Having promised back in January that an interim report of the COVID-19 review panel for which former Reform Party Leader Preston Manning was to be paid $235,000 would be handed over to the Alberta government by the end of June, the UCP government had to say something. Alberta Premier Danielle
Continue readingTag: Canadian Politics
Alberta Politics: News coverage of B.C. port strike unfolds according to the usual predictable, misleading formula
The strike by 7,400 longshore workers in Vancouver, Prince Rupert, Nanaimo and Port Alberni is no exception to the rule that news reporting of labour disputes impacting West Coast ports tends to unfold according to a predictable, misleading formula. An ILWU member mans a mobile picket Sunday in Vancouver Harbour
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘National Citizen’s Inquiry’ into COVID-19 objects to TikTok ban; meanwhile, Alberta’s official version of the same thing is doing something
The so-called “National Citizens Inquiry” established last fall by Preston Manning complained on Easter Sunday that TikTok has joined YouTube in suspending its account, presumably for spreading misinformation about COVID-19. Mr. Manning in Ottawa in 2013 when he was still talking about the need “Green Conservatism” and warning his fellow
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Alberta’s dangerous lurch to the far-right
The following is an excerpt from the forthcoming book, Anger and Angst: Jason Kenney’s Legacy and Alberta’s Right, edited by Trevor Harrison and Ricardo Acuña. At this book’s heart lies an account of how the United Conservative Party has governed; and the ideas, personalities, and social forces that have driven
Continue readingAlberta Politics: China’s spending money to undermine Canadian democracy? If they’ll just leave us alone, we’ll take care of it ourselves!
If the People’s Republic of China is trying as hard as the Conservative Party of Canada insists it is to undermine Canadian democracy, it’s hard to understand why they’re bothering. Retired Canadian national security advisor Wesley Wark (Photo: Centre for International Governance Innovation). After all, if they’ll just leave us
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Federal environment minister spoke softly about that unreported toxic sludge leak, but Ottawa carries a big stick
Ottawa can afford to speak softly on constitutional matters because it carries a big stick. One of Imperial Oil Resources Ltd.’s drainage ponds at its Kearl site north of Fort McMurray (Photo: Nicholas Vardy). Readers following the federal reaction to the constitutional nonsense, starting with the Smith Government’s so-called Sovereignty
Continue readingAlberta Politics: National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommends spring COVID boosters for groups at risk of severe illness
A new guidance on COVID-19 boosters issued yesterday by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommends that an additional booster dose be offered to people at increased risk of severe illness from the disease six months from their last vaccine dose or infection. Dr. Theresa Tam, Chief Public Health Officer
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Ron Liepert, colourful former Alberta cabinet minister who unseated ‘Canada’s Worst MP,’ is set to retire
When Calgary Signal Hill Conservative MP Ron Liepert announced on social media on Feb. 17 that he is about to retire, no one seems to have thought to thank the man for his greatest service to Canada. Rob Anders when he was “Canada’s Worst MP,” in a typical pose (Photo:
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The unsettling truth at the heart of the Elghawaby controversy
Amira Elghawaby is Canada’s first Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia. Photo courtesy Reuters. I recently experienced an ethical dilemma. A letter was circulated by people I admire and respect and with whom I share many political positions concerning the attack on Amira Elghawaby. Elghawaby was appointed in January as the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Genuflecting At The Altar Of Corporate Giants
For the longest time, I have been pondering the timidity of successive governments to be on anything but the good side of the corporate titans who walk among us. Certainly, we sometimes hear brave words that are scripted from the world of political theatre, but when the metal hits the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Ottawa’s Conservatives: always disdainful of separatists, except when they aren’t
Who can forget that time in December 2008 when Conservatives in the House of Commons recoiled in horror at the thought of a Liberal-NDP coalition government surviving thanks to a written pledge of support from the Bloc Québécois? Former federal Liberal leader Stephane Dion (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). With a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The curious case of Canada’s ‘tax watchdog,’ which hasn’t barked at the scandalous RStar program
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is missing in action! Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, a former registered lobbyist for the controversial RStar scheme, now in the process of implementing it (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). The CTF calls itself a “citizen’s group dedicated to lower taxes, less waste and accountable government.” Yet with potentially
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Health care funding: Trudeau looks serene, even mischievous; premiers look like they’re just going to have to take it
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looked like the smooth old political pro he has become yesterday as he laid out his health care deal for Canada’s perpetually dissatisfied and mostly Conservative premiers. Former Alberta premier Rachel Notley looks askance of Mr. Trudeau’s proffered hand (Photo: Canadian Press). Try as they might
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Health care is inefficient, but not because of public spending
Doug Ford’s strategy is clear: defund health care, generate public resentment over its inefficiency, and then privatize. While unfavourably comparing Canada’s health care system to those in Cuba and North Korea, Ford announced plans to further privatize Ontario’s health sector, regurgitating well-worn conservative rhetoric that public spending, which is apparently
Continue reading52 Ideas: The 2024 Hybrid Corvette: A sign of the coming change
So anyone who knows me knows that I am not a car guy. However, one would have to be an ostrich to not see that there is a big change on the Energy Horizon. The introduction of the 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray by GM is just another example, another sign
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: What happened to Canada’s foreign policy?
United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti. UN photo by Logan Abassi/Flickr. Before coming to live in Canada after being offered a job at the University of Calgary in 2004 I didn’t have all that many ideas about what it means to be Canadian. Although it was a struggle to tell the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: There’s a sedition super-highway – Canada needs to take the off-ramp
In Ian Fleming’s 1958 novel Goldfinger, James Bond’s boss M warns: “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.” Protesters in Washington D.C. storm the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons). With the Bolsonaristas storming Brazil’s capitol buildings last week, we have moved past
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Impasse: Ottawa unlikely to fork over billions to make health care better if Conservative premiers insist on using the cash to make it worse
What did Alberta Premier Danielle Smith mean Tuesday in Calgary when she said of her plans for health care that “we’re just going to keep on making … incremental changes; I can’t stop doing reform because the federal government doesn’t want to partner with us”? Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Think tanks to Canadians: Do what we say or be prepared to freeze in the dark!
Without decisive changes in public and government attitudes, “Canada faces a decline in living standards and a crippling dependence on foreign fuels within the next 10 years.” That Trudeau guy (Photo: Library and Archives Canada). Yup, according to an independent study group set up by the Calgary-based Canada West Foundation,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: From the folks who brought you sovereignty within a united Canada, ‘just transition’ is a divisive, polarizing term!
Sonya Savage is an intelligent woman with an impressive resume in government, the legal profession, and the energy industry. Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson (Photo: JonathanWilkinson.ca). So presumably Alberta’s environment minister understands just how bonkers it makes her sound to be heard saying publicly that “just transition” is a
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