Will the wheels fall off the Alberta Health Services case for not paying severance to former CFO Allaudin Merali? At any rate, it sounds as if Mr. Merali, in blurry photograph below, hasn’t given up the fight. Former Alberta Health Services Chief Financial Officer Allaudin Merali today issued a stout
Continue readingTag: Alberta Politics
daveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Who are Alberta’s top MLAs of 2012?
TweetIt has become tradition on this blog that near the end of each year I publish a list of Members of Alberta’s Legislative Assembly who have been the best, worst, or most notable of the past year. Each year’s list has taken a different form and focus (see 2010 and
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Scenes from an Inquiry: No fireworks as Ron Liepert and Lynn Redford testify
Lynn Redford, the Alberta Premier’s sister, stars in Scenes from an Inquiry, directed by Ingmar Bergman, or someone with a similarly Nordic directorial touch. Below: Former Alberta health minister Ron Liepert chooses his colour for a game of chess with retired justice John Vertes. Actual inquiry participants may or may
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Liberalberta Party president attacks Alberta Liberal MLA in worst news release ever.
TweetI really cannot improve on this media release sent today from Liberalberta Party president Todd Van Vliet, so I have posted it in its entirety. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE A response from Alberta Liberal Party President, Todd Van Vliet, regarding merger (EDMONTON, AB) A merger of the Alberta Liberals and the NDP?
Continue readingAlberta Diary: What’s wrong with the Alberta Medical Association’s message? A technical primer
The executive of the Alberta Medical Association, shown here, may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: the offending advertisement. With contract talks between the Alberta Medical Association and the provincial government back on again, after a fashion, a polling firm is out there now trolling to see how voters are
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Harper hates me, Harper hates you, Harper hates all of…
Harper hates me, Harper hates you, Harper hates all of us Stephen Harper hates Albertans. That statement may shock and confuse many of you, but the longer that Harper has been prime minister of Canada, the more obvious it becomes. I’m not sure if I’m the first to suggest that,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Well, somebody thought there was queue jumping, that’s for sure!
Your blogger with Alberta Liberal Leader Raj Sherman, the former Conservative Parliamentary Secretary for Health. Below: Former Alberta Health Services CEO Stephen Duckett. In other medical news, Alberta seems to be suffering an epidemic of mild memory loss. Not just Alberta, either. The problem has cropped up Down Under as
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Docs call health minister liar, liar, scrubs on fire, but their ad fails to persuade
The docs’ advertisement. Below: AMA President Dr. Michael Giuffre. The Alberta Medical Association, the province’s most powerful trade union, has gone back to the familiar ground of buying newspaper advertisements to call Alberta Health Minister Fred Horne and the Progressive Conservative government led by Premier Alison Redford a bunch of
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Progressives need a crash course in basic electoral math, writes MLA.
TweetBy Kent Hehr Like many progressives, I watched the Calgary Centre by-election with great interest. Although I was hopeful that one of three outstanding candidates who represented the center/center-left side of the spectrum would win, Joan Crockett…
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Everythinggate: Perfect storm lands Alberta premier in shark-infested waters!
As a perfect storm blows, Alison Redford’s strategic brain trust parries Opposition attacks about the conduct of her government. The premier is in the centre of the boat, wearing a cowboy hat. Actual Alberta politicians may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Your blogger with Paul Martin; queue-jumping inquiry chief John Vertes. As the political …
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Wildrose MLAs stage walk out during dramatic tobacco conflict.
TweetTheatric and dramatic antics dominated this afternoon’s hour-long Question Period in Alberta’s Legislative Assembly. To start the drama, the official opposition Wildrose Caucus raised a point of personal privilege claiming that Premie…
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Raj Sherman must’ve nailed it, or Fred Horne would’ve walked from talks with docs
CBC investigative journalist Charles Rusnell goes through Alberta Health Services expense accounts in the upcoming motion picture, All the Premier’s Relatives. Rusnell is played by actor Robert Redford, no relation. Don’t worry, people, I just made that up. But who could resist? Below: Dr. Raj Sherman, the Liberalberta leader, played by himself, and AMA President …
Continue readingCalgary Grit: Smoking Gun
Fresh off the Daryl Katz scandal, Alison Redford is again in hot water: The issue centres on a giant lawsuit launched by the province against the tobacco industry. The province is seeking $10 billion from tobacco manufacturers for the healthcare costs caused by smoking. The suit was announced in May, and was to be handled by a group of local legal firms that stood to gain $2 billion in contingency fees, according to Wildrose. One of the firms includes Redford’s … →
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Hard pills to swallow: Tories duck-and-weave amid allegations of conflict.
TweetA CBC investigative team, led by intrepid reporter Charles Rusnell, reported this week that Premier Alison Redford may have put herself in a conflict with the government’s selection of a legal consortium in a $10-billion lawsuit against the …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: HMS Alberta Tory: All hands to damage control! Is Commodore Mar aboard?
The scene in the Alberta Legislature yesterday, with Premier Alison Redford at the centre of things. Actual Alberta politicians may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Gary Mar, Premier John Brownlee, Vivian MacMillan. I suppose the question has to be asked: Is it too late for the Tories bring back Gary Mar? Mr. Mar had …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Potted history: why the winter of 2012 feels like the summer of ’73
Richard Nixon after his overwhelming 1972 re-election victory. Below: George McGovern, Alison Redford. Here in Alberta’s icy capital, the winter of 2012 is starting to feel like the summer of ’73. If you’re an Alberta Progressive Conservative, this is not a good thing. Let me explain. In the spring and summer of 1972, Richard Nixon, …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: And the winner is … no one: everybody missed Monday’s biggest story
Alberta families like this one just stayed home Monday and watched TV. Below: Pollster Janet Brown. So who stayed home? While poll analysts and pundits pontificated yesterday about what the somewhat-less-than-stellar victory of Conservative Joan Crockatt in the Calgary-Centre by-election might mean for the national political parties, the real story went largely unexamined – to …
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: A smoking gun? Premier Redford accused of conflict in tobacco case.
TweetAnother exclusive story from CBC investigative reporter Charles Rusnell: Premier Alison Redford, while justice minister, personally chose her ex-husband’s law firm for a government tobacco-litigation contract worth potentially tens of millio…
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Wildrose Party wages permanent negative campaign against Redford Tories.
TweetThe Wildrose Party is running a permanent negative campaign against the long-governing Progressive Conservative Party. Not taking time to break after their defeat in the May 2012 election, Danielle Smith and her 16 Wildrose MLAs are pushing hard t…
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Go back to sleep everyone: another Tory win in Calgary
Joan Crockatt, the first pest past the post, flanked by Calgary MPs Rob Anders and Jason Kenney, gives her victory speech in Calgary last night. Actual victorious Alberta Conservatives may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: The unsuccessful Liberal, Green and NDP candidates; the real Ms. Crockatt. Oh, how very depressing. Progressive voters outnumbered Conservatives, …
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