daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Episode 10: Week 300 of the Trans Mountain Pipeline debate, and predictions for Alberta’s 2019 Election.

This episode includes analysis from Dave Cournoyer and Ryan Hastman about week 300 of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline dispute (including updates from Ryan, who was behind enemy lines in Vancouver) and the latest candidate nomination updates ahead of Alberta’s 2019 election. Ryan leads this week’s ‘So you want

Continue reading

Alberta Politics: Tory canoe and Trudeau too* – Liberals take advantage of Jason Kenney’s “Canada is broken” Tweet

Alberta Opposition Leader Jason Kennedy’s now famous “Canada is broken” Tweet a week ago may turn out to have been the symbolic starting point of the 2019 federal election campaign. Canada is broken. https://t.co/7tVwbAKPmc — Jason Kenney (@jkenney) April 15, 2018 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his federal Liberals were

Continue reading

Alberta Politics: A Bill to Squeeze British Columbia Till Its Pips Squeak introduced in Alberta Legislature – but can it pass constitutional muster?

Is it just me, or is almost everyone from Alberta quoted in the media sounding a little overwrought these days? Yesterday, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Energy Minister Margaret McQuaig-Boyd rolled out Bill 12, rather tendentiously dubbed the Preserving Canada’s Economic Prosperity Act, the sole purpose of which seems to

Continue reading

daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Alberta threatens to turn off the taps to BC as we enter Week 11 of the Trans Mountain pipeline dispute

With little appearing to have changed after Sunday’s pipeline summit in Ottawa, the political dispute over Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline continues to escalate. In Edmonton today, Alberta Energy Minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd introduced Bill 12: Preserving Canada’s Economic Prosperity Act. The bill would give the Minister of Energy sweeping powers

Continue reading

Alberta Politics: All’s fair in politics and the oil business, but the claim Canada’s facing a constitutional crisis is just politics

The fact the federal and Alberta governments were unable yesterday to reach an agreement with British Columbia on proceeding with the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project does not mean Canada is facing a constitutional crisis. However, it doesn’t preclude one happening eventually. Nevertheless, it’s important to state this clearly because

Continue reading

Alberta Politics: Despite NDP stamp of approval, pipeline rally on Legislature’s steps looked and sounded like a UCP event

PHOTOS: Part of the pro-pipeline crowd in front of the Alberta Legislature Thursday afternoon, with a couple of brave Indigenous counter-protesters visible in the foreground. Below: Federal Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi endured jeers, and Alberta Trade Minister Deron Bilous tried to fire up the crowd. The situation may have felt

Continue reading

Alberta Politics: The Kinder Morgan pipeline brouhaha shows why it’s time for Canada to pull the plug on NAFTA

PHOTOS: Kinder Morgan Inc. headquarters in Houston Tex. (Photo: H-town-visually.blogspot.ca). Below: Author and journalist Andrew Nikoforuk, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, and lighter-than-air Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. We’ve got the chance, thanks be unto Donald J. Trump. Obviously, it’s time to get the heck out of NAFTA! Why would I say

Continue reading

Alberta Politics: University top brass salaries capped; David Suzuki to get honourary degree from U of A! Stand by for fireworks!

PHOTOS: High-profile B.C. environmentalist, scientist, author and broadcaster David Suzuki. Below: Alberta Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt, University of Alberta President David Turpin (Photo: The Gauntlet), and United Conservative Party Opposition Leader Jason Kenney. The Alberta government has put a much-needed cap on the salaries of top university administrators, providing

Continue reading

Alberta Politics: Why demanding Ottawa intervene to bend B.C. to Alberta’s will is probably a terrible idea … from Alberta’s point of view

PHOTOS: Perfidious Pierre, villain of the National Energy Program, as the late prime minister is understood by all good Albertans to have been (Photo: Wikimedia Commons). Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Alberta Opposition Leader Jason Kenney, and British Columbia Premier John Horgan (Photo: B.C. NDP).

Continue reading

Alberta Politics: Forget Postmedia’s paranoid propaganda: Becoming an environmental pariah won’t restore the ‘Alberta Advantage’

PHOTOS: An Alberta oilsands operation (Photo: Kris Krug, Creative Commons). Below: Calgary Herald political columnist Don Braid, Calgary Sun political columnist Rick Bell, and United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney. According to the United Conservative Party and its media echo chamber, there’s “a growing national push to suppress Alberta’s economy.”

Continue reading

Alberta Politics: Watch for so-con ‘free speech advocates’ to attack NDP’s bill to create safe zones around abortion clinics

PHOTOS: Alberta Health Minister Sarah Hoffman. Below: United Conservative Party House Leader Jason Nixon. Later this week, Alberta’s NDP Government will introduce Bill 9, the Protecting Choice for Women Accessing Health Care Act. The legislation will ban demonstrations within 50 metres of an abortion clinic, as is already the case

Continue reading

daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Best of Alberta Politics 2017: Rachel Notley, MLA for Edmonton-Strathcona (and Premier of Alberta)

Photo: Ryan Hastman, Rachel Notley and Dave Cournoyer (photography by Chris Schwarz/Government of Alberta) With more than 1,200 votes cast, Premier Rachel Notley was chosen as the Best Alberta MLA of 2017 in the Best of Alberta Politics 2017 survey. Daveberta Podcast co-hosts Dave Cournoyer and Ryan Hastman were thrilled

Continue reading