PHOTOS: An illustration grabbed from the Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School’s website. The elite private school charges annual tuition of $21,000 per year per student … and received more than $20 million in subsidies from Alberta taxpayers over five years! Below: Alberta Education Minister David Eggen, Edmonton School Trustee Michael Janz and Alberta
Continue readingTag: Alberta NDP
Alberta Politics: International Women’s Day turns into a major embarrassment for Alberta’s tone-deaf opposition
PHOTOS: Wildrose Opposition Leader Brian Jean – nothing to do with us, really. Below: Health Minister Sarah Hoffman, Environment Minister Shannon Phillips and former PC leadership contender Sandra Jansen, all New Democrats. It’s International Women’s Day and, whatever Alberta’s two right-wing Opposition parties would rather be doing, one doubts it’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Trump-like hallmark of Jason Kenney’s campaign: Its singular lack of ideas
PHOTOS: Jason Kenney crashing the Throne Speech party at the Legislature last week. Below: U.S. President Donald Trump; the late Ralph Klein, premier of Alberta; Rachel Notley, the present premier of Alberta; and political commentator Ricardo Acuna. Jason Kenny, the social conservative social media enthusiast who will almost certainly become
Continue readingAlberta Politics: With Rachel Notley off to Texas, it helps to understand why Canadians and Texans are naturally simpatico
PHOTOS: The magnificent Texas State Capitol in Austin – taller that the U.S. Capitol in Washington! Below: The interior of that Texas dome and some musicians making the scene in Austin, which is not only warmer than Edmonton, it’s more liberal too, and the sort of thing I had in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: School bus rides may not be free, as interim Tory leader reminds us, but we all benefit when we share the cost
PHOTOS: Former Progressive Conservative premier Jim Prentice and interim PC leader Ric McIver, back in 2015. Both men, one could argue, found math could be hard. Below: NDP Premier Rachel Notley and PC premier Ralph Klein. “There’s no such thing as a free ride to school on a bus.” —
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Who wants to be leader of Alberta’s Liberal Party? Nolan Crouse does.
St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse announced this week that he will run for the leadership of the Alberta Liberal Party, becoming the first and so far the only candidate to announce plans to run for the job. The party is holding a leadership vote in June 2017 to fill the position being vacated
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Shoreline, True Grit, photo-bombing, certainty and the Deity: random observations from Alberta’s Throne Speech
PHOTOS: Alberta Lieutenant Governor Lois Mitchell, clad in a purple official gown, reads the NDP Government’s third Speech from the Throne in the Legislature in Edmonton yesterday afternoon. Below: Party crasher Jason Kenney, Labour Minister Christina Gray (Dave Cournoyer photo) and Opposition Leader Brian Jean. Alberta’s New Democratic Party Government
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Eggen goes back to the NDP basics with bill to cut school fees
A flagship bill to cut school fees by 25 percent is familiar and friendly territory for the Alberta’s New Democratic Party. Introduced in the Legislative Assembly today by Education Minister David Eggen, Bill 1: An Act to Reduce School Fees, eliminates fees for textbooks, workbooks, photocopying, printing and bussing transporting. Last year’s Bill 1, which established
Continue readingAlberta Politics: St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse makes it official: he wants to lead Alberta Liberals
PHOTOS: St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse, second from left in Liberal red tie, announces his bid to lead the Alberta Liberals, a party that currently has only one member in the Legislature, on the University of Alberta campus near the North Saskatchewan River Valley yesterday. (Photo grabbed from Global TV
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s NDP tends not to make a game of Thrones, so tomorrow’s speech may actually give us useful information!
