As a newspaper reader, and an old-school newspaperman, it saddens me to hear that the Edmonton Journal will no longer publish a Sunday edition. Having a newspaper to read every day is part of my DNA, and ever since the Journal added a Sunday paper — to much fanfare and
Continue readingAuthor: mauricetougas
In This Corner: On Mandel’s ‘What, Me Worry?’ attitude, and the ex-Capital Ex.
The city of Edmonton continued its arena tease last week, releasing the latest renderings of the new hockey pleasure palace. It took exactly one day before it was declared “world class” by the typically rapturous coverage of the Edmonton Journal. Of course, anything built in Edmonton these days is immediately
Continue readingIn This Corner: Mom’s workhouse: How one woman put 11 kids to work for the greater good.
This Mother’s Day will mark the 27th straight without a mother to celebrate. That’s almost half my life without a mother, and you’d think that the memories of her would have faded, pushed aside by all that has happened to my life since she passed away. But it hasn’t; I
Continue readingIn This Corner: A plea from a canker sore sufferer.
“That Rev. Lovejoy displeases me. I think I’ll give him a canker sore.” — God, as spoken to Homer Simpson, in “Homer the Heretic” If you’ve never had a canker sore, this line from The Simpsons may elicit, at
Continue readingIn This Corner: Whither the Liberals: a post-mortem
One hundred and twenty-three thousand, seven hundred and seventeen. That’s not the number of votes the Alberta Liberals got in the not-so historic election of 2012 — that’s the number of votes the Liberals LOST from the 2008 election. The final Liberal vote count was slightly better than half that
Continue readingIn This Corner: Now is the time for all good Liberals to come to the aid of their party.
Important note: The following blog is intended only for people who usually vote Liberal, but who are thinking of switching their vote to either the PCs (to stop the Wildrose) or to the Wildrose (to defeat the PCs). Unwavering PC supporters, bedrock Wildrose supporters and compulsive NDP backers, please leave
Continue readingIn This Corner: MLAs Behaving Badly.
Today, for your amusement/outrage, your humble correspondent presents MLAs Behaving Badly. By sheer coincidence, all of the MLAs in this blog are PCs. Seriously, it’s just a coincidence. Thomas Lukaszuk The first example of an MLA Behaving Badly was widely reported: Thomas ‘Tommy Boy’ Lukaszuk’s run-in with a constituent. You
Continue readingIn This Corner: Wildrose or PCs? Having fingernails pulled out, or toenails?
The other day, one of my sons (the one who actually knows there’s an election going on) asked me which I would prefer: a Progressive Conservative government, or a Wildrose government. I had time to think about my answer, as the mere thought of that Sophie’s Choice resulted in a
Continue readingIn This Corner: Memo to PCs: Here’s how to go negative on Danielle Smith
OK, PC party, listen up. I’ve been cheering for your demise ever since Peter Lougheed stepped down, so I really shouldn’t be giving you any advice. And please, don’t take this as any kind of endorsement. But seriously, people. You guys just do NOT know how to campaign. I mean,
Continue readingIn This Corner: Let the pushback begin: Wildrose in the crosshairs
Albertans pay little attention to politics at the best of times. Even during elections, the public shows little interest until about two weeks before the vote. Well, here we are, about two weeks before the vote. Let the real campaign begin. For the crafty, well-financed and nasty Wildrose party, the
Continue readingIn This Corner: Long weekend gas gouge gets an early start.
This morning, as my son was heading off to work, I gave him one of my much-loved gentle reminders. I’ve found that my sons respond best to hearing the same message many times over. They say I’m repeating myself. I say I have to tell them the same thing over
Continue readingIn This Corner: Election blog #2: On ‘pure laine’ Albertans, and tawdry Tweets
When Danielle Smith smugly surmised that Alison Redford didn’t even like Alberta, I thought we might have hit a low point in the provincial election — and in less than a week! Then, just a couple of days later, a new low point. I can’t picture going much lower than
Continue readingIn This Corner: Election Day 1: The BS hits the fan
Ah, election time. The promises are flying, candidates come out of hiding, and the lowly, forgotten voter becomes the belle of the ball. The election is underway, so let the blogging begin! I Call Bullshit On That #1: Alison Redford came out swinging at the Wildrose, saying the party killed
Continue readingIn This Corner: Two good men: Hugh McDonald and Kevin Taft.
Just before we get into full election mode, with all the name calling and accusations and all that stuff that makes politics such a classy profession, I’d like to take a few moments before I launch into 28 days of name calling and accusations to say a few nice words
Continue readingIn This Corner: Mad Men: The tobacco industry’s 60-minute infomercial.
Don Draper, circa 1965. There is a lot of buzz pop cultural circles these days about the Sunday return of Mad Men, the wildly acclaimed but little watched (although it’s a cable hit, it would only be a minor hit on network TV) AMC drama about Madison Avenue-types in the
Continue readingIn This Corner: Are we losing our national politeness? Try the ODTY test and find out.
If there is one thing we Canadians are known for, it’s being polite. Maybe that’s not the best attribute to be known for, but it’s far from the worst. I’d rather be known as a polite people than a rude people, like Australians. (No offence, Australia.) Our inbred politeness is
Continue readingIn This Corner: Encyclopedia Britannica: RIP
There was a sad death this week that you may have missed. The Encyclopedia Britannica — or, if you really want to get huffy about it, the Encyclopædia Britannica — has died. The Britannica will no longer print hardcover editions of the most reliable and beloved reference work in the
Continue readingIn This Corner: Unraveling the mystery of MLA pay.
Ever since the news emerged that a number of MLAs were paid a grand a month to sit on a committee that never met, the subject of MLA pay has been a matter of much discussion. When it comes to politics in Alberta, about the only thing the average voter
Continue readingIn This Corner: Journal hits ‘New’ high in its support of Redford.
So, what do you think of the new PC party slogan, ‘New Conservatives’? Pretty catchy, eh? You can take that into an election. What do you mean, you’ve never heard of ‘New Conservatives’? Surely, it is in common use, since the Edmonton Journal’s lead editorial in Wednesday’s paper used the
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