PHOTOS: With AGM delegates’ endorsement in hand, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean is calling for Alberta’s right to reunite under his party’s banner. Below: Former Wildrose leader Danielle Smith, in her current role as a radio talk show host (Global News photo) and Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA and former leadership candidate Drew
Continue readingTag: Alberta Politics
Alberta Politics: If we’d been paying attention, perhaps we wouldn’t be so shocked by the U of C’s corporate-influence scandal
PHOTOS: The University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, conveniently located adjacent to the oil corporations’ towers in downtown Cowtown. Below: The writers of the notorious Alberta separatist Firewall Manifesto, which then-premier Ralph Klein wisely tossed into the garbage; Calgary School alumni and Firewall signa-Tories Stephen Harper, Tom Flanagan and
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Wildrose demands transparency from NDP and PCs but holds its annual meeting in secret
Alberta’s conservative Wildrose Party is holding its annual general meeting this weekend in Calgary and, according to one media source, the event will be closed to the media with the exception of leader Brian Jean‘s speech ahead of the leadership review vote on the evening of… Continue Reading →
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Throwback Thursday: Alberta ‘should annex’ parts of the North
On April 19, 1972, Calgary MLA Dave Russell, minister of municipal affairs in the newly elected Progressive Conservative government led by Premier Peter Lougheed publicly suggested that the Province of Alberta should annex parts of the Northwest and Yukon territories. The… Continue Reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Are the Wildrosers eyeing public service pensions? It’s worth keeping an eye on what they get up to in Cowtown
ILLUSTRATIONS: Can the Wildrose Party control its Tea Party fringe? We’ll get a sense tomorrow and Saturday when the party considers its members’ policy proposals. Below: Party Leader Brian Jean, at right, in Terminator mode; with Wildrose Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt in a stunt with big signs inspired by Mr.
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Putting protection of sexual & gender minorities back on the agenda at provincial school boards meeting
Amid allegations of financial misspending and a lack of transparency, representatives from sixty-one elected Public, Catholic, and Francophone school boards from across Alberta will gather at the fall general meeting of the Alberta School Boards Association on November 15, 16 and… Continue Reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: In Flanders Fields? It’s time to encourage another generation of school kids to read some better poems from the Great War
PHOTOS: In Flanders Fields? The reality of the Great war’s battlefields: squalor, incompetence, mechanized industrial death. Below: John McCrae, and a Great War poet still worth reading, Wilfred Owen. A civilization that forgets its poetry is barely worthy of the name. Like fiction and unlike non-fiction, poetry is how a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta Bill 5 and sunshine lists generally are lousy public policy and a serious invasion of privacy
PHOTOS: The Alberta Legislature in the sunshine. It doesn’t matter that no individuals are visible, does it? Below: Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley and Wildrose Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt, back when he was a Canadian Taxpayers Federation agitator. So-called sunshine lists, which publish the salaries of public employees who are paid
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Succession planning: what do we do when the great Canadian newspapers die off?
PHOTOS: Never mind the world. Who will save Canadian democracy now? With apologies to Superman. Below: Joseph Howe in his prime, and with his ottoman; the author, holding forth while explaining something about the Edmonton Journal; Journal columnist Paula Simons. Yesterday’s claim by Frank Magazine that Postmedia Network Canada Ltd.
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: What about Bob? Hawkesworth swoops into top political job.
Former Calgary alderman Bob Hawkesworth has been appointed Executive Director of Premier Rachel Notley’s southern Alberta office at the McDougall Centre in Calgary. A press release sent out on Nov. 7 states that Mr. Hawkesworth will be responsible for “the… Continue Reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Message to the Wildrose Party: The NDP won and you’re going to need breakfast!
PHOTOS: The Wild Rose Breakfast Special. Just one of the many compensations of getting an early start on your day. Below: Infrastructure Minister and NDP House Leader Brian Mason, the NDP’s point man on early rising legislators; Wildrose Leader Brian Jean; and Interim Conservative Party of Canada Leader Rona Ambrose,
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Who will run to succeed Amarjeet Sohi in the Ward 12 by-election?
On Oct. 19, City Councillor Amarjeet Sohi was elected as a Member of Parliament in the federal riding of Edmonton-Mill Woods. With Mr. Sohi’s resignation from city council in order to take his seat in the House of Commons, and his… Continue Reading →
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Keystone XL is dead. New government means climate change back on the agenda.
Having enjoyed the last week in the sunny Berkeley, California, it felt odd to turn on the car radio to hear the local disc jockeys discussing the tarsands and the merits of a pipeline that would pump unrefined bitumen from Canada to Texas. Being one of… Continue Reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: So long, Suns? Frank Magazine says Postmedia will merge dailies in Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa
PHOTOS: The Edmonton Journal Building in downtown Edmonton, home to both the Edmonton Journal and the Edmonton Sun. At least until March … Below: A sign of the (end) times? “Front counter service closed,” says a sign in the foyer of the Edmonton Journal Building in downtown Edmonton. Below that:
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It’s official: the Harper Government’s approach to petro-diplomacy was a spectacular flop
PHOTOS: The White House, home of the Most Powerful Person, etc. Below: Stephen Harper, one of the architects of Canada’s Bitumen bullying export policy, the fruits of which are now apparent; Barack Obama, President of the United States. The office of the President of the United States may not be
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rona Ambrose, disciplined Harper loyalist, to lead the Opposition
PHOTOS: A typical constituent of Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose searches their Sturgeon River-Parkland riding northwest of Edmonton for a sign of his MP. Actual constituents of this Alberta MP may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Ms. Ambrose herself (CBC Photo) and Ms. Ambrose’s favourite author. Well, nobody in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rachel Notley sticks to her fiscal guns at ‘state of the province speech’ to Edmonton Chamber of Commerce
PHOTO: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley addressing the Alberta Chamber of Commerce yesterday. Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley yesterday continued a tradition of “state of the province speeches” to chamber of commerce audiences long beloved by the province’s Progressive Conservative premiers. PC premier Jim Prentice gave the last one to the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Brown shoes may not make it, but Justin Trudeau’s cabinet choices seem pretty sound
PHOTOS: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, members of his cabinet and ordinary Canadians walk toward the swearing-in ceremony yesterday morning at Government House in Ottawa. (Vancouver Observer photo.) Below: Mr. Trudeau’s father, Pierre Trudeau, making the same walk with members of his new cabinet down the same driveway in 1968. Below
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What’s with that Wildrose leadership review? (Inquiring Albertans want to know!)
PHOTOS: Wildrose Opposition Leader Brian Jean with the kind of cow a guy doesn’t have to get up at 4 in the morning to milk. (Photo grabbed from Wildrose.ca.) Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Wildrose Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt, Alberta Chambers of Commerce President Ken Kobly and former Wildrose Leader
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: This Week in Alberta Politics
Here are a few items to watch out for in Alberta politics this week: Which of the four Liberal Members of Parliament will be appointed to the federal cabinet on Nov. 4, 2015? Most speculation points toward newly elected Calgary-Centre MP Kent… Continue Reading →
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