TweetWhat’s going on in South Portland, Maine? Elected officials in the port city are on the verge of banning crude oil from Canada’s tar sands from entering their port. With a large and busy port, South Portland is the home of the Portland-Montreal Pipe Line, which pumps millions of barrels of
Continue readingTag: Alberta Politics
In This Corner: How the PCs bungled the license plate design contest.
How does a government botch something as simple as changing your provincial license plate? Apparently, it’s a lot easier than it seems, because our moribund PC government has done exactly that. You may have heard that the province has decided to jettison its ages old ‘Wild Rose Country’, white-and-red license
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Tories shut down any possibility leadership candidate Thomas Lukaszuk will get to shine
Thomas Lukaszuk is an entertaining speaker with a full range of facial expressions. His party is going to make darned sure he doesn’t have a chance to use those talents in the service of his leadership bid. Below: PC leadership frontrunner Jim Prentice and candidate Ric McIver. While Thomas Lukaszuk’s
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Fundraising numbers expose PC, Wildrose strengths and weaknesses
TweetThe latest quarterly fundraising disclosures from Alberta’s provincial political parties were released by Elections Alberta this week, and Alberta’s two conservative parties remain the dominant forces in political fundraising. Continuing a trend that has become the norm in Alberta politics, the Wildrose Party has once again raised more money than the long-governing Progressive Conservatives. Wildrose Party raised
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: The Gang of Eight MLAs who have not endorsed Jim Prentice
TweetBy my count, there remain eight Progressive Conservative MLAs who have not endorsed a leadership candidate Jim Prentice in the race to become that party’s next leader. As of this week, 49 of 59 PC MLAs have endorsed Mr. Prentice’s candidacy to become their next leader. Leadership candidates Ric McIver and Thomas Lukaszuk have not earned any
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Could Ric McIver still win the Alberta Tory leadership race? Actually, yes, he could!
Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets. All the money’s on Jim Prentice – but is it the smart money? Below: Ric McIver, Jim Prentice, Jim Dinning and Gary Mar. CALGARY Could Ric McIver actually win the Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership race? Or, to put that another way, could Jim Prentice
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Source: MLA Kent Hehr to run for Trudeau Liberals in Calgary-Centre
TweetPolitical Calgary is abuzz with rumours that popular MLA Kent Hehr will seek the Liberal nomination in the federal riding of Calgary-Centre. Reliable sources say that Mr. Hehr has gone so far as to request nomination forms to become an official nomination candidate for the federal Liberals. Mr. Hehr would be
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta Tories hold the World’s Most Boring Leadership Race
TweetIn 53 days, members of Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Party will vote to choose their next leader and the next Premier of Alberta. Unlike previous PC leadership races, where Albertans of all political-inclinations were excited to participate in the vote to directly choose the next Leader of the Natural Governing Party, there does
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Climate change divestment movement gains ground in church – but not in Canadian media or political circles
Ho-hum… Some typical Canadian reporters, hard at work … Actual Canadian newsrooms may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Is he more influential than we imagined in Alberta? CALGARY When retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu visited Alberta’s Tarpatch capital of Fort McMurray last month and called
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Once a Tory leadership front-runner, Gary Mar reaches out from Asia to haunt Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives
Brian Mulroney, right, famously responds to the claim made by John Turner, left, that he had “no option” but approve Pierre Trudeau’s patronage appointments. Below: Gary Mar in 2011. Advice to Jim Prentice: If, in some future pre-election leaders’ debate someone asks you about Gary Mar’s 2013 compensation package, don’t
Continue readingAlberta Diary: ‘Targeted exemptions’ for TFWs – Tory fund-raising tool, a backyard maquiladora in every neighbourhood, or both?
Typical Canadian fast-food help, as seen by Canadian fast-food employers, sort of. Below: Employment Minister Jason Kenney in Stampede-Week-appropriate garb and the CFIB’s Richard Truscott. ST. ALBERT, Alberta Unemployment has climbed to 7.1 per cent in Canada and yet a key segment of the Harper Government’s donor base is screeching
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta’s billion dollar failed Carbon Capture “science experiment”
TweetA report from Auditor General Merwan Saher released this week found no evidence that the Department of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development has properly monitored the performance of the PC Government’s climate change strategy which was first implemented in 2008. The report also uncovered serious problems with the province’s expensive Carbon Capture
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The horror! The horror! Brent Rathgeber and the St. Albert Chamber of Commerce on the nightmare of too few TFWs
St. Albert by night. My lord! What would we do if the local McDonald’s wasn’t open at 3 a.m.! Below: Edmonton-St. Albert MP Brent Rathgeber. St. ALBERT, Alberta I have a challenge for Edmonton-St. Albert Member of Parliament Brent Rathgeber, the St. Albert Chamber of Commerce and all the other
Continue readingCalgary Grit: Politicians in Cowboy Hats
For a brief history of Stampede fashion, you can read the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013 round-ups – or “100 Years of Bad Photo-Ops“ This week’s pilgrimage of politicians to the Stampede was met with less fanfare than some years gone by. This wasn’t the first rodeo
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Wild Rose Country no more? What are we gonna call this place if the Alberta Party starts soaring in the polls?
Alberta Minister of Licence Plates Doug Griffiths poses with some of the versions of Alberta’s plates considered by provincial officials before they settled on the three finalists unveiled yesterday. Below: Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo MLA Mike Allen, centre, examines a licence-plate-making facility on a recent government trip to Minnesota. Below that:
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta Tory MLA arrested in U.S. prostitution sting? Not a problem, apparently…
Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo Tory MLA Mike Allen: Excited to be back in the Tory caucus. (Dave Cournoyer photo, used with permission.) Say what you like about the many flaws of former Alberta premier Alison Redford, she never would have let Mike Allen back into the Progressive Conservative caucus, not as
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Tories invite Mike Allen back in, Wildrose show Joe Anglin the door
TweetProgressive Conservative MLAs have voted to extend an invitation to Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo MLA Mike Allen to rejoin their caucus. Mr. Allen, a relatively popular first-term politician in his constituency, left the PC caucus after he was arrested while trying to hire two prostitutes in St. Paul, Minnesota. Unfortunately for the Mr. Allen,
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: NEP what? Trudeau Liberals dominate Oil Capital Fort McMurray
TweetPreliminary results from last week’s Fort McMurray-Athabasca by-election show that federal Liberal candidate Kyle Harrietha dominated in the industrial capital of Canada’s oil economy. According to an initial breakdown of the results by polling station, Mr. Harrietha earned 46% of the votes cast (2,560 votes) in the northern region the riding on June 30, 2014, which includes
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Wildrose ‘fires’ MLA Joe Anglin, who continues to sit as Wildrose MLA … for now
A scene at the Wildrose Party nomination vote in Rimbey Saturday night. Actual Wildrose Party members may not have appeared exactly as illustrated. Below: Wildrose, sort of, MLA Joe Anglin and his leader, for now, Danielle Smith. The Wildrose Party has fired rabble-rousing MLA Joe Anglin. That’s how Mr. Anglin
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Johnson, Anglin, Nenshi and Butler. Who said Alberta politics is dull in the summer?
TweetPremier Dave Hancock is standing behind Jeff Johnson, even after the Information and Privacy Commissioner ruled that the embattled education minister broke Alberta’s privacy laws by sending a direct message to the personal email addresses of thousands of teachers during their contract negotiations. In any other job, breaking the law
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