Eight Alberta United Conservative Party MLAs, five of them cabinet ministers, now admit they’ve been interviewed by the RCMP in the federal police force’s ongoing investigation into the curious goings on during the party’s 2017 leadership race, from which Premier Jason Kenney emerged victorious. Every time another UCP Caucus member
Continue readingTag: Brian Jean
Alberta Politics: OK, he said nothing new, but why did Justin Trudeau’s pipeline presser make Conservatives so angry?
Conservatives’ faux shock at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s relatively news free pipeline construction announcement in Edmonton last week was a thing to behold. The tone generally was, “there oughtta be a law,” to wit, a law against making announcements when you have nothing to announce. Only with considerably harsher language,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Why wouldn’t Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer appoint an independent prosecutor in the Kamikaze Campaign case?
So riddle me this: Why wouldn’t Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer appoint an independent Crown prosecutor to oversee the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation into allegations of voting fraud in the 2017 United Conservative Party leadership race? Especially now it’s been revealed by the CBC that Mr. Schweitzer, who himself was
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Nathan Cooper chosen as Legislative Speaker – so how about those early mornings?
Now that Nathan Cooper has been chosen as Speaker of the Alberta Legislature, I wonder if the business of the Assembly will be getting under way at a more civilized hour, say 10 a.m., suitable for bankers, gentlemen of leisure, and elected Conservatives? Mr. Cooper, United Conservative Party MLA for
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It takes all kinds to make a cabinet, not necessarily good news when Jason Kenney’s making the picks
Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party cabinet contains a guy who once went down south to campaign for Donald Trump, a woman who opposes school gay-straight alliances and wrote a university president attacking a professor’s critical commentary on Catholic education, a man who fired a single mom he employed after
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Vote-anywhere made it easier to cast a vote against the government from, well, anywhere
Well, God bless the NDP, I guess, who could apparently be depended upon to do the right thing, even if it killed them. Alberta’s official vote results are now in and they suggest how the province’s new “vote anywhere” provisions did no favours for the departing government. Elections Alberta published
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Notice to public employees: Jason Kenney and the UCP are eyeing your pensions again
If you’re a public employee in Alberta and you’ve been deferring your salary for years to build a secure retirement through your modest pension, Jason Kenney would like to take it away. If he can’t do that, he at least wants to ensure no one else can have the same
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jeff Callaway bids to derail Kamikaze Campaign finance probe – why won’t he wait, like Trump?
Despite obviously having been tempted to shut down the “Russian collusion” investigation when he saw friends and supporters charged with lying to the FBI, aides to U.S. President Donald Trump managed to persuade him to hold his fire. How? Although many of us wondered about this during Special Counsel Robert
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Prodigal Roughneck returns – Bernard the Roughneck throws his hardhat into the ring for FCP in Grande Prairie
The good news for Alberta’s Freedom Conservative Party is that it’s recruited a national figure as one of its candidates. The bad news for the FCP may be the national figure in question is Neal Bernard Hancock, better known as “Bernard the Roughneck.” A three-paragraph news story on Mr. Hancock’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta Election Day 2: Will UCP scandals keep traction once parties start rolling out their policies?
Premier Rachel Notley’s NDP clearly hopes to make Opposition Leader Jason Kenney’s character the ballot box issue for voters in the April 16 provincial election, but will the United Conservative Party’s scandals have as much traction now that the election writ has been dropped? The risk for the NDP strategy,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Never mind the Throne Speech, yesterday’s excitement was still about the Kamikaze Campaign
Never mind the Throne Speech. Yesterday’s excitement all took place in the basement media room of the Alberta Legislature Building an hour afterward. The afternoon Speech from the Throne by Alberta’s NDP Government was pretty much what you’d expect under the circumstances, which are that Premier Rachel Notley is expected
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rachel Notley accepts nomination; accuses Jason Kenney of coolly lying about ‘Kamikaze Campaign’
Based on what we’ve learned in the past 24 hours, it’s hard to dispute Premier Rachel Notley’s blunt assessment at her nomination meeting in the Edmonton-Strathcona riding yesterday that Opposition Leader Jason Kenney has been coolly lying about the role of his 2017 leadership campaign in the so-called “Kamikaze Mission”
Continue readingAlberta Politics: CBC exposé about Jason Kenney’s campaign has echoes of Richard Nixon
Perhaps it’s just me, but with each passing day Jason Kenney reminds me a little more of Richard M. Nixon, the talented but deeply flawed American president who in 1973 resigned from office rather than be impeached by the House of Representatives and sent packing by the Senate. Last night’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: This is serious now: the Mounties have entered the Kamikaze Campaign investigation
Some days Alberta politics are like that fine old Johnny Nash song: “I can see clearly now the rain is gone …” A lot has happened since 3 o’clock yesterday morning when the CBC broke the story the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had taken over the investigation by the Office
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Forget Julius Caesar, we’re watching the Perils of Pauline, starring Jason Kenney!
It may be the Ides of March, but on the Alberta political stage, today’s production seems to be the Perils of Pauline, not Julius Caesar. For those of you hoping to see Brian Jean strike back at Jason Kenney and take up the leadership of the Freedom Conservative Party, the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Beware the Ides of March: Brian Jean, Jason Kenney, Joe Anglin and the annals of Alberta conservatism
I suppose today, the day before the date in 44 BC made famous by the demise of Julius Caesar, would be an appropriate moment to remind all potential victims of political plots … beware the Ides of March! It says something for both the ruthlessness and absent likeability of United
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP candidate who played role in Kamikaze Campaign forced to walk the plank
Another United Conservative Party candidate has been sent packing for being neither “forthright” nor “forthcoming” with party Leader Jason Kenney. Leastways, that’s the UCP’s story, and they’re stickin’ to it. Randy Kerr, recently chosen as UCP candidate in the Calgary-Beddington riding and a prominent figure in the party’s rapidly metastasizing
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP video of MLA and NDP advisor is certainly creepy – but is it ethical or even legal?
There’s no question the thought of United Conservative Party operatives skulking around inside an important provincial government office building making videos of people coming and going is unsavoury, not to mention downright creepy. But is this ethical? Is it even legal? Is it appropriate behaviour for a political party that
Continue readingAlberta Politics: $3,500 fine levied in Callaway Kamikaze Campaign Case, this time for illegal pass-through donation
Another fine has been levied in the Callaway Kamikaze Campaign Case, this time for an illegal pass-through donation. Karen Brown was handed the $3,500 administrative penalty yesterday by the Office of Alberta’s Election Commissioner. She has been identified as a former United Conservative Party financial officer. In a characteristically terse
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Another twist in the ‘Kamikaze Campaign’ pretzel – Callaway campaign manager fined, fired, vows fight
The manager of Jeff Callaway’s 2017 campaign to lead the United Conservative Party was slapped with $15,000 in fines yesterday by Alberta’s Election Commissioner for “obstruction of an investigation.” Talk about fear and loathing on the campaign trail! This strange yarn has more twists than a fairground pretzel! From the
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