VICTORIA — Strangely, all those conservatives who are anxious to get us back to school and business as soon as possible didn’t seem to be very happy yesterday when B.C. Premier John Horgan called a snap election for Oct. 24. Supporters of B.C. political parties other than Mr. Horgan’s New
Continue readingTag: Alberta Politics
Alberta Politics: We have met the enemy and he is us — Alberta in the midst of a climate damn emergency
VICTORIA — The world is waking up to the fact the climate emergency is, well, an emergency. This certainly isn’t good news for Alberta, although, perversely, it may be good news in the short term of the United Conservative Party of Premier Jason Kenney and governments like his in other
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta takes over as Canada’s political Crazytown; privatized health care suffers a setback
VICTORIA — When I was growing up here in Lotusland, British Columbia had the reputation of being the Crazytown of Canadian politics. The late Allan Fotheringham, the Vancouver Sun columnist we all read religiously, famously summed up Canadian politics like this: “In the Maritimes, politics is a disease; in Quebec
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Order saying Alberta schools won’t have to enforce social distancing lands like a sucker punch
Whoever it was in the Alberta Government that decided it would be a good idea to risk springing the news on the public that COVID-19 social distancing rules won’t apply to classrooms just hours before schools reopen was seriously mistaken. The United Conservative Party government’s “near-normal” back-to-school scheme was already
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Death toll from fall of Montreal statue still stands at zero, but apoplectic Wexiters may be at risk
The death toll from the fall of John A. Macdonald’s statue in Montreal Saturday still stands at zero, the gods be praised. One would have thought it was much higher, however, given all the outraged virtue signalling from Conservative politicians and their “issues managers” here on the western edge of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Kaycee Madu, no stellar cabinet performer, is promoted to where he can do less harm; other stars fall
Kaycee Madu, possibly Alberta’s least successful cabinet member in the estimation of his portfolio’s key stakeholders, as Alberta justice minister? Who saw that coming? Former Economic Development, Trade and Tourism Minister Tanya Fir (Photo: Facebook). Of the three major political events affecting Alberta that took place while your blogger was
Continue readingAlberta Politics: So long and see you soon — AlbertaPolitics.ca will shut down for a week
AlbertaPolitics.ca is shutting down for a week. I expect to be without a wifi connection for much of the next seven days, so if there are posts at all on this blog, they will be poorly illustrated and limited in number. There may have to be none at all. Alberta
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If Press Gallery membership for the Rebel is so important, why are Postmedia reporters still in the gallery in Ottawa?
What are we to make of the peculiar fact that Postmedia reporters still occupy their comfortable chairs in the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa? A quick scroll through the national Press Gallery’s comparatively informative website reveals at least 10 journalists employed by Postmedia Network Canada Corp. are members of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The empire strikes back: Understanding the UCP obsession with how history is taught
Anyone who wonders what inspires the United Conservative Party Government’s peculiar obsession with how history ought to be taught, and to what end, probably needs to look no further than Christian P. Champion. Dr. Champion, PhD, as is now well known to social media readers in Alberta, holds startling views
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Oddities: online term paper ‘ghostwriter’ site believes impersonator used UCP minister’s name and credentials
An online custom term paper writing service called UnemployedProfessors.com says it now believes a contract writer listed on its website under the name and credentials of Alberta’s minister of advanced education is an impersonator. After references to the “unemployed professor profile” in the name of Demetrios Nicolaides cropped up on
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The COVID-19 emergency may not be over, but your hospital parking fee holiday is
It was a big deal back in April when the government of Alberta suspended hospital parking fees for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic. Health Minister Tyler Shandro was Johnny on the Spot, telling media reporters that “health-care workers and the general public should not have to worry about paying
Continue readingAlberta Politics: With a questionable claim to the moral high ground, Postmedia rolls over for the Rebel
Canada’s largest newspaper chain has just rolled over for the Rebel. Last night the National Post published an editorial demanding that the Alberta Legislature Press Gallery admit employees of Rebel News Network Ltd. to its ranks. Retired journalist Heather Boyd, author of a report that could have saved the Press
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The economics of small nuclear reactors, touted by Jason Kenney as a ‘game changer,’ just don’t add up
When Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says small nuclear reactors “could be a game changer in providing safe, zero-emitting, baseload power in many areas of the province,” as he did Sunday in a tweet, he’s pulling your leg. For a variety of economic and technical reasons, the scenario Mr. Kenney described
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thanks to a public-spirited leaker, a risky health-care privatization scheme is exposed
Panicky sounding United Conservative Party “issues managers” were frantically insisting yesterday everything is copacetic and above board with secret plans to build a $200-million private orthopedic surgical hospital in Edmonton. No way will this result in two-tier health care, they contended, often shrilly calling anyone who suggested otherwise a liar,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Urgent need to squelch political fallout best explains Jason Kenney’s oddly timed nuclear announcement
A Friday in August sure seemed like a peculiar time for government like Jason Kenney’s to announce it had signed onto a multi-province effort to sell natural resources and encourage the development and sale of a new generation of Canadian technology. But there was the Alberta premier on Friday, accompanied
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Education Minister’s K-12 curriculum news conference by turns bizarre, deceptive, incoherent, and a comedy classic
No one who watched Education Minister Adriana LaGrange’s news conference on the United Conservative Party’s plans for Alberta’s K-12 curriculum yesterday could come away with the impression our province’s education system is in capable hands. Putting aside the government’s intention to send students back to schools ill prepared for COVID-19
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Good union jobs! Green jobs! UCP supporters need not panic, they’re not for anyone around here!
Jason Kenney and the United Conservative Party, friends of the union man and woman, not to mention the environment! Who would have seen that coming? Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: Chris Schwarz, Government of Alberta). Yet there was Energy Minister Sonya Savage, her words in black and white in the text
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Education minister changes tune on masks when schools reopen, but credits ‘emerging evidence,’ not public pressure
According to Education Minister Adriana LaGrange, it turns out “emerging evidence has made it clear that masks can play an important role limiting the spread of COVID-19 in our schools.” Who knew? Those were pretty much the first words out of Ms. LaGrange’s mouth as yesterday morning’s news conference on
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Platitudes or new plan? Education minister schedules news conference this morning on back-to-school plan
With the clock ticking down to a “near normal” mid-pandemic school reopening next month for three quarters of a million Alberta students, Education Minister Adriana LaGrange plans to provide an update this morning “on public health measures being taken for a safe return to school.” So, is the Kenney Government
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Shocking coffee mug has conservatives clutching their pearls, political Alberta all atwitter
Now that right-wing snowflakes have officially made “cancel culture” a thing, let’s talk about that controversial coffee mug they’d like to cancel that rudely mentions Jason Kenney, shall we? Tout le monde political Alberta was abuzz yesterday, with many conservatives bemoaning the sorry state of political discourse in Wild Rose
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