There will be a “thorough review process surrounding chuckwagon safety” after the deaths of six horses during the 2019 Calgary Stampede, which is now mercifully over. Oh, please! There will be no meaningful review of the safety of the horses that are abused for fun at the Stampede, just as
Continue readingTag: Calgary Stampede
Susan on the Soapbox: Girls Just Want to Have Fun…at the Calgary Stampede
“When the working day is done. Oh girls, they wanna have fun.”—Cyndi Lauper After a rough few weeks Ms Soapbox and her family dug out their cowboy hats, found some denim shirts and went stampeding. Ms Soapbox decided to retrace the steps of the all-time Stampede champion, Premier Rachel Notley,
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Episode 15: Politicians pretending to be Cowboys. It’s Stampede Week in Calgary!
It is Calgary Stampede season, which means politicians from across Canada are flocking to Alberta’s largest city to show off their recently purchased plaid shirts and cowboy hats. In this episode of the Daveberta Podcast, Dave Cournoyer and Ryan Hastman discuss politicians pretending to be cowboys, the latest federal and provincial nomination news, including
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Another Season of Stampede Politicking in Calgary
Politicians of all stripes descended on Alberta’s largest city this week for the annual Calgary Stampede festivities. Though most of them have probably never ridden a horse or woke up at 5am (or earlier) to start their day on the farm, they were almost all brandishing big shiny belt buckles,
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Two weeks until decision day for Conservatives in Alberta
On July 6, 2016, Jason Kenney officially launched his campaign to capture the leadership of Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives and lead them into a merger with the right-wing Wildrose Party. After 19-years as an Ottawa politician, Kenney was easily able to stage a hostile take-over the broken and battered former governing party.
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Stampede!
“Sometimes you need a little break”—Ms Soapbox’s Mom The fun started when Ms Soapbox’s sister Roz and her husband Jay came to town. They flew in from Vancouver where it rains 168 days a year–to spend a week in Calgary … Continue reading →
Alberta Politics: The Calgary Stampede’s vital cultural and political role explained, sort of …
PHOTOS: The Stampede chuckwagon races … exciting, but traditionally bad news for horses. Below: Stampede duds last year on Justin Trudeau, Stephen Harper and Thomas Mulcair. Did last year’s effort work out as intended by the Stampede Board? The C…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Annual message to Calgary Stampede: real men don’t hurt animals for entertainment
PHOTOS: Stampede chuckwagon races – exciting for spectators, but deadly and cruel for horses. Real men don’t hurt animals for entertainment. There will be a safety “review” after the death of a fourth horse on Sunday at the 2015 Calgary Stampede, which is now mercifully over. Oh, please! There will
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Calgary Stampede an important marker of political change in Alberta
Billed as the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth, the Calgary Stampede is a must-stop destination for political leaders of all stripes and all levels of government. The event also provides a good historical marker of how quickly the political winds of change can… Continue Reading →
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper’s Most Sad and Pathetic Calgary Stampede
Well there he was in this PMO picture, at the Calgary Stampede in his black bad guy cowboy hat, framed between a horse and a horse's ass.Watching the parade and trying to put on a brave face, or smile like a winner. Or at least open his mouth and show his
Continue readingVancouver Humane Society gives CBC Stampede coverage a thumbs down
Only 26 days to the Calgary Stampede. Yee-haw! This is our premier event of the year—the greatest outdoor show on Earth. Mostly it’s great fun for Calgarians and visitors alike: agricultural exhibits, a huge midway, entertainment from around the world plus Calgary’s very own Young Canadians, Stampede breakfasts, endless bar-hopping—10
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Parson’ Manning, in the pulpit, preaches a formula of failure to Alberta’s New Democrats
PHOTOS: Preston Manning, Godfather of the Canadian right. Below: Alberta Premier Designate Rachel Notley, Liberal prime minister Wilfrid Laurier, Social Credit premier E.C. Manning and United Farmers of Alberta leader Henry Wise Wood. Preaching from the highest pulpit in the land, the opinion pages of the mighty Globe and Mail,
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper and the Ill wind from Alberta
Well nobody at this beach on the Toronto Island today was complaining about an ill wind from the West.Because it was warm and wild, and summer like life is so short and precious.However, had they been in Calgary this weekend, they would have encountered another kind of wind.Hot, foul, and
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Johnson, Anglin, Nenshi and Butler. Who said Alberta politics is dull in the summer?
TweetPremier Dave Hancock is standing behind Jeff Johnson, even after the Information and Privacy Commissioner ruled that the embattled education minister broke Alberta’s privacy laws by sending a direct message to the personal email addresses of thousands of teachers during their contract negotiations. In any other job, breaking the law
Continue readingcultural sn:afu: According to Walt Wawra the world is a place in need of infinitely more guns
If you were still wondering about the differences between Canada and the US, in terms of gun culture and other stuff, this might explain a few things… According to his letter to the Calgary Herald, Walt Wawra, a Michigan police … Continue reading →
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: "Been to the Stampede yet?"
I’m just glad they didn’t ask this visiting American gun enthusiast for a smoke. Recommend this Post
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Does Bizarre Bethune brouhaha signal ideological rift within Harper Conservatives?
Communist physician Norman Bethune, left, and a comrade from the Red Chinese Army speak with Canadian Treasury Board President Tony Clement, right, in a vignette as imagined by Sun News Network. Below: Dr. Bethune, looking weirdly contemporary with a fashionable goatee; far-right ideologue Rob Anders; the real Mr. Clement. Is
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Chuckwagon carnage: Three horses die and Calgary Stampede blames the lead horse!
A chuckwagon race at the Calgary Stampede in 1957. Canada’s greatest city? Below: One resident of Canada’s greatest city camps it up for the occasion. “Autopsy shows lead horse in chuckwagon accident died of ruptured aortic aneurysm,” shouts a headline in yesterday’s Calgary Herald. So… what? The Calgary Stampede’s going
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Is nothing sacred? Turbulent pastor jumps to the front of Calgary’s Stampede Parade!
Pastor Artur Pawlowski and members of his flock march at the head of the Calgary Stampede Parade on Friday. Below: Pastor Pawlowski with Alberta Solicitor-General Jonathan Denis. Below that: Pastor Pawlowski with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. All photos grabbed from Facebook pages belonging to Pastor Pawlowski or his Calgary Street
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Big money speaks quietly to the recalcitrant Calgary Stampede on its 100th anniversary
Cowboys in the aftermath of a bad chuckwagon spill at the 1937 Calgary Stampede. Below: Chuckwagon races as they’re supposed to appear; Stampede Programming VP Paul Rosenberg; Bell Canada logo of yore. Money talks, and what money is saying now, the day before the 100th opening of the Calgary Stampede,
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