PHOTOS: Merry Christmas! Your blogger with a man who can penetrate North American air defences with ease. Russian President Vladimir Putin may not appear exactly as illustrated. (Joke.) Below: Political strategist Stephen Carter with the same blogger; Alberta pollster Janet Brown; Conservative strategist Alan Hallman, who is now associated with
Continue readingTag: Brian Jean
daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Wildrose Shuffles Critics, Fildebrandt no longer Public Accounts Committee Chairman
Outspoken Wildrose Party MLA Derek Fildebrandt, who finds himself frequently at odds with leader Brian Jean, remains in his high-profile role as Official Opposition Finance & Treasury critic after a shuffle of critic portfolios in the Wildrose caucus this week. But according to… Continue Reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Wildrose shadow shuffle leaves Derek Fildebrandt in finance; Brian Jean rumoured eyeing shuffle off to Wood Buffalo
PHOTOS: Yon Fildebrandt has that lean and hungry look … Wildrose Leader Brian Jean, right, and his finance critic, still, Derek Fildebrandt, in happier times. Below: Wildrose MLAs Drew Barnes, Leela Aheer and Tany Yao. Seemingly flying beneath the radar, Wildrose Opposition Leader Brian Jean has completed a significant reshuffle
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Trouble on the ‘Alb-Right’? What are the details of Wildrose Leader Brian Jean’s better way to unite the right?
PHOTOS: Opposition Leader Brian Jean. He says he has a better plan than Jason Kenney’s to unite the right. The only thing is, he won’t say what it is. If it involves changing the party name, though, as this picture shows there are going to be a lot of “Wildroses”
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Lessons From Rex Tillerson*
If Rex Tillerson, the former head of ExxonMobil and Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, taught a class on pipeline strategy Brian Jean would be stuck at the front of the room wearing a dunce cap and Rachel Notley would be excused because she already knows this stuff. Conservative
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Great Betrayal, or just a great mistake? Today marks the second anniversary of the Wildrose Party’s mass defection
PHOTOS: Progressive Conservative premier Jim Prentice and Opposition leader turned PC MLA Danielle Smith pose awkwardly on Dec. 17, 2014, in what was supposed to be a political masterstroke, and could have turned out to have been just that (CBC photo). Below: NDP Premier Rachel Notley, Wildrose Opposition Leader Brian
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rogue One, a Right Wing Wars Story: wherein the Wildrose Party’s Derek Fildebrandt slips his leader’s leash
PHOTOS: Wildrose Party Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt going rogue at Rebel Media’s Calgary anti-everything rally last Sunday (CBC photo). Below: Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Jason Kenney as imagined for this story’s rather labored metaphor. (They said I couldn’t do it. Actual PC leadership contenders may not appear exactly as illustrated.)
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Ten Alberta MLAs to watch in 2017
Despite its past reputation, Alberta politics has become extraordinarily unpredictable over the past decade. This makes forecasting the future a very tricky business for political pundits. As is tradition on this blog, each December I sit down by the open… Continue Reading →
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Four Opposition Leaders United on Panel Boycott
While it has become common to watch the leaders of Alberta’s one Liberal and three Conservative opposition parties vote together against the New Democratic Party government in the Legislative Assembly, it is not everyday that those leaders hold a joint… Continue Reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Oh, there you go Bradsplaining again!’ Like it or not, Brads from Saskatchewan just can’t control their Bradsplaining
PHOTOS: Federal Conservative leadership candidate and Bradsplainer Brad Trost shows he’s hip to the jive with this newfangled technology stuff. (Photo from BradTrost.ca.) Below: Brad Wall, another well-known Bradsplainer, Bradsplaining, and blogger word-coiner Dave Cournoyer, kitted out to observe one of Rebel Media’s rallies. Uh-oh! We’re about to be “Bradsplained”!
Continue readingAlberta Politics: They can still feel shame! Conservative leaders duck and cover in wake of Saturday’s disgraceful display
PHOTOS: Chris Alexander, at the moment the chant of “lock her up” began from the right-wing mob at the Alberta Legislature Saturday. Does this look to you like a man who is “shocked, taken aback, mortified even”? Me neither. Below: Michael Chong, Deepak Obhrai, Rona Ambrose and Brian Jean, all
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: That Totally Weird Anti-Carbon Tax Rally
While I am in the mood to dispense political advice, my next pro tip goes out to Wildrose leader Brian Jean, who was a featured speaker at Ezra Levant’s totally weird anti-carbon tax rally. Mr. Jean and Innisfail-Sylvan Lake MLA… Continue Reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Con gong show at the Legislature had plenty to make Albertans wonder about their opposition parties
PHOTOS: Anybody recognize the clowns with the yellow signs? Inquiring minds want to know … and they say they’re prepared to pay good money to find out! (Duncan Kinney photo, grabbed from Twitter.) Below: Ezra Levant, whose Rebel Media organized Saturday’s demonstration at the Alberta Legislature, which failed to leave
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Two Pipelines Approved: The Opposition Reacts (badly)
Do you have a headache? Are you an Alberta conservative wondering how to react to Trudeau approving the Trans Mountain and Line 3 pipelines and, horrors, singling out Notley’s Climate Leadership Plan as being vital to getting to yes? If so, your conservative leadership team has prepared a carefully considered,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Wildrose defence of Christian home schooling group unravels on news of operators’ big salaries
PHOTOS: The Trinity Christian private school in Cold Lake. Court documents indicate its principal was paid $322,813 over three years. One news report says it currently has 13 students. Below: Ken Noster, board chair and administrator of Wisdom Home Schooling Society, his wife Marlane Noster, and Trinity School principal Richard
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Pipeline File: NDP’s ‘social license’ approach worked where Conservative shouting failed, it’s that simple
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Kananaskis, Alberta, in April 2016 (photo by Chris Schwarz, Government of Alberta). Below: Anti-pipeline demonstrators in British Columbia (Rabble photo by Alyse Kotyk). They may not find it reassuring that Alberta conservatives are praying for their success. Without
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Backstory to purloined party list whodunit hints Wildrose civil war may be brewing
PHOTOS: Veterans of the Wildrose Caucus civil wars get together in 2046 to compare their experiences. Actual aged Wildrose MLAs are unlikely to appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Wildrose Leader Brian Jean (CBC photo), his party’s finance critic, Derek Fildebrandt, and former Wildrose House leader Rob Anderson reading his confession
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Wildrose offices burgled, computers stolen, membership data being misused
David Climenhaga over at AlbertaPolitics.ca has the scoop. Here is an excerpt from his piece tonight: In an email to supporters sent late Sunday with the bland subject line, “A Wildrose Update,” Opposition Leader Brian Jean drops a bombshell with… Continue Reading →
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Notley owes Alberta’s coal communities an in-person visit
Mr. Jean: Thank you. The NDP has found time to fly to Paris, to Morocco, but they haven’t found time to visit communities like Hanna and Parkland county. They haven’t taken the time to look in the faces of the… Continue Reading →
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Running on Half a Platform
Can we stop campaigning on half a platform? Brian Jean and Jason Kenney are united in one thing—the conviction that they must free Alberta from the “socialists” and return it to its position of unparalleled greatness where it will once again become “the shining beacon of hope” to Canada
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