Weakened but still standing: The mighty Tory edifice. Don’t panic. This is a metaphor! Below: Alberta Premier Alison Redford. It’s interesting to juxtapose the results of two new polls on related but different topics that were released yesterday – a Think HQ poll of Alberta voter intentions and an Environics
Continue readingTag: Alberta Liberals
Alberta Diary: Are Alberta’s cannily incompetent Conservatives quietly awaiting a ‘Bitumen Gusher’?
Everybody should be as happy about Alberta’s “Bitumen Gusher” as these two guys, your blogger and former Finance Minister Ron Liepert. Below: AUPE’s chart of the price differential between Alberta bitumen and West Texas Intermediate crude. Below that: The Alberta government’s chart showing its natural resource revenue projections to 2022,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Welcome to Wildrose Alberta! What do you mean they didn’t win?
OK, the National Post got a little overheated with this election-day photo of Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith. But, really, what’s the difference? Below: Premier Ernest Manning and Premier Alison Redford, bookends in Alberta’s endless conservative governing dynasty. In April 2012, spooked by the dangers posed by a far-right Wildrose government,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Despite a lot of distraction, illegal political donations still stink up Alberta
Political culture in Alberta? Maybe not exactly as illustrated, but it’s still a problem for the Redford Government if Albertans see it that way. Below: O. Brian Fjeldheim. OK, we’re all enjoying a nice quiet Family Day long weekend. This gives us an opportunity to look back at the interlocking
Continue readingcalgaryliberal.com: Alberta Politics: “21 per cent of all respondents were undecided.”
21% of Albertans, according to a Leger poll, are undecided as to who they would support in an election. So who is going to convert these 1 in 5 Albertans? It’s not the Wildrose. They’re a known quantity, for good or ill. Nor will it be the Progressive Conservatives, racked by
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Redford government floats risky scheme to impose contract on teachers
An Alberta Teachers Association member gets ready to give an important lesson to the Redford Government. Alberta teachers may not be smiling quite as broadly as illustrated if the government imposes a contract on them by legislation. Below: Education Minister Jeff Johnson. Trapped in a no-deficit, no-tax-increase cage of its
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Khan, Cusanelli canned: Alberta premier sacks two rookie ministers in wake of poll
Steve Khan, eyed suspiciously by a fox. Below: Richard Starke, Christine Cusanelli, Richard III and Thomas Lukaszuk. Right on the heels of a new poll suggesting a decline in support for the Progressive Conservative government of Alberta, Premier Alison Redford announced a mini-shuffle of her cabinet yesterday, sacking a couple
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Uh-oh! Premier Alison Redford wants to have a ‘conversation’ with us
Fireside chats? Alberta Premier Alison Redford as she’ll likely see herself while softening up the province’s citizens for the March 7 Budget Speech on CTV tonight. Below: Ms. Redford as Albertans may see her. Below that: the real Ms. Redford; Conference Board Chief Economist Glen Hodgson. Oh dear. Premier Alison
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Redford Tories’ conundrum: Progressive reason versus Conservative passion
They kissed us once. Will they kiss us again? Alas, in Alberta right now, there’s no way to be cert- cert- certain. Alison Redford chats with a typical Alberta voter last spring – although, Alberta politicians and their supporters may not turn out to be exactly as illustrated. Below: The
Continue readingcalgaryliberal.com: 2013 is the Alberta Liberal’s year to shine
The Alberta Liberals are under attack. The Liberals are being assailed from every party from every corner of this province. The march to the middle has been of pronounced presence by almost every political faction in Alberta. The NDP have made open moves toward Liberal voters, campaigning hard in long held
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 readingcalgaryliberal.com: Todd’s Letter: The NDP Merger
I’m not interested in merging with the NDP. Todd Van Vliet, party president of the Alberta Liberals, isn’t a fan either. There was one point, almost a year ago, that I was. And I was quite frustrated then. I’m still frustrated, but more on that later. But I’m tired
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Albertaliberals spawn Liberalberta … this is a joke, isn’t it?
Raj Sherman kills at Huckabay’s Comedy Club, which of course doesn’t exist. Actual Alberta comedians may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: The re-branded Liberalberta logo; the real Raj Sherman, with his real chief of staff, Jonathan Huckabay; former Alberta NDP Leader Raj Pannu; the Sherman Tank. THE SCENE: A
Continue readingcalgaryliberal.com: Rebranding: Not Interested in Scraps
The goal is government. I’m interested in a party that wants into government. Anything else is a waste of time. It’s a waste of time to just complain and oppose, along with it being fundamentally unnatural and strange. I want a value-based and focused support of ideas. Bottom feeding and walking by
Continue readingcalgaryliberal.com: Creating Winning Conditions for 2016
There are several things that need to be done for a Liberal government in 2016 in the province of Alberta. It’s a trifecta of issues and all, ultimately, comes back to building a connection with our different communities in Alberta. The main three issues are that there are material deficits
Continue readingcalgaryliberal.com: Liberal Leadership ’13: We Don’t Really Know What’s Going to Happen
If anyone thinks they know what’s going to be the end result in the Liberal leadership contest (which just had its new rules announced) they’re dead wrong. Nobody knows what is going to happen. The National Post is dead wrong when they write that there is a predestined winner of
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Newest Alberta poll shows overwhelming support for Premier Alison Redford
Premier Alison Redford with her winning PC machine. Below: Opposition Leader Danielle Smith with her less successful Wildrose machine. Below Ms. Smith: Alberta Scan publisher Paul McLoughlin and pollster Janet Brown. Not only are the Progressive Conservatives the most popular political party in Alberta, but Premier Alison Redford enjoys a
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Environics poll shows Tories in full flower, Wildrose withering on the vine
Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith with some of her party’s social conservative supporters, who came home to roost a few days before the April 23 provincial election … and stayed! Alberta politicians and their supporters may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Premier Alison Redford and the real Ms. Smith. From
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Fiscal shocker! Redford Tories promise transparency but deliver opacity!
Secretive Redford Tory, left, moves to the right, while Wildrose transparency advocate, right, opts for a totally different course. Below: Doug Horner and Alison Redford, both smirking. This just in! Alberta’s Progressive Conservative government is secretive! Well… yeah! What’s astonishing is that the Alberta news media appears to be astonished
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Annals of Law Enforcement: Yeah, Alberta’s Tories are sleazy, but now and then they get it right anyway
Just a year ago, it seemed likely police recruits like these would soon be lounging around the dusty streets of Fort Macleod, where not much has changed since the Mounties pounded in their first tent pegs in 1874. Alas, it shall not be. Below: Col. James Macleod; former MLA Evan
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