I’m sure the United Conservative Party will say I’m wrong, so can somebody please explain to me how the UCP’s rural crime “task force” proposal to let rural property owners defend themselves and their property with firearms is not the same as the stand-your-ground” laws in the United States that
Continue readingTag: Alberta NDP
Alberta Politics: Brian Mason, who kept NDP flame alight in Alberta’s Legislature for a decade, to take his leave from politics
Brian Mason, who as party leader kept the NDP flame burning brightly in the Alberta Legislature from 2004 to 2014 even when the caucus was small enough to truly meet in a phone booth, announced yesterday he is about to pull the plug on a 29-year political career that has
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: NDP MLA Brian Mason retires after 30 years in politics. A spirited nomination contest expected in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood.
Photo: NDP MLA Brian Mason announces his retirement from Alberta politics on July 4, 2018. (photo credit: David Climenhaga) After 30 years in elected office, Brian Mason will call it quits when the next provincial election is called. The New Democratic Party MLA for Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood announced at a press conference
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Aheer acclaimed but not in the clear. UCP investigating alleged ballot-stuffing in North East Calgary.
Photo: Nomination candidates Leela Aheer, Shawna Gawreluck, Janet Eremenko, and Elisabeth Hughes. Despite the drama of restraining orders and alleged death threats, MLA Leela Aheer was acclaimed as the United Conservative Party candidate in the new Chesteremere-Strathmore district after she was the only candidate to officially submit her nomination papers with
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Calgary-Lougheed by-election report reveals $885,206.29 in NDP donations not reported in regular quarterly reports
Elections Alberta has released the initial campaign finance reports from political parties during the Calgary-Lougheed by-election held on December 14, 2017. Due to a strange quirk in Alberta’s election finance laws, all or most donations collected by political parties during the official by-election period between November 16, 2017 and February 14, 2018
Continue readingAlberta Politics: No need to make this stuff up: Celebrate Canada Day 2018 by driving the secret highways of Alberta!
Happy Canada Day! Why not celebrate by driving on Alberta’s secret highways? Frankly, I don’t know how the Beaverton stays in business with the brutal competition they’re facing nowadays from Wild Rose Country. There’s an expression we’ve all heard: “You can’t make this stuff up!” In Alberta, you don’t need
Continue readingAlberta Politics: As reproductive rights wither in the United States, a UCP candidate’s abortion-restricting strategy for Canada is revealed
“On abortion, we’re never going to see a black and white, yes or no question. My job as your MP is to fight for incremental changes. … It’s called the foot-in-the-door tactic.” — Joseph Schow On a day when there’s serious talk in the United States that women’s right to
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Alberta NDP get their first contested nomination in Calgary-Varsity, more than 3,000 UCPers vote in Cardston-Siksika
Photo: Julia Hayter, Joseph Schow, Kara Levis, and Marg McCuaig-Boyd The New Democratic Party has its first contested nomination race of this election season, and it is taking place in the newly redrawn Calgary-Varsity district. With current NDP MLA Stephanie Mclean not seeking re-election, MLA Michael Connolly announced he would
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Effort by religious schools to halt enforcement of Alberta’s GSA protection law tossed out by Medicine Hat judge
An effort by the so-called Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms to get a court injunction to halt enforcement of the Alberta law that prevents schools from informing parents when students join gay-straight alliances fell short in a written ruling of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench in Medicine Hat yesterday.
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Episode 14: Alberta Equalization, NDP Attack Ads, and Social Media Advice for Candidates
What does the renewal of the national Equalization formula mean for Alberta? What should Rachel Notley and Jason Kenney be doing this summer? What do we think about the New Democratic Party’s latest attack ad? And how should election candidates be using social media in 2019? These are a few
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It’s not equalization! It’s the taxes, stupid! They’re almost too low to keep the lights on and something’s gotta give
It’s not equalization. It’s the taxes, stupid! That is to say, Alberta’s taxes are too low to run the place over the long term and something’s gotta give. The great thing about Alberta’s never-ending tantrum about equalization and how the province of Quebec taxes and spends, at least from the
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Green Party candidate drops out and endorses Liberal candidate in Innisfail-Sylvan Lake by-election
Green Party of Alberta candidate Marco Reid has dropped out of the Innisfail-Sylvan Lake by-election and tweeted his endorsement of Liberal Party candidate Nick Jansen. Reid is the president of the Green Party of Alberta. Jansen is the Liberal Party’s former vice-president of policy and a current policy advisor to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Nothing new under the Prairie sun as Alberta Conservatives ratchet up their faux outrage about equalization and Quebec
Jason Kenney, leader of Alberta’s Opposition United Conservative Party, calls the Trudeau Government’s renewal of Canada’s current equalization formula for an additional five years “a slap in the face to Alberta.” “It means we will continue to be forced, even when times are bad in Alberta, forced to subsidize public
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Alberta Candidate Nomination Update: Lisa Davis in Calgary-Bow, Another former PC MLA in with Alberta Party, and more.
Calgary school trustee Lisa Davis announced this week that she will seek the United Conservative Party nomination in the Calgary-Bow district. While Davis’ conservative leanings are well-known, her desire to leave the trustee role she was only first elected to a short 9 months ago came as a surprise and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Money from wealthy right-wing ideologues helps fuel group challenging Alberta’s protections for GSA members
The so-called Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms achieved its first goal yesterday, generating plenty of publicity for itself and its social conservative supporters at the first day of its court bid to overturn the Alberta NDP Government’s legislative effort to protect students who join gay-straight alliances. By the sound of
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Alberta Candidate Nomination Update: Pitt bests Millions in Airdrie-East, Michael Connolly moves to Calgary-Varsity, and more.
Photo: Calgary-West MLA Mike Ellis and Airdrie MLA Angela Pitt were greeting party members outside the nomination voting station in the Town and Country Centre in Airdrie on July 20, 2018. (Source: Dave Cournoyer) Despite indications of a dogfight in Airdrie-East, United Conservative Party members voted overwhelmingly to choose incumbent
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Group making incendiary ‘ideological sex clubs’ claim about Gay-Straight Alliances has history of backing social conservative causes
As was widely reported yesterday, a judge of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench will begin hearing arguments in Medicine Hat today in a legal effort by a social conservative group to upend the Alberta law that prevents schools from informing parents when students join a gay-straight alliance. The claim
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Calgary MLA Brian Malkinson joins NDP cabinet as Alberta shuffle unfolds as more micro than macro
Alberta Premier Notley runs a pretty tight ship when it comes to her cabinet. So, as expected, there wasn’t much shuffling in the cabinet shuffle announced on the weekend and smoothly executed yesterday morning. Changes were minimal. So minimal, indeed, that mainstream media were calling it a “mini-shuffle.” One new
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Saskatchewan Catholic school funding case likely to drag on despite deadline; cabinet shuffle today in Alberta
You’d think the province of Saskatchewan would be almost out of time to figure out how to deal with a judge’s ruling last year that non-Catholic students may not receive public funding if they attend separate schools. After all, the bombshell decision by Mr. Justice Donald Layh of the Saskatchewan
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Trump’s anti-Canadian antics are good news for Alberta pipeline advocates – whether or not that was the plan
U.S. President Donald Trump may not actually have intended to deliver a blow to West Coast environmentalists opposed to the completion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project, but he has done so with his recent dubious allegations about Canada’s trading practices. Building a pipeline capable of carrying diluted bitumen
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