Just when you thought you’d seen it all the Wildrose Official Opposition upped the ante on red-baiting. They’re using Members’ Statements, a part of the Legislature’s Daily Order of Business, to push their “NDP-are-commies” narrative. Members’ Statements Members’ Statements give … Continue reading →
Continue readingTag: Brian Jean
Alberta Politics: Where’s the beef? Alberta’s cattle industry is only getting what it ordered from Earls
PHOTOS: Where’s the beef? Not in Alberta, if this province’s beef industry can do anything about it. One thing this story has nothing to do with is small-time ranchers like the guy on the steer or independent restaurants like the one run by the mom…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Preston Manning is now publicly, openly at the centre of Alberta’s latest ‘unite-the-right’ effort
PHOTOS: The Ambassadors reimagined. Actual unite-the-righters appearing with Preston Manning may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Preston Manning, Wildrose Opposition Leader Brian Jean, “united alternative” Ambassador Rick Orman, …
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Notley’s Budget: Myths and Facts
The NDP government unveiled its budget on Thursday. The conservatives reacted as if the government dropped a neutron bomb on the people. Wildrose leader Brian Jean worried that parents driving their kids to hockey practice would end up in the … Continue reading →
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: How the Conservatives Spun Murray Edwards and Vicki Kaminski
This week the conservatives spun Murray Edwards’ decision to move to England and Vicki Kaminski’s decision to leave Alberta Health Services for a job in Australia to convince Albertans to ditch the NDP. The spin looked like this: Facts [Edwards/Kaminski … Continue reading →
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: It’s Time for the Soapy Awards!
Ms Soapbox was trolling through Hansard searching for signs of intelligent life under the Dome when she discovered (sandwiched between the Wildrose Opposition’s accusation that the Premier appointed a Soviet-era communist to serve as her deputy chief of staff and … Continue reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Tory victory in Calgary-Greenway riding turns ‘unite the right’ merger on Wildrose terms into political roadkill
PHOTOS: Progressive Conservative candidate Prabhdeep Gill, centre, celebrates after last night’s results were announced in the Calgary-Greenway by-election. (CBC photo.) Below: The night’s biggest loser, arguably, was Opposition Leader Brian Jean. …
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Wildrose defeated by “Justin Trudeau Liberal” in Calgary-Greenway by-election
Prab Gill won today’s by-election in Calgary-Greenway with 27 percent of the vote, holding the northeast Calgary electoral district for his Progressive Conservative Party. The by-election was triggered after the death of popular MLA Manmeet Bhull…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Whatever the outcome, today’s Calgary-Greenway by-election is sure to be a spinner’s dream
PHOTOS: Some of the candidates in today’s Calgary-Greenway by-election. (CBC photo) Below: Manmeet Bhullar, the PC MLA for the riding killed in a highway crash last November, NDP candidate Roop Rai and PC candidate Prabhdeep Gill. Today is the day of…
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: “Kudatah”: It’s not a joke
Ms Soapbox is deeply troubled by last week’s failed Kudatah. The Kudatah (or “coup d’etat” for those who know how to spell) was George Clark’s attempt to overthrow the NDP government. George blames the NDP for the economic downturn. He … Continue reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Deconstructing political discourse in Alberta: Doublethink is alive and well in recessionary Wild Rose Country
PHOTOS: Parson Manning spreads the Gospel of Market Fundamentalism in his days as leader of the Reform Party of Alberta. The actual neoliberal preacher-men of Confederation may not appear exactly as illustrated. Photo grabbed from Elmer Gantry, the mov…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: There’s nothing ‘independent’ or ‘blue-ribbon’ about the Wildrose Party’s ‘Equalization Fairness Panel’
PHOTOS: How the Frontier Centre views Canada’s Equalization Program. Oh! Wait! That’s a 19th Century temperance poster. Same difference, basically. Below: The Wildrose Party’s four Frontier-Centre-associated “equalization fairness” panelists:…
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: “Over My Dead Body” – This week in Alberta’s Big Happy Conservative Family
It was only last week that the leaders of Alberta’s two main conservative political parties – Progressive Conservative interim leader Ric McIver and Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean – were in Ottawa hobnobbing with the conservative …
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Wherever there’s Alberta unite-the-right chatter, Preston Manning’s name keeps popping up
PHOTOS: Preston Manning, looking right as usual, photo taken at the 2013 Manning Conference in Ottawa. Below: Alberta PC leader Ric McIver, Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean Wildrose Party photo), federal Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose (CBC photo) and…
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Ezra Levant: Once a lawyer always a lawyer?
Ms Soapbox is grateful to Ezra Levant (and that’s not an easy thing to say). Thanks to Ezra she’s discovered that journalism is not a profession (actually she suspected it all along); she’s also learned that “once a lawyer always … Continue reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Unite-the-right poll results ring alarm bells and raise interesting questions, none of which are asked by the media
PHOTOS: A pollster asks a typical Albertan if she’d prefer to vote for a united Wildrose-PC Party … or the NDP. Actual Alberta pollsters and their subjects may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Pollster Quito Maggi, Alberta Prosperity Fund …
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: B.C. “attacks” Alberta. Really?
Thirty-six little words. That’s all it took for the media to whip Albertans up into a “how dare you” frenzy. It started with the BC government’s Throne Speech in which Premier Christy Clark took her new election slogan—Say YES—for a … Continue reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It’s going to take more than Valentine cards and chocolate to unite Alberta’s fractious right
ILLUSTRATIONS: Hey Wildrose Party … the Tories send their love to you! But will this idea “bomb”? Actual Progressive Conservative strategists may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Former PC cabinet Minister Rick Orman, photographed during…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Uniting the Right: Is Wildrose Leader Brian Jean starting to wonder, ‘With friends like these, who needs enemies?’
PHOTOS: It’s getting crowded on the Wildrose Party’s “unite the right” bandwagon … and not necessarily with the “right” people from leader Brian Jean’s perspective. Actual Alberta political bandwagons may not appear exactly as illustrat…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Will simply uniting Alberta’s right add up to victory over the NDP? A conservative strategist concludes it won’t
PHOTOS: Oh, what fools these Tories be? Please forgive this Puckish caption. Former Progressive Conservative campaign manager Susan Elliott, below left, suggests that her party’s members think carefully before they let themselves get hitched to the p…
Continue reading