Alberta Politics: As Edmonton activist Michael Kalmanovitch sees it, with the planet afire, he had no choice but to raise a ruckus at the Legislature

The way Michael Kalmanovitch sees it, he had no choice but to raise a ruckus inside the Chamber of the Alberta Legislature moments after Monday’s Throne Speech. The moment on Monday when Mr. Kalmanovitch started shouting in the Legislature (Photo: Screenshot of Legislative Assembly of Alberta video). The world is

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Alberta Politics: The mystery of Bill 5: Is it part of the UCP’s covert ‘Free Alberta’ agenda or just a bit of administrative housekeeping?

Members of Alberta’s labour relations community were scratching their heads Monday and yesterday about Bill 5, the Public Sector Employer Amendment Act, 2023, last on the list of the first five bills to be introduced by the United Conservative Party in the new session of the provincial Legislature that began

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Alberta Politics: Alberta’s Throne Speech was long, boring, unpersuasive, evasive, unoriginal, and defiantly aspirational

There were two speeches at the Alberta Legislature yesterday!  Lieutenant Governor Lakhani (Photo: Legislative Assembly of Alberta/Flickr). The Speech from the Throne was long, boring, unpersuasive, evasive, unoriginal, and weirdly aspirational in a way that defies the growing international consensus about the role of fossil fuels in global climate change. 

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Alberta Politics: Alberta’s Legislature shudders back to life this afternoon – what will the UCP get up to next?

With the Alberta Legislature resuming sitting today with a Throne Speech, one has to wonder what the United Conservative Government of Premier Danielle Smith will get up to next?  Government House Leader Joseph Schow (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). The headline on the government’s news release Friday about the inaugural session of

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Alberta Politics: International Energy Agency predicts fossil fuel use will peak by 2030 – whatever will Alberta have to say?

Maybe Alberta Premier Danielle Smith can send an open letter to Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, to accuse him of trying to frighten Alberta’s seniors.  International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol says the transition to clean energy is unstoppable (Photo: World Economic Forum, yeah, that

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Alberta Politics: Congratulations on your appointment, Mr. Dinning, your pension ‘consultation’ has a few flaws: CPP public affairs leader

Michel Leduc, the Canada Pension Plan’s head of public affairs and communications, recently demonstrated how to swiftly and skilfully eviscerate a goat, metaphorically speaking. Canada Pension Plan public affairs and communications chief Michel Leduc (Photo: Linked-In). I speak of Mr. Leduc’s Oct. 17 letter to Jim Dinning, the old Tory

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Alberta Politics: Federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre joins Alberta pension plan uproar, proffers weak endorsement of Canada Pension Plan

In an obvious effort to inoculate himself against being identified as an enemy of the Canada Pension Plan, federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre yesterday inserted himself into the open-letter uproar over the Alberta Government’s plan to force the province’s citizens out of the CPP with a statement of his own.

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Alberta Politics: Guest Post: Alberta has already killed the notorious Grassy Mountain coal mine, so why is it still alive?  

It’s a true Alberta mystery. The notorious Grassy Mountain open-pit coal mine proposal on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in southern Alberta near the Crowsnest Pass keeps getting killed by the regulatory process – and somehow keeps being resurrected by its deep-pocketed Australian backers who seem to have

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Alberta Politics: Canadian Ditchley Foundation tells TBA’s David Parker he’s out as a director; Premier Smith does damage control

According to Take Back Alberta Executive Director David Parker, he has been informed by the Canadian Ditchley Foundation he’s being dumped as a director of the organization.  Canadian Ditchley Foundation President Pierre Lortie (Photo: The Ditchley Foundation). In a bitter sounding tweet on the social media site known as X

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Alberta Politics: Take Back Alberta’s David Parker: MAGA rabble rouser or establishment elitist? 

David Parker, executive director of the Take Back Alberta faction of the United Conservative Party, was tweeting about Alberta Health Services’ new enhanced-masking directive first thing Thursday morning, the day the provincial health authority’s lame buck-passing response to a resurgence of COVID-19 in Alberta hospitals took effect.  Take Back Alberta

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Alberta Politics: Local decision making comes to Alberta acute care facilities, potentially undermining patient and public safety

Alberta Health Services yesterday announced it will dump the responsibility for masking to slow the spread of COVID-19 in its acute care facilities on the leadership of its regional zones throughout Alberta and individual sites.  Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). In a memorandum on “enhanced masking at AHS

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Alberta Politics: Junket to Germany: Rural MLAs from Alberta fly to Berlin and Essen to ‘learn about energy and climate transition’ 

Presumably the last thing Canada needs right now is another diplomatic incident, so we should all send heartfelt thoughts and prayers to accompany United Conservative Party MLAs Shane Getson and Garth Rowswell on their junket to Germany. Garth Rowswell, UCP MLA for Vermilion-Lloydminster-Wainwright (Photo: United Conservative Party Caucus). The two

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Alberta Politics: Calgary E. coli poisonings too serious a matter to be left to a committee led by a former Conservative candidate

Food safety, children’s safety and public health are topics too important to be left to a committee chosen and led by a Conservative sinecure holder and former star candidate. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). Nevertheless, that’s precisely how Premier Danielle Smith and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange propose to

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Alberta Politics: Conservative Danielle Smith vows to dismantle Alberta Health Services, Conservative Ed Stelmach’s greatest achievement 

Today’s political weather forecast: Ill winds that blow no good will begin throughout Alberta on Wednesday. Mr. Stelmach’s health minister, Ron Liepert, in 2012 (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). After that, conditions will get worse. Wednesday is when Premier Danielle Smith has promised us her health minister will present a plan

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