Alberta’s so-called turn-off-the-taps law was pretty obviously unconstitutional when Rachel Notley’s New Democratic Party passed it and it continued to be unconstitutional when Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party had it proclaimed into law. So yesterday’s ruling of the Federal Court of Canada granting British Columbia a temporary injunction blocking application
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The Daveberta Podcast: Episode 40: Alberta Politics and Federal Election Q&A
We are back from our summer break with a special Question and Answer edition of the Daveberta Podcast. Dave dives deep into our mailbag to answer some of the great Alberta politics and federal election questions our listeners have sent in over the past few weeks. Thanks to our producer, Adam
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Where’s the crisis austerity is supposed to fix? Not necessarily in the numbers the government’s consultant crunched
In the decade between 2008 and last year, the number of civil servants in Alberta on a per capita basis fell by 5 per cent. In the same period, Alberta’s population grew by almost 20 per cent. I know, I know, that isn’t what your heard. You certainly didn’t read
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Guest Post by John Ashton: New approaches essential to counter Jason Kenney’s planned war on labour
John Ashton has served as a staff member on 26 NDP campaigns. He is co-author with former Alberta NDP leader Ray Martin of “Made in Alberta: The Ray Martin Story.” In this guest post published while your blogger is at a conference, Mr. Ashton argues the report on Alberta’s fiscal
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It’s tough to be a federal Liberal or a New Democrat in Alberta … especially during elections
It’s always hard to be a federal Liberal in Alberta … especially during elections! (Ba-boom!) In the federal election Prime Minister Trudeau called yesterday, it’ll probably be just a little harder than usual. Here in Wild Rose Country, it’s usually pretty difficult to be a New Democrat too, subject to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s perpetual fiscal crisis will never be fixed without revenue reform — so you might as well get used to it
Even real conservatives, if such a species exists anymore, know something’s gone awry with Alberta’s fiscal setup and that part of the solution’s on the revenue side. The fact we’ve not faced up to this is why Alberta is so vulnerable to the unavoidable volatility of the fossil fuel market.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Inauthentic activity’ on social media, abuse of progressive women in politics … is there a common thread here?
Is there a common thread running between reports Friday that a spike in “inauthentic activity” on social media just before the Alberta provincial election came from unidentified backers of the United Conservative Party and news stories Saturday about harassment of federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna? It would
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta schools are public no more … What gives?
Alberta schools are public no more. Or something. A ministerial order signed by Education Minister Adriana LaGrange on Aug. 15 eliminated the word “public” from the legal title of all public school divisions and boards in Alberta. What’s going on? That’s not immediately clear, but given Premier Jason Kenney’s promises
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Blue-Ribbon Panel’ report sets stage for full-blown austerity, private health care, soaring tuition and much more
The recommendations of the Kenney Government’s “blue-ribbon panel” on Alberta’s finances yesterday went further over the top than you’d even have expected from a report ginned up by a couple of Fraser Institute ringers, a former bank president, and a few additional followers of the government’s low-tax, market-fundamentalist ideology. As
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Andrew Weaver to Jason Kenney: ‘Every day you keep opening your mouth, more people come to the B.C. Greens!’
When it comes to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, Andrew Weaver is not a fan. This will not come as a complete surprise to anyone who follows either Alberta or British Columbia politics. Dr. Weaver, after all, is the leader of the B.C. Greens. He is also a climate scientist. In
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP slaps Alberta Teachers Association … probably not for the last time
Almost completely missed in media coverage of Friday’s purge of NDP appointees to agencies, boards and commissions by Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government was the revelation that the same day the government abruptly cancelled a three-year-old memorandum of agreement with the Alberta Teachers Association to co-operate on curriculum development. While
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP’s Friday Morning Massacre purges NDP appointees from Alberta’s boards, agencies and commissions
You almost have to admire Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government for the thoroughness of its sudden purge of NDP appointees to government agencies, boards and commissions yesterday. The Friday Morning Massacre began with news the UCP was clearing out NDP appointments on the boards of 10 post-secondary institutions and the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Kenney Conservatives find the perfect policy panel to push the working poor back to penury
If pushing the working poor back into penury is your policy objective, the United Conservative Party led by Premier Jason Kenney has found the right collection of ringers to stack its “expert panel” on rolling Alberta’s minimum wage back to pre-NDP levels. Labour Minister Jason Copping introduced the panel yesterday
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Oh, dear, what can the matter be? They promised to bring us a pretty ‘Blue-Ribbon,’ but all they deliver is cant!
Once upon a time, your blogger worked for a famous newspaper publisher who announced one day that since we journos hadn’t had a raise for a couple of years we could expect a small one in six months. There was a caveat, though. We would only get the raise if
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta discourse may still be mired in climate change denial, but the rest of the world is moving on
Public discourse in Alberta may still be mired in climate change denial, but the rest of the world is changing and changing fast. Even the New York Times, which along with much of the mainstream media in the United States could be accused until recently of seriously underplaying the climate
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Conservative mismanagement of health care, which we’re about to see return to Alberta, is a feature, not a bug
Last Thursday, Tyler Shandro advised Albertans that the promised United Conservative Party review of Alberta Health Services is rolling ahead. Well, he did once tell us that things tend to happen in due course. This is pretty much the first we’ve heard from Alberta’s baby-faced health minister since he famously demonstrated
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Postmedia seeks new editor for Edmonton Journal – what became of the old one?
Postmedia is now advertising for a new editor-in-chief for the Edmonton Journal and the Edmonton Sun. It may come as something of a surprise to Edmonton readers that English Canada’s largest newspaper corporation is seeking “a dynamic, innovative journalistic leader to oversee the editorial vision and content of Postmedia’s Edmonton
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Fallout from dual probes into 2017 United Conservative Party leadership campaign still drifting down
It may not be fair, and you may not like it, but politics is like French justice: Guilty until proven innocent. OK, the French say it ain’t so, and we have to take them at their word. They’ve signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, bien sûr! But in politics,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Symbolic MLA pay cut set stage for attack on public services – so why did the NDP support it?
Like neoliberals everywhere, Alberta’s Conservatives overrate the virtues of big business and undervalue those of democracy. This is not exactly news. This was a clear message yesterday from the vote of the Legislature’s Member Services Committee to cut MLA salaries by 5 per cent, and twice that for the premier’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP Government, with no apparent short-term Plan B, seeks leave to appeal injunction suspending Bill 9
Unsurprisingly, the United Conservative Party Government has filed notice of appeal on the temporary injunction granted by the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench that halted application of Bill 9, playing havoc with Premier Jason Kenney’s strategy for putting off a crisis with the province’s public sector unions until after the
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