Closed for vacation. Come back soon. Bad timing, I realize, what with a provincial election looming and all kinds of political havoc likely to break out at any moment, but Alberta Diary is taking a break. Or, more to the point, I am, for about two weeks, maybe a few
Continue readingAuthor: David J. Climenhaga
David Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: No breakfast for Conservative champions? Alberta’s Tories as churlish as ever
Doug Griffiths, apparently still wearing black, has sent a message on behalf of his premier to Alberta politicos: resistance is futile, and will not be tolerated. Below: Edmonton City Councillor and AUMA President Linda Sloan; Chief of the premier’s staff, Stephen Carter. As Ken Kowalski, the venerable and soon-to-retire Speaker
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Is Alberta’s most entertaining political season in a lifetime drawing to a close? Gosh I hope not!
Get me Wildrose, Rewrite! Your blogger, who many not be exactly as illustrated but used to have a typewriter just like that, pounds out a last plea for a poll showing Alberta Conservative fortunes in decline before heading off to Okinawa. No soap! According to the Edmonton Journal’s political columnist
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Conservative MP Brent Rathgeber on the long-gun registry: welfare state social engineering, or what?
Edmonton-St. Albert MP Brent Rathgeber, in naval costume, gets off some potshots with a Glock, or something. Below: Another shot Brent in a military getup. Note the flag, I swear I dragged this photo straight off his website without even passing it through Photoshop! Remember guys, when you’re looking down
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: What’s up with Calgary West Progressive Conservative nomination? Rematch, appointment or what?
Surprise winner Shiraz Shariff sends favourite Ken Hughes out of the ring in Round 1 of the Calgary West PC nomination battle on Jan. 21. Alberta political candidates may not appear exactly as illustrated. Now it appears that a rematch may be in the offing. Below: Ken Hughes, Shiraz Shariff
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Forum poll revealed: With an iPhone and a blog, we can now predict poll results before they’re published!
Wildrose Party Leader Danielle Smith with the voice of Forum Research Inc. She’s smiling because she likes his answers. Alberta pollsters and politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Dave, about to hang up on another poll. ForumPoll3 by djclimenhaga Forum Research Inc. of Toronto was back in the
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Few oxen gored in Alberta Tories’ exquisitely political budget
Your intrepid blogger, with Alberta Finance Minister Ron Liepert. Below: New Democrat MLA Rachel Notley. Oddly enough, there actually was a lesson that could be learned from the first budget of Alberta Premier Alison Redford’s government.While the Budget Speech read yesterday by retiring Finance Minister Ron Liepert was self-evidently an
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Who shot Shariff? More lessons in democracy, Alberta-style
Shiraz Shariff works the phone in his Calgary office yesterday afternoon. Below: interim PC Executive Director Kelley Charlebois; former AHS Chair Ken Hughes; outgoing Calgary-West MLA Ron Liepert. The Alberta Progressive Conservative Party has now given the bum’s rush to Shiraz Shariff, the 30-year party supporter and former MLA who
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Alberta’s Electrolux Throne Speech: breathtaking in its vacuity, but quite possibly effective
Your blogger with Tory campaign mastermind Stephen Carter. Below, Charles Dickens, who also wrote a good story; Finance Minister Ron Liepert. It was either the best of Throne Speeches or it was the worst of Throne Speeches. Heck, maybe it was both at the same time. Yesterday being the 200th
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: The Fraser Institute: 100% political and still a registered charity! Explain, please…
A typical Canadian taxpayer ponders the tax-deductible corporate pork that goes to support the Fraser Institute and its ilk. Below: Fraser Institute critics Donald Gutstein and Graham Steele; the Canada Revenue Agency, where is it? Other than Canadian political parties themselves, the Fraser Institute must be Canada’s most intensely political
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Freedom to Create. Spirit to Achieve. Cooking up an unauthorized Alberta brand!
Ow! Alberta government market researchers test a new brand for the province. Alberta branding specialists may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Alberta’s old brand, with minor modifications done to make it easier to remember; Urban Jungle proprietor Craig Blackburn. Do you remember Alberta’s “brand,” cooked up back when Ed
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Another sleazy push poll takes aim at high-riding Redford Tories
Is this the party for which you are voting? Pollsters’ representatives call Albertans. Below: Naughty push-pollsters work from their basement boiler room in Calgary. Actual robo-callers may not actually exist as illustrated. ROI’s Bruce Cameron. WRP-PP by djclimenhaga Another squalid American-style push poll, which has all the hallmarks of a
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Truth, Tories and the Sun Network: ‘Let’s do it. We can fake the Oath!’
New Canadians rounded up by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s office get ready to reaffirm their citizenship oath. Actual new Canadians may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Mr. Kenney; Paraguayan-born Public “Safety” Minister Victor Toews, himself a relatively new Canadian. More than one story emanating from Ottawa yesterday revealed the
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Alberta tidbits: Can market-fundamentalist Wildrose Party be trusted to pull plug on high electricity costs?
Contemplating Alberta electricity prices, consumers are usually not as cheerful looking as illustrated. Below: Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith; Edmonton-Mill Woods MLA Carl Benito, former premier Ed Stelmach. Now that the far-right Wildrose Party is poaching Alberta NDP policy, could we trust them to carry it out?Doubtful, but you can hardly
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: No one who has been paying attention should be surprised by Harper government’s fake pension ‘crisis’
“Holy shit,” this old guy is asking himself, “what was I thinking when I voted for Stephen Harper?” Below, Prime Minister Harper himself, possibly not exactly as illustrated. Below that, Mr. Harper as he appears to people who haven’t been paying attention. Does it really surprise anyone that Prime Minister
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Kevin Taft follows Alberta’s money and finds out where it all went
Your blogger, with another doomed politician, this time the author of Follow the Money, Where is Alberta’s Wealth Going? Just in case you’re thinking of being sarcastic, the sign says “Red Deer Public Library.” Below, the cover of the book. Sooner or later, all conversations about the Alberta economy in
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Are there really 287,000 law-abiding farmers, trappers, hunters and fishers in Toronto?
A strong market in central Canada for raccoon coats like the one worn by this man accounts for the large number of urban trappers who live in Metropolitan Toronto, law-abiding gun owners who account for some of the 287,000 long guns in that city. Or something like that, anyway. Below:
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Did Forlorn Friday’s leak of Snelgrove resignation sink ‘Super Saturday’ spoiler?
Somebody blabbed! Below: Stephen Carter, Tweeting; Mr. Carter’s Tweet. All across Alberta it was “Super Saturday” yesterday and throughout the province members of the eternally ruling Progressive Conservative Party were being nominated to run in the looming general election! Oh wow! Oh, Holy Cow… Guess what’s going to be all
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Lloyd Snelgrove’s Dinner with Danielle: far-right desperation or another Wildrose exodus?
Phone camera photo? Former Stelmach right-hand man Lloyd Snelgrove spotted with Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith in Calgary brewpub! Alberta politicians may not be exactly as illustrated. Below, the real Mr. Snelgrove (caught without his trademark goatee) and the real Ms. Smith. With election fever gripping the province and the far-right
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Sorry, an Order of Canada for Ralph Klein is not appropriate
Ralph Klein, as premier of Alberta. Below: Kevin Taft, an Order of Canada gong. Does the kind of man who would call immigrants to Alberta from Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada “bums” and “creeps” deserve the Order of Canada? Surely one would think not! But anything can happen in the
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