It was a year ago Friday that the government of Canada declared Kirill Kalinin and three other Russian diplomats persona non grata and sent them packing for using, in the words of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, “their diplomatic status to undermine Canada’s security or interfere in our democracy.” Nobody bothered
Continue readingTag: chrystia freeland
Alberta Politics: Has anyone thought about the impact regime change in Venezuela will have on Alberta’s oilpatch? It won’t be pretty!
In the stampede by Canadian politicians of all ideological stripes to support Venezuela’s self-declared “interim president,” has anyone given even a nanosecond’s thought to the impact the handover of the troubled South American petrostate’s government to Juan Guaido would have on Alberta’s oilpatch? It won’t be pretty. The federal government’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: With friends like these … it’s sure depressing to compare Canada in 1979 to the U.S. in 2018
Canadians of a certain vintage will clearly remember “the Canadian Caper,” that dangerous moment in 1979 when our diplomats put their lives on the line to smuggle six of their American colleagues out of revolutionary Iran. Given the situation in Iran – revolutionaries storming the U.S. Embassy, diplomats held hostage,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Businessman, pundit, and religious activist’ Craig Chandler would be a perfect test for Jason Kenney’s database!
Craig Chandler would be the perfect test case for Opposition Leader Jason Kenney’s new database for identifying and rooting out would-be members, volunteers and candidates whose views are too extreme for the United Conservative Party. If Mr. Chandler doesn’t set all the alarm bells ringing, the database doesn’t work properly.
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Andrew Scheer’s Disgusting Return To Parliament
If the failing Andrew Scheer wasn't such a wonky nerd, he would have known that he should have taken a couple of days off to recover from his trip to India.Especially one that had so many people laughing at him.Instead he couldn't wait to rush back to Question Period to attack
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Colourful former Wildrose MLA Joe Anglin finds another windmill to tilt at, for Freedom Conservative Party
Last observed pursuing a claim against Alberta’s Chief Electoral Officer alleging abuse of process, colourful former MLA Joe Anglin has found a new way to tilt at Alberta’s perpetually swirling political windmill. Mr. Anglin, 63, who is both the former Wildrose Party MLA for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre and the former
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Conservatives would have fought harder to protect Canadian dairy farmers? Don’t believe it!
A lot of Canada’s Conservatives were wearing long faces yesterday about the impact of the freshly inked United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on this country’s dairy industry. As political sins go, this small hypocrisy is a minor one. Why not let the sitting government take the rap for a treaty with our
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Free Trade Victory and the Con Losers
For some reason I remember that cartoon well, even though it was published in January 2017, when Chrystia Freeland had just replaced Stephane Dion as Minister of Foreign Affairs.And Canadians wondered how she would do when pitted against the King Kong in the White House.And the answer came in yesterday.Read more
Continue readingAlberta Politics: As Edmonton and Ottawa awake to Jason Kenney’s (un)diplomatic funny business, stuff starts hitting the fan
Alberta Opposition Leader Jason Kenney and two of his MLAs are running around India again today acting as if they are representatives of the governments of both Canada and Alberta. Officials of the provincial government in Edmonton and the federal government in Ottawa appear to have been so nonplussed by
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Advice on dealing with the Trump Administration for Chrystia Freeland: don’t give away the store
WASHINGTON, D.C. – I see Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, is also in town tonight, so if I happen to see meet her strolling on the National Mall or enjoying a beer at Kramer’s Books, I’ll say hi for you-all. I’ll also have some advice for her, worth what
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What’s the appropriate response to Riyadh’s diplomatic hysterics? How about reopening our embassy in Tehran?
Is there an appropriate response by Canada to the bizarre events of the last few hours on the diplomatic circuit? It’s not just that Canada’s ambassador has been kicked out of Saudi Arabia for Tweets by Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and an official in her department that by
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Will Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic tantrum provoke a moment of cognitive dissonance for Canada’s ‘ethical oil’ crowd?
Saudi Arabia has given the Canadian ambassador 24 hours to pack his bags and go home because, the Saudi Foreign Ministry complains, Canada is meddling in the internal affairs of the oil-soaked feudal theocracy by expressing concern in Tweets about its arrests of human rights activists, clerics and journalists. Last
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The UCP brain trust can explain that MAGA cap: Devin Dreeshen’s here to help Canadians with Donald Trump!
If the events of the past few days in Europe make anything clear, it’s that sucking up to Donald Trump is not likely to get you very far, except possibly somewhere worse than you’d have been if you’d stood up to the man. But Jason Kenney, former Harper Government Cabinet
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Kinder Morgan pipeline brouhaha shows why it’s time for Canada to pull the plug on NAFTA
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
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Was the Russian Embassy’s press secretary expelled from Canada for telling the embarrassing truth? Sure sounds that way!
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
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Will This Saudi ‘Explanation’ Give Freeland And Trudeau The Cover They Desperately Seek?
As I recently wrote, I am very doubtful that the Trudeau government will rescind its $15 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, damning evidence of the Saudi deployment of the weaponry against their own people notwithstanding. It is my suspicion that both Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Timely Message
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland continues to treat the Canadian public as children, revealing nothing as to what our country’s goals are in the upcoming NAFTA renegotiations. The only peek behind the curtain she is allowing is that they are striving for provisions to strengthen protections for labour and the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Outrage Grows
I suspect that, if they had their druthers, both Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and her boss, Justin Trudeau, would much prefer that we trust their administration to always do the right thing and just go on enjoying the always-too short days of summer. But the electorate can be fickle,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: On Cheap Talk And Photo-Ops
In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible.-George Orwell Regarding the misuse by the Saudis of armoured vehicles Canada sold them, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says all the right words. She says … she’s “deeply concerned” about recent videos that appear to show
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Dennis Howlett comments on the distortions in Canada’s tax system which redistribute money upward to those who need it least: It’s time for Mr. Morneau to deliver a comprehensive and comprehensible tax strategy that will work in 2017 and beyond because, currently, tax
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