You have to ask why universities bother handing out honorary degrees like bonbons when you think about all the trouble it can cause them. Consider the embarrassing 2012 case of the Israeli university that came up with a scheme to give an honorary degree to an unsavoury right-wing foreign politician
Continue readingTag: Alberta Politics
Alberta Politics: Jason Kenney joins attack on David Suzuki; complains too many U of A honorary degrees go to progressives
Where is the Globe and Mail, the National Post, federal Opposition leader Andrew Scheer? After all, they were all such convincing defenders of intellectual freedom on campus when the barbs were being directed at Jordan Peterson, the University of Toronto professor who is “the Darth Maul of tenured campus bad
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Before David Suzuki there was the William Aberhart honorary degree scandal at the University of Alberta
The decision by the University of Alberta Senate to grant environmentalist, scientist and broadcaster David Suzuki an honorary degree has the university community tied in knots. University President David Turpin responded to criticism with an open letter today, but criticism from Dean of Business Joseph Doucet and Dean of Engineering Fraser Forbes
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If there was ever a time for the U of A to stick to its guns and welcome David Suzuki to Edmonton, this is it!
The University of Alberta’s dean of engineering believes his faculty faces “the worst crisis, a crisis of trust, that we’ve faced in more than three decades.” The immediate cause of this perceived looming disaster for the U of A’s most favoured faculty? “The conferral of a single honorary degree,” wrote
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Knickers in a twist over David Suzuki’s U of A honorary degree
Photo: Environmentalist, scientist, author, and broadcaster David Suzuki (credit: David Climenhaga) The decision by the University of Alberta Senate to present an honorary degree to high profile environmentalist, scientist, author, broadcaster and Order of Canada recipient Dr. David Suzuki has aroused much controversy from conservative partisans, Postmedia columnists, U of A
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta is not Texas North, Canada is not Kazakhstan, and Kinder Morgan’s big brains in Houston must’ve known it
There are a few Albertans who happily imagine this place is Texas North. Alas for those who do, and notwithstanding the media stereotypists who encourage this nonsense, we are as Canadian around here as folks in any other Western province. Maybe more so, since so many people from other parts
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Episode 10: Week 300 of the Trans Mountain Pipeline debate, and predictions for Alberta’s 2019 Election.
This episode includes analysis from Dave Cournoyer and Ryan Hastman about week 300 of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline dispute (including updates from Ryan, who was behind enemy lines in Vancouver) and the latest candidate nomination updates ahead of Alberta’s 2019 election. Ryan leads this week’s ‘So you want
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Tory canoe and Trudeau too* – Liberals take advantage of Jason Kenney’s “Canada is broken” Tweet
Alberta Opposition Leader Jason Kennedy’s now famous “Canada is broken” Tweet a week ago may turn out to have been the symbolic starting point of the 2019 federal election campaign. Canada is broken. https://t.co/7tVwbAKPmc — Jason Kenney (@jkenney) April 15, 2018 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his federal Liberals were
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Green Party of Alberta chooses Coral Bliss Taylor, former Calgary council candidate, as interim leader
The Green Party of Alberta has chosen Coral Bliss Taylor, not so long ago a candidate for city council in Calgary civic election, to serve as its interim leader while it figures out what to do after the sudden resignation of its last permanent leader in March. Ms. Bliss Taylor,
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Thursday Morning Candidate Nomination Update
Here are the latest updates to the list of nominees running to become candidates in Alberta’s next provincial election: Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul – United Conservative Party MLA Scott Cyr has dropped out of the nomination contest in this district. Cyr was first elected to represent Bonnyville-Cold Lake in the 2015
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: National Post Letter
In today’s National Post, I’ve got another letter to the editor on everyone’s favourite topic: the Trans Mountain pipeline. (I’ll stop repeating myself once people start listening!) My letter appears only in the print edition, so I cannot provide a link. Accordingly, here is the full text: The pipeline crisis
Continue readingAlberta Politics: New Kinder Morgan exit strategy hint emerges as tangled Trans Mountain tale twists the national knickers
Jason Kenney, leader of Alberta’s Conservative Opposition party, must’ve struggled yesterday to keep a smirk off his face as he bloviated piously about Kinder Morgan Inc. President Steven Kean’s rumination the time may be nigh to pull the plug on the controversial Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project that has the
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Fear of Soviet bombers a concern during the Trans Mountain Pipeline debate of 1952
The current debate around the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline centres around political posturing, provincial jurisdiction, investment priorities, climate change, coastal protection and consent by First Nations communities, but when the pipeline was originally being built in 1952, civil defence and the threat of war with the Soviet Union was
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A Bill to Squeeze British Columbia Till Its Pips Squeak introduced in Alberta Legislature – but can it pass constitutional muster?
Is it just me, or is almost everyone from Alberta quoted in the media sounding a little overwrought these days? Yesterday, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Energy Minister Margaret McQuaig-Boyd rolled out Bill 12, rather tendentiously dubbed the Preserving Canada’s Economic Prosperity Act, the sole purpose of which seems to
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Alberta threatens to turn off the taps to BC as we enter Week 11 of the Trans Mountain pipeline dispute
With little appearing to have changed after Sunday’s pipeline summit in Ottawa, the political dispute over Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline continues to escalate. In Edmonton today, Alberta Energy Minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd introduced Bill 12: Preserving Canada’s Economic Prosperity Act. The bill would give the Minister of Energy sweeping powers
Continue readingAlberta Politics: All’s fair in politics and the oil business, but the claim Canada’s facing a constitutional crisis is just politics
The fact the federal and Alberta governments were unable yesterday to reach an agreement with British Columbia on proceeding with the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project does not mean Canada is facing a constitutional crisis. However, it doesn’t preclude one happening eventually. Nevertheless, it’s important to state this clearly because
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Sunday Night Candidate Nomination Update
Photo: Shelly Shannon, Kathleen Ganley, Christina Gray, and Beth Barberree The New Democratic Party has scheduled its nomination meeting in Fort McMurray-Conklin for May 10, 2018. A by-election is needed in this district following the resignation of United Conservative Party MLA Brian Jean. Wood Buffalo municipal councillor Jane Stroud is expected
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Despite NDP stamp of approval, pipeline rally looked and sounded like UCP event
The situation may have felt normal to the cadre of Opposition United Conservative Party MLAs there, but I imagine some of the NDP backbenchers huddled on the steps of the Legislature in Edmonton yesterday afternoon felt pretty uncomfortable. If not, they darn well should’ve. I’m not talking about the effects
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Despite NDP stamp of approval, pipeline rally on Legislature’s steps looked and sounded like a UCP event
PHOTOS: Part of the pro-pipeline crowd in front of the Alberta Legislature Thursday afternoon, with a couple of brave Indigenous counter-protesters visible in the foreground. Below: Federal Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi endured jeers, and Alberta Trade Minister Deron Bilous tried to fire up the crowd. The situation may have felt
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Through the Looking Glass – NDP cabinet ministers awkwardly join pro-pipeline, pro-UCP rally
Today’s rally at the Alberta Legislature in support of the expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline was one of the strangest rallies in recent memory. Maybe it was because the first speaker introduced himself by bragging about having confronted actor Jane Fonda in a parking lot outside a Moxie’s
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