You’d have to be as rich as these well-dressed young readers to manage multiple newspaper subscriptions online! Below: P.T. Barnum with Commodore Nutt, the well-known newspaper paywall technology entrepreneur. Warning: potential profits may be smaller than they appear in newspaper publishers’ rear-view mirrors. Beneath Barnum and Nutt: some comments from
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Alberta Diary: Putting Christ back in Christmas: maybe Christians themselves need to ‘press reset’
Jesus, centre, separates the sheep from the goats. Don’t ask what happens to the goats. Below: St. Paul and modern Evangelical favourite Ayn Rand. Today is Christmas, and thus an opportunity for many who think of themselves as adherents of the Christian faith to lecture everyone else sternly about the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Toews an ill-timed Johnny-on-the-spot justifying imposition of U.S.-style gun-show anarchy
Victor Toews, Canada’s Minister of Public Insecurity and Zombification, rendered by Edmonton artist William Prettie. Below, a shifty looking Mr. Toews as he appears in the halls of Parliament. Pat Martin is a Great Canadian. ™ What a perfect way to throw a little red meat to your gun-nut money
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Alberta Apocalypto: The world as you know it is about to end! Again…
Alberta Finance Minister Doug Horner gets ready to make a sacrifice to placate the mighty and angry Deficit God. Alberta politicians, not to mention the Legislative complex, may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Mr. Horner. Oh my God! The world is coming to an end! I’m not
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Stephen Harper model for Wildrose power: promise free votes and deliver the Borg Hive
Singing along: What we were promised by the Reform-Conservative platform. Below: What we got. Alberta’s Wildrose Party blossomed at the edges of the same muddy spring whence sprang the federal Reform Party of Preston Manning and Stephen Harper. As is well known, the Reform Party went on to engineer the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Pollster’s take on Alberta leaders’ popularity sets stage for long Prairie slug-fest
Shades of things to come? Alison Redford, Canada’s second most popular premier, gets ready to break a board with Opposition Leader Danielle Smith’s face on it. Situations Alberta politicians find themselves in may not be exactly as described. Below: Ms. Smith. Alison Redford remains Canada’s second most popular premier behind
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Attack on Kent Hehr highlights deepening fissures in Alberta Liberal ranks
Calgary-Buffalo MLA Kent Hehr with a crowd of Liberalberta supporters in the background. (Bad joke. I apologize.) Below: Alberta Liberal Leader Raj Sherman. An angry and public attack last week on Liberal MLA Kent Hehr by Alberta Liberal Party President Todd Van Vliet suggests the party’s caucus is splintering under
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Time to move on from old Alberta Health Services expense claims? Not just yet, thanks, says Allaudin Merali
Will the wheels fall off the Alberta Health Services case for not paying severance to former CFO Allaudin Merali? At any rate, it sounds as if Mr. Merali, in blurry photograph below, hasn’t given up the fight. Former Alberta Health Services Chief Financial Officer Allaudin Merali today issued a stout
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Bill C-377 can be just the start – let’s shine a light on some corners that are really in the dark!
The ideal Canadian workforce, Harper Conservative style. Below: Social conservative B.C. MP Russ Hiebert. Well, you can’t fight a call for transparency, so why bother? I say, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em! The so-called Conservative Party of Stephen Harper quietly whipped its troops in the privacy of their
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Scenes from an Inquiry: No fireworks as Ron Liepert and Lynn Redford testify
Lynn Redford, the Alberta Premier’s sister, stars in Scenes from an Inquiry, directed by Ingmar Bergman, or someone with a similarly Nordic directorial touch. Below: Former Alberta health minister Ron Liepert chooses his colour for a game of chess with retired justice John Vertes. Actual inquiry participants may or may
Continue readingAlberta Diary: What’s wrong with the Alberta Medical Association’s message? A technical primer
The executive of the Alberta Medical Association, shown here, may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: the offending advertisement. With contract talks between the Alberta Medical Association and the provincial government back on again, after a fashion, a polling firm is out there now trolling to see how voters are
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Nexen deal: ‘Friends with benefits’ may not be nearly as good as it sounds!
Thanks to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada’s oilpatch will soon take a Great Leap Forward. Below: CNOOC’s logo. “When we say that Canada is open for business, we do not mean that Canada is for sale to foreign governments,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper intoned at a news conference in Ottawa
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Hockey-starved Canucks pray for brawl as Peter Van Loan channels Darrel Stinson
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien gets up close and personal with a protester. Below: NDP leader Thomas Mulcair, Tory chuck-a-bub Peter Van Loan, Liberal Fuddle-Duddler Pierre Trudeau, New Democrat Nathan Cullen, known for his gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability. Maybe I’ve just spent too much time
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Well, somebody thought there was queue jumping, that’s for sure!
Your blogger with Alberta Liberal Leader Raj Sherman, the former Conservative Parliamentary Secretary for Health. Below: Former Alberta Health Services CEO Stephen Duckett. In other medical news, Alberta seems to be suffering an epidemic of mild memory loss. Not just Alberta, either. The problem has cropped up Down Under as
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Docs call health minister liar, liar, scrubs on fire, but their ad fails to persuade
The docs’ advertisement. Below: AMA President Dr. Michael Giuffre. The Alberta Medical Association, the province’s most powerful trade union, has gone back to the familiar ground of buying newspaper advertisements to call Alberta Health Minister Fred Horne and the Progressive Conservative government led by Premier Alison Redford a bunch of
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Everythinggate: Perfect storm lands Alberta premier in shark-infested waters!
As a perfect storm blows, Alison Redford’s strategic brain trust parries Opposition attacks about the conduct of her government. The premier is in the centre of the boat, wearing a cowboy hat. Actual Alberta politicians may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Your blogger with Paul Martin; queue-jumping inquiry chief John Vertes. As the political …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Raj Sherman must’ve nailed it, or Fred Horne would’ve walked from talks with docs
CBC investigative journalist Charles Rusnell goes through Alberta Health Services expense accounts in the upcoming motion picture, All the Premier’s Relatives. Rusnell is played by actor Robert Redford, no relation. Don’t worry, people, I just made that up. But who could resist? Below: Dr. Raj Sherman, the Liberalberta leader, played by himself, and AMA President …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: HMS Alberta Tory: All hands to damage control! Is Commodore Mar aboard?
The scene in the Alberta Legislature yesterday, with Premier Alison Redford at the centre of things. Actual Alberta politicians may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Gary Mar, Premier John Brownlee, Vivian MacMillan. I suppose the question has to be asked: Is it too late for the Tories bring back Gary Mar? Mr. Mar had …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Potted history: why the winter of 2012 feels like the summer of ’73
Richard Nixon after his overwhelming 1972 re-election victory. Below: George McGovern, Alison Redford. Here in Alberta’s icy capital, the winter of 2012 is starting to feel like the summer of ’73. If you’re an Alberta Progressive Conservative, this is not a good thing. Let me explain. In the spring and summer of 1972, Richard Nixon, …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: And the winner is … no one: everybody missed Monday’s biggest story
Alberta families like this one just stayed home Monday and watched TV. Below: Pollster Janet Brown. So who stayed home? While poll analysts and pundits pontificated yesterday about what the somewhat-less-than-stellar victory of Conservative Joan Crockatt in the Calgary-Centre by-election might mean for the national political parties, the real story went largely unexamined – to …
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