidmore, Creative Commons.) Below: Worse presidents James Buchanan, Warren G. Harding, Andrew Johnson, Andrew Jackson (in his dotage), Franklin Pierce and Millard

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Alberta Politics: Impact of growing opioid crisis on life expectancy in the United States is more evidence that neoliberal austerity kills

PHOTOS: This scene is in Paris. It could be anywhere in our “globalized,” that is, neoliberalized world. (Photo: Eric Poulhier, Wikimedia Commons.) Below: Rundown but dignified Havana, high-profile U.S. economist Paul Krugman (Photo: Flickr, Commonwealth Club) and political economist Alan Nasser (Photo: Evergreen State College). Will Mexico eventually decide it

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Alberta Politics: Those lame green coroplast arrows point to one thing: the UCP’s cozy relationship with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

PHOTOS: United Conservative Party MLA Wes Taylor with his notorious green coroplast arrow. Below: An example of the fun made of Mr. Taylor by Internet wags; Porky the Waster Hater, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s mascot; Wildrose MLA Derek Fildebrandt and Wildrose Leader Brian Jean in happier times with their lame

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Alberta Politics: New Year’s bitter Twitter attacks on fact-checking economists suggest UCP will try to make 2018 the Year of the Big Chill

PHOTOS: University of Alberta economist and professor Andrew Leach. Below: Calgary-Fish Creek United Conservative Party MLA Richard Gotfried (Photo: Mr. Gotfried’s Facebook page), UCP Leader Jason Kenney, and University of Calgary economist and professor Trevor Tombe (Photo: U of C). New Year’s in Alberta blew in on a bitter winter

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Alberta Politics: Happy New Year! It wouldn’t be New Year’s Eve without AlbertaPolitics.ca’s Top Ten political predictions for 2018

PHOTOS: Will U.S. spear hunters like this guy still be able to come to Alberta after 2018? Your blogger predicts they’ll have to find ursine victims elsewhere. (Photo: Youtube screengrab, grabbed by the CBC and re-grabbed by me.) Below: Demonstrators on Cambie Street in Vancouver protest against the Kinder Morgan

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Alberta Politics: As the year runs out, here are AlbertaPolitics.ca’s Top Ten developing Alberta political news stories of 2017

PHOTOS: As time runs out on 2017, here are AlbertaPolitics.ca’s Top Ten developing new stories for the year. Below: Opposition UCP Leader Jason Kenney, NDP Premier Rachel Notley, serial conservative screw-up Derek Fildebrandt and Labour Minister Christina Gray. It’s easy to pick list of news stories that caused a big

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Alberta Politics: There was a whole lotta scrambling going on, 24/7 … can the 2015 PMO security breach whodunit be solved?

PHOTOS: Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, at right, somewhere in Iraq in 2015 (Photo: Screenshot of Global News video). Below: The very model of a modern major general, although not necessarily a Canadian one (Photo: Wikimedia Commons), and the Canadian defence minister of the day with some ghostly military

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