Alberta Premier Jason Kenney hardly seemed to know what to do yesterday. As a result, he did nothing. Mr. Kenney was scheduled to make a big announcement about health care – widely assumed based on hints dropped by the premier himself to be a relaxation of holiday restrictions just in
Continue readingTag: Brian Jean
Alberta Politics: Kenney rival Brian Jean wins UCP nomination in Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche; hastily announces vote result himself
With Brian Jean as the United Conservative Party’s candidate in the still unscheduled by-election in Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche, there will be no one running who supports Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. In addition to Mr. Jean, who makes no bones about the fact he intends to try to replace Mr.
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 82: Best of Alberta Politics with Adrienne King and Matt Solberg
Adrienne King and Matt Solberg join the Daveberta Podcast for our year-end episode of 2021. We delve into Premier Jason Kenney‘s leadership challenges, the fireworks at the end of Alberta’s longest legislative session on record, and the upcoming Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche by-election. Adrienne King works for the Now Group,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Why the UCP won’t use Bill 81’s nomination-stacking provisions to mess with the NDP
There’s been some online chatter since the passage of Bill 81 about the possibility the United Conservative Party might use the Election Statutes Amendment Act, 2021, to seed the NDP with lunatic candidates who could destroy the Opposition party or secret neoliberals who would switch their allegiance once elected. Since
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Brian Jean, the Bonnie Prince Charlie of the Alberta conservative movement, takes up residence in Jason Kenney’s head
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney insists his former leadership rival Brian Jean’s planned palace coup to snatch away the crown of the United Conservative Party isn’t about to distract him from his duty to restore Alberta’s swagger. But despite tweeting his agreement Wednesday with a fatuous National Post article claiming “Alberta’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: That office drinking scandal? Just never mind! Jason Kenney launches job program update in Calgary pub
No wonder they call it the Liquor Cabinet! You’d think it might have occurred to someone in the United Conservative Party strategic brain trust to factor former agriculture minister Devin Dreeshen’s very recent, very public troubles with office drinking into the equation when they decided to hold a news conference
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Government or Frat House? Either Way Kenney Can’t Lead
Ariella Kimmel, former chief of staff to Jobs Minister Doug Schweitzer, filed a lawsuit this spring alleging the Premier’s office fostered a “poisoned work environment,” it failed to address her concerns about the sexual harassment of another employee, and she’d been fired for raising it. She’s suing for just under
Continue readingAlberta Politics: On Alberta’s anti-equalization referendum, BQ’s Blanchet tells UCP’s Kenney: Bring it on!
As the folk wisdom goes, be careful what you wish for, you might just get it. Jason Kenney got his wish yesterday when Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet told him, in effect, to bring it on. “Let’s open the constitution,” Mr. Blanchet said with a gallic shrug and a sly
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 79: Everything you wanted to know about Equalization * But were afraid to ask
University of Alberta political scientist Dr. Jared Wesley joins Dave Cournoyer on the Daveberta Podcast for a deep dive into Alberta’s October 18 Equalization Referendum, why it is being held, what Premier Jason Kenney hopes to accomplish (and why he’s been absent on the campaign trail), and what the ramifications
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Vote NO to ‘useless equalization referendum’ to #RejectKenney? Sounds like a plan to lots of Albertans!
It is fairly bizarre, now that you mention it, that Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is plowing ahead with his constitutionally meaningless anti-equalization referendum at a moment he’s so messed up Alberta’s response to COVID-19 that other provinces and the Canadian Armed Forces are having to send us ICU nurses to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If the Alberta Party wants to get to the end of the rainbow, Brian Jean is probably not the man to take it there
Can it really be true Brian Jean, who once thought he had a pretty good chance of occupying the Alberta premier’s office as leader of the Wildrose Party, is quietly negotiating to lead the Alberta Party? With John F. Kennedy’s caveat that where there’s smoke, there’s usually a smoke-making machine,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Worst news conference ever? Jason Kenney apologizes for Sky Palace patio party, touts silly equalization referendum
The rebellion that now has United Conservative Party Premier Jason Kenney looking as if his career is on the ropes is strongly reminiscent of the circumstances that brought Progressive Conservative Party premier Alison Redford’s political career to an end in 2014. Ironically, both feature the “Sky Palace” as a powerful
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney steps up to rostrum, announces new COVID-19 restrictions, then skedaddles
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney stepped up to the rostrum at his hastily scheduled 6:02 p.m. “news conference” yesterday, reeled off what he proposes to do about the fact Alberta now has the worst collective case of COVID-19 in North America, and skedaddled. The whole affair took roughly nine and a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Whatever happened to the UCP’s belligerent response to inconvenient European bankers and environmental litigators?
Once upon a time in Alberta if some foreign bank had dared to announce it wasn’t about to put money into any more Alberta oilsands projects there would have been a furious roar from Jason Kenney. There would have been threats to unleash a War Room on the bankers as
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Distinction Rebellion? There are plenty of reasons breaking up is hard to do, so don’t expect the UCP to do it
Is a rebellion brewing in Southern Alberta against Alberta Premier Jason Kenney among the United Conservative Party’s old Wildrose crowd? Is there a Prairie fire smouldering in the heart Wild Rose Country that might turn into another “upstart conservative party”? Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, as he looked in 2017 as
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Hinterland Who’s Who: Hear the haunting call of the wild Deep South Alberta UCP MLA …
With friends like Drew Barnes, does the United Conservative Party really need enemies in these troubles times? The right-wing Frankenparty may have won the 2019 provincial election convincingly soon after it was cobbled together from the fringy Wildrose Party and the old Progressive Conservatives by former Harper Government cabinet minister
Continue readingAlberta Politics: RCMP investigation of ‘Kamikaze Campaign’ moves into new phase; what it means remains to be seen
“Soon, we will find out if breaking the law is illegal.” The line is Stephen Colbert’s and, no, he wasn’t talking about Alberta. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). The well-known American comedian and TV personality, of course, was referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If you’re shocked by the firing of Alberta’s Election Commissioner, you shouldn’t be
If you’re shocked that Jason Kenney’s Government has effectively just fired the guy who’s been investigating the sleazy Kamikaze Campaign that preceded the premier’s choice as leader of the United Conservative Party in 2017, you really haven’t been paying attention. Alberta’s best-known political commentator is so shocked… How shocked is
Continue readingAlberta Politics: First reading of Bill 207 reveals zero UCP votes for women’s reproductive rights
Here are two important statistics about the United Conservative Party’s Bill 207, the Conscience Rights (Health Care Providers) Protection Act, which was introduced in the Alberta Legislature yesterday … Just a minute, you say, Bill 207 is a private member’s bill, brought forward by Peace River UCP MLA Dan Williams,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Fallout from dual probes into 2017 United Conservative Party leadership campaign still drifting down
It may not be fair, and you may not like it, but politics is like French justice: Guilty until proven innocent. OK, the French say it ain’t so, and we have to take them at their word. They’ve signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, bien sûr! But in politics,
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