Alberta Politics: Rachel Notley, one of the finest political orators of her generation, raises the rafters with optimistic speech in Edmonton

Rachel Notley looked and sounded like a politician on a roll yesterday afternoon as she addressed at least 1,500 people sardined into Edmonton’s Polish Hall – energized, by turns forceful, funny, and inspiring. This runs counter to the media narrative about this 2019 election campaign from the get-go, of course,

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Alberta Politics: Captive audience? Continuing care operators’ ‘reference document’ pushes residents, families to vote for UCP, shows NDP in negative light

A “reference document” implying residents of private for-profit and not-for-profit seniors’ care facilities and their families should vote for the United Conservative Party has been distributed by the Alberta Continuing Care Association. In addition to creating the misleading impression the UCP is more committed to creating housing for seniors than

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The Daveberta Podcast: Episode 33: Ballot Questions, the Leaders’ Debate, and your great Alberta Election questions

In this episode Dave and Ryan discuss the latest Alberta’s election developments, including the fallout from Mark Smith’s homophobic comments, Jason Kenney’s interview with Charles Adler and how it might impact voters on April 16, the televised leaders’ debate, and what Rachel Notley needs to do in the final week of

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Alberta Politics: Were Mark Smith’s comments on gay love a Lake of Fire moment for the UCP, or just another insignificant bozo eruption?

With the revelation United Conservative Party candidate Mark Smith holds the offensive view gay love can never be real love, and equates LGBTQ people with pedophiles, it appeared that Alberta’s United Conservative Party was finally having its own genuine Lake of Fire moment. But was it? It certainly looked like

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Alberta Politics: The UCP health platform: mostly spin, some two-tier medicine, and scraps of red meat for the base

Jason Kenney’s health care policy announcement yesterday was a typical conservative political speech – a mish-mash of anodyne sentiment, misleading spin, market-fundamentalist nostrums, scraps of red meat for the base, cheap shots at the federal government, terrible ideas he’ll implement if he gets the chance, and even a couple of

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