It would be a huge mistake to count on the United Conservative Party unravelling fast enough to blow its big lead in public opinion polls by the time the next Alberta provincial election is upon us, which will be almost before we know it. It is a virtual certainty that even
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Alberta Politics: Never mind the facts of Canadian history: Brian Jean says … Make Confederation Great Again!
If former Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean established anything on Monday with his Epistle to the Albertans, wherein he set out his “agenda to move Alberta forward,” it’s that he remains a man desperate to be taken seriously. Much mocked in circles that no longer take Mr. Jean very seriously
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Blown off by Jason Kenney’s UCP last fall, former Wildrose MLA Rick Strankman heads for the Independent benches
When this blog’s entirely fictional Vegas oddsmaker Jimmy “The Geek” Porcospino celebrated the first birthday of the United Conservative Party last summer by setting the next year’s resignation odds for each of the party’s remaining caucus members, he gave Drumheller-Stettler MLA Rick Strankman only 20-1 odds of heading for the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Enough already! It’s time for the NDP to implement the Bighorn park plan immediately
Were provincial officials taking part in town hall meetings on the Alberta Government’s plan to create a park in west central Alberta’s Bighorn Country really harassed and threatened by all-terrain-vehicle enthusiasts opposed to restrictions on their motorized activity in the environmentally sensitive Rocky Mountain Foothills between Banff and Jasper national
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Death of Gene Zwozdesky, the mellifluous smoothie of Alberta politics, an apt symbol of the end of the Progressive Conservative Era
The death Sunday of Gene Zwozdesky – first elected as a Liberal but for many years afterward a Conservative, a cabinet minister who could be counted on to smooth over messes made by others, and eventually Speaker of the Legislature – can be said to mark the symbolic end of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Brief late-evening message from premier signals departure of Calgary MLA and former cabinet minister Stephanie McLean
If there’s an Alberta version of what used to be known as a “Kremlinologist,” they’ll be puzzling over yesterday evening’s social media announcement by Premier Rachel Notley about the departure of former Status of Women Minister Stephanie McLean. Premier Notley’s statement on Facebook at about 10 p.m. begged a few
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Not a lot of light between UCP and Alberta Party ‘Ministry of Truth’ schemes, or for that matter the NDP approach
Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel got a couple of things right about Jason Kenney’s plan to establish a “war room” in the Ministry of Energy to pump out belligerent propaganda attacking environmentalists, other governments and private citizens who fail to support of Alberta’s wishes for endless oilsands expansion with sufficient
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Happy New Year! What’s Brian Jean up to? Is the former Wildrose leader plotting a comeback?
Happy New Year! So, now that it’s 2019, what’s Brian Jean up to? Maybe it’s just me, but he’s sure acting like a guy who’s thinking about being a political candidate again! You remember Brian Jean, don’t you? He used to be the leader of the Wildrose Party. Indeed, he
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your year-end reading. – Kenan Malik comments on the many forms of classism. And Roderick Benns examines how Ontario’s basic income recipients were able to make use of their increased income security – including by spending more time with friends, with family and volunteering in their communities.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s Top Ten Political News Stories of 2018: It’s not all about that pipeline …
Trying to come up with a list of the most important Alberta political news stories of 2018 is more challenging than one might imagine since the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion brouhaha sucked all the oxygen out of this place for most of the year. A court challenge was inevitable. So
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Highwood Conservative discloses past conviction for failure to provide breath sample; UCP seems untroubled
With an investigation by the Alberta Elections Commissioner under way into allegations of irregularities in the United Conservative Party’s conduct of its nomination vote in the Highwood Constituency last fall, the winning candidate published a statement Friday admitting he was convicted and fined for failing to provide a breathalyzer sample
Continue readingAlberta Politics: MLA asks Elections Alberta to investigate claim Jason Kenney’s UCP leadership campaign ‘deliberately hid’ donation
“The UCP denies the allegations.” We should probably get used to reading this phrase. I suspect we’re going to be seeing it quite a lot in stories about Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party during the first half of 2019. It was included in an Edmonton Journal story yesterday about allegations
Continue readingAlberta Politics: AlbertaPolitics.ca: still here after 11 years writing about Canada’s most interesting provincial political scene
Today marks the 11th anniversary of the first post published on this blog, known at the time as St. Albert Diary. And thank God for that, since I’m in a post-Christmas funk with barely an idea in my head about what to write next. By the standards of the Internet,
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 25: We answer your Alberta Politics questions
We asked listeners to send us their Alberta politics questions and we dedicated our final episode of 2018 to answering them! We kicked off this episode with a game of “is it more likely,” where we discuss different potential scenarios in Alberta politics in 2019 and then we dove into
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Peak Separatism has passed in Alberta, no thanks to Postmedia’s sly campaign to undermine the Trudeau Government
Happy Holidays! It may take a few days for its perpetrators to admit this, but Alberta has all but certainly already passed Peak Separatism. The current 2018 spasm of Alberta separatist sentiment peaked late last week, probably some time Thursday afternoon. By the time we’re all saying Happy New Year
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Questions about UCP party votes abound: There’s smoke, but is there fire? Brian Jean’s ship was sunk, but did a kamikaze sink it?
There’s smoke! Is there fire? On Friday, StarMetro’s Edmonton and Calgary editions reported that the Office of the Elections Commissioner has hired a retired Edmonton Police detective to dig into reports Jeff Callaway’s 2017 “kamikaze” United Conservative Party leadership campaign was illegally funded. Ken Brander, who has a background investigating
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Athabasca University and its faculty approach an impasse in bargaining; the province drops a hint of what might be next
Is Alberta’s NDP Government getting ready to bring some serious pressure to bear if that’s what it takes to get a contract agreement between Athabasca University’s administration and its faculty association? If I’m right about the meaning of changes to the Athabasca University Regulation ordered by the provincial cabinet last
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Some personal thoughts on Marie Renaud’s victory at last night’s St. Albert NDP nomination vote
St. Albert, Alberta I hope readers will forgive me if I don’t do my usual newsroom shtick and instead just make a few personal observations about last night’s NDP nomination meeting here in St. Albert, where I live. I won’t keep you in suspense. Marie Renaud, MLA for St. Albert,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Defeated in UCP nomination battle, Highwood MLA Wayne Anderson takes complaint to Elections Alberta
Is it just seasonal, or is this the new normal? No, I’m not talking about the weather and climate change. I’m talking about the daily stream of revelations about unsavoury goings on inside Alberta’s United Conservative Party under the leadership of Jason Kenney. Highwood MLA Wayne Anderson has filed a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Why is the UCP keeping the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties on life support?
Inquiring minds want to know: Why is Opposition Leader Jason Kenney keeping the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose Parties around? Media generally refer to Mr. Kenney as the United Conservative Party leader. But in reality, he’s the leader of the United Conservative Party, the Progressive Conservative Party and the Wildrose Party,
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