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Alberta Politics: Between the lines, Calgary MLA Rick Fraser’s UCP resignation letter is an indictment of Wildrose-ified party

Sep

22

2017

PHOTOS: Rick Fraser in a screenshot from the Legislature of Alberta. Below: Legislative loners Greg Clark, David Swann and Richard Starke, Calgary MP Kent Hehr, and environmentalist and former Green Party candidate Chris Turner. Let’s cut to the chase about what Calgary MLA Rick Fraser’s decision to quit the United Conservative Party really means. Mr. ...

daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: No Thanks and So Long. Former PC MLA Rick Fraser leaves the UCP to sit as an Independent

Sep

22

2017

Photo: Former PC MLAs Richard Starke (left) and Rick Fraser (right) at the 2016 Calgary Pride Parade (Photo from Facebook). The recently formed United Conservative Party may be leading in the polls but the party is looking a lot less united. One of the party’s 28 MLAs, Calgary-South East MLA Rick Fraser, announced on social media ...

Alberta Politics: Documents show B.C. ‘Climate Leadership Plan’ was cooked up in Calgary boardroom of powerful petroleum industry lobby

Sep

18

2017

PHOTOS: British Columbia’s beautiful Legislature Building in Victoria – not, as it turns out, where the province’s climate policy is set! Below: CCPA-BC’s Shannon Daub, former B.C. Liberal premier Christy Clark (Photo: Wikimedia Commons), B.C. NDP Premier John Horgan, and environmentalist Tzeporah Berman. Using documents obtained through a Freedom of Information filing, the British Columbia ...

Alberta Politics: Alberta Legislature Members’ Services Committee passes ‘Derek’s Rule,’ banning Airbnb rentals of MLA apartments

Sep

16

2017

PHOTOS: Former Wildrose and UCP caucus member Derek Fildebrandt, now an Independent Alberta MLA, in happier times for him when he was an employee of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Below: UCP interim Leader Nathan Cooper, former Progressive Conservative interim leader Ric McIver, NDP MLA Estefania Cortes-Vargas, and Canadian Taxpayers Federation operative Colin Craig. Alberta conservative ...

daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Tracking MLA endorsements in the UCP leadership race

Sep

14

2017

Members of the United Conservative Party will be selecting the party’s first permanent leader on October 28, 2017. After of this week’s fee payment deadline, four candidates will be listed on the ballot: Brian Jean, Jason Kenney, Doug Schweitzer and Jeff Callaway. Of the 28 UCP MLAs represented in Alberta’s Legislative Assembly, nineteen have endorsed ...

Alberta Politics: Paul Hinman wants to contest UCP leadership! He has till tonight to raise $57,500! I’m not making this up!

Sep

12

2017

PHOTOS: Would-be UCP leadership candidate Paul Hinman, back when he was Wildrose Alliance MLA for Calgary-Glenmore. Below: Preston Manning, Ted Hinman, and Ernest Manning. Paul Hinman? Seriously? Has somebody stumbled over a mysterious time capsule buried by the Wildrose Alliance Party way out on the lone prairie? Probably somewhere down there in Southern Alberta around ...

Alberta Politics: Outraged when Rebel was shut out, Alberta Legislature Press Gallery won’t help with role it said government must drop

Sep

11

2017

PHOTOS: The Alberta Legislature … no sign of the Press Gallery. Below: Retired journalist Heather Boyd, author of last year’s report on journalist accreditation at the Alberta Legislature; Cheryl Oates, communications director of the Premier’s Office; and Dean Bennett, president of the Alberta Legislature Press Gallery. Where’s Alberta’s Legislature Press Galley when you actually need ...

Alberta Politics: Political words before elementary school audiences could’ve, should’ve been a teaching moment, literally

Sep

10

2017

PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley with the school children at Lois E. Hole Elementary School in St. Albert, before whom she dared to speak political words. (Photo: CBC.) Below: St. City Councillor Sheena Hughes and former Progressive Conservative Alberta premier Alison Redford, who committed the same sin in 2013, and the late Lois Hole, Lieutenant ...

