Where are Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and his United Conservative Party now that evidence is accumulating the disruptive and threatening “Freedom Convoy” occupation of Ottawa is being funded and supported by far-right activists in the United States? Mr. Kenney and his crowd, after all, were the guys who demanded a
Continue readingTag: Canadian Politics
Alberta Politics: $9.8M lawsuit targets Ottawa occupation leaders; GoFundMe cuts off $10M fund; Tamara Lich quits Maverick Party board
Ottawa lawyer Paul Champ filed a statement of claim in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice yesterday seeking $4.8 million damages for “private nuisance” and $5 million in punitive damages for the beleaguered residents of the national capital’s downtown core from the outlaw truckers occupying the city. The $9.8-million class
Continue readingScripturient: Conservatives Eat Their Own
So the alt-right segment of the Conservative Party dumped Erin O’Toole, its latest leader, for being too moderate. Too much like a human, methinks, and that made him vulnerable. The alt-right members are dragging the party into the Repugnican side of politics: an authoritarian, pseudo-Christian, racist, and separatist/libertarian ideology. The
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Why the left shouldn’t underestimate Pierre Poilievre
Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre comments on the finance committee’s WE Charity affair study, November 16, 2020. Still image courtesy CPAC/YouTube. Erin O’Toole is out as Conservative leader. After a disappointing 2021 election result in which the Conservatives failed to pick up any new seats, and a muddled response to the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Emboldened by Erin O’Toole’s fate in Ottawa, UCP anti-vaxx faction eyes Jason Kenney
Emboldened by the success of the social conservative coup plotters who overthrew Conservative Party of Canada leader Erin O’Toole in Ottawa Wednesday, the same anti-vaccine faction of Alberta’s United Conservative Party is now eyeing Premier Jason Kenney. Not that Mr. Kenney is a moderate. Far from it. United Conservative Party
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Five environmental groups file statement of claim in defamation suit against Jason Kenney
After giving Jason Kenney more than two months to apologize for or retract his claims they spread false information about Alberta’s fossil fuel industry, five environmental groups followed through yesterday on their threat to sue Alberta’s premier and the provincial government for defamation. In a statement of claim filed with
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Occupation of Canada’s national capital by a lawless mob must end forthwith
Am I the only Canadian outside Ottawa who thinks this bullshit in our national capital has gone on long enough? Am I the only Canadian who recognizes that the mob now occupying the area around Parliament Hill does not have the interests of Canadians or Canadian democracy at heart? “Just
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Convoys, COVID and Conservative discord dominate Jason Kenney’s return from Washington governors’ clambake
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, back from an ill-timed and seemingly mostly fruitless trip to Washington D.C., pleaded for federal Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole’s political life yesterday at a typical Alberta Government news conference about nothing in particular. “I would just say this to my friends in the federal Conservative
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A not-so-bold prediction: that $9.5-million GoFundMe pot will be a tempting target for Ottawa civil lawyers
The mysteriously sourced “Freedom Convoy 2022” account on the GoFundMe crowd-funding site sat at more than $9.5 million yesterday. Its fund-raising goal, which has been repeatedly ratcheted up over the past two weeks, is now $10-million. Meanwhile, as the occupation of their city by far-right “freedom convoy” anti-vaccine-mandate protesters continues
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Did Jason Kenney’s support for Ottawa anti-vaxx-mandate convoy protest encourage copycat Coutts blockade he now condemns?
It would be ironic if Premier Jason Kenney’s baseless claim a week ago that Ottawa’s vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers had led to empty shelves in Alberta grocery stores ended up causing real shortages. Mr. Kenney’s tweets of photos of empty grocery shelves and his tendentious assertions that “with a
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: We need to talk about the Conservatives
Conservatism has been shut out of government amid a hard rightward shift, political infighting and the pursuit of socially and culturally divisive wedge issues, writes Eric Strikwerda. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. Shortly following the federal Conservatives’ defeat in the 2021 election, party leader Erin O’Toole tasked former Edmonton Centre MP
Continue readingAlberta Politics: We are judged by the company we keep: a harsh lesson Michael Cooper and many other Conservative MPs are about to learn
ST. ALBERT, Alberta – Michael Cooper, Member of Parliament for this small suburban city and a part of Edmonton next door, is going to wake up to a big problem this morning that’s unlikely to go away any time soon. Mr. Cooper’s problem is a microcosm of the troubles now
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Very fine people on both sides? Jason Kenney defends convoy participants; says NDP welcomes ‘eco-terrorists’ to protests
Yesterday, the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Commons warned Members of Parliament that individuals associated with the anti-vaccine-mandate truck convoy nearing the nation’s capital have been trying to suss out the location of their Ottawa residences. House of Commons Sergeant-at-Arms Patrick McDonell (Photo: Creator not identified). Also yesterday, Jason Kenney
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Maverick Party obviously has no problem with its party secretary’s role in anti-vaccine-mandate truck convoy protest
The Medicine Hat woman who is the public face of the GoFundMe campaign that has now theoretically raised more than $5 million to support the “Freedom Convoy 2022” motorcade protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates remains a senior officer of the separatist-leaning Maverick Party. The Maverick Party website identifies Tamara Lich
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Is the UCP suggesting it’s time to show Russia a thing or two by halting the TMX pipeline expansion?
Will members of all Canadian political parties soon demand that we halt the TMX pipeline expansion project? I ask because, with the current great power tension in Ukraine likely to reach some kind of a climax soon, we are already hearing fierce calls in Canada for severe and even warlike
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: National Post Letter
The old poli sci major in me could not allow John Ivison’s column to stand. Please see the letters section in today’s National Post for my response to the argument that it is somehow “illiberal” for governments to impel individuals to get vaccinated. Re: Trudeau shows liberal principles have left
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: National Post Letter
The old poli sci major in me could not allow John Ivison’s column to stand. Please see the letters section in today’s National Post for my response to the argument that it is somehow “illiberal” for governments to impel individuals to get vaccinated. Re: Trudeau shows liberal principles have left
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Not much edification in yesterday’s COVID-19 newser as Premier Kenney and officials ‘filibuster’ the hard questions
There was little informative or edifying about the mostly successful effort by Premier Jason Kenney and three of his senior health care enablers to run out the clock on reporters’ questions at yesterday’s COVID-19 news conference. Facing not only the potential for difficult questions about the chaos in Alberta’s schools
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Research paper argues Canadian Taxpayers Federation pushed ‘anti-Indigenous political rhetoric and policy’ over 21 years
Locating the Canadian Taxpayers Federation clearly in the ecosystem of neoliberal advocacy, a recent paper in the Canadian Review of Sociology analyzes more than 400 documents published by the CTF over 21 years to argue the organization has pushed “anti-Indigenous political rhetoric and policy.” Lead author Kyle Willmott, a professor
Continue readingScripturient: Should Candidates and Officials Disclose Criminal Records?
Some questions about openness and truth to consider as we start a year in which we have both a provincial and municipal election coming… Should a candidate for office disclose their criminal records when they campaign? Should they disclose it only if they were convicted of an offence or should
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