Joan Crockatt, the first pest past the post, flanked by Calgary MPs Rob Anders and Jason Kenney, gives her victory speech in Calgary last night. Actual victorious Alberta Conservatives may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: The unsuccessful Liberal, Green and NDP candidates; the real Ms. Crockatt. Oh, how very depressing. Progressive voters outnumbered Conservatives, …
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Alberta Diary: Wildrose leader to Albertans: You’re gullible and stupid!
Pastor Allan Hunsperger in exile, as seen by the Wildrose Party’s leadership. Below: Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith (mean photo by Dave Cournoyer); the real Allan Hunsperger; party strategist Tom Flanagan; Wildrose House Leader Rob Anderson. Despite an amusing Pierre Poutine moment before it started, the Wildrose Party’s one-day annual general meeting in Edmonton yesterday seems …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: EXCLUSIVE! Calgary Centre and Stephen Harper’s Canada bashing fallout! Did I say exclusive?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper tells the rest of Canada to be afraid, very afraid. Actual Alberta politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: the real Mr. Harper, sort of; the “despised” Bill Phipps. In the wake of Sun News Network’s stale “exclusive” about Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s commentary on Alberta politicians two years ago, …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: On Monday in Calgary, will the Tories come second … or third?
Conservative candidate Joan Crockatt campaigns in Calgary while a supporter covers his face in embarrassment. (Joke.) Below: The winner of Monday’s by-election, as forecast by Perfesser Dave, Chris Turner. The great political minds of Alberta are pondering today where Conservative Party candidate Joan Crockatt will place in Monday’s Calgary Centre by-election. Will she come second? …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Expense account outrages? Only in government, you say? Puleeze!
Executives of Covenant Health enjoy a bottle of 2001 Il Piggione over lunch at Edmonton’s Characters Restaurant. Catholic health care executives may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Liberalbertaliberal Leader Raj Sherman. Alberta’s health care gong show continued to wheeze along yesterday with another revelation by the CBC that a couple of senior execs at …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Why tossing Alauddin Merali under the bus may not have been a good idea
Health Minister Fred Horne contemplates the Ghost of Firings Past. Or, wait, maybe that’s Michael Giuffre with the Ghost of Pre-Election Advertising Campaigns Past. Whatever, it’s not as grim as the Ghost of Elections Yet to Come, and players in Alberta’s health care system may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Allaudin Merali, Sheila Weatherill, …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Cone of Silence won’t make Albertans any less angry at expense account shenanigans
Alberta Health Minister Fred Horne, at right, and a representative of the media go inside the Cone of Silence to discuss the latest health care expense account revelations. Alberta politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated, but, boy, Maxwell Smart sure looks like Dalton McGuinty! Below: Premier Redford’s sister Lynn, CBC reporter Charles Rusnell and …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Latest Calgary poll results – perhaps aided by party’s sophisticated moves – show Green Wave developing
Calgary Centre Greens get ready to surf the Green Wave, expected momentarily. Actual Green Party supporters may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Chris Turner, Joan Crockatt and Naheed Nenshi. The latest poll of residents of the Calgary Centre riding shows a Green Wave developing among opponents of the Conservative Party in the Nov. 26 …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta health minister to doctors: shut up and take your medicine!
Long memories? D’ya think? Tory Health Minister Fred Horne overturns an Alberta physicians’ vehicle yesterday. Alberta Progressive Conservative ministers may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Fred Horne, Alberta Medical Association President Dr. Michael Giuffre, former AMA President Dr. Linda Slocombe. When Alberta’s most powerful union – the Alberta Medical Association, which until …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: U.S. pot decriminalization: will B.C.’s economy go up in smoke?
