The UCP government continues to tell Albertans it’s delivering on its promise of jobs, economy, pipelines, when in fact it’s not. The latest example of this Orwellian doublespeak is the UCP government’s “promises made, promises kept” report. This is the second PMPK report. Like the first one it lists
Continue readingAuthor: susanonthesoapbox
Susan on the Soapbox: Fair Deal Panel Registration
The Fair Deal Panel is coming to Calgary on Dec 10. If you plan to attend you’ll need to register. Here’s the link: https://www.alberta.ca/fair-deal-panel.aspx Hope to see you there!
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Day We Demonstrated Outside the UCP AGM
“Public services are under attack. What do we do? Stand up, fight back!” – Protest cheer Ms Soapbox, her husband and her good friend from Edmonton joined the public school teachers, healthcare workers, and deeply concerned Albertans at the huge rally outside the Westin Hotel where the UCP were holding
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Bill 22: An Attack on Democracy
Someone once said, “The only thing worse than knowing where the bodies are buried, is watching your enemies dig them up.” In order to ensure the Elections Commissioner’s investigation into the UCP leadership race didn’t dig up any more bodies—heaven forbid, he’d find a trail of breadcrumbs leading directly to
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Argggh!
Ms Soapbox spent most of Saturday in ER so her blog on Bill 22 won’t appear until Monday. On the upside, the doctors, nurses and healthcare staff at Foothills were wonderful. I applaud their professionalism in the world of uncertainty resulting from the UCP budget and pension initiatives.
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Fog of Politics
The fog of politics is like the fog of war. It’s hard to see what’s really going on. Albertans are choking in UCP fog. We wonder why Mr Kenney who came to power on the Thatcher/Reagan ideology—small government, low taxes and less red tape—is wasting valuable time and resources
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Mr Kenney’s Fair Deal Panel
They just keep coming, fast and furious, like water gushing from a firehose. Yesterday Mr Kenney announced the formation of the Fair Deal Panel, the latest in a suite of things Mr Kenney says we need to protect ourselves from those who prey on us. So far, he’s created:
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Anti-Alberta Energy Inquiry (Thank God for Lawyers)
In his book On Tyranny historian Timothy Snyder sets out twenty lessons from the 20th century to help democracies resist the “the usurpation of power by a single individual or group, or the circumvention of law by rulers for their own benefit.” These lessons are as relevant for Alberta as
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: How did we get to Wexit?
“Is this democracy’s death spiral? Are we falling, in this and other countries, into a lethal cycle of fury and reaction, that blocks the reasoned conversation on which civic life depends?” – George Monbiot The cycle of conservative fury and reaction hasn’t stopped for Albertans. It started with relentless attacks
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Greta Visits Alberta
“So today is Friday and as always, we are on Climate Strike, young people all around the globe are today sacrificing their education to bring attention to the climate and ecological emergency.”—Greta Thunberg On Friday my friend Elaine and I joined more than 10,000 Albertans to show our support for
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Some Thoughts on Thanksgiving
Usually the thought of Thanksgiving invokes images of family and friends sitting around the dining room table enjoying good food, sparkling conversation and laughter…as well as reminiscing over past thanksgiving disasters like Ms Soapbox’s stuffing that was as dry as sand and Mr Soapbox’s failed experiment involving an oyster.
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: An Interview with Beverley McLachlin, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
I was delighted when Shelley Youngblut, CEO & Creative Ringleader of Wordfest, asked if I would like to interview Beverley McLachlin, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, on stage before a live audience about her new book Truth Be Told: My Journey through Life and the Law.
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Justin Trudeau in Blackface
Ms Soapbox just returned from Italy with a miserable head cold, jet lag and no luggage. In this pathetic state she is trying to make sense of the Trudeau/blackface stories that have dominated the news for the last week. Trudeau apologized twice and acknowledged that “layers of privilege” as a
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: When Goliath Thinks He’s David
Ms Soapbox and her daughter were admiring the statues in the Borghese Gallery in Rome when Amnesty International published an open letter expressing its concern that Mr Kenney’s decision to fund a $30 million war room and a $2.5 million public inquiry into foreign funding of environmental groups undermines and
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Magical Ms M and the Blue Ribbon Panel on Finances
When Jason Kenney asked former finance minister Janice MacKinnon “to conduct a deep dive into Alberta’s fiscal situation” he told her to deliver recommendations to balance the budget by 2023 and develop a plan to retire the province’s debt without considering the revenue side of the equation. Ms M
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Albertans: “People of Destiny”
On Sept 1 Premier Kenney wished Alberta a happy birthday. Not once in his video message did he mention Canada. It was as if Alberta became a province in 1905 only to float around in No Mans Land for the next 114 years. He did, however, acknowledge Alberta’s connection to
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Mr Kenney’s Announcements on TMX and KXL
This just in from the how-to-make-a-good-news-story-sound-bad department: Mr Kenney’s government issued two press releases this week, one about the restart of construction of the TMX pipeline project, the other about the favourable ruling of the Nebraska Supreme Court on Keystone XL. Both of these announcements are about a good result
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Trudeau’s Ethics Violation
It was a headline befitting the National Enquire, splashed across the top of the newspaper in four different fonts and three different colours: “The evidence abundantly shows that Mr Trudeau knowingly sought to influence Ms Wilson-Raybould both directly and through the actions of his agents.” And boom, it turned into
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Patriot Games
“Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.” Mark Twain Last week Mr Kenney joined the patriot squad. On August 4 and August 7 he released two odious videos on social media. Let’s call them “Patriot Games One” and “Patriot Games Two.” Patriot
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: What Do They Want?
When Ms Soapbox read the “open letter” to Canadians published by three oil executives she was reminded of Sigmund Freud. Freud spent 30 years asking himself: what do women want? After 70 years of riding the boom/bust roller coaster with the energy industry Canadians are wondering the same thing:
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