Independent MP Brent Rathgeber with machine gun, looking as if he could use some closer supervision, takes aim at the CBC. (Joke.) And, yes, that is Jack Layton with the other one. Below: Teddy Roosevelt. (That’s enough politicians with firearms! – Ed.) ST. ALBERT, Alberta Edmonton-St. Albert Member of Parliament
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Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Richard Seymour comments on more and more draconian anti-protest laws which are being applied to attack public activism: To understand why this is happening, it is necessary to grasp the relationship between neoliberal austerity and popular democracy. In a previous era, when
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Nomination races begin for federal election 2015
TweetThere are 705 days until Monday, October 19, 2015, when the next Canadian federal election is scheduled to be held. With less than two years until Canadians choose who will serve as Members of Parliament and with new electoral boundaries coming into effect at the next election, candidates across Alberta
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Rising Tory interest in St. Albert-Edmonton nomination could set the stage for something completely different!
Ryan Hastman’s business card, handed out at last weekend’s Conservative Convention in Calgary. Below: Mr. Hastman, Independent MP Brent Rathgeber, competing Tory candidate Michael Cooper and the other side of Mr. Hastman’s card. ST. ALBERT, Alberta There’s a new candidate in the race for the Conservative Party of Canada’s nomination
Continue readingAlberta Diary: How will we get back to the 19th Century without Stephen Harper? Why he should go, and won’t
A forlorn Richard Nixon waves goodbye to Washington for the last time from the steps of the presidential helicopter on Aug. 9, 1974. Don’t count on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to do the same thing any time soon, even if it destroys his party. Below: Stephen Harper looking appropriately gloomy
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Hope and Debt
TweetThe political battle between the Wildrose opposition and long-governing Progressive Conservatives continued today as the Legislative Assembly resumed for the fall sitting. Debt was the biggest issue of the day. Wildrose leader Danielle Smith jumped at the opportunity to make light of comments Premier Alison Redford made that compared the government’s
Continue readingAlberta Diary: ‘Conservative activist’ seeks Brent Rathgeber’s Edmonton-St. Albert Parliamentary seat
Michael Cooper, left, celebrates after a fashion the May 2, 2011, federal election victory of Edmonton-St. Albert MP Brent Rathgeber, as Mr. Rathgeber celebrates it in a more traditional and energetic way. (St. Albert Gazette photo.) Below: Mr. Cooper’s official campaign website photo; Mr. Rathgeber not long after his break
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Got trouble with ‘overbearing urban planners’? The Manning Centre wants to help!
A civic election all-candidates’ meeting in Calgary. “Why don’t we pass the time with a game of solitaire?” Actual Manning Centre supported candidates may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Manning Centre namesake Preston Manning; Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi; Calgary developer Cal Wenzel (CTV photo). If on Oct. 21 the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Context, Tory MP Russ Hiebert’s shifty campaign for Bill C-377, and me
The Parliamentary trolley, on its way back from the Senate, stops in front of the Prime Minister’s Office in the Langevin Block. The dog at left was never owned by Prime Minister W.L. Mackenzie King, who was well known in his day as a labour expert, although it clearly does
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Suggestion For Kellie Leitch
She may be a lost cause, but I have a suggestion for Harper enthusiast/Simcoe Grey Conservative M.P. Kellie Leitch, about whom I have written previously on this blog. The former medical doctor turned defender of the indefensible, who is one of a series of rotating trained seals spokespeople for her
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper and the Great Getaway Tour
As I watched him drag himself wearily up the steps of his getaway plane, I could only imagine what Stephen Harper was thinking.I've done it !!! I've made it to the plane !!! The caucus rebels can't get me now. And even Duffy can't follow me EVERYWHERE !!@#!But sadly for Great
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: A Defining Moment for the Conservative Government? [VIDEO]
The CBC’s At Issue panel discusses Brent Rathgeber’s decision to quit the Conservative caucus and what it means to a Harper Government besieged by multiple crises. We recommend: Another blow for Harper as Conservative MP quits caucus Conservative MP’s Bill C-461 threatens CBC journalistic integrity, protection of sources SHAME: Harper
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Journalists found guilty of ethical breaches really shouldn’t lecture on journalistic ethics
People who live in glass houses next door to used car lots shouldn’t … Below: Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente, the Globe’s disclaimer. S’cuse me! We ex-journalists are permitted to do whatever we like! And if Prime Minister Thomas Mulcair wants to appoint me to the Senate, I’m taking
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: PMO Slush Funds, Defecting Tories, The Prime Prevaricator’s Diction And Deflection Tactics
These are the main topics discussed on last night’s At Issue panel: BTW, Parliament rises in about a week. I hope the weather for Harper and his many enablers continues to be hot and uncomfortable, with heavy storms in the fall. Recommend this Post
Continue reading350 or bust: Ottawa: Buying Ads Is Easier Than Rooting Out CPC Corruption
Power, like a desolating pestilence, Pollutes whate’er it touches. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab What a week in “Ottawapiskat”! In Canada’s capital city the embattled government of Stephen Harper is facing one scandal after another, topped yesterday by the very public exit from the CPC caucus of MP Brent Rathgeber.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: In Praise of Political Cartoonists
Where would we be without their pithy insights? Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: On The Politically Compliant
Woke up this morning thinking of our friends in the animal kingdom, and their affinity for their counterparts in Ottawa. Recommend this Post
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: How Brent Rathgeber changed Edmontons political map and why the Tories might like it
TweetEdmonton-St. Albert MP Brent Rathgeber unleashed a political storm last night when he announced on Twitter that he is leaving the Conservative Party of Canada caucus. Initially citing a “a lack of commitment to transparency and open government,” he expanded his criticisms to the control Prime Minister Stephen Harper‘s office exercises over
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More Cracks in the Conservative Monolith
Hannah Thibedeau’s report gladdened my heart this morning as she detailed the events behind federal Conservative M.P. Brent Rathgeber’s decision to leave the Harper caucus over changes to his private member’s bill that would have required the public disclosure of all the expenses and salaries of highly paid public service
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: There Is No "Rathgeber" In "Team"
Frankly, quitting over a crappy little Private Member’s bill that was little more than a gratuitous shot at the public doesn’t impress me. But, as usual when we have these Tory on Tory struggles, I don’t care who wins as long as someone gets hurt.
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