Smugglers sneak B.C. bud ashore in Washington State. Below: Typical pot smugglers’ accoutrements. Actual Canadian marijuana smugglers may not appear exactly as illustrated. If we Albertans want a hint of what it may be like when the oil runs out – or is replaced by cold fusion or something – all we may have to …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Perfesser Dave explains negative TV advertising and the job-killing Tory carbon tax
Zap! You’re frozen! … In the dark! The Harper Tories’ latest TV advertising attack on NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair. Perfesser Dave, below, explains why Prime Minister Stephen Harper will do the same thing he’s accusing Mr. Mulcair of planning if he manages to get re-elected. Below Perfesser Dave: Robert Stanfield, the underwear guy, Allan Fotheringham …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Will the Tories meet their Waterloo on the field at Calgary Centre? One can only hope!
Napoleon after the Battle of Waterloo. Events in the Calgary Centre by-election may not turn out to be exactly as illustrated. Below: Liberal Harvey Locke, Conservative Joan Crockatt and Green Chris Turner. Is Joan Crockatt about to meet her Waterloo? As reported first by Dave Cournoyer of the Daveberta blog and moments later by the …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Is a Wildrose ‘coup d’etat’ in the works as blog claims? Not very likely
Shades of Videodrome: Wildrose Deputy Leader Rob Anderson listens to Danielle Smith on a mysterious video about goings on in the Wildrose Party emanating from a French online video site. Actual clips from the missing movie may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Blogger Kathleen Smith, Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith, Progressive Conservative Premier Alison Redford …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta Tories send feds a message, but keep their most dangerous enemies close
Friends close, enemies closer: Alberta Tories, left, send a message to their federal counterparts. Alberta political parties may not be exactly as anthropomorphized. Below: Premier Alison Redford, Niccolo Machiavelli. Proving you really can have it both ways, Premier Alison Redford’s Alberta Tories rapped the knuckles of their federal counterparts yesterday but kept their most dangerous …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: More files from the You-Heard-It-Here Dep’t
Jeffrey Simpson of Canada’s National Website ponders the topic of another column. High-profile national prognosticators may not appear exactly as illustrated. More files from the Déjà-Vu-All-Over-Again Dep’t at Canada’s National Website and the You-Heard-It-Here Dep’t at Alberta Diary : “Are storm clouds forming in Alberta Premier Alison Redford’s sunny skies?” “… Ms. Redford’s problem in …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Tip for Tories: a grownup conversation about debt will pay political dividends
The House that Ralph built. Alberta mismanaged by market fundamentalists may not appear exactly as illustrated, but close enough. Below: Peter Lougheed, Alison Redford, Ralph Klein. As Alberta’s Tories gather today in Calgary to celebrate Peter Lougheed leading them out of the Social Credit wilderness 41 years ago, they will expend plenty of energy feuding …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Republican failure shows conservative parties must adapt, like Alberta PCs, or die
Psychological/political portraits of Stephen Harper and Barack Obama by Edmonton artist William Prettie. Used with permission. This too shall pass… Now and then throughout history, as with Whigs and Communists, international political-ideological movements of enormous influence wither and disappear, often quite suddenly. It is rarely their call. Neoconservatives – or neoliberals, call them what you …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Message to Canada’s media: OK guys, you can stop campaigning for that Romney guy now …
Romney Defeats Obama! U.S. President Barack Obama – perhaps not exactly as illustrated – holds up a copy of the Toronto Globe and Mail after his election victory last night. Or something like that. Maybe they just missed it that we don’t get a vote. Most Canadians don’t get to vote, that is, in the …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Apparently being Ezra Levant means never having to say you’re sorry
Sun News Network commentator Ezra Levant in a typical pose. (So typical, it’s a Sun News photo, as a matter of fact.) As tout le monde tout le monde nervously awaits today’s U.S. election, the story generating buzz on the Canadian Interwebs is a sorry tale of a Manitoba journalist fired for annoying her local …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Harper Tories cry havoc and let slip the wars of dogs!
Meow! Prime Minister Stephen and Patron of the War Animals Laureen Harper with their Military Intelligence advisor “Trinity.” Below: the GRU and CSIS lapel pins. Note the similarity of design. Coincidence? I think not! A Royal Canadian animal hat: Here be Dragoons. And below that: Modern elephant-mounted light artillery …
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