Alberta Politics: United Conservative Party stance on climate change amounts to not much more than hot air

Sep

8

2017

PHOTOS: Hurricane Harvey batters Corpus Christie, Texas. (Photo: ABC News.) Below: Guest post author Barret Weber, Conservative leadership contenders Jason Kenney and Brian Jean, and Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives researchers Shannon Daub and Seth Klein. Guest Post by Barret Weber One truly surprising aspect of the United Conservative Party leadership race to date has ...

daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: The big problem facing Alberta that none of our politicians want to talk about

Sep

8

2017

As the Alberta New Democratic Party enters the half way mark of their first four-year term in office and the United Conservative Party chooses its next leader, a big question that remains unanswered in Alberta politics today is how, in the long-term, the Alberta government plans to deal with the revenue shortfall created by the drop ...

Alberta Politics: This week at the UCP: huge cuts, social conservative sins, and complaints of fractious fibs dominate the conversation

Sep

7

2017

PHOTOS: A screenshot of United Conservative Party leadership frontrunner Jason Kenney as he appeared during his Internet town hall Tuesday. Below: UCP leadership contenders Doug Schweitzer and Brian Jean, U of A Professor Russell Cobb and Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley. Jason Kenney, front-running candidate to lead Alberta’s United Conservative Party, doesn’t put very much ...

Susan on the Soapbox: How Truth Dies

Sep

3

2017

The UCP leadership race just began and already we’re being asked to choose between two conflicting versions of the truth. Jason Kenney says Brian Jean is a poor financial manager because Jean created a $337,000 deficit in the UCP caucus budget–apparently Jean embarked on a “massive hiring spree” to run a “shadow leadership campaign” at ...

daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Alberta politics never slows down, even in the summer.

Aug

28

2017

Politics never slows down in Alberta, even in the summer. Here is a quick look at some of what has been happening: New UCP caucus has a spending problems A day after the United Conservative Party lined up to criticize Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci, it was revealed that the UCP caucus is facing a ...

daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Former PC MLAs running for municipal office in 2017

Aug

25

2017

Alberta’s 2015 provincial election resulted in the election of 75 new MLAs in the 87 seat Legislative Assembly. More than two years after that historic election, a group of former Progressive Conservative MLAs have put forward their names to stand in the October 16, 2017 municipal elections. Here is a quick look at some of ...

Alberta Politics: Jim Dinning 6.0: how Jason Kenney is repeating the same failed Tory strategy, and expecting different results

Aug

24

2017

PHOTOS: Singer k.d. lang (handout photo, via CBC). Below: Jim Dinning 1.0 and Jim Dinning 6.0. Is it just me, or is it mildly surprising that Jason Kenney turned down k.d. lang’s offer of free tickets to Calgary Pride on Sept. 3 and 4? Mr. Kenney, of course, is the former Ottawa insider, Harper Government ...

Alberta Politics: Breakup on the right? Naw, Canadian conservative politicians’ long romance with the Rebel isn’t over

Aug

22

2017

PHOTOS: Wildrose-UCP MLA Drew Barnes, who still stands with and by Rebel Media, at a protest on the steps of the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton in December 2015. Below: Federal Conservative leader Andrew Scheer (Photo: Marcos Oliveira, Wikimedia Commons), UCP leadership candidates Jason Kenney and Brian Jean, and Alberta NDP House Leader Brian Mason. With ...

Alberta Politics: UCP leaders edge away from Rebel Media after NDP House Leader rips their cozy past with alt-right group

Aug

18

2017

PHOTOS: NDP House Leader Brian Mason, one of the fiercest fighters in Premier Rachel Notley’s government, ripped into UCP leadership contenders Jason Kenney and Brian Jean yesterday for their long association with Rebel Media. Below: Mr. Kenney, Mr. Jean, media accreditation report author Heather Boyd, and Alberta Legislative Press Gallery President Dean Bennett. Now that ...

