Surely most Canadians rejoiced last night when they learned the Two Michaels were on their way home from their long imprisonment in China. It’s equally certain that some very well-placed officials in the Canadian government rejoiced to know Meng Wanzhou was gone from Canada, heading home to China almost the
Continue readingTag: Canadian Politics
Scripturient: Uppercase Imperialism?
Dr. Linda Manyguns has stylized herself as Dr. linda manyguns because she stopped using uppercase (capital) letters to protest the “symbols of hierarchy.” Manyguns is the associate vice-president of indigenization and decolonization at Mt. Royal University in Alberta. On her own office’s website, she wrote: we resist acknowledging the power
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The election everyone lost
In many ways, every single party—along with the Canadian electorate—lost this disappointing election, writes Canadian Dimension columnist Christo Aivalis. Photo from Twitter. The 2021 Canadian federal election is over, and it produced one of the most status quo results in Canadian history. While not all ridings have been called, the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta Health Minister shuffled to Labour; Labour Minister shuffled to Health … premier says he won’t quit
VICTORIA – Say what you will about Jason Kenney, he never fails to disappoint. When the buzz hit social media yesterday morning that Alberta’s premier would attempt to shore up his shaky perch atop Alberta’s government with a post-federal-election cabinet shuffle, the assumption was natural that he was about to
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: It’s déjà vu all over again
Justin Trudeau during an election campaign stop in Montréal, October 17, 2019. Photo from Twitter. Two years of minority parliament and several weeks of rather bland campaigning later the election seems to have taken the country right back to where it was in 2019 before the pandemic and all of
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Justin Trudeau’s status quo election
Justin Trudeau speaks during a Liberal Party election night event in Montréal, Québec, in the early hours of Tuesday, September 21, 2021. Still image from YouTube/Yahoo News. According to the latest election results, the Liberals and the Conservatives have won the bulk of seats in what will be Canada’s 44th
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: De-facto voter suppression came to Canada yesterday
Justin Trudeau visits his campaign office in Papineau, Montréal. Photo from Twitter. The story most are telling about Canada’s 44th federal election on September 20, 2021 is that it produced almost exactly the same result as the last one. We as a country spent more than $600 million to achieve
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It’s Election Day in Canada: If you work, even if you don’t have a union, you’re entitled to three consecutive paid hours to vote
The Canada Elections Act entitles all eligible voters to sufficient time to vote on Election Day. This applies to employees without a union as well as unionized workers. The sign of a polling place (Photo: Elections Canada). Now, presumably most readers of this blog already know this stuff, but I
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Election 2021’s most significant 11th hour story: Can the PPC hang onto its unexpectedly strong support today?
Today is election day in Canada, typically presenting members of the pundit class with a practical problem. This is the day on which interest in election news peaks. It’s also a day when nothing much usually happens through the day except citizens voting. A journo can only collect so much
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Preston Manning, godfather of the Canadian right, charts a plan for dealing with another Liberal government
Neoliberals, like rust, never sleep. So we shouldn’t be surprised Preston Manning already seems to be looking ahead to a post-election go at the new Liberal government, same as the old Liberal government. Of course, nobody knows for sure what’s going to happen on tomorrow. Maybe all those People’s Party
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: What I’ll be watching for Election night (PPC – Rural ON/AB) #Elxn44
We’ve had a month of campaigning in the Federal Election 2021. I don’t need to recap everything that’s gone on, except to say it APPEARS (with large emphasis on that word) that the Conservatives seem to have stalled momentum with 3 days to go, and that the Liberals appear to
Continue readingScott's Diatribes: What I’ll be watching for Election night (PPC – Rural ON/AB) #Elxn44
We’ve had a month of campaigning in the Federal Election 2021. I don’t need to recap everything that’s gone on, except to say it APPEARS (with large emphasis on that word) that the Conservatives seem to have stalled momentum with 3 days to go, and that the Liberals appear to
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: NDP platform the most progressive and fiscally responsible of top three parties
All three parties are promising similar deficits over the next five years, but only the NDP’s plan would reduce the amount of wealth controlled by the rich while adding $106 billion into the economy. Image by Canadian Dimension. The three major national parties—Liberals, Conservatives, and New Democrats—have released the projected
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney proves that Alberta provincial leaders can still influence federal election campaigns!
Who says Albertans don’t have influence in Confederation? Jason Kenney proved once again Wednesday that an Alberta political leader, just by calling a news conference and speaking a few words, can single-handedly influence the course of a federal election! Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Photo: Justin Trudeau/Flickr). One imagines, though, Alberta’s
Continue readingwmtc: another federal election, another opportunity squandered #elxn44 #ndp
I haven’t written anything about the upcoming Canadian federal election, because what is there to say? The results are depressingly predictable. We will either have a Liberal government or a Conservative government. Both will suck. One will suck worse, and one will appear to suck less. In a predictable bit
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Why Canada must confront the myths of its imperial past
The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition (1886-1889) emerging out of the dense forest onto the plains of Africa. Led in part by Canadian William Grant Stairs, the expedition helped Belgian King Leopold II conquer the resource-rich Katanga region of the Congo. Image from Wikimedia Commons. Throughout the 2021 federal election campaign,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Kenney, declaring public health emergency, to Alberta: ‘I apologize … I don’t apologize!’
The richest, most self-righteous province in Confederation has been forced to go cap in hand to other provinces to beg for beds in which to park our sick vaccine refuseniks and health care workers to travel here and help us keep our hospitals open. Thanks, Kenney! Alberta Health Minister Tyler
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Moving beyond the centrist consensus in Election 44
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole pose with TVA moderator Pierre Bruneau before the French language election debate at TVA studios in Montreal, September 2, 2021. Photo by Martin Chevalier/Le Journal de Montreal. Canada’s 44th general election
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney’s rotten record of COVID chaos has finally become an issue in the federal election
So it’s come to this: Jason Kenney has become an issue in the federal election. All that effort keeping his head down for all but a couple of days over the past five weeks while Alberta’s health care system appeared to fall apart, and here we are. Chief Medical Officer
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Talk of cabinet split over vaccine passports sparks buzz in Alberta government circles
Has the parlous state of Alberta’s health care system, said to be on the verge of collapse as the fourth wave of COVID-19 rampages through the province, opened a serious rift in the United Conservative Party cabinet? With Premier Jason Kenney missing in action for 33 of the past 35
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