PHOTOS: Lieutenant Governor Lois Mitchell reads the 2016 Speech from the Throne in the Alberta Legislature. Below: Ms. Mitchell reads the 2015 Throne Speech and, below that, the vice-regal party accompanied by Premier Notley prepares to leave the Legislative Chamber in 2015. All photos by the Alberta Government, Premier’s and
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Looking ahead to the Throne Speech and Spring Session
Similar to last week’s third quarter fiscal update delivered by finance minister Joe Ceci, this week’s Speech from the Throne will mostly focus on political messaging and managing public expectations. Along with the pomp and circumstance that will drape the Legislature as Lieutenant Governor Lois Mitchell reads the throne speech on March 2, 2017,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Conservative parties compete to demand fat tax subsidies for Alberta’s education special interest groups
PHOTOS: In Alberta, private schoolboys like these would have 70 per cent of the cost of their education paid for by taxpayers! (BBC photo.) Below: Progressive Conservative leadership frontrunner Jason Kenney and Wildrose Education Critic Leela Aheer, both of whom support tax subsidies for shee-shee private schools. Below them: NDP
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Opposition parties strangely quiet as Alberta Finance Minister stops the ABC Sector gravy train
PHOTOS: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci considers a reporter’s question during Friday’s news conference (screenshot). Below: Alberta Workers Compensation Board CEO Guy Kerr and Alberta Energy Regulator CEO Jim Ellis. Being a conservative in opposition apparently turns what your Mama taught you on its head: If you can’t say anything
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Two views of Alberta third-quarter financial update: Steady as Joe goes, versus Faster, Pussycat! Cut! Cut!
PHOTOS: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci, on a day when the sun was really shining. Below: Former premier Ralph Klein, the haze on fond memories as painted by his portraitist; interim PC Leader Ric McIver; Wildrose Jobs Critic Glenn van Dijken; and Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark. Despite the expected
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Two polls and three by-elections signal an interesting spell in Alberta politics ahead
PHOTOS: No love lost for pipelines in B.C. – and all of a sudden that could have an impact on politics in Alberta (Rabble.ca photo). Below: Mainstreet research President Quito Maggi, B.C. Liberal Premier Christy Clark and Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley. Two polls were published this week by Mainstreet
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: The Three Alberta’s: Quick thoughts on the latest Mainstreet/Postmedia poll
Some quick thoughts on the Mainstreet/Postmedia poll released yesterday. The poll showed the Wildrose Party at 38 percent province-wide support, with the Progressive Conservatives sitting at 29 percent and the New Democratic Party with 23 percent. The Liberals and Alberta Party sat at 5 percent each. But the regional breakdown is
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Are non-Albertans who FRWN on progress behind many of the online threats against Premier Rachel Notley?
PHOTOS: Part of the uninspiring, sometimes troubling, field of Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidates. Their names? Frankly, it’s too much work to note them all down (CBC photo). Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former prime minister Stephen Harper (CBC).
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It won’t hurt NDP for centrist voters to understand how close Rachel Notley’s energy policy is to Jim Prentice’s proposals
PHOTOS: Jim Prentice during his time as premier of Alberta. Below: Premier Rachel Notley, Prentice co-author Jean-Sébastian Rioux (Twitter), and journalist Jason Markusoff (Twitter). The revelation that the moderate and thoughtful energy policy proposed by the late Jim Prentice soon after he left politics in 2015 was very similar to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Canada’s Conservative Party, a once-great national organization, is being overwhelmed by its own extremists
PHOTOS: Federal Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi, a hard-working and talented former Edmonton Transit bus driver. Below: Alberta Infrastructure Minister Brian Mason, a hard-working and talented former Edmonton Transit bus driver. Mr. Sohi, a Liberal, and Mr. Mason, a New Democrat, are both used to cheap conservative shots about their former
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Appalled maybe, but no one should be surprised by the ugly threats against Rachel Notley
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley. She has been threatened more than any other Alberta premier, and she reacts with aplomb. Below: British politician Jo Cox, murdered last year by a right-wing extremist for her beliefs; federal Conservative leadership candidate Chris Alexander while a right-wing crowd chanted “lock her up” about
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