conservative party of canada ← Progressive Bloggers // Blogues progressistes

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 ...

Alberta Politics: Green Party of Alberta chooses Coral Bliss Taylor, former Calgary council candidate, as interim leader

Apr

20

2018

The Green Party of Alberta has chosen Coral Bliss Taylor, not so long ago a candidate for city council in Calgary civic election, to serve as its interim leader while it figures out what to do after the sudden resignation of its last permanent leader in March. Ms. Bliss Taylor, an engineer and urban planner, ...

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. ...

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: 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 ...

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 ...

Alberta Politics: Rachel Notley and Jason Kenney find common ground, sort of … on dubious pipeline posturing

Mar

12

2018

PHOTOS: Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Trans Mountain Pipeline. (Photo: Handout from Kinder Morgan Canada.) Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Alberta Opposition Leader Jason Kenney, U of A economist Andrew Leach, and British Columbia Premier John Horgan. I guess we can understand why Jason Kenney acts like Alberta has all the powers of a sovereign nation. After all, ...

Alberta Politics: Unity at all costs? Ontario PC choice of Doug Ford as leader shows need for principled conservative division

Mar

11

2018

PHOTOS: Doug Ford in 2014 (Photo: Bruce Reeve, Creative Commons). Below: Toronto’s calamitous mayor Rob Ford, who died in 2016; second-place Ontario PC candidate Christine Elliott, who has not yet conceded the victory to Doug Ford; Alberta Opposition Leader Jason Kenney; and U.S. President Donald Trump. (Photos: All from the Wikimedia Commons but for the ...

Alberta Politics: UCP leader says he’s opposed to more safe-drug-consumption clinics – but what does he favour to address opioid crisis?

Mar

4

2018

PHOTOS: United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney in a typical pose. He said in Lethbridge last week he’s opposed to harm-reduction efforts like supervised injection sites to deal with the opioid crisis. But what does he support? Below: Mr. Kenney’s brother David Kenney (Photo: Once posted on LinkedIn); NDP Banff-Cochrane MLA Cameron Westhead; and former ...

Alberta Politics: Stephen Mandel to lead Alberta Party; probably won’t take Tory insider’s advice to go ‘ultra-left’

Feb

28

2018

PHOTOS: Stephen Mandel, always a natty dresser, was chosen as the leader of the Alberta Party last night. He was dressed more conservatively than in this old picture, though, which has the advantage of having been taken by your blogger back when Mr. Mandel was Jim Prentice’s unelected health minister. Below: Former Harper Government insider ...

Alberta Politics: Trudeau in India, Part II: Canadian governments, and not just Liberals, have a history of playing footsie with bad actors

Feb

26

2018

PHOTOS: A screenshot of what looks like a video of the controversial snapshot of Jaspal Atwal and Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, grabbed from Twitter. The ownership of the photo is attributed variously, usually to the last place someone saw it. What does seem clear is that Mr. Atwal was almost as assiduous about having his photo ...

Alberta Politics: Trudeau in India, Part I: PM’s family goes full Bollywood; Conservatives freak out; some alterations suggested

Feb

25

2018

PHOTOS: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau and their children visit the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, India, during Mr. Trudeau’s official visit to that country. Below: Mr. Trudeau, resplendent in gold and making it work. Below him, his late father, prime minister Pierre Trudeau, doing his famous pirouette, although not the one ...

Alberta Politics: OK, maybe B.C. has a case against Alberta’s wine embargo … but so what?

Feb

21

2018

PHOTOS: Well! Now we’re trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored! (Photo: Asociación De Vecinos “virgen Coronada,” Creative Commons.) Below: Alberta Trade Minister Deron Bilous and his British Columbia counterpart, Bruce Ralston. It certainly seems like British Columbia has a strong case against Alberta’s wine embargo before a Canada Free Trade ...

Susan on the Soapbox: Something is Seriously Wrong

Dec

31

2017

How fitting. The UCP will close 2017 with yet another bozo eruption. Bozo eruptions were mildly entertaining in the past, but they’re occurring with increasing regularity and have taken on a distinctly anti-democratic tone. Here are two recent examples. NDP shills! Last week the UCP attacked two well respected Alberta economists for daring to correct ...

Alberta Politics: There was a whole lotta scrambling going on, 24/7 … can the 2015 PMO security breach whodunit be solved?

Dec

28

2017

PHOTOS: Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, at right, somewhere in Iraq in 2015 (Photo: Screenshot of Global News video). Below: The very model of a modern major general, although not necessarily a Canadian one (Photo: Wikimedia Commons), and the Canadian defence minister of the day with some ghostly military personnel passing behind him (Photo: ...

