The on-again, off-again project for a new arena in Calgary is on again. At twice the cost. Earlier this week The City of Calgary, the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (CSEC) and the province announced a $1.22 billion replacement for the Saddledome, a community rink, a public plaza and associated
Continue readingTag: Calgary Flames
Alberta Politics: In another unsurprising Danielle Smith flip-flop, Calgary to get $330 million in provincial cash for new Flames arena
Among other things, Danielle Smith’s announcement yesterday afternoon of big provincial bucks for a new downtown arena for the Calgary Flames represents yet another flip-flop for Alberta’s premier. Billionaire Calgary Flames Part owner N. Murray Edwards (Photo: Facebook video screenshot). Alberta taxpayers will sink $330 million or more into the
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Day Premier Smith Lost All Credibility
Albertans are asking a lot of questions about RStar, the $100 million pilot program designed to give owners of inactive wells a royalty credit on new wells if they clean up their old wells which they’re legally obligated to clean up in the first place. The question asked by a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Shocking coffee mug has conservatives clutching their pearls, political Alberta all atwitter
Now that right-wing snowflakes have officially made “cancel culture” a thing, let’s talk about that controversial coffee mug they’d like to cancel that rudely mentions Jason Kenney, shall we? Tout le monde political Alberta was abuzz yesterday, with many conservatives bemoaning the sorry state of political discourse in Wild Rose
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Postmedia pours it to bring home the bacon for Calgary’s hockey billionaires
You’ve got to know that when the likes of Licia Corbella, Danielle Smith, Chris Nelson, Rick Bell, and sundry other right-wing Postmedia bloviators all want you to think that now is the perfect time for the Calgary Saddledome to be demolished and replaced by the (Ken) King Dome, it probably
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Irony is dead but doublethink thrives as Calgary opts to cut services and subsidize hockey billionaires at once
Really, what can one say about the deal the City of Calgary struck with the Flames professional hockey club yesterday for the former Cowtown’s taxpayers to subsidize half the cost of a new arena for the team to the tune of $225 million at the same moment as this city
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Episode 14: Alberta Equalization, NDP Attack Ads, and Social Media Advice for Candidates
What does the renewal of the national Equalization formula mean for Alberta? What should Rachel Notley and Jason Kenney be doing this summer? What do we think about the New Democratic Party’s latest attack ad? And how should election candidates be using social media in 2019? These are a few
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Alberta Candidate Nomination Update: Pitt bests Millions in Airdrie-East, Michael Connolly moves to Calgary-Varsity, and more.
Photo: Calgary-West MLA Mike Ellis and Airdrie MLA Angela Pitt were greeting party members outside the nomination voting station in the Town and Country Centre in Airdrie on July 20, 2018. (Source: Dave Cournoyer) Despite indications of a dogfight in Airdrie-East, United Conservative Party members voted overwhelmingly to choose incumbent
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Right-wing propaganda instantly pivots to explain away progressive successes Monday in Alberta municipal elections
PHOTOS: Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, who overcame a full-blown attack by all the usual suspects on the right in Monday’s Alberta-wide municipal elections, addressing the biennial convention of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions in Calgary in June. Below: Bill Smith, Mr. Nenshi’s main conservative challenger, who didn’t do as
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Sometimes It Doesn’t Go Their Way
Upon the re-election of Naheed Nenshi, the neoliberals have a message for Canadians who haven’t gotten with the program: Not everyone was happy about Naheed Nenshi being re-elected to a third term as Calgary’s mayor Monday night — including some members of the Calgary Flames organization, which recently broke off
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More On Neoliberal Extortion
I admit that at one time, I worshiped at the altar of the NHL, this during the time of the Original Six. But then something happened. I grew up. I know the above might be offensive to those who still take their sports seriously, but let me make plain I
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Silence on the right and in the media about NDP role as Alberta adds an impressive 20,000 full-time jobs in March
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, who is not getting any credit for her economic successes from the Opposition or the media. Below: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci; Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall; and University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe (CBC photo). Alberta added an impressive 20,000 full-time jobs in March, according
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Who will stand up for Alberta’s persecuted billionaire community?
A billionaire is moving away from Calgary and we should all be worried, the newspapers tell us. Postmedia newspapers reported recently that nameless sources are saying oil billionaire and Calgary Flames co-owner Murray Edwards is “switching hi…
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Three days left to support the Pride Tape kickstarter
1,083 backers have stepped up to donate $70.073 in support the Pride Tape kickstarter campaign since it was started in December 2015. Launched by the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services at the University of Alberta and supported by Ca…
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: FHRITP! – Stay Classy Calgary Flames Fans – Example #2387461278 of #NotAllMen..
I’m curious as to how many times we need to see incidents like this. Misogyny via the expression of normative patriarchal values at it very finest in dear old Cowtown. Go take a look at the clip from CBC Calgary with reporter Meghan Grant. “FHRITP — or f–k her right in
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Hockey millionaires and pharmacare tell you everything you need to know about who the Canadian Taxpayers Federation really works for
The Montreal Canadiens in 1912-13. Now the highest-taxed hockey players on the continent, they’re still the best and likely to stay that way. Below: Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions President Linda Silas; U.S. anti-public-health-care fruitloop and Canadian Taxpayers Federation ally Grover Norquist. For a while now it’s seemed as if
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Eureka! Labour relations in Alberta explained by, of all things, NHL hockey!
An Alberta Labour Relations Board official suddenly realizes how the world works, and immediately rules in favour of the employer. Application of the law in Alberta may be pretty much exactly as illustrated. All but forgotten amidst the rejoicing about the tentative end of the National Hockey League lockout reached
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Scenes from an Inquiry: No fireworks as Ron Liepert and Lynn Redford testify
Lynn Redford, the Alberta Premier’s sister, stars in Scenes from an Inquiry, directed by Ingmar Bergman, or someone with a similarly Nordic directorial touch. Below: Former Alberta health minister Ron Liepert chooses his colour for a game of chess with retired justice John Vertes. Actual inquiry participants may or may
Continue readingAlberta Diary: NHL and NHLPA in labour relations face off: no penalties for Alberta employers caught offside
Members of the NHLPA wait around for their Sui Generis Alberta employers to obey the law. Alberta hockey players may not appear exactly as illustrated – for one thing, they wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the stove. Since the regular season of the National Hockey League was supposed to start
Continue reading