Village of Carmangay: Sorry, your nursing home will have to close. Below: Former Capital Health CEO Sheila Weatherill, Alberta Health Minister Fred Horne. Let’s cut right to the chase: If Alberta Health Services can afford to buy out Allaudin Merali, again, it can afford to keep the doors open at
Continue readingTag: Alberta Politics
Alberta Diary: Something hits the Alberta fan: Allaudin and his wonderful expense account revealed by CBC
Allaudin and his wonderful expense account? Departing Alberta Health Service executives may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: One of the few photos available of Allaudin Merali; CBC investigative journalist Charles Rusnell. One is practically struck dumb by the astonishing CBC revelation that the Chief Financial Officer of Alberta’s massive
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Mystery story: is there an opposition candidate who can win the Calgary Centre by-election?
Your blogger with David Swann: Remember, when the author of this blog appears in a picture with a politician, it does not necessarily imply an endorsement. (That’s enough photos with politicians for one week, thanks – ed.) Below: Likely Conservative winner Joan Crockatt, Edmonton Strathcona NDP MP Linda Duncan and
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Glen Taylor quits as leader – Alberta Party ponders the Big Goodbye
Your blogger in happier times with departing Alberta Party Leader Glenn Taylor. Below: Party luminaries Michael Walters and Sue Huff. Get ready for the Big Re-Think. Or the Long Goodbye. Or something… Alberta Party Leader Glenn Taylor has resigned, the world learned yesterday. He’ll step from the provincial political stage
Continue readingCalgary Grit: Godwin’s Law of Alberta Politics
Peter Lougheed angrily shakes his glass of champagne towards Pierre Trudeau after being forced under torture to sign the NEP If you’re reading this post, you likely spend a good amount of time online, so I’m assuming you’re familiar with Godwin’s Law: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Calgary Centre Conservative nomination fight takes a turn, but Joan Crockatt’s still the frontrunner
Your blogger with Joan Crockatt: Remember, when the author of this blog appears in a picture with a politician, it does not imply endorsement – he just can’t help himself! Below: Nomination candidate Jon Lord and contest dropout John Mar. The battle for the Conservative nomination in the Calgary Centre
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Some Alberta seniors will soon be eating better meals – they can thank the union for them
AUPE’s powerful viral video on the unappetizing 21-day menu. Below: Former Alberta Health Services CEO Stephen Duckett, Alberta Health Minister Fred Horne. One of the least successful experiments of the short, unhappy reign of Stephen Duckett as CEO of Alberta Health Services was the so-called 21-day menu, the unpalatable tinfoil-
Continue readingAlberta Diary: B.C.’s pipeline bargaining position stirs Alberta outrage, but makes political sense
Alberta Premier Alison Redford, left, negotiates with B.C. Premier Christy Clark, holding carrot, as seen by the Alberta media. Actual neo-conservative Western Canadian politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below Ms. Clark, Ms. Redford and former Tory insider Norman Spector. Christy Clark’s bargaining position in the squabble between British
Continue readingAlberta Diary: B.C. Bitumen Busters! Who ya gonna call? Greg Selinger?
Alberta and British Columbia Sheriffs see who can stomp the highest at the increasingly tense inter-provincial border near the disputed town of Field. B.C. and Alberta peace officers, of course, may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Just for someone completely different, Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger. Who ya gonna blame?
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Family (values) feud: Wildrose so-cons start sniping at Wildrose neo-cons
Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith: in trouble with her party’s social conservatives. Below: House Leader Rob Anderson. And so it begins: Rob Anderson, an ambitious social-conservative in the Wildrose Opposition’s shadow cabinet has publicly fired a rocket at his leader after she changed her tune on whether a Wildrose government would
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Premiers’ private parley – a summit so secret if you knew what they’d talked about, they’d have to kill you!
B.C. Premier Christy Clark, left, meets Alberta Premier Alison Redford, in snap-brim hat at right, to discuss things too secret for the Western Canadian public to know about. Actual Western Canadian politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated, nor may the vehicle at the front of the Legislature, or the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: It’s summertime, and the livin’ is easy – especially if you’re Alison Redford
It’s just one long summer vacation for Alberta’s Tory family. Premier Alison Redford, possibly not exactly as illustrated, can be seen in the front seat of the Edsel at left. Below: The Wildrose Party on their way to summer school at Chestermere Slough; Kelley Charlebois; Thomas Lukaszuk. It’s summertime, and
Continue readingAlberta Diary: It’s semi-official… the Enbridge Northern Gateway project is kaput!
Enbridge Inc., as seen and described by the U.S. National Transportation Board. Below: Federal Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair, Alberta Opposition Leader Danielle Smith and B.C. Opposition Leader Christie Clark. No! Wait! Ms. Clark’s still the premier! If you thought NDP Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair was mistaken – or, worse, just
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Preston Manning is no saint, as secretive Carleton University scheme illustrates
Preston Manning and his then-protégé Stephen Harper back in the day. Below: Mr. Manning as he now appears (United Church Observer photo): Alberta premier E.C. Manning, Preston Manning’s father; Mr. Harper as a Reform Party candidate. Nowadays, folks think of Preston Manning as a benign force in Canadian politics –
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: gone to deutschland.
TweetI will be spending the next few weeks traveling through Germany and the Czech Republic. Regular posts will resume upon my return in August.
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: what happens after prime minister harper? prime minister redford? prime minister mulcair?
TweetWith the start of Stampede season came the latest round of gossip and predictions about what the future might hold for Calgary MLA and Alberta’s Premier Alison Redford. Earlier this week in a column in the Edmonton Journal, Graham Thomson speculated that Premier Redford’s next political challenge could be the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Unsuccessful at the polls, Alberta market fundamentalists want the courts to impose two-tier health care
What heath care for the rest of us will look like if the market fundamentalist right’s battle for insurance companies’ “rights” ever succeeds. Below: Private health-care advocate John Carpay; Alberta Health Minister Fred Horne; Alberta Liberal Health Critic David Swann. Not satisfied with their failure in the Alberta provincial election,
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: albertans in the dark after rolling power blackouts.
TweetRolling power blackouts yesterday across Alberta have some politicians raising questions about the accountability of privately-operated electrical utility companies. The blackouts also reignited the long-standing debate over the construction of controversial new electrical transmission lines in rural Alberta. A total of four power generating plants went down across the province causing electrical
Continue readingAlberta Diary: She’s no Charles Tupper: Alison Redford has been Alberta premier too long to be prime minister
A youngish Charles Tupper at his desk. “I knew Charles Tupper and Alison Redford is no Charles Tupper” – and a good thing for her, too! Below: Sir Charles as prime minister; Frank McKenna; Robert Stanfield in the photo that put paid to his political career. Alison Redford has been
Continue readingCalgary Grit: 100 Years of Bad Photo Ops
As you have probably heard a hundred times over the past month, the Calgary Stampede turns 100 this year. Calgary has changed a lot over this time. A seat at the 1912 rodeo cost 50 cents. Calgary’s population was 70,000. And, oh yeah, back then Alberta was a Liberal bastion,
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