Fresh air and yogurt might have helped these guys live to be 160, but if they’d lived in Alberta, instead of Russia, where could they afford to sleep? Below, seniors care in Calgary, back in the day, before oldsters all carried tennis racquets, rode bicycles and looked like fashion models,
Continue readingTag: Alberta NDP
Alberta Diary: A Tale of Two Provinces: B.C. NDP and Wild Rosehip Tea Party show why opposition matters
Razzle-dazzle, sis-boom-bah, balanced budgets, rah-rah-rah! Danielle Smith and the Wild Rosehip Tea Party yell squad cheers for Alison Redford’s Tory team’s worst plays on the field. The actual Alberta opposition may not be quite as illustrated. Below: Ms. Redford and B.C. Premier Christie Clark. Why are these two premiers smiling?
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Welcome to Wildrose Alberta! What do you mean they didn’t win?
OK, the National Post got a little overheated with this election-day photo of Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith. But, really, what’s the difference? Below: Premier Ernest Manning and Premier Alison Redford, bookends in Alberta’s endless conservative governing dynasty. In April 2012, spooked by the dangers posed by a far-right Wildrose government,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Despite a lot of distraction, illegal political donations still stink up Alberta
Political culture in Alberta? Maybe not exactly as illustrated, but it’s still a problem for the Redford Government if Albertans see it that way. Below: O. Brian Fjeldheim. OK, we’re all enjoying a nice quiet Family Day long weekend. This gives us an opportunity to look back at the interlocking
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Four-day school scheme shows Tories view Fort McMurray as not much more than a work camp
Public School District students await dismissal for the week on a Thursday afternoon in Fort McMurray. Actual students may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Edmonton-Calder NDP MLA David Eggen; former Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo MLA Guy Boutilier. And where, the good people of Fort McMurray should be asking themselves today
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Progressive Conservatives and Alberta’s government: one entity, indivisible, under God?
Participants in today’s Alberta Economic Summit solemnly await Premier Alison Redford’s arrival at Calgary’s Mount Royal University. Many are called but few are chosen, and they may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Stefan Baranski, Charles Rusnell and Stephen Carter. As befits an almost exclusively political event, criticism of today’s
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Redford government floats risky scheme to impose contract on teachers
An Alberta Teachers Association member gets ready to give an important lesson to the Redford Government. Alberta teachers may not be smiling quite as broadly as illustrated if the government imposes a contract on them by legislation. Below: Education Minister Jeff Johnson. Trapped in a no-deficit, no-tax-increase cage of its
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Uh-oh! Premier Alison Redford wants to have a ‘conversation’ with us
Fireside chats? Alberta Premier Alison Redford as she’ll likely see herself while softening up the province’s citizens for the March 7 Budget Speech on CTV tonight. Below: Ms. Redford as Albertans may see her. Below that: the real Ms. Redford; Conference Board Chief Economist Glen Hodgson. Oh dear. Premier Alison
Continue readingAlberta Diary: A last thought for 2012: 2013 is bound to be an important year for Alberta’s NDP
2013 could be a big year for Alberta’s NDP – if they play their cards right. Members of the Alberta NDP caucus and their opponents may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: NDP Leader Brian Mason. Surely the strategic goal of Alberta’s New Democrats between now and the next provincial
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Attack on Kent Hehr highlights deepening fissures in Alberta Liberal ranks
Calgary-Buffalo MLA Kent Hehr with a crowd of Liberalberta supporters in the background. (Bad joke. I apologize.) Below: Alberta Liberal Leader Raj Sherman. An angry and public attack last week on Liberal MLA Kent Hehr by Alberta Liberal Party President Todd Van Vliet suggests the party’s caucus is splintering under
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Albertaliberals spawn Liberalberta … this is a joke, isn’t it?
Raj Sherman kills at Huckabay’s Comedy Club, which of course doesn’t exist. Actual Alberta comedians may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: The re-branded Liberalberta logo; the real Raj Sherman, with his real chief of staff, Jonathan Huckabay; former Alberta NDP Leader Raj Pannu; the Sherman Tank. THE SCENE: A
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Newest Alberta poll shows overwhelming support for Premier Alison Redford
Premier Alison Redford with her winning PC machine. Below: Opposition Leader Danielle Smith with her less successful Wildrose machine. Below Ms. Smith: Alberta Scan publisher Paul McLoughlin and pollster Janet Brown. Not only are the Progressive Conservatives the most popular political party in Alberta, but Premier Alison Redford enjoys a
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Fiscal shocker! Redford Tories promise transparency but deliver opacity!
Secretive Redford Tory, left, moves to the right, while Wildrose transparency advocate, right, opts for a totally different course. Below: Doug Horner and Alison Redford, both smirking. This just in! Alberta’s Progressive Conservative government is secretive! Well… yeah! What’s astonishing is that the Alberta news media appears to be astonished
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Evening Links
Assorted content to end your weekend. – Brian Mason makes the closing argument for Alberta’s NDP in tomorrow’s provincial election: – Meanwhile in Ontario, Keith Leslie reports that the McGuinty Libs are still dragging their heels on Andrea Horwath’s entirely reasonable set of budget requests. But while Martin Regg Cohn
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: One True Conservative Party and Other One True Conservative Party now said in dead heat
A typical Alberta soccer mom contemplates the differences between the province’s two conservative parties. The one on the left has indicated stronger support for public health care. According to the latest poll, Alberta’s election race has tightened significantly, and the province’s One True Conservative Party is now in a statistical
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Easter Weekend Campaign Update: Apparently 41 years in power makes you stupid!
Alberta’s listless governing Conservatives are getting creamed in the sign battle by the Wildrose Party, and even by the impoverished NDP. Above and below: NDP signs in Edmonton. Below: Yogi Berra, evidently as puzzled about this as the rest of us. We know that being in power for more than
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Is Alberta’s most entertaining political season in a lifetime drawing to a close? Gosh I hope not!
Get me Wildrose, Rewrite! Your blogger, who many not be exactly as illustrated but used to have a typewriter just like that, pounds out a last plea for a poll showing Alberta Conservative fortunes in decline before heading off to Okinawa. No soap! According to the Edmonton Journal’s political columnist
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Forum poll revealed: With an iPhone and a blog, we can now predict poll results before they’re published!
Wildrose Party Leader Danielle Smith with the voice of Forum Research Inc. She’s smiling because she likes his answers. Alberta pollsters and politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Dave, about to hang up on another poll. ForumPoll3 by djclimenhaga Forum Research Inc. of Toronto was back in the
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Another sleazy push poll takes aim at high-riding Redford Tories
Is this the party for which you are voting? Pollsters’ representatives call Albertans. Below: Naughty push-pollsters work from their basement boiler room in Calgary. Actual robo-callers may not actually exist as illustrated. ROI’s Bruce Cameron. WRP-PP by djclimenhaga Another squalid American-style push poll, which has all the hallmarks of a
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Second Forum poll shows Wildrose still soaring: Press 1 if you believe it, Press 2, if you have your doubts…
A Forum Research Inc. spokesperson counts up support for Alberta’s far-right Wildrose Party. Below: Forum President Lorne Bozinoff. Well, that’s one strategy for establishing your polling credibility: If you come up with a poll that other pollsters, bloggers and the usual complainers dismiss as an outlier, do another one that
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