Jason Kenney’s mid-September sojourn to India with a couple of his United Conservative Party sidekicks was pure political theatre, likely aimed as much at the Alberta Opposition leader’s real main enemy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as at Alberta’s NDP premier, Rachel Notley. Still, lots of Albertans were wondering last week
Continue readingTag: Alberta Politics
daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Episode 20: Five Months until Alberta’s Next Election
This week Dave and Ryan are joined by our friend Kate Kerber as we discuss how Rachel Notley‘s New Democratic Party government is doing and what the NDP might need to do to win the election in 2019. We also chat about the latest candidate nomination news, including recent contests in Edmonton-Decore, Lacombe-Ponoka,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Another weekend in Alberta politics: A new chapter for an Orange politician, and a Green one too
A new chapter? Using those words as a headline, Michael Connolly, the youthful NDP representative for Calgary-Hawkwood and one of the few openly gay MLAs in the provincial Legislature, announced Saturday in a Facebook post he’ll be quietly stepping out of politics when a provincial election is called next year.
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Alberta Election Updates: NDP MLA Michael Connolly not running for re-election, Ron Orr wins UCP contest in Lacombe-Ponoka
Photo: NDP MLA Michael Connolly (left) with Premier Rachel Notley and Finance Minister Joe Ceci (source: Facebook) New Democratic Party MLA Michael Connolly announced this weekend that he will not seek re-election to the Legislative Assembly when the next provincial election is called in 2019. Connolly was elected in 2015 in
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Green Party of Alberta chooses Cheryle Chagnon-Greyeyes as new leader
Photo: New Green Party leader Cheryle Chagnon-Greyeyes at Canada Day celebrations in 2018 (photo source: @KingEddyYYC on Twitter) Members of the Green Party of Alberta chose Cheryle Chagnon-Greyeyes as their new leader at a leadership selection meeting yesterday. Chagnon-Greyeyes is an Indigenous social justice activist who currently works at the Native Centre at
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Vue Weekly Best of Edmonton 2018
Thank you to the readers of Vue Weekly for voting daveberta.ca as one of the city’s Best Local Affairs Blogs in the annual Best of Edmonton list for 2018. I’m thrilled this website was tied for first place with Mack Male’s excellent mastermaq.ca blog, which has long been a solid standard source of information
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Karen Principe defeats former MLA Janice Sarich to win UCP nomination in Edmonton-Decore, NDP nominate MLA Marlin Schmidt in Edmonton-Gold Bar
Past City Council candidate Karen Principe defeated former Progressive Conservative MLA Janice Sarich and real estate agent Gordon Reekie to secure the United Conservative Party nomination in Edmonton-Decore last night. Principe is a dental hygienist who placed a strong third in the October 2017 city council race that saw incumbent councillor Dave
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The furious denunciations of Tzeporah Berman in Alberta are unprecedented, hypocritical and dangerous
Orthodoxy means not thinking – not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness. — George Orwell, 1984 + + + The stream of vituperation directed at B.C. environmentalist Tzeporah Berman for her consistent opposition to Alberta’s pipeline demands is unprecedented, hypocritical and dangerous. I am not just talking about the death threats
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Alberta Election Update: Lorne Dach running for re-election in Edmonton-McClung, Mickey Amery seeks UCP nomination in Calgary-Cross
Photo: Lorne Dach, Allie Tulick, Roop Rai, and Mickey Amery. Here are some of the latest updates to the list of candidates running for party nominations ahead of the 2019 Alberta provincial general election: Banff-Kananaskis – Scott Wagner is seeking the United Conservative Party nomination in this district. Wagner was the Wildrose
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward tops the list of Edmonton’s Best-Selling Books
Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended September 9, 2018, compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON NON-FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Fear- Bob Woodward 2. Educated- Tara Westover 3. Little Yellow House – Carissa Halton*+
Continue readingAlberta Politics: As Edmonton and Ottawa awake to Jason Kenney’s (un)diplomatic funny business, stuff starts hitting the fan
Alberta Opposition Leader Jason Kenney and two of his MLAs are running around India again today acting as if they are representatives of the governments of both Canada and Alberta. Officials of the provincial government in Edmonton and the federal government in Ottawa appear to have been so nonplussed by
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Jason Kenney touts NDP record of low-taxes, efficient power prices during trip to India
Jason Kenney touted Alberta’s low taxes, educated work-force and efficient power prices to the Indian media during a trip to meet with government ministers and business leaders on the subcontinent this week, according to a report from the CBC. Meanwhile, back in Alberta, political watchers are scratching their heads, wondering
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Yesterday’s floor crossing won’t make much difference, but at least the Tories are getting their drama lessons
One way or another, as of yesterday 143 politicians have crossed the floor of the House of Commons or a Canadian legislature since Confederation. If you can’t name any or many of them offhand, there’s a good reason. A successful floor crossing usually generates a bit of excitement for a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney’s Passage to India is nothing more than a nice fall holiday with two friends
United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney and UCP MLAs Prasad Panda and Devin Dreeshen took off for India yesterday. The main problem with the UCP passage to India is that, no matter how Mr. Kenney describes it, the six-day visit is really nothing more than a nice fall vacation in
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Doug Schweitzer wins UCP nomination in Calgary-Elbow, Danielle Larivee selected as NDP candidate in Lesser Slave Lake
Photo: Doug Schweitzer, Danielle Larivee, Travis Toews, and Mo Elsalhy. Former United Conservative Party leadership candidate Doug Schweitzer defeated past city council candidate Chris Davis to secure his party’s nomination in Calgary-Elbow on September 13, 2018. As noted last week, Schweitzer is a lawyer who briefly considered running for the PC Party
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Doug Ford achieves the impossible: he’s gotten Canadians interested in constitutional reform!
Office-holding Conservative politicians and operatives of their well-funded Astro-Turf and think tank support network across Canada have now virtually to a man and woman jumped aboard Ontario Conservative Premier Doug Ford’s runaway constitutional train, defending his use of Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ override clause to gerrymander electoral districts in
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Sarah Hoffman secures NDP nomination in Edmonton-Glenora, MLA Dave Hanson fends off two challengers in Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul
Minster of Health and Deputy Premier Sarah Hoffman has been nominated as the New Democratic Party candidate in Edmonton-Glenora for the next election. Hoffman was first elected as MLA for this district in 2015 with 68 percent of the vote, unseating two-term Progressive Conservative MLA Heather Klimchuk. She previously served
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Dougtatorship notwithstanding, what have you got to fear, Mr. Scheer?
What have you got to fear, Andrew Scheer? Is there a single office-holding Conservative in this country who is willing to stand up for the fundamental rights of Canadians as they are assaulted by Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his unrestrained Dougtatorship? What an opportunity this could have been for
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The era of Notwithstanding Clause restraint is over … get used to it!
The era of Notwithstanding Clause restraint is over. Get used to it. To borrow someone else’s felicitous metaphor, Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was always an unexploded bomb lurking in the rubble of our country’s constitutional history like a decaying munition under the modern-day pavements
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Notwithstanding common sense, no one should be surprised by Doug Ford’s use of Section 33 to shore up his lousy law
No one should be astonished Ontario Premier Doug Ford plans to use the Canadian Constitution’s Notwithstanding Clause to wiggle out of a judge’s scathing ruling declaring his hurried and sloppy legislation to cut Toronto City Council from 47 to 25 members to be unconstitutional. Mr. Ford and a lot of
Continue reading