Canadian Politics ← Progressive Bloggers // Blogues progressistes

Alberta Politics: Alberta is not Texas North, Canada is not Kazakhstan, and Kinder Morgan’s big brains in Houston must’ve known it

Apr

23

2018

There are a few Albertans who happily imagine this place is Texas North. Alas for those who do, and notwithstanding the media stereotypists who encourage this nonsense, we are as Canadian around here as folks in any other Western province. Maybe more so, since so many people from other parts of Canada keep moving here. ...

Alberta Politics: Tory canoe and Trudeau too* – Liberals take advantage of Jason Kenney’s “Canada is broken” Tweet

Apr

22

2018

Alberta Opposition Leader Jason Kennedy’s now famous “Canada is broken” Tweet a week ago may turn out to have been the symbolic starting point of the 2019 federal election campaign. Canada is broken. https://t.co/7tVwbAKPmc — Jason Kenney (@jkenney) April 15, 2018 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his federal Liberals were quick to jump on the ...

Song of the Watermelon: National Post Letter

Apr

19

2018

In today’s National Post, I’ve got another letter to the editor on everyone’s favourite topic: the Trans Mountain pipeline. (I’ll stop repeating myself once people start listening!) My letter appears only in the print edition, so I cannot provide a link. Accordingly, here is the full text: The pipeline crisis Re: PM takes right tack ...

Alberta Politics: New Kinder Morgan exit strategy hint emerges as tangled Trans Mountain tale twists the national knickers

Apr

19

2018

Jason Kenney, leader of Alberta’s Conservative Opposition party, must’ve struggled yesterday to keep a smirk off his face as he bloviated piously about Kinder Morgan Inc. President Steven Kean’s rumination the time may be nigh to pull the plug on the controversial Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project that has the national knickers in a twist. ...

Scott's DiaTribes: Q&A with Christina Monroe – running for LPC Party Secretary

Apr

17

2018

The Liberal Party National Convention is being held in Halifax starting this Thursday. It will pass policy resolutions and hold elections for positions within the Liberal Party Board of Directors. One of these is Liberal Party National Secretary. This position (and many others on the BOD) are open due to the incumbents being “termed out”. ...

Alberta Politics: A Bill to Squeeze British Columbia Till Its Pips Squeak introduced in Alberta Legislature – but can it pass constitutional muster?

Apr

17

2018

Is it just me, or is almost everyone from Alberta quoted in the media sounding a little overwrought these days? Yesterday, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Energy Minister Margaret McQuaig-Boyd rolled out Bill 12, rather tendentiously dubbed the Preserving Canada’s Economic Prosperity Act, the sole purpose of which seems to be to squeeze residents of ...

Alberta Politics: All’s fair in politics and the oil business, but the claim Canada’s facing a constitutional crisis is just politics

Apr

16

2018

The fact the federal and Alberta governments were unable yesterday to reach an agreement with British Columbia on proceeding with the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project does not mean Canada is facing a constitutional crisis. However, it doesn’t preclude one happening eventually. Nevertheless, it’s important to state this clearly because in the next few hours ...

Alberta Politics: Mission accomplished in Syria? Don’t bet more than you can afford to lose on that claim!

Apr

15

2018

Mission Accomplished? Donald Trump’s crowing Tweets prove the wisdom of Karl Marx’s dictum: History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. This fact is a significant blessing, nonetheless, at least insofar as Friday night’s tactically and legally dubious missile raid by U.S. military forces on Syria is concerned. How many Iraqis were slaughtered after ...

Alberta Politics: Despite NDP stamp of approval, pipeline rally looked and sounded like UCP event

Apr

14

2018

The situation may have felt normal to the cadre of Opposition United Conservative Party MLAs there, but I imagine some of the NDP backbenchers huddled on the steps of the Legislature in Edmonton yesterday afternoon felt pretty uncomfortable. If not, they darn well should’ve. I’m not talking about the effects of the icy wind that ...

Alberta Politics: Despite NDP stamp of approval, pipeline rally on Legislature’s steps looked and sounded like a UCP event

Apr

13

2018

PHOTOS: Part of the pro-pipeline crowd in front of the Alberta Legislature Thursday afternoon, with a couple of brave Indigenous counter-protesters visible in the foreground. Below: Federal Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi endured jeers, and Alberta Trade Minister Deron Bilous tried to fire up the crowd. The situation may have felt normal to the cadre of ...

Alberta Politics: The Kinder Morgan pipeline brouhaha shows why it’s time for Canada to pull the plug on NAFTA

Apr

12

2018

PHOTOS: Kinder Morgan Inc. headquarters in Houston Tex. (Photo: H-town-visually.blogspot.ca). Below: Author and journalist Andrew Nikoforuk, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, and lighter-than-air Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. We’ve got the chance, thanks be unto Donald J. Trump. Obviously, it’s time to get the heck out of NAFTA! Why would I say such a crazy thing? Well, ...

Alberta Politics: Why demanding Ottawa intervene to bend B.C. to Alberta’s will is probably a terrible idea … from Alberta’s point of view

Apr

10

2018

PHOTOS: Perfidious Pierre, villain of the National Energy Program, as the late prime minister is understood by all good Albertans to have been (Photo: Wikimedia Commons). Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Alberta Opposition Leader Jason Kenney, and British Columbia Premier John Horgan (Photo: B.C. NDP). All Albertans are fed scary ...

Alberta Politics: Kinder Morgan threatens to pull plug on Trans Mountain Pipeline; Alberta goes wild

Apr

9

2018

PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley in an old file photo of the author’s. Below: Opposition leader Jason Kenney, B.C. Premier John Horgan, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and a famous flag of the Texas Revolution. Remember “peak oil”? Don’t worry about it. Nobody else does either. But last night on social media, Alberta appeared to be ...

