TweetAlberta’s Progressive Conservative MLAs are kicking off another year of international travel as Premier Alison Redford, cabinet ministers and backbenchers check their luggage and rack up the air mile points with flights touching down at all points across the globe. Departing on January 9, Ms. Redford will circle the globe
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Alberta Diary: The Top 13 from 2013: Alberta Diary borne ever upward on wings of far-right loons
Ron Paul, the crazy uncle of the American right, surrounded by grinning acolytes at the 2013 conference of the Manning Centre for Undermining Democracy in Ottawa. Putting Dr. Paul here worked before, so maybe it’ll work again! Below: For New Year’s Eve, we show Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who says
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Who are the Top MLAs of 2013?
TweetIt has become tradition on this blog at the end of each year that I publish a list of Members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta who have been the best and most notable of the past year. This year was the first time I struggled to compile a list.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta’s 13 most under-reported political news stories of 2013
Another aircraft takes off from Fort McMurray International Aerodrome loaded with CO2 captured from Alberta’s Athabasca bitumen sands. The gas will be stored in the basements of Russian buildings as part of a deal worked out through the province’s $2-billion “carbon capture” program. Actual Alberta carbon capture boondoggles may not
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta politics 2013: Big City Mayors
TweetA generational shift in Edmonton Framed as a lacklustre and uneventful campaign, local media and many mainstream pundits missed one of the most important stories of this year’s mayoral election in Edmonton. The city’s crusty local establishment has lamented for years about the constant stream of locally-raised young talent choosing
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noël! Feliz Navidad!
TweetWherever you find yourself these this week, I hope you have the opportunity to enjoy your time in the warm company of family and friends. Merry Christmas. As is annual tradition, some of Alberta’s leading politicians delivered their seasonal greetings through online video this week. Tweet
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Don’t go cryptic on me, man! Marking 100 years of crosswords with seven letters across
Dave’s Alberta Politics Puzzler: try to solve it if you dare! Click on the image for a larger copy. Below: Crossword inventor Arthur Wynne, MP Brian Jean. Today is the 100th anniversary of the invention of the crossword puzzle. That may explain why Brian Jean, the Conservative MP for Fort
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: What a year 2014 has been in Alberta politics!
Tweet This year was a tumultuous time in Alberta politics. What does 2015 have in store for Albertans? December 20, 2014 Story by: Dirk Pranter, Edmonton Journal-Sun Building the next Alberta With the new year just weeks away, speculation is rampant Albertans could go to the polls early next year, less than four
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Shining you on: Alison Redford calls for a little selective sunshine on civil service salaries
The scene in February 2014: CBC investigative journalist Charles Rusnell pores through a list of senior Alberta civil service salaries as horrified deputy ministers and university professors look on. Actual Alberta public employees may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Associate Minister of Accountability, Transparency and Transformation Don Scott, left,
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta politics 2013: The NDP Wildrose alliance
TweetPerhaps one of the most unexpected developments in Alberta politics in 2013 was the emergence of the informal alliance between the New Democratic Party and the Wildrose Official Opposition. It was not uncommon in 2013 to see NDP and Wildrose MLAs working together, or tackling the same issues during Question
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta politics 2013: Redford abandons her progressive coalition
Tweet“Not your father’s PC Party” was a key message the Progressive Conservatives directed at urban liberal and progressive voters in the 2012 election. The message was received and helped drive many non-traditional PC voters into becoming part the new electoral coalition that re-elected Ms. Redford’s party, and, in turn, blocked
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta politics 2013: Redford abandons her progressive coalition
Tweet“Not your father’s PC Party” was a key message the Progressive Conservatives directed at urban liberal and progressive voters in the 2012 election. The message was received and helped drive many non-traditional PC voters into becoming part the new electoral coalition that re-elected Ms. Redford’s party, and, in turn, blocked
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Now Here’s An Interesting Idea
At a time when workers’ rights are under constant attack, dangerous, Draconian, Orwellian and unconstitutional measures have been passed in Alberta that not only strip away the arbitration rights of public servants, but also limit their freedom of speech. First, to the ‘less contentious’ of the two bills recently passed
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: The Brian Jean crossword puzzle
TweetHow well do you know your Member of Parliament? Fort McMurray-Athabasca Conservative MP Brian Jean takes a unique approach to this question in his latest mail-out to constituents. Mr. Jean’s latest taxpayer-funded mail-out doesn’t included a crossword puzzle about the bustling community of Fort McMurray, or the wealth of natural resources in the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: An open letter to Dave Hancock, Deputy Premier: Why you should quit … Now … Really!
Illegal organizations like this continue to operate in Alberta behind closed doors, despite the fact someone may yell … St**ke! … in violation of the Act to Protect Albertans from Inaccurate and Uninformative Bloggers. Actual members of collective bargaining organizations may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Alberta deputy Premier
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: The Difficulties in Remembering Rosa
In the early morning hours of November 24th, the body of a possibly trans person was found in Edmonton, Alberta. I say “possibly trans” because it’s unclear how this person identified, and to my knowledge, no one in the trans community has met them or would be able to shed
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: The Difficulties in Remembering Rosa
In the early morning hours of November 24th, the body of a possibly trans person was found in Edmonton, Alberta. I say “possibly trans” because it’s unclear how this person identified, and to my knowledge, no one in the trans community has met them or would be able to shed
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta politics this week
TweetA new provincial cabinet was sworn-in this morning, one a week after the cabinet shuffle was announced. The original announcement, made by press release at the unusual time of 4:45pm on Friday, December 6, was typical of a tactic used by government when it wants a story to be underreported.
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Scramble for federal nominations begins in Alberta
TweetIt’s a fight – or at least it could be if two southern Alberta Conservative Members of Parliament seek their party’s nomination in the same riding. Boundary changes in the next federal election will mean that Lethbridge Conservative MP Jim Hillier will find himself living within the boundaries of the new Medicine Hat riding.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The little government that grew: Alison Redford shuffles deckchairs on her cabinet
After her change of heart, Alberta Premier Ebenezer Redford, top left, accompanied by Speaker Gene Zwozdesky in his ceremonial robes, watches as some of the members of her cabinet sit down for an unexpected dinner of Christmas turkey. Actual Alberta Progressive Conservative movers and shakers may not appear exactly as
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