Condolences and praise poured in for former Alberta Premier Ralph Klein, who passed away on Friday, March 29, at the age of 70. “We remember what a force of personality he was, how driven he was, how motivated he was, how straightforward he was, and that we trusted him implicitly.”
Continue readingTag: Alberta Politics
daveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Mayor Mandel on the warpath, keeps re-election plans secret.
Tweet Stephen Mandel is not ready to announce whether he will run for a fourth-term as Edmonton’s Mayor. Speaking to a crowd of more than 2000 people at his annual state-of-the-city address to the Chamber of Commerce, Mandel avoided the topic of his political future, instead taking aim at Premier Alison
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Ralph Klein’s recipe for Oriental Hoisin Chicken (from a 1995 Cookbook).
TweetSince Ralph Klein passed away last week, numerous people have emailed me with their stories about his time politics and reactions to legacy in Premier. The responses varied from loving to hostile, but easily the oddest email I received over the weekend was from a former Progressive Conservative constituency association
Continue readingCalgary Grit: Ralph’s World
After the passing of Peter Lougheed last year, another Alberta PC titan is gone, with Ralph Klein passing away at the age of 70. Although it is customary to offer tributes and praise at times like this, many of my motivations for getting involved in politics grew from a strong
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Ralph Phillip Klein (1942-2013).
TweetVarious news media are reporting that Ralph Klein has passed away at the age of 70. Mr. Klein served as Mayor of Calgary from 1980 to 1989 and Premier of Alberta from 1992 until his retirement from politics in 2006. He had suffered from numerous ailments since his retirement. CTV
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Universities, students and staff push back against post-secondary budget cuts.
Tweet“You don’t want to have five mediocre engineering schools. You’re better off having two really good engineering schools. There’s no doubt about it.” And on that note, Deputy Premier and Advanced Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk kicked off his overhaul of Alberta’s Post-Secondary Education system. It should be noted that there are
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: J’accuse! Thomas Mulcair’s treason and the Keystone XL Pipeline.
TweetThe rhetoric is running high this week with President Barack Obama expected to soon decide the fate of the controversial TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline. In Washington D.C. last week, federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair criticized the pipeline that would ship bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands to refineries in Texas. Mr. Mulcair also
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Of Petrostates and Patriotism
If Alison Redford gets to define Canadian patriotism, then I don’t want to be patriotic. The Alberta premier yesterday accused federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair of “a fundamental betrayal of Canada’s long-term economic interests” after the latter took a trip to DC in what is being widely interpreted as an
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta Liberal merger with federal Liberals an idea worth considering.
TweetProvincial Liberal leader Raj Sherman wants his party to work more closely with the federal Liberal Party. Conventional wisdom would inform us that the Alberta Liberals should always do everything in their power to distance themselves from their federal cousins, who remain tainted in the province after a long-string of
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: University students and staff rally against Advanced Education cuts.
TweetHundreds of students and staff from the University of Alberta marched to the Alberta Legislature yesterday to protest the 7% cut to the Advanced Education budget. Students and staff were joined by Liberal leader Raj Sherman, NDP MLA Rachel Notley, and NDP MP Linda Duncan. In response to the provincial
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta Health Services trimmers toss out a couple of market-fundy myths to save cash
Alberta Health Services Board Chair Stephen Lockwood demonstrates how to trim a provincial health care budget. Actual AHS board members may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Mr. Lockwood in his official AHS portrait. Two pernicious and slightly dissonant myths that cloud discussion of public health care are
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Preston Manning’s libertarian manifesto for City government.
TweetNot satisfied with their conquests of the provincial and federal levels of government, the right-wing activists behind the Manning Centre for Building Democracy are expanding their political agenda to city-level politics. Preston Manning‘s followers plan to treat this year’s elections in Calgary as a petri-dish for their yet-to-be-completed libertarian manifesto for
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta still needs a “city party” – a role the New Democratic Party could fill
Typical Alberta Progressive Conservative Party members. Or, wait, are those Wildrose members? Alberta’s rural elite may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths, Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel. Where’s the NDP when we need them? Here it is 2013, the Earth is
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Controversial Ottawa Tory operative now working for Wildrose Opposition.
TweetThe westward migration of Central Canada-based political operatives continues. Controversial former Ottawa Conservative staffer Sébastien Togneri is now employed as the Caucus Whip Coordinator for Danielle Smith‘s Wildrose Official Opposition. Political watchers may remember Mr. Togneri as the aide to federal Conservative cabinet minister Christian Paradis who, in 2010, resigned over his alleged meddling in
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Preston Manning throws Alison Redford, Tom Flanagan under the conservative bus.
TweetSpeaking about the state of Canada’s conservative movement at this weekend’s Manning Centre Networking Conference in Ottawa, former Reform Party leader Preston Manning denounced the ethical and financial state of Premier Alison Redford‘s Progressive Conservatives. “…in Alberta an aging Progressive Conservative administration has lost its way ethically and fiscally and
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Close enough for government work: Alberta Tories manage to hold their centre-right turf
Finance Minister Doug Horner preps Albertans for yesterday’s budget. Actual Alberta finance ministers may not appear exactly as illustrated – but that’s the trick, isn’t it? Below: The real Doug Horner. All in all, I guess, you could make a good case this was a pretty lousy budget. It’s deeply
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta Budget 2013 a confusing start to the Tory re-election strategy.
TweetRumours swirled through the halls of the Legislative for weeks. Whispers and warnings of cuts and rollbacks not seen since Ralph Klein and Jim Dinning unleashed a scorched earth policy on the provincial budget in the mid-1990s. Back in debt. Broken promises. Bankrupt budgets. The end was nigh. And today,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta budget primer: when they say ‘tough decisions,’ they really mean … ‘decisions that will be tough on you’
Typical Albertans await tomorrow’s budget aboard the Good Ship Richest Place on Earth. Alberta may not actually be as damp as illustrated. Below: Premier Alison Redford. Why is this woman smirking? Oh, we’ll squeeze you till the pips squeak, Premier Alison Redford seemed to be promising Albertans yesterday, as we
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Dave Hancocok’s latest consultation leads to Social Policy Framework.
TweetMost media and political watchers are focused on today’s release of the provincial budget, but last week Human Services Minister Dave Hancock focused on the human-side of government with the release of the much anticipated ‘Social Policy Framework.’ “It’s part of taking an intelligent look at the social policy agenda,”
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Rural Albertans supporting lazy high-rise condo living urbanites, says Griffiths.
TweetFresh from a war of words with popular Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths responded the a question from Edmonton-Centre MLA Laurie Blakeman with this poorly thought-out retort in Question Period today: “It could be asked by rural Albertans why 17 per cent of the population that
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