In case you were looking for another reason to want Preston Manning’s preposterous politicized pandemic panel report to be spiked, there’s this … Calgary Skyview Liberal MP George Chahal (Photo: Mahmoud Alshall, Creative Commons). Yesterday morning, George Chahal, the Liberal Member of Parliament for the Calgary Skyview riding, took to
Continue readingTag: Alberta Politics
Alberta Politics: Danielle Smith delivers more promised chaos in health care with purge of six senior AHS executives
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith – she basically promised chaos in health care and she’s delivering it (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). The politically inspired purge of senior Alberta Health Services officials by the United Conservative Party that has now begun is likely to paralyze decision making throughout the provincial health care system. The
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Preston Manning’s pandemic panel report wants more politicians, fewer docs calling public health shots
Have I got this straight? Preston Manning just made a recommendation to give politicians absolute authority over public health that was so excellent the Alberta government accepted it a week before they got it? Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). Can someone remind me why we gave the superannuated
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Red Deer Catholic school trustee who compared pride flags to swastika banners is out – but that’s unlikely to be the end of the story
Monique LaGrange, the Red Deer Catholic school trustee who compared rainbow pride flags to Nazi swastika banners in a social media post in late August, has been given the bum’s rush by the Red Deer Catholic school board. Red Deer Catholic Regional Board of Trustees Chair Murray Hollman (Photo: Facebook/Murray
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Premiers can agree not to poach health care workers from one another, but that’s easier said than done
A week ago, Canada’s premiers ended a meeting in Halifax agreeing that they shouldn’t poach health care workers from one another. Nova Scotia Conservative Premier Tim Houston (Photo: Screenshot of CPAC video). There’s a shortage all round, they seemed to be saying, let’s poach from poor countries instead of each
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Danielle Smith and Tucker Carlson: Four reasons the Alberta premier will join the far-right American bloviator on stage
Danielle Smith’s plan to meet on a Calgary stage with far-right American bloviator Tucker Carlson on Jan. 24 has generated a surprising amount of what passes for serious commentary in Canadian media lately. Tucker Carlson on stage at a 2018 right-wing conference in Florida (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons). Much of
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Restructuring AHS – The Wrong Way
I was never particularly impressed with the AHS “Superboard” concept that was instituted in 2009 – it got some thing right (like centralizing procurement), but it also had the effect of gutting the ability for the system to respond to local needs. It effectively turned major decisions into political fodder
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Danielle Smith summons Ed Stelmach, Lyle Oberg from the Alberta political crypt to help sell the breakup of AHS
It was an interesting strategy for Premier Danielle Smith’s government to trot out former premier Ed Stelmach, the man most associated with the creation of Alberta Health Services back in 2009, to act as a validator at the announcement yesterday of her plan to smash the province-wide health care agency
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Back to the future: UCP set to announce plan to bust up AHS, add reams of red tape, and politicize health care decisions
Health care in Alberta is moving confidently into the 1990s! Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). The United Conservative Party Government led by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is about to bring the province’s health care system back to the future with a massive infusion of new red tape, just
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Lunatics’ really are running the asylum: UCP-TBA fusion starts to sink in with the Alberta commentariat
It was finally starting to sink in with Alberta commentariat yesterday in the aftermath of the United Conservative Party’s annual general meeting that the lunatics really are running the asylum, to borrow a colourful metaphor from former premier and UCP founder Jason Kenney. Calgary Herald political columnist Don Braid (Photo:
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: The UCP Goes "Hold My Beer" To The CPC
Author's Note: I started writing something about the UCP's policy resolutions in October, but it seemed redundant. Now that the UCP has held their AGM, and these have been voted on, it's time to take a look at the shape of the party that results from it. In September, the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Take Back Alberta victory in UCP board elections wasn’t that steep a hill to climb – the party went full MAGA ages ago
Well, it looks as if the United Conservatives’ extremist Take Back Alberta faction now controls all the seats on the party’s board. The UCP’s new party president, Rob Smith, when he’s all dressed up (Photo: Facebook/rob.smith.for.ucp.president). Some guy named Rob Smith who you’ve likely never heard of if you don’t
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Chrystia Freeland says Canada’s chief actuary will determine how much cash Alberta would actually get if it pulls out of the CPP
When we heard Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner say yesterday he’s encouraged to hear that the federal government will ask the Government of Canada’s chief actuary to determine how much cash Alberta would actually get if it were to pull out of the Canada Pension Plan, we could predict with
Continue readingAlberta Politics: As Edmonton activist Michael Kalmanovitch sees it, with the planet afire, he had no choice but to raise a ruckus at the Legislature
The way Michael Kalmanovitch sees it, he had no choice but to raise a ruckus inside the Chamber of the Alberta Legislature moments after Monday’s Throne Speech. The moment on Monday when Mr. Kalmanovitch started shouting in the Legislature (Photo: Screenshot of Legislative Assembly of Alberta video). The world is
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP expands role of government’s chief advisor on union negotiations, former AUPE negotiator Kevin Davediuk
In March 2016, Kevin Davediuk’s new job as chief government advisor on negotiations with Alberta’s public sector unions was described by media and Conservative politicians as a grave blunder by the NDP government. Mr. Davediuk as seen and assailed by the Calgary Herald in 2016 when he was appointed as
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The mystery of Bill 5: Is it part of the UCP’s covert ‘Free Alberta’ agenda or just a bit of administrative housekeeping?
Members of Alberta’s labour relations community were scratching their heads Monday and yesterday about Bill 5, the Public Sector Employer Amendment Act, 2023, last on the list of the first five bills to be introduced by the United Conservative Party in the new session of the provincial Legislature that began
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s Throne Speech was long, boring, unpersuasive, evasive, unoriginal, and defiantly aspirational
There were two speeches at the Alberta Legislature yesterday! Lieutenant Governor Lakhani (Photo: Legislative Assembly of Alberta/Flickr). The Speech from the Throne was long, boring, unpersuasive, evasive, unoriginal, and weirdly aspirational in a way that defies the growing international consensus about the role of fossil fuels in global climate change.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s Legislature shudders back to life this afternoon – what will the UCP get up to next?
With the Alberta Legislature resuming sitting today with a Throne Speech, one has to wonder what the United Conservative Government of Premier Danielle Smith will get up to next? Government House Leader Joseph Schow (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). The headline on the government’s news release Friday about the inaugural session of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Help was on the way? Looks like the goal of UCP’s $70M+ ‘Tylenot’ stunt was simply to own the Libs
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her United Conservative Party government may look like fools for having paid $70 million up front to a Turkish drug manufacturer last December for a huge supply of children’s pain medication most of which will likely never reach Alberta. A bottle of ‘Tylenot’ (Photo: Alberta
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Continuing CPP uproar means Danielle Smith and the UCP are getting what they want: the grownups are paying attention!
Like any teenager acting out, Danielle Smith must be delighted to have the entire country in a swivet about her government’s preposterous claim that even though Alberta has only about 16 per cent of Canada’s population less Quebec, which has its own pension plan, the country owes it 53 per
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