Calgary Stampede ← Progressive Bloggers // Blogues progressistes

daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Another Season of Stampede Politicking in Calgary

Jul

15

2017

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, wrangler-style shirts and cowboy hats ...

daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Two weeks until decision day for Conservatives in Alberta

Jul

7

2017

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. One year later, Kenney is ...

Susan on the Soapbox: Stampede!

Jul

17

2016

“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 enjoying the rain, thunder, lightning, more thunder and rain. Ms Soapbox and Roz risked a ...

Alberta Politics: The Calgary Stampede’s vital cultural and political role explained, sort of …

Jul

12

2016

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 Calgary Stampede, according to our national broadcaster, is “a key cultural and political event in Alberta.” ...

Alberta Politics: Annual message to Calgary Stampede: real men don’t hurt animals for entertainment

Jul

13

2015

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 be no meaningful review of ...

daveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Calgary Stampede an important marker of political change in Alberta

Jul

7

2015

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 →

Montreal Simon: Stephen Harper’s Most Sad and Pathetic Calgary Stampede

Jul

4

2015

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 teeth.But it couldn't have been ...

Bill Longstaff: Vancouver Humane Society gives CBC Stampede coverage a thumbs down

Jun

7

2015

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 days of fun and frolic. ...

Alberta Politics: ‘Parson’ Manning, in the pulpit, preaches a formula of failure to Alberta’s New Democrats

May

15

2015

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, Preston “Parson” Manning delivered a ...

Montreal Simon: Stephen Harper and the Ill wind from Alberta

Jul

7

2014

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 fetid, whistling out of Stephen ...

daveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Johnson, Anglin, Nenshi and Butler. Who said Alberta politics is dull in the summer?

Jul

6

2014

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 would likely be cause for ...

cultural sn:afu: According to Walt Wawra the world is a place in need of infinitely more guns

Aug

10

2012

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 →

Politics and its Discontents: "Been to the Stampede yet?"

Aug

9

2012

I’m just glad they didn’t ask this visiting American gun enthusiast for a smoke. Recommend this Post

Alberta Diary: Does Bizarre Bethune brouhaha signal ideological rift within Harper Conservatives?

Jul

16

2012

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 the bizarre brouhaha over who ...

Alberta Diary: Chuckwagon carnage: Three horses die and Calgary Stampede blames the lead horse!

Jul

14

2012

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 to blame the chuckwagon crash ...

Alberta Diary: Is nothing sacred? Turbulent pastor jumps to the front of Calgary’s Stampede Parade!

Jul

8

2012

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 Ministries. Artur Pawlowski, Calgary’s most ...

Alberta Diary: Big money speaks quietly to the recalcitrant Calgary Stampede on its 100th anniversary

Jul

5

2012

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, is that Canadians are turning ...

David Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: The 100th Calgary Stampede: real men don’t kill horses for fun

May

25

2012

A chuckwagon race in 1924 – then and now, unquestionably exiting and unquestionably cruel. Time for it to stop. Below: Alberta Premier Alison Redford and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, both looking fashionably butch in their cowboy duds. There’s no doubt about it: chuckwagon races are as exciting as hell. There’s also no getting around the ...

CalgaryGrit: Sixth Annual Politicians in Cowboy Hats

Jul

15

2011

For a brief history of Stampede fashion, you can read the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 round-ups. Although Rick Hansen served as Stampede Parade Grand Marshal, all eyes were on Will and Kate this year. I do find it somewhat perplexing how many of the same people who lambasted Ignatieff for his time outside ...

RedBedHead: Proof That Cowboys Are Kind of Morons

Jul

14

2011

Apparently riding bulls whose nuts have been twisted to drive them into a frenzy of pain and rage is a stupid, fucking thing to do. According to a recent study, rodeo contestants are 20 times more likely to suffer a “catastrophic injury” than is a football player. I’d humbly like to suggest that there is ...

CalgaryLiberal: Lessons in Organization in the Calgary Region: Three Things We’re Doing Right

Jul

11

2011

As per rule #9 of my 10 Rules for Liberal Debate, I’m going to spend this post complimenting and bragging about what Calgary is doing on the federal Liberal scene. Here are just three of the many things that the Liberal Party of Canada is doing right in Calgary: (1) Regional events. I firmly believe ...

David Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Horse dies in Stampede chuckwagon race – no one does anything about it

Jul

9

2011

A chuckwagon race at the Calgary Stampede sometime in the murky past. Cruel to horses then. Cruel to horses now. It was opening night yesterday at the Calgary Stampede: another horse died in a chuckwagon race. So what else is new? Last year six horses died at “the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth.” This year, ...

Red Tory v.3.0.3: Royal Robots?

Jul

8

2011

Following the opening of the Calgary Stampede and yet another tedious photo-op – this time at the local zoo of all places, apparently to educate the Royal couple about how carbon deposits from the Cretaceous era are ingeniously turned into our leading export commodity – today mercifully ends the nine-day cross-Canada tour by Prince William ...

CalgaryLiberal: Alberta Liberal Leadership Race: An Open Game

Jun

22

2011

As I took a step back at the convention in May for the Alberta Liberals I recognized something key: it was an open field for anyone to enter and try to win support. The ‘inner party’ folks–the ones who organize, are in the know on things, and who are on a first name basis with ...