I suppose as good place as any to get back in to the swim of blogging is Friday’s release by Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party Government of the three-year-old report on the supposed impact of the $15 minimum wage brought in by Rachel Notley’s NDP Government in 2018. Alberta Premier
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Alberta Politics: Growing consensus that Alberta NDP’s communications strategy is failing prompts calls for tougher approach
Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley gave a rip-roaring speech to the party faithful in Edmonton Saturday, but a consensus is emerging among the commentariat and many voters that the Opposition party’s communications strategy is failing and time is short to fix it. Former Progressive Conservative deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk, who
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rachel Notley vows reinvestment in health and education, hammers UCP record, after accepting riding nomination
Vowing to reinvest in education, make “bold reforms” necessary to fix health care, and put an end to plans to fire the RCMP and gamble with Albertans’ pensions, NDP Leader Rachel Notley accepted the nomination for her Edmonton-Strathcona riding yesterday. NDP MLAs Rakhi Pancholi (Edmonton-Whitemud) and Marie Renaud (St. Albert)
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Budget 2023: Smoke, mirrors, sleight of hand, and promises that don’t have to be kept
Finance Minister Travis Toews got up on his hind legs in the Alberta Legislature yesterday, promised to spend more on health care and education, set up a billion-dollar special projects fund, pay down debt, and still leave the province with a $2.4-billion dollar surplus. Bolstered by record royalty revenues, Mr.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Like the proverbial bad penny, Raj Sherman keeps turning up – this time as UCP candidate in Edmonton-Whitemud
Just like the proverbial bad penny, Raj Sherman always turns up. Dr. Sherman in 2011 during his tenure as as Alberta Liberal leader, trying to make a very small crowd look like a big one (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Now he’s turned up as the United Conservative Party’s candidate in
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 85: Naheed Nenshi on Calgary in Alberta’s 2023 election
Former Calgary mayor shares his thoughts on Danielle Smith, Rachel Notley and the city he calls home ahead of Alberta’s provincial election. Former Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi joins the Daveberta Podcast to talk about provincial politics in Alberta’s largest city, the upcoming election, and The Last of Us and the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Lion’s share of UCP health spending announced yesterday is earmarked for finding docs for rural areas
Only $8 million of the Alberta Government’s $158 million “health workforce strategy” announced yesterday is directed to the recruitment of nurses, arguably the most desperately needed component of the province’s health care workforce. By comparison, the United Conservative Party Government earmarked the lion’s share, $119 million, to attract and retain
Continue readingAlberta Politics: NDP vows more access to family docs in what looks like the Opposition’s opening shot of 2023 election campaign
You could argue to the Opposition’s 2023 Alberta provincial election campaign started unofficially but in earnest yesterday with the Alberta NDP’s announcement of a plan to ensure that more than a million Albertans will be able to see a family doctor quickly, close to their homes. The cover of the
Continue reading52 Ideas: The 2024 Hybrid Corvette: A sign of the coming change
So anyone who knows me knows that I am not a car guy. However, one would have to be an ostrich to not see that there is a big change on the Energy Horizon. The introduction of the 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray by GM is just another example, another sign
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 84: The Daveberta Podcast is back! Now on the Daveberta Substack.
The Daveberta Podcast is back after a brief 11-month semi-permanent hiatus! Enjoy the podcast and find future episodes exclusively at the podcast’s new home on the Daveberta Substack.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Posted in obvious haste to distract UCP foes and appease party’s base, Manning panel survey asks only 1 question!
Other than geriatric former Reform Party leader Preston Manning, 80, Premier Danielle Smith’s “Public Health Emergencies Governance Review Panel” hasn’t even been appointed, or if it has the public hasn’t been informed. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). And even this assumes Mr. Manning is not in fact the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Dumping RCMP for provincial force could cost St. Albert residents an average $2,784 a year in property tax, says city’s NDP MLA
St. ALBERT – A provincial plan to dump the RCMP and replace it with a provincial police force could mean a whopping property tax increase for residents of St. Albert and other smaller Alberta communities, the MLA representing most of the city warned in a statement yesterday. Alberta Premier Danielle
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Texas businessman, world traveller, decides not to seek re-election in rural Alberta riding
A United Conservative Party backbencher caught up in the Alohagate pandemic travel scandal in the first hours of 2021 and seldom seen in his own riding has acknowledged reality and announced his political career is done like dinner. Danielle Larivee, the NDP nominee in the Lesser Slave Lake riding, which
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Ah, Imprecision! Carry On, Prosecutors! Danielle Smith takes it all back in clarification
As predicted in this space yesterday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has now clarified her statement of the day before about contacting Crown prosecutors “on a regular basis” to ask if they thought COVID-related public health prosecutions were in the public interest and if they had a chance of resulting in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta NDP’s $7.1-million fund-raising total in 2022 speaks to deep dissatisfaction among many voters with Premier Danielle Smith and the UCP
It is remarkable by any measure that the Alberta New Democratic Party raised $7.1 million in 2022, not to mention that $3.2 million of that sum was donated during the fourth quarter, and more than a quarter million dollars on the last night of the year. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Political risk? Unhappy school boards? UCP unexpectedly turns against P3s to build new schools
It’s no secret that P3s – so-called public-private partnerships – are at best a lousy public investment and at worst a disaster for citizens and taxpayers. Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney promised to aggressively pursue P3s (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). Still, they’re a great way for governments to subsidize big businesses
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Limiting debate, UCP rams through ‘Sovereignty Act in the wee hours of yesterday morning
Danielle Smith’s obedient United Conservative Party Caucus rammed through the premier’s so-called Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act in the wee hours of yesterday morning. Opposition Leader Rachel Notley called for the Sovereignty Act to be referred immediately to the Alberta Court of Appeal (Photo: Legislative Assembly of Alberta).
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Opposition NDP won’t allow itself to get sucked into the UCP’s desperate effort to fix the unfixable ASWAUCA
Alberta’s New Democratic Party has refused to allow itself to get sucked into the vortex Government’s effort to fix its unfixable Sovereignty Act. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). Nope, “this bill is beyond saving,” NDP Economic Development Critic Deron Bilous told a short and sparsely attended news conference
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ASWAUCA – the Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act – is turning into a disaster for Danielle Smith and the UCP
With the thoughts that you’ll be thinkin’You could be another Lincolnif you only had a brain.— Scarecrow, The Wizard of Oz OTTAWA Could Danielle Smith have handled introduction of her “Sovereignty Act” better? Answer: Yes. Like the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, though, this would have required that she only had a brain. This
Continue readingAlberta Politics: How long before Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government tries to ban mask wearing in schools?
Serious question: How long before Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government tries to ban mask wearing in schools, period? Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flicker). After all, nothing triggers an anti-vaccine snowflake like the sight of an adult wearing a COVID mask, unless it’s the sight of a child wearing
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