Last week Ms Soapbox was introduced to the Legislative Assembly by Liberal MLA, Laurie Blakeman, the oldest (as in longest-serving, not age!) opposition MLA. Ms Blakeman noted that Ms Soapbox was a lawyer but said the House wouldn’t hold that against her. Ms Soapbox stood to receive the “traditional warm
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Susan on the Soapbox: What Would It Take to Make you Plead Guilty? Alberta Revamps Traffic Court
What would it take to make you plead guilty to a crime you didn’t commit? One hundred dollars? One thousand dollars? Need more information? Okay, what if the crime isn’t serious? And if you plead guilty you can avoid the hassle of driving downtown, parking in an expensive lot, going
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Alberta Health Services Executive Bonuses: The joy of friends in high places
Ogden Nash To paraphrase Ogden Nash (actually Mr Nash did not utter this famous phrase, but for some reason we all think he did), “Spring has sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where my bonus is?” It is indeed bonus time. Executives in the private sector watched their bonuses
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Price of Justice in Alberta: One Free Crime
On March 17, 2013, Alison Redford’s PC government broke the back of justice…and none of us saw it coming. Lady Justice, or Justitia, is the personification of the justice system. Her blindfold symbolizes objectivity, her scales symbolize the balance between truth and fairness and her double-edged sword demonstrates that reason
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Redford’s Keystone Ad in the New York Times: The St Patrick’s Day Blunder
So it’s come to this has it? Premier Redford has officially abdicated responsibility for the Canadian natural resource strategy to her communications director, Stefan Baranski, who persuaded Ms Redford to place an ad in today’s New York Times. The ad, entitled Keystone XL: The Choice of Reason, was meant
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Budget 2013 (If you want to play with the Big Boys, you play by Big Boy Rules)
“Opening new markets across Canada and around the world has become job one for this government.”—Finance Minister Horner on the 2013 Budget priorities, Alberta Hansard p1440. That simple sentence tells you all you need to know about Budget 2013 and how your tax dollars are going to be spent in
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: *hack hack cough cough*
Susan on the Soapbox is sick. Stay tuned. Professor Matthew Hay … assailed by the furies of typhoid, measles, influenza, whooping cough and scarlet fever (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: And Now…A Message from your Premier-In-Waiting: Mr Lukaszuk
We interrupt our regular programming—the PC spin on the cause of the $4 billion budget shortfall—to bring you an important public service announcement from the Premier-In-Waiting, Mr Lukaszuk. Mr Lukaszuk steps up to the microphone and says: Listen up you pesky union types, and this includes all you doctors who
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The “Tone at the Top” from two perspectives: Richard Nixon and the AHS
When Richard Nixon told David Frost than an illegal activity is not illegal “when the president does it” he confirmed what we’d all suspected: the “tone at the top” as far as the 37th President of the United States was concerned was hopelessly corrupt. Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th President of
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Who do you trust? Premier Redford or Alberta’s Doctors?
“How can you trust a man who wears both a belt and suspenders? The man can’t even trust his own pants.”—a line from the spaghetti western Once Upon a Time in the West. If the government’s attacks on Alberta’s doctors are any indication, anyone up for contract renewal this year
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