Your blogger with Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi and Calgary-Fort MLA Wayne Cao, the best singer in the Legislature. Below: Sun columnist Ezra Levant. Demagoguery is not an accusation that stings very much nowadays. Almost anyone can be accused of being a demagogue for saying almost anything, and one’s inclination is
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David Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Harper Conservatives to use social media to woo Canadians: uh … really!
Your blogger, above centre, ponders the Harper Conservatives’ plans to make a foray into social media. Below right, your blogger before he grew his beard, with Daveberta author Dave Cournoyer. Alberta political bloggers may not be exactly as illustrated. Below them: Prime Minister Stephen Harper, when he was still young
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Old Year assessment and New Year prediction: Alison Redford, Alberta Newsmaker o’ th’ Year, 2011 and 2012
Alison Redford meets the media minutes after her election in a Conservative Party members-only vote was announced in the wee hours of Oct. 2, 2011. Below: The unexpected results displayed. All politics end in tears, a wise man once observed, meaning that sooner or later, almost all political winners turn
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: The Marxist Analysis of ‘the Wave’ in Sports Stadia
Perfesser Dave at a Blue Jays game, photo courtesy a kindly Yankees fan. Below: Exhibition Stadium – the cheap seats are at left, directly behind centre field! Below that: Thomas Mulclair; Niki Ashton. Maclean’s Magazine once said that the Toronto Maple Leafs – which should be called the Maple Leaves,
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: With a record like his, how could Alberta Health Services Chair Ken Hughes not run for office?
Ken Hughes on the night of Alison Redford’s victory. No idea what that passerby is looking at. Your blogger, perhaps. Behind her, former health minister Gene Zwozdesky tries to butter up Calgary Sun columnist Rick “Not The Dinger Any More” Bell. Well, of course he’s running for office. With a
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Your seasonal anti-social-media message: Have a V**y Me**y Christmas!
Pierre Trudeau: What? Fuddle-Duddle? Below: Justin Trudeau; Pat Martin. O Sir, we quarrel in print… I blame Twitter, one of the first examples of genuinely anti-social media online, for the recent decline in the already debased state of public discourse in Canada. Leastways, Twitter certainly makes it easy to slam
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: What Alison Redford really needs: a smaller caucus
Members of former premier Ed Stelmach’s caucus discuss their differences in the Legislative Assembly. Is that Ron Liepert top right? Actual Conservative MLAs may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Premier Alison Redford; Tory defector Rob Anderson, in black. Alberta Premier Alison Redford needs to be praying hard that she
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Despite Alison Redford’s rhetoric, not much has changed on seniors’ care
Old folks at home: things are changing in Alberta, and not necessarily for the better. Below: Ed Stelmach, Guy Boutilier, Raj Sherman. Does anybody remember the brouhaha in 2009 that was semi-officially designated The Trouble in Strathmore? The trouble actually started a year earlier, in February 2008, when then premier
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Will Stephen Harper’s War on Peace, Order and Good Government continue with an attack on handgun registration?
Claresholm, Alberta, the site of this country’s latest murderous shooting rampage, not likely to be its last. Below: Prime Minister Stephen Harper in all his divisive faux cowboy glory. Do not doubt for an instant the inevitability of a great howl of violent protest directed at anyone who dares to
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: National Post poll bad news for Alberta Tories … in the unlikely event it’s right
A word of advice, boys: don’t bet all your kibbles on the results of a one-day demon-dialer poll! Alberta political analysts or the chances they take may not be exactly as illustrated. Toronto’s National Post – or, as I prefer to think of it, the National Pest – states in
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Alison Party of Alberta TV ads are not ready for prime time
The second Alison Party of Alberta 30-second advertising spot, which, like the first, fails to properly identify the advertiser. Below: Ms. Redford as she appears in the second ad and the logo if the Television Bureau of Canada. The Alison Party of Alberta’s two new TV ads are not ready
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: First impressions: NDP leadership candidate Peggy Nash in Edmonton
NDP leadership candidate Peggy Nash at last night’s “kitchen-table talk” in Edmonton. Below: Marlin Schmidt. There are only three or so of the nine candidates for the leadership of the federal New Democratic Party, and therefore for Leader of the Opposition, who are truly qualified to do the job and
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: ‘A pervasive culture of discriminatory bias’ – the justice model for Canada’s loony right
One of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s deputies leads a prisoner, arrested for his shaky command of the English language, toward the chain gang. Racist and abusive Arizona police may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: “America’s toughest sheriff” hisself. Never forget that the Edmonton Sun, apparently a goodly portion of its
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Alberta political TV ad battle: Round 1 to the Wildrose Party
The Alison Redford Party’s first ad from the 2012 election season. Below: Hubby in the headlights. Maybe he’s just seen what’s on that to-do list. Or maybe he just feels strange wearing a sports coat in his kitchen at 7 in the morning. Yesterday, Alberta’s mighty Tory dynasty released its
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Rumoured Tory poll showing Alberta NDP surge: Orange Wave, or just orange hair dye?
Orange Wave, or just orange dye? Below: Alberta Premier Alison Redford with her Chief of Staff, Stephen Carter (photo borrowed from Calgary Herald); NDP Leader Brian Mason. What’s with the recent buzz there’s a private Conservative poll that shows NDP support surging in the Capital Region? Is this a real
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: First impressions: Brian Topp comes to Alberta
Federal NDP leadership candidate Brian Topp focuses on a questioner during his stopover in Edmonton last night. Oddly enough, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Brian Topp on TV. Not so as I’d have noticed, anyway – him or any of the other candidates for the impossible job of filling
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Prognosis looks bleak for faltering Alberta Party
Chima Nkemdirim: his decision to work for Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi was a serious loss for the Alberta Party. Below: Mr. Nenshi, Alberta Premier Alison Redford and Alberta Party Leader Glenn Taylor. The two worst things that have happened to the Alberta Party are, in this order, Naheed Nenshi and
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Liberal MLA Blakeman to run for Speaker, again
Edmonton Centre MLA Laurie Blakeman with Alberta Liberal Leader Raj Sherman last summer when they were both running for the leadership. Well, Ken Kowalski is marching into history, so why the heck not? At any rate, earlier today, Edmonton Centre Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman sent along a Twitter message saying
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Premier Alison Redford enforces generational change in Alberta government
Alberta Speaker Ken Kowalski and other former PC ministers line up to wait for their transition allowances. Tory politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Mr. Kowalski, former Premier Ed Stelmach, Iris Evans, Lloyd Snelgrove. Civilization as we know it in Alberta has ended. Ken Kowalski, 66, is stepping
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Bad Danielle Smith & Good Danielle Smith: the Wildrose Party campaign begins to unfold
Good Danielle, above, softens you up while Bad Danielle waits just outside the door. Bad Danielle is going to slap you around a bit now for even thinking about voting for Alberta Premier Alison Redford. Then maybe she’ll step out of the room for a smoke. While she’s gone, Good
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