Alberta Politics: Was the Russian Embassy’s press secretary expelled from Canada for telling the embarrassing truth? Sure sounds that way!

Apr

7

2018

PHOTOS: Kirill Kalinin, former First Secretary and Press Secretary of the Russian Embassy in Canada. Below: Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, and the Russian Embassy in Ottawa. Was Kirill Kalinin some kind of intelligence operative, as the Trudeau Government and the Globe and Mail now want us to think, or just an unusually talkative and ...

Alberta Politics: O Fildebrandt! No more taking orders from some Ottawa snowflake! A personal anthem for Derek

Apr

4

2018

PHOTO: Derek Fildebrandt, as he sees himself (Photo: Derek Fildebrandt Facebook page). Gone are the days when Derek Fildebrandt had a party whip to tell him not to say dumb things on social media. Nope, the former Wildrose and United Conservative Party MLA for Strathmore-Brooks nowadays sits in splendid isolation in the time-out corner of ...

Alberta Politics: Reflections on Easter Sunday, 2018: There really is a war against Christianity … it’s being waged by Christians

Apr

2

2018

PHOTOS: Easter Sunday shoppers at West Edmonton Mall. Is nothing sacred? Well, actually, something is: The Almighty Market, god of Canada’s state religion. Below: A brass idol to the Market God in New York City’s Wall Street district. Below that, two unchristian politicians beloved by North American Christian conservatives: Doug Ford Jr. and Donald J. ...

Alberta Politics: The two faces of Jason … how’s managing simultaneous provincial & federal political campaigns going for Janus Kenney?

Mar

30

2018

PHOTOS: Alberta Opposition leader Jason Kenney at a recent get-together with his former boss, Stephen Harper (Photo: Grabbed from Mr. Kenney’s Facebook page). And guess who Mr. Kenney was attacking on his Facebook page last night? See below. Also below: Sir Charles Tupper and Calgary NDP MLA Graham Sucha. Jason Kenney is a highly unusual ...

Alberta Politics: Message to Alberta’s chattering classes: Quit misinterpreting ‘the rule of law,’ already!

Mar

28

2018

PHOTOS: Protesters opposed to the Kinder Morgan Inc. Pipeline expansion megaproject in Burnaby, B.C., in May 2016 (Photo: Marlin Olynyk, Survival Media Agency, Creative Commons). They pose no threat to the rule of law. Below: Green Party of Canada Leader Elizabeth May, United Conservative Party Agriculture Critic Rick Strankman, environmentalist Mike Hudema, Alberta Premier Rachel ...

Canadian Dimension: Proposals to Reinvigorate the NDP Platform

Mar

27

2018

Photo by BC NDP During the Tommy Douglas era the CCF and NDP had platforms that caught the imagination of a wide range of people. The CCF and the NDP, in their early years, functioned as both a social movement and a political party. Policies and principles were of paramount importance; they were never sacrificed ...

Alberta Politics: A court has now ruled in favour of the Trans Mountain Pipeline, but the power of social license is yet to be tested

Mar

27

2018

PHOTOS: Federal Green Party Leader Elizabeth May under arrest Friday at the site of the Kinder Morgan pipeline terminal in Burnaby, B.C. (Photo: Rafferty Baker, CBC). Below: Burnaby South MP Kennedy Stewart before his arrest at the anti-pipeline protest (Photo: Kennedy Stewart Website), Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan and B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman (Photo: Wikipedia ...

wmtc: in ontario election, the choice is clear. put down the polls and pick up your vote.

Mar

26

2018

I am very frustrated by progressive reaction to the appointment of Doug Ford as leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. People are acting as if Ford has already won an election that is three months away. I understand there is great — and well deserved — anger against Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal party. But are ...

Alberta Politics: Conservative antics let PM Justin Trudeau off the hook for India debacle and show why Andrew Scheer is not fit to govern

Mar

26

2018

PHOTOS: What Canadians will soon see in their minds when they think of Conservative Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer (Photo: Andrew Scheer’s Flickr stream). Below: The actual grown up Mr. Scheer (Photo: Andre Forget, Andrew Scheer’s Flickr stream), Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper (Photo: Wikimedia Commons), and federal NDP Leader ...

Politics and its Discontents: A Broad Canvas

Mar

23

2018

If, like me, you are a retired senior to whom the fates have been reasonably kind, you have the luxury to contemplate the world around you at your leisure. If you are at all engaged in the larger world, however, that contemplation is rarely relaxing or enjoyable. You have seen too much in your lifetime. ...

Alberta Politics: Your Weekend BS: The straight poop on profanity in politics and the state of public discourse in Alberta

Mar

17

2018

PHOTOS: Alberta politicians Deron Bilous, Jason Kenney, Derek Fildebrandt and Thomas Lukaszuk, all from the author’s vast collection of snapshots. Trigger warning! This dispatch from the Annals of Political Discourse in Alberta contains words unsuitable for sensitive and young readers. For a more fulsome discussion of why they are included anyway, read this chapter from ...

Alberta Politics: Climate change, climate denial and climate ironies in the wake of Alberta Legislature’s pipeline demand vote

Mar

15

2018

PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley. Below: Soon-to-retire Alberta Liberal MLA and former party leader David Swann, Shannon Daub of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and United Conservative Party MLAs Grant Hunter, Drew Barnes and Rick Strankman. Happy Ides of March. On Tuesday, the Alberta Legislature passed a motion declaring the support of everyone there ...