What is the political contest about in this country. Conservatives vs. progressives? Conservatives vs. Liberals? Or men vs. women? A recent survey by the Angus Reid Institute suggests the latter has become increasingly important. While almost half of men of all ages support the Conservatives, women are much more supportive
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Views from the Beltline: How Alberta populists wrecked conservatism
Brian Mulroney recently said he no longer recognized himself in the Conservative Party. I’m no conservative, but I sympathize with him. The current Conservative Party just isn’t the conservative party we knew for most of our history. It seems to be focussed on the economy at the expense of everything
Continue reading52 Ideas: Conservatives should search for a better analytical lens
As an Ideology, Conservatism tends to use already developed ideas. Conservatives tend to go back into the past and look for the best ideas to lead us in this time. These might be ideas that have been forgotten, ideas which didn’t work in an earlier time or ideas that were
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Protecting free speech on campus? Forget about it, Pierre Poilievre is just dog-whistling
Federal Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre seems to have generated a lot of publicity for himself lately with a much re-tweeted pledge to force Canadian universities to “protect free speech” by withholding federal research grants and other funds from post-secondary institutions that won’t knuckle under to his demands. Former U.S.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Kenney Government’s persistent habit of advocating U.S.-style gun laws bears repeating, and remembering
On May 17, just three days after the racial-hate-motivated massacre at Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, N.Y., the Kenney Government was publicly complaining about new federal regulations intended to ensure that the increasingly frequent mass shootings in the United States stay south of the world’s longest undefended border. Alberta Premier
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: How low will these Conservatives go?
A recent headline in the The New York Times read “Long After Blockade