Calgary may be the battleground in Alberta’s May 29 provincial election, but NDP Leader Rachel Notley stopped in Edmonton yesterday morning to tell a throng of supporters packed into the entrance hall of the Citadel Theatre in the city’s downtown what her party would do for Alberta’s nowadays-neglected capital city.
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Alberta Politics: Alberta premier’s worst moment in last night’s leaders’ debate happened before the opening bell rang
The worst moment in yesterday’s televised leader’s debate for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith came well before the hourlong event’s opening bell rang at 6 p.m. Premier Smith during the debate (Photo: Screenshot of broadcasters’ pool video). That was when Alberta Ethics Commissioner Marguerite Trussler issued her report on Ms. Smith’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Two new polls Wednesday say UCP and NDP are close to ‘statistical dead heat,’ province-wide and in Calgary
If the latest Alberta voter intention polls are right – and who would be bold enough to predict that? – Canada’s richest province could soon end up in an excruciating political predicament. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on the campaign trail (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). Well, at least it would be a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Heckling of NDP MLA at St. Albert meeting by UCP candidate’s supporters had a nasty Trumpian tone
St. ALBERT, Alberta – I’ve been to a couple of all-candidate forums in St. Albert over the years that got pretty lively, and one in 2015 that was downright rowdy, but the nasty tone of last night’s candidate forum at the St. Albert Inn was something new. Angela Wood, the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Leaked copy of respected pollster Janet Brown’s clients-only survey suggests UCP is on the road to victory
News yesterday that a leaked copy of high-profile Alberta pollster Janet Brown’s latest poll suggesting Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party may be on the road to a relatively easy victory in Calgary (and therefore Alberta) was about as welcome in NDP circles as the proverbial skunk at a garden
Continue readingAlberta Politics: New poll by Abacus Data shows Alberta NDP breaking ahead of UCP into winning territory
A new poll by Abacus Data released yesterday suggests the Alberta NDP led by Rachel Notley is breaking ahead of the United Conservative Party led by Danielle Smith and heading into winning territory. United Conservative Party Leader Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr) “Among all eligible voters, the NDP has gained
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Horror! Danielle Smith’s news conference is interrupted for about 50 seconds by 3 mild-mannered protesters!
So, let me see if I’ve got this straight … Trucks block the streets of Ottawa in February 2022 (Photo: Maksim Sokolov/Creative Commons). The people who vociferously supported the occupation of downtown Ottawa by truckers and others blasting air horns 24/7 and spewing filth on the streets of the nation’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Wildfire state of emergency introduces new calculus to Alberta election campaign
Declaration of a provincial state of emergency just 23 days before the spring election introduces a new level of complexity to Alberta’s electoral math. Alberta Opposition Leader Rachel Notley (Photo: Alberta NDP). Alberta is now dealing with electoral calculus, as it were, not just mere arithmetic. With dry conditions, hot
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP’s ‘Alberta is Calling signing bonus’ is mostly fluff, little substance, and likely to stir resentment
The United Conservative Party’s big “economic diversification” announcement yesterday, delivered by Premier Danielle Smith in what looked like a tire-repair shop, sounded like an uninspiring revival of former premier Jason Kenney’s “Alberta is Calling” subway advertising campaign in Toronto last fall. Jason Kenney during his lame “Alberta is Calling” News
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Alec Connon discusses how anger is an entirely appropriate response to the capitalist imperative to impose constant costs and burdens on people and the planet. And Alexandra Digby, Dollie Davis and Robson Hiroshi Hatsukami Morgan write that the collapse of First Republic Bank and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Happy May Day! Alberta poised for election call today
Today is May 1, the International Day of the Worker and presumably only by coincidence the day on which Alberta Premier Danielle Smith plans to visit Alberta Lieutenant-Governor Salma Lakhani to ask her to call a general election for May 29. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). Recent polling
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Criticized for the company she keeps, premier insists she doesn’t know who her friends are
Criticized for the company she keeps, Danielle Smith countered by insisting she doesn’t know who her friends are. Alberta’s premier hobnobs last Wednesday in Calgary with convoy leader James Bauder, his wife Sandra Collins Bauder, and convoyer Harold Jonker (Photo: Facebook/James Bauder). When Alberta’s premier caught flack for posing at
Continue readingAlberta Politics: NDP would repeal Sovereignty Act, restore balance to workplace law, Christina Gray tells AFL convention
CALGARY – An NDP Government will repeal the Sovereignty Act and other controversial UCP laws while creating better jobs in a more affordable Alberta, Opposition Labour Critic Christina Gray told delegates to the Alberta Federation of Labour’s biennial convention today. Delegates to the AFL convention heard from NDP leader Rachel
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Tales from the Crypt: UCP unearths Stephen Harper whose bloodless video ‘endorsement’ falls somewhere short of inspiring
How do you make a political endorsement without making a political endorsement? Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who was not mentioned in Mr. Harper’s “endorsement” of her political party, which he also didn’t name (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). Canada’s former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper has offered us a lesson! Yesterday, Alberta’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: NDP’s Rachel Notley targets radical Take Back Alberta group taking over the United Conservative Party
It’s hard to imagine David Parker, founder and de facto leader of the Take Back Alberta political action committee, was very happy to hear Opposition Leader Rachel Notley signal clearly last week that the NDP considers his group a legitimate target in the election campaign already unofficially under way. Take
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Danielle Smith versus Danielle Smith on public health care: Methinks the premier doth protest too much!
Danielle Smith renounced and denounced Danielle Smith’s health care policy objectives at a United Conservative Party at a press conference yesterday in the Edmonton suburb of Sherwood Park. Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney at a similar stunt in 2019 (Photo: Twitter). The Danielle Smith doing the renouncing is the one
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Premier changes Pastorgate story again, claiming she thought preacher facing charges just wanted to talk politics
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has changed her story again about her controversially congenial telephone conservation with street preacher Artur Pawlowski about the criminal charges against him. Controversial street preacher Artur Pawlowski (Photo: Independence Party of Alberta). This time, using the Saturday morning Your Province, Your Premier call-in radio program provided
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If you’re not talking to a Crown prosecutor, it doesn’t count as interference – that’s the UCP’s story, and they’re stickin’ to it!
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith never spoke directly to a Crown Prosecutor when she set out to interfere in the administration of justice on behalf of pandemic public health scofflaws, and nothing else matters. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith with the giant sausage statue in Mundare, Alberta (Photo: Facebook/Danielle Smith). That’s the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Finance Minister Travis Toews and Environment Minister Sonya Savage won’t seek re-election on May 29
I’d like to say the rats are leaving the sinking ship, but I don’t think Travis Toews or Sonya Savage are rats, and I’m not certain the United Conservative Party is sinking. Departing Environment Minister Sonja Savage (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). With that caveat, it is a fact that Finance
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Tylenot’ is here at last, premier and health minister proclaim, just in time for no one to want to buy the stuff
Ridiculed for their weirdly incompetent response to last fall’s shortage of children’s fever medication, which has ended up costing Albertans $80 million for 750,000 bottles of a non-standard product that can’t be bought off the shelf, Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party Government decided to brazen it out instead. NDP Children’s
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