Alberta Politics: Annus Horribilis 2017: Derek Fildebrandt ends his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year with a bang … literally!

Dec

14

2017

PHOTOS: United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney with Derek Fildebrandt in happier times. At the moment, Mr. Fildebrandt may be the bane of Mr. Kenney’s existence. One of them, anyway. Below: Elmer Fudd … the comparison to Mr. Fildebrandt is irresistible. And Mr. Kenney with Jason Nixon, the UCP’s House Leader and posterboy for how ...

Alberta Politics: It was wall-to-wall Brad Wall as premier exits, stage right, before wheels fall off Saskatchewan Party bus

Dec

8

2017

PHOTOS: Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, smiling like old times, says farewell in this video screenshot to an adoring media on his last day in the provincial Legislature in Regina yesterday. Below: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and Alberta Trade Minister Deron Bilous. Political coverage was wall-to-wall Brad Wall yesterday as mainstream media said farewell to their ...

Alberta Politics: The Great Alberto-Saskatchewanian Licence Plate War of 2017: Everything you need to know …

Dec

7

2017

PHOTOS: Tough talk from Alberta Economic Development and Trade Minister Deron Bilous, above, was directed at Saskatchewan’s cranky government. Below: Saskatchewan’s lame duck premier, Brad Wall (Photo: Jake Wright, Wikimedia Commons); Alberta United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney, who calls Mr. Wall “the real leader of Western Canada”; Saskatchewan Highways Minister David Marit; and former ...

Alberta Politics: Bill 24 passes, making it hard for Alberta schools to obstruct gay-straight alliances and illegal to out members to their parents

Nov

16

2017

PHOTOS: Alberta Education Minister David Eggen, whose Bill 24, An Act to Support Gay-Straight Alliances, was passed by the Alberta Legislature yesterday. Below: UCP Leader Jason Kenney, former Alberta Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman, and social conservative activist John Carpay. Bill 24, An Act to Support Gay-Straight Alliances, passed third and final reading by 42 votes ...

Alberta Politics: Too much overtime owed may have saved former PC staffers’ jobs as UCP purged their Wildrose counterparts

Nov

3

2017

PHOTOS: Nick Koolsbergen, new chief of staff to United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney. (Photo: Lorian Belanger/Radio-Canada.) Below: UCP Deputy Chief of Staff Matt Wolf (Photo: Linkedin), UCP communications staffer Blaise Boehmer (Photo: Twitter), and Jamie Mozeson, former candidate to succeed Rona Ambrose as MP for Sturgeon River-Parkland (Photo: Jamie Mozeson Campaign). United Conservative Party ...

Alberta Politics: Calgary MLA Dave Rodney to make way for new Conservative Leader; ex New Democrat Karen McPherson to join Alberta Party

Oct

30

2017

PHOTOS: Calgary-Lougheed MLA Dave Rodney, centre right, gets close to the new Conservative leader … in 2011. Below: Newly elected United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney; another look at Mr. Rodney, the renowned Everest summiteer; and Alberta Party recruit Karen McPherson (Photo: Connor Mah, Wikipedia Commons). Members of the Alberta Legislative Assembly resume their efforts ...

Alberta Politics: Trailing UCP candidates knuckle under after brief rebellion over evasion of voting limits on home computers

Oct

28

2017

PHOTOS: Shhhh! UCP voting in progress! (Photo: Wikimedia Commons.) Below: UCP leadership frontrunner Jason Kenney, and, like deer caught in the headlights, challengers Doug Schweitzer and Brian Jean. Former Wildrose leader Brian Jean must rue the day he ever agreed to take part in a leadership “contest” with Jason Kenney, late of both Conservative prime ...

Alberta Politics: Desperation anyone? The clock runs out on Brian Jean’s campaign to lead the UCP

Oct

25

2017

PHOTOS: UCP leadership candidate Brian Jean, with loyal MLAs Leela Aheer, Glenn van Dijken and Todd Loewen, in front of Premier Rachel Notley’s constituency office yesterday. (Screenshot of Jean Campaign video.) The wind was blowing. Below: Former Calgary MP Jason Kenney, whose coronation as leader of the UCP is expected on Saturday. Tick tock. The ...

Alberta Politics: Western Canada’s artificial alienation: Catalonia here we come! Then again, maybe not …

Oct

22

2017

Right on schedule, us Western Canadians are feeling alienated. Really! Don’t just take my word for it! The digital editions of the gutter press are full of the complaints nowadays of such alienated Albertans as United Conservative Party leadership contenders Brian Jean and Jason Kenney. Likewise, we’re hearing lots of Western alienation talk from Brad ...