Alberta Politics: High-profile MLA Derek Fildebrandt, embroiled in embarrassing revelations, falls on his sword, quits UCP caucus

Aug

16

2017

PHOTOS: Derek Fildebrandt buying extra fuel for his big red Ford pickup truck on New Year’s Eve 2016 to illustrate how much more gasoline was going to cost after the NDP’s carbon tax took effect the next morning. (Photo from the politician’s Facebook page.) Prices immediately went down. It turns out the Ford also figures ...

daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Derek Fildebrandt has a very, very bad week.

Aug

16

2017

Photo: In happier times, as Derek Fildebrandt campaigned alongside Wildrose leader Brian Jean in Strathmore-Brooks on the first day of the 2015 election. (Photo from Brian Jean’s Facebook Page). Over the course of eight days, Strathmore-Brooks MLA Derek Fildebrandt went from being a potential leadership candidate to stepping down from the United Conservative Party Caucus. As a ...

Alberta Politics: Guest Post: UCP polarization of Alberta politics neutralizes the language of right-wing extremism

Aug

15

2017

PHOTOS: Young anti-Bill 6 protesters interviewed by a reporter at the Alberta Legislature in November 2015. Note the overheated genocide rhetoric in the sign at bottom right. Below: More extreme rhetoric from the same event; commentators Barret Weber, the author of this post, Naomi Lakritz, and Ricardo Acuña. Guest Post by Barret Weber Last weekend’s ...

Alberta Politics: Candidate’s proposal to kick B.C. out of New West Partnership is likely to delight West Coast Dippers

Aug

14

2017

PHOTOS: UCP leadership candidate Doug Schweitzer, grabbed from his campaign website. Below: B.C. NDP Premier John Horgan (Wikimedia Commons), Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley, and former WCP president Jeff Callaway. Supporters of United Conservative Party leadership candidate Doug Schweitzer shouldn’t get their hopes up that threatening to kick British Columbia out of the New West ...

daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Rebel Media becomes a wedge issue in the United Conservative Party leadership race

Aug

14

2017

This weekend’s violent march of Nazis and white supremacists through the streets of Charlotteville, Virginia made international headlines and also had repercussions for the United Conservative Party leadership race in Alberta. Leadership candidate Doug Schweitzer, a Calgary lawyer who is trying to position himself as a social moderate in the contest, used this weekend’s dark ...

Alberta Politics: Derek Fildebrandt’s mini-Skypalace: proof Tory entitlement is still a thing in Alberta

Aug

11

2017

PHOTOS: A scene from Derek Fildebrandt’s mini-Skypalace, the taxpayer subsidized Fildepartment in downtown Edmonton, grabbed from his Airbnb listing. Note the binoculars to the right of the window, presumably used for spotting examples of taxpayer dollars being wasted in the high-rises beyond. Below: The Fildebed, the Fildecloset, the Fildepot and the Fildebrandt. Can you imagine ...

daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Derek Fildebrandt caught renting government-subsidized apartment on Airbnb

Aug

10

2017

United Conservative MLA Derek Fildebrandt has been renting his government-subsidized downtown Edmonton apartment on Airbnb, according to a report by one of Postmedia’s Edmonton newspapers. MLAs who live outside of the Edmonton area are eligible to receive a housing allowance to use toward a residence in the capital city, but the rules appear to be ...

Alberta Politics: Thank goodness for people like Derek Fildebrandt, without whom the dog days of summer would be dreary indeed!

Aug

10

2017

PHOTOS: Derek Fildebrandt in full rhetorical flight before, obviously, a friendly audience. (Screen shot from … wherever.) There goes the author’s theory that just using an Apple computer makes you a better person! Below: Your blogger’s overused photos of UCP leadership candidates Jason Kenney and Brian Jean, a stock shot of hopeful Doug Schweitzer, grabbed ...