Sounding about as sincere as the proverbial used-car salesman and not as convincing, Premier Danielle Smith whipped through an apology to the Alberta Legislature yesterday for breaking the Conflicts of Interest Act back in January when she talked to former justice minister Tyler Shandro about extremist street preacher Artur Pawlowski’s
Continue readingTag: Alberta Politics
Alberta Politics: Former MLA’s request for investigation of premier’s dishwashing post blown off by office of Ethics Commissioner
The office of the Alberta Legislature’s Ethics Commissioner has blown off a request by a former MLA for an investigation of what he sees as Premier Danielle Smith’s use of her office to further a private gain by tweeting about her shift washing dishes in her husband’s restaurant hours before
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Turns out Facebook didn’t censor or ban Alberta’s premier, but Danielle Smith’s complaint raises a legitimate policy question
It should be well known to everyone now that the claim Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was censored or banned by Facebook is nothing more than a tall tale. Premier’s Office Executive Director Rob Anderson back in the day when he was a Wildrose MLA (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). On Wednesday,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The boss is going crazy! She’s practically giving her restaurant away! Plus, big tech is censoring her!
Premier Smith in a flattering photo published by Postmedia along with its flattering story about her restaurant in High River (Photo: Source not identified, via National Post). Yesterday morning, Internet sleuths noticed the notorious High River railcar restaurant owned by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her hubby has been put
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rachel Notley is no Jim Prentice or Danielle Smith, so she’s not about to quit in a tantrum or a snit
Bored reporters were trying to gin up a little post-election excitement yesterday speculating about whether Rachel Notley will stay or go now that her New Democrats are back in Opposition, albeit with a significantly larger caucus than before May 29. The late Alberta premier Jim Prentice, just before the election
Continue readingAlberta Politics: With half of UCP Caucus in cabinet, more MLA perks to come, we get a glimpse of Danielle Smith’s unity strategy
As of right now, fully half of Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party Caucus is in cabinet. Health Minister Adriana LaGrange (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). A cabinet with 24 members (25 if you count the premier) for a Canadian provincial government is arguably excessive, wasteful and inefficient – at exactly 50
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Danielle Smith names her cabinet – not all the omens are good ones
CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – Back home in Wild Rose Country, Premier Danielle Smith has named her cabinet, so the Internet and airwaves will naturally soon be rife with speculation about What It All Means. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). This is normally a fool’s errand, since less than 24
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Historical facts – so confusing! In case you missed it, World War II didn’t start 79 years ago Tuesday
CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – It took a long time for word of the outbreak of war in Europe to reach this isolated island in the North Atlantic. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). I speak, lest there be a misunderstanding about current events, of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s revelation on
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Consequence culture strikes! Former health minister Tyler Shandro finds himself out of a job
CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – By any reasonable standard, Tyler Shandro was an appalling minister of the Crown. Calgary-Acadia’s new MLA, Registered Nurse Diana Batten (Photo: Alberta NDP). It’s hard to think of any file he handled well, although it’s fair to say that it was during his tenure as minister of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Despite complaints from the left the NDP shifted too far right, it was a left policy blunder that lost the Alberta election
CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – It’s ironic how, despite complaints from the left about the Alberta NDP’s undeniable shift to the right, it was the party’s sole left-wing policy concession that appears to have sunk its chance to win the election. This may well have been meant as a gesture to placate
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rachel Notley’s unforced error – that 3% corporate tax increase – probably cost the NDP the election
SAINT JOHN, N.B. – The principal unforced error that most likely cost the Alberta NDP the May 29 election was the foolish decision to blab about a 3-per-cent tax increase for the largest corporations. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). When Rachel Notley said that, with an explanation that
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Premier Danielle Smith, fresh off election victory, suggests resurrecting the Family Compact to run Edmonton!
Even before the dust from the historically close 2023 Alberta general election has settled, Premier Danielle Smith was blabbing about creating an extra-parliamentary council of UCP electoral losers to act as Edmonton’s MLAs. University of Calgary Law Professor Martin Z. Olszynski (Photo: University of Calgary). Of course, the day before
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Hot take: If you were hoping for sanity in Alberta after yesterday’s election, you can forget about it
Those praying for a degree of sanity to prevail after yesterday’s Alberta provincial election were bound to be disappointed by the apparent result last night. NDP Leader Rachel Notley concedes the victory to Danielle Smith last night in Edmonton (Photo: Twitter/Saif Kaisar). At the witching hour, the United Conservative Party
Continue readingAlberta Politics: No predictions today, but the stakes are high, maybe existential, so just go vote!
One of the dirty little secrets of Canadian politics at the end of the beginning of the 21st Century is that a lot of political professionals have come to recognize the awesome power of fear. Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper (Photo: Screenshot of UCP video). And nothing instills fear
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s economy has lagged the rest of Canada under the UCP, well-known economist’s study concludes
No matter how badly they mismanage it, Alberta Conservatives can usually expect to get a pass on the economy. Tomorrow is election day in Alberta (Photo: Michael J/Creative Commons). There’s no point carping about this. It’s not just Alberta. Public opinion research suggests it’s a common delusion among the populations
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney’s novel Hyperlink Defence in defamation suit fails to impress Court of King’s Bench judge
It’s probably not very helpful to the United Conservative Party effort to hang onto power by its fingernails that party founder and former premier Jason Kenney found himself back in the news yesterday, his effort to mount a novel Hyperlink Defence against a defamation lawsuit by five environmental organizations as
Continue readingAlberta Politics: No Revelations, just allegations, as Artur Pawlowski brings his circus to the steps of the Legislature
The circus came to the steps of the Alberta Legislature yesterday. The Pawlowski Bros. and Preachers and Press Corps Circus, that is, for lack of a better name. Artur Pawlowski during his jeremiad (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Actually, notorious Calgary street preacher Artur Pawlowski didn’t appear to have brought his
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What’s driving Brian Jean, whose enthusiasm for politics waxes and wanes? Just Monday’s election, or something more?
Brian Jean – once upon a time the leader of the Wildrose Party Opposition and more recently twice an unsuccessful candidate to lead the United Conservative Party – seems to be as energized as that famous battery-powered bunny these days. Danielle Smith and the late Progressive Conservative premier Jim Prentice
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Copy editors checking facts? That’s thing of the past at Postmedia, apparently, as election column illustrates
This may surprise some readers, but back in the early 1970s, when your blogger was a callow youth working as a cub reporter for the Calgary Herald, newspapers did their own fact checking! A Calgary Herald paperboy (Photo: Calgary Herald Archives). This important task was done by a special category
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Pensions don’t seem to be much of an issue in this election – pension governance expert says they should be
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she didn’t want to talk about the idea of taking Alberta out of the Canada Pension Plan and creating an Alberta pension plan until after the election, and by and large the province’s political commentators have co-operated. Pension governance advisor Tom Fuller (Photo: David J.
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