What the hell was the Kenney Government up to last fall when it had the brainstorm to compel Alberta Health Services to ship patients and their surgeons to an apparently under-used surgical facility in British Columbia’s Okanagan? The site of the Okanagan Health Surgical Centre in Kelowna (Photo: Screenshot of
Continue readingTag: Alberta Politics
Alberta Politics: Give Jason Kenney, crowing about how good management made Alberta’s budget surplus possible, credit for chutzpah!
Give Jason Kenney credit for sheer brass! Yesterday, Alberta’s premier, so recently told by his own party to pack up his stuff and take a hike, was taking credit for the province’s unexpected recent resource jackpot. Alberta Pollster Janet Brown, forecasting good tidings for the UCP (Photo: David J. Climenhaga).
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A thought on how Sundre can start to put the embarrassment of the racist jackassery in its rodeo parade behind it
Surely there must’ve been a few folks in the Central Alberta town of Sundre who, when they noticed the racist jackassery of the now notorious “the Liberal” manure-spreader parade float on Saturday morning, thought, “Oh no! Please, God, make them stop!” Someone was looking for a tractor to pull the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Protecting free speech on campus? Forget about it, Pierre Poilievre is just dog-whistling
Federal Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre seems to have generated a lot of publicity for himself lately with a much re-tweeted pledge to force Canadian universities to “protect free speech” by withholding federal research grants and other funds from post-secondary institutions that won’t knuckle under to his demands. Former U.S.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: As predicted, Canadian Conservatives want you to shut up about U.S. Supreme Court’s repugnant Roe v. Wade ruling
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling stripping half the United States’ 330 million people of their constitutional right to abortion, Canadian conservatives were busy trying to deny the intention of many in their political movement to do the exactly same thing here, as soon as possible. Peace
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Told to take a hike by UCP, former Alberta Liberal leader Raj Sherman says he’ll run to lead Conservatives anyway
Yesterday, the United Conservative Party failed to get a leadership candidate it really could have used and instead got stuck with a non-candidate it sincerely wants nothing to do with. From the author’s collection: a never-worn T-shirt from Dr. Sherman’s 2011 campaign to lead the Alberta Liberals (Photo: David J.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Portraying Alberta and federal Conservative parties as hot messes, Calgary MP Michelle Rempel Garner says she won’t join UCP leadership race
Calgary MP Michelle Rempel Garner has declared herself out of the race to lead the United Conservative Party in a scathing, 2,800-plus Substack article that dissects the in-fights and extremism bedevilling Alberta’s governing party and casts considerable shade on the federal Conservatives as well for many of the same sins.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Parliament’s budget watchdog concludes TMX is almost certainly a loser – no matter what Ottawa does
The soaring cost of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion has pushed the still-uncompleted megaproject Ottawa bought for Alberta further into the red, says a report released yesterday by the Parliamentary Budget Officer says. Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux (Photo: Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer). This quickly earned the project
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney’s cabinet shuffle, clearly necessary, nevertheless gets delivered in a slippery way
As is typical of the man, Jason Kenney’s cabinet shuffle yesterday, while clearly necessary, was delivered in a slippery manner. Justice Minister Tyler Shandro (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). Leastways, the usual cheerful statement alerting the media that a big upcoming announcement was in the offing appeared in no one’s email inbox
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Verna Yiu, fired in April as Alberta Health Services CEO, named University of Alberta provost and academic vice-president
It’s safe bet the United Conservative Party Government wasn’t very happy to learn yesterday that Verna Yiu, controversially fired in April as president and chief executive officer of Alberta Health Services, has been named as the next provost and academic vice-president of the University of Alberta. University of Alberta President
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What’s with Danielle Smith’s nutty, sophomoric campaign to lead Alberta’s UCP? Maybe she’s just bored!
Aided and abetted by a compliant media in love with a good horserace story, it looked for a spell in late 2011 and the spring of 2012 as if Danielle Smith might soon be Alberta’s premier. Ms. Smith with Progressive Conservative premier Jim Prentice on Dec. 17, 2014, the day
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thomas Dang, cleared of criminal offence in whistleblowing base, applies for readmission to NDP Caucus
Thomas Dang, MLA for Edmonton-South, has been cleared by police and will face no charges for testing and reporting security vulnerabilities in Alberta’s embarrassingly hackable COVID-19 vaccination records website. NDP Caucus Chair Joe Ceci (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Mr. Dang, who has been sitting in the Alberta Legislature as an
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Launching UCP leadership bid, Brian Jean promises life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, Alberta style
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul MLA Dave Hanson (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). That sure sounded like what former Wildrose Party leader and UCP co-founder Brian Jean was promising Albertans last night as he launched the formal part of his campaign to take back leadership of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rebecca Schulz vows to change the United Conservative Party’s nasty tone, but not necessarily its right-wing agenda
Promising to change the United Conservative Party’s tone, although not necessarily its right-wing agenda, Rebecca Schulz stepped forward in Calgary yesterday as the latest candidate to replace Jason Kenney as party leader and Alberta premier. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, whom Ms. Schulz hopes to replace (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). She wants
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta pulls plug on efforts to control COVID-19; Rajan Sawhney quits cabinet, joins race to replace Jason Kenney
One minute before midnight tonight, the United Conservative Party Government will pull the plug on all public health measures intended to slow the spread of COVID-19, even as the disease continues to infect and kill Albertans. Premier Jason Kenney during a visit to the University of Calgary’s school of engineering
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s UCP government may be in transition, but its hostile communications style is unchanged
CALGARY – According to the minister of health’s press secretary, there was “no error, and no undue delay” in the case of an 86-year-old Calgary woman who bled to death Sunday after being mauled by three pit bulls that escaped from a neighbour’s yard into the alley behind her home.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta progressives whipsaw themselves from hope to despair – but less may have changed than it appears
So what is this, already? The spring of hope or the winter of despair? Former premier and NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Two months ago, tout le monde progressive Alberta was high on the certainty that the next provincial election would be the NDP’s with a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Awkward family portraits: Travis Toews and his supporters try to give an impression of unity and inevitability
Talk about your awkward family portrait! Brian Jean, the last time he announced he was running to lead the UCP, in 2017 (Photo: Brian Jean/Flickr). Former finance minister Travis Toews, the United Conservative Party establishment’s choice to replace Jason Kenney as Alberta’s premier, lined up with 14 of the party’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What do you do about a problem like Shane Getson, the UCP MLA whose Facebook post appeared to call for the PM to be lynched?
With apologies to the Sound of Music, what do you do with a problem like Shane Getson? Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Photo: Justin Trudeau/Flickr). More specifically, what should the Alberta Legislature do about a member like Shane Getson, the United Conservative Party MLA for the rural riding of Lac Ste.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: For a high-profile minister, UCP’s first official leadership candidate, Travis Toews, has flown under the radar
Despite his high-profile job as Alberta’s finance minister and soaring political ambitions, Travis Toews has kept a remarkably low profile. Mr. Toews schmoozing supporters in the Alberta Legislative Building Rotunda (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Just look at the uninformative media coverage of the announcement when Mr. Toews, Alberta’s minister of
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