TweetProvincial politicians like school boards. When popular decisions are made, like opening new schools or announcing new funding, the provincial government takes the credit. When unpopular decisions need to be made, like closing schools or cancelling programs, then the provincial politicians are more than happy to let the school board
Continue readingTag: Alberta Politics
Alberta Diary: Athabasca University board to Athabasca University Faculty Association: Drop dead
The Athabasca University board meets to discuss its vision for the future of the distance-learning institution. Actual visioning board members may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: History Professor Alvin Finkel, AU Faculty Association President Mark McCutcheon. It took Athabasca University’s rubber-stamp board less than 48 hours to tell the
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Will Downtown Arena funding be issue #1 in Edmonton’s municipal elections?
TweetScrambling to fill $55 million in missing funding for the proposed Katz Group downtown arena, City Councillors voted last week to postpone any final vote on financing the project. Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel won the support of enough Capital Region politicians last week to potentially secure an extra $25 million
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Negotiating with Alberta’s PC government? Better bring witnesses!
Wildcat strike scene, grabbed from AUPE’s website during the strike. Below: AUPE President Guy Smith, Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk. Advice to anyone who tries to negotiate a deal with Alison Redford, Thomas Lukaszuk or any member or official of their government: take witnesses with you, and make sure you also
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Albertans want election-spending-limit law but are unlikely to get one from Redford PCs
Generous corporate donor drops off cash at Tory headquarters. Actual donors, who may not be exactly as illustrated, will be determined later. Below: Parkland Institute researcher Trevor Harrison and Tory Human Services Minister Dave Hancock. It’s a conundrum! What should Alberta’s Tories do? A study by the University of Alberta’s
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta cities grow: satellite images from 1984 to 2012.
TweetGoogle, working with the United States Geological Survey, NASA and TIME, have released time lapsed satellite maps of the Earth from each year from 1984 to 2012. You can search the site for time lapsed images of locations from around the globe. The population of the province of Alberta has
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Fixing Athabasca U: a chance for tough-guy Tom Lukaszuk to do something constructive
Athabasca University’s isolated headquarters in winter. Below: Athabasca U President Frits Pannekoek and Alberta Advanced Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk. Athabasca University’s Faculty Association called yesterday for the institution’s president to be replaced by an interim president chosen from among senior staff. On the face of it, this idea makes a
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Ironies abound in Alberta’s agitated politics as Alison Redford cranks up the postage meter
How Albertans should see Progressive Conservative and Wildrose policies and procedures. Below: The clever Wildrose Facebook attack on PC Premier Alison Redford’s faintly unsavoury taxpayer-funded mail out, which makes it look a little worse than it really is. Am I the only one who sees irony in the leader of
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: New series Alberta politics-themed childrens books released.
TweetPremier Alison Redford was criticized this week after she harshly denounced her opposition in a campaign-style speech to a group of school children in Calgary. In response to the Premier’s fiery words, book publishers jumped on the opportunity to reach impressionable young minds by releasing a series of children’s books
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Premier explains Alberta politics to children: ‘Opposition Leader, what big teeth you have!’
Alberta Premier Alison Redford, right, meets Opposition Leader Danielle Smith, left, while on her way to announcing a new school opening. Actual Alberta politicians may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Premier Redford, Alberta Union of Provincial Employees President Guy Smith. Once upon a time, while Alberta’s premier
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: In Alberta, the billionaire walks and the working man gets the shaft.
TweetThe billionaire walks… There was little surprise among the cynical pundit class yesterday as Elections Alberta announced that it had found billionaire Daryl Katz and his Katz Group broke no laws when the company delivered a donation in the form of a $430,000 bank draft to Premier Alison Redford‘s Progressive
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The government blinked: Defiant Alberta jail guards have every right to declare victory
The picket line during the five-day strike by Alberta Correctional Peace Officers, which ended last night. Below: Another scene from the strike; Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk; AUPE President Guy Smith. Even without last night’s deal with the Alberta government, Alberta’s defiant jail guards would have been entitled to declare a
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Dave Colburn: How to save inner-city schools from suburban sprawl.
TweetBy Dave Colburn When the Edmonton Public School Board ended its two year moratorium on school closures in Nov. 2012 it generated a good deal of public discussion. Parents and communities wanted to know what this new world would mean for schools with falling enrolment. People speculated on whether this
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Leaked photos: Kerry Diotte’s mayoral campaign outed?
TweetHas Councillor Kerry Diotte‘s Mayoral ambitions been outed? Famous Edmonton-based photographer Con Boland posted these portraits of Councillor Diotte on his Facebook page today. Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel has yet to announce whether he will seek a fourth term in office. Tweet
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Craziness in Alberta jails continues – and may get worse today
The scene on the darkened lane that runs past Edmonton’s giant new Remand Centre has resembled the set for an apocalyptic movie the past couple of nights, with striking jail guards’ huge-wheeled four-by-fours crowding the ditches, AUPE banners flapping in the dark and strikers gathered around burn barrels. With Deputy
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Deputy Premier Tom Lukaszuk: exactly the wrong man to solve Alberta’s jail crisis
Wildcatting Correctional Officers on the picket line at the Edmonton Remand Centre just before midnight last night, long after the government’s ultimatum ordering them back to work. Below: Trade unionists occupy an Alberta Labour Relations Board boardroom yesterday afternoon in support of the striking guards. Below that: Deputy Premier Thomas
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Mysterious 2011 review of Alberta Labour Code explained – corporate influence, of course!
Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan, right, speaks to yesterday’s AFL news conference at the Edmonton’s Shaw Conference Centre. Your faithful blogger can be glimpsed at the far right. Beside him, the CBC’s Charles Rusnell. Below: Rusnell, Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason. Back in the summer of 2011, as
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Bad planning: Edmonton Arena funding and Calgary urban sprawl.
TweetWhile too much media attention was focused this week on the fate of a statue of a hockey player who left Edmonton twenty-five years ago for sunny southern California (and piles of money), City Council desperately tried to draw up a Plan B (or Plan C) to fund the proposed downtown arena.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Tory Slime Machine is losing the fight it picked with Justin Trudeau – for now, anyway…
Justin Trudeau’s riposte to the first blast of the Tory Slime Machine. So far, it looks like Mr. Trudeau is winning. Below: Mr. Trudeau with fake tattoo gets ready to punch out a Tory, for real; Calgary developer Cal Wenzel. Round One in the fight started with Justin Trudeau by
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Has Alberta pioneered an unlegislated ban on collective bargaining?
“Post-secondary collective bargaining,” Alberta style. Advanced Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk and a post-secondary employer negotiator rig the deck, foreground, while a faculty association negotiators ponder what’s just happened. Actual Alberta bargaining teams may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Mr. Lukaszuk, former advanced ed minister Steve Khan. As
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