I was recently texted by my local NDP office with regards to getting a sign for the upcoming Alberta provincial election. This is how it went: So no, you cannot count on my vote because you are participating in the erasure of females in our society. Allow me to provide
Continue readingTag: Alberta NDP
Alberta Politics: With Alberta enjoying an unexpected oil boom, Rachel Notley vows an NDP government won’t piss it all away
With Alberta enjoying another rather unexpected oil boom, Rachel Notley has promised that an NDP government won’t piss it all away. Soon-to-depart Alberta premier Jason Kenney was all dressed up for the next oil boom, and now no one wants him around (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). That’s exactly what she said.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Bizarre UCP plan would see Alberta patients and their Alberta docs shipped to B.C. for surgeries, then shipped back
What the hell was the Kenney Government up to last fall when it had the brainstorm to compel Alberta Health Services to ship patients and their surgeons to an apparently under-used surgical facility in British Columbia’s Okanagan? The site of the Okanagan Health Surgical Centre in Kelowna (Photo: Screenshot of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thomas Dang, cleared of criminal offence in whistleblowing base, applies for readmission to NDP Caucus
Thomas Dang, MLA for Edmonton-South, has been cleared by police and will face no charges for testing and reporting security vulnerabilities in Alberta’s embarrassingly hackable COVID-19 vaccination records website. NDP Caucus Chair Joe Ceci (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Mr. Dang, who has been sitting in the Alberta Legislature as an
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Launching UCP leadership bid, Brian Jean promises life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, Alberta style
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul MLA Dave Hanson (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). That sure sounded like what former Wildrose Party leader and UCP co-founder Brian Jean was promising Albertans last night as he launched the formal part of his campaign to take back leadership of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rebecca Schulz vows to change the United Conservative Party’s nasty tone, but not necessarily its right-wing agenda
Promising to change the United Conservative Party’s tone, although not necessarily its right-wing agenda, Rebecca Schulz stepped forward in Calgary yesterday as the latest candidate to replace Jason Kenney as party leader and Alberta premier. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, whom Ms. Schulz hopes to replace (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). She wants
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta progressives whipsaw themselves from hope to despair – but less may have changed than it appears
So what is this, already? The spring of hope or the winter of despair? Former premier and NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Two months ago, tout le monde progressive Alberta was high on the certainty that the next provincial election would be the NDP’s with a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Awkward family portraits: Travis Toews and his supporters try to give an impression of unity and inevitability
Talk about your awkward family portrait! Brian Jean, the last time he announced he was running to lead the UCP, in 2017 (Photo: Brian Jean/Flickr). Former finance minister Travis Toews, the United Conservative Party establishment’s choice to replace Jason Kenney as Alberta’s premier, lined up with 14 of the party’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: In speech, Rachel Notley vows to put health care on ballot in 2023, reinstate harm-reduction programs, end UCP privatization plans
NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley ripped into the health care policies of the United Conservative Party Government in a campaign-style speech at the annual general meeting of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta yesterday afternoon in Edmonton. Ms. Notley on the big screens at the Edmonton Convention Centre (Photo: David
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Open Letter from 58 researchers and docs assails safe drug supply study prepared for Alberta Legislature committee
A damning open letter signed by 58 physicians and research scientists assails a study commissioned by an Alberta Legislature committee examining safe supply programs for users of addictive drugs as being of “critically low quality” and rife with omissions and misrepresentations. UCP MLA Jeremy Nixon, chair of the Select Special
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP effort to blame NDP for electricity price spike suggests Opposition attacks are hitting the mark
The Opposition’s sustained attacks on the Kenney Government for removing the NDP’s cap on electricity price increases must be hitting the mark with voters worried about the cost of utilities and inflation generally. Opposition NDP Energy Critic Kathleen Ganley (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). How else can we explain the UCP
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney tells ‘Alberta at Work’ news conference a spectre is haunting Alberta – the spectre of public auto insurance!
Did Alberta Premier Jason Kenney just win the next Alberta election for the NDP? Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). This is a serious question, people. Responding to a question about Alberta’s escalating auto instance premiums yesterday from Postmedia political columnist Rick Bell at news conference on another
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Guns & Money: LAGOs get a right-wing virtue-signal; car insurers get $385 million more in premiums
The Criminal Code may come under federal jurisdiction, but the Kenney Government wants the substantial number of “law-abiding gun owners” in its base to know every now and then that it still cares about them. Federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino (Photo: Parliament of Canada). Now would be one of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta Premier Jason Kenney lays out his case to keep his job to small crowd of carefully curated supporters
If he is to survive politically, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney must thread a needle – appeasing enough of his United Conservative Party’s base to keep his job without frightening so much of the electorate he loses the next election. Mr. Kenney during his remarks (Photo: Screenshot of UCP video). That
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Stolen data: Respected pollster refuses to publish private poll to suit Kenney Government; UCP leaks it anyway
Janet Brown is an independent Alberta pollster with a solid track record for accurate polling, so when a couple of media reports appeared this week saying one of her recent polls showed the United Conservative Party leading the New Democratic Party, political observers paid attention. For one thing, other recent
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Capable former cabinet minister Danielle Larivee will again be NDP candidate in Lesser Slave Lake
The Alberta NDP made it official yesterday, announcing that Danielle Larivee will once again be the party’s candidate in the Lesser Slave Lake riding. As I said when I reported last month that Ms. Larivee planned to seek the NDP nomination in the riding she represented between 2015 and 2019,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Poll says almost everyone’s sick of Jason Kenney as he disqualifies UCP nomination candidates and more drama looms
Hard on the heels of new a poll indicating a majority of United Conservative Party voters want Jason Kenney gone, the premier was busy defending his decision to disqualify a couple of candidates tipped to beat pro-Kenney MLAs in a party nomination votes. Meanwhile, the Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche by-election
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Exceptional tuition increases’ to hammer University of Alberta students in 12 professional programs this fall
The first news stories about the “exceptional tuition increases” in 12 University of Alberta programs Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides has quietly approved are bound to focus on the startling percentages – 100 per cent or more in the case of a couple of programs. But what’s needed beyond that
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Citing soaring prices, but with eye to shielding retailers’ profits, UCP stops collecting 13-cent-per-litre provincial fuel tax
If the United Conservative Party Government was serious about protecting Albertans from soaring fuel prices, it could move to temporarily control the retail price of gasoline and diesel fuel. Big fuel retailers would scream bloody murder, and market fundamentalist think tanks would suffer the vapours, but there wouldn’t be much
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Throne Speech: Short-term objectives, privatization, boondoggles, grudges, and attacks on public health care and education
In the Westminster Parliamentary system, the Throne Speech is supposed to set out the government’s direction, goals and policy for a new session of the legislature. The one read by Alberta Lieutenant-Governor Salma Lakhani in the provincial Legislature in Edmonton yesterday appears to have been written for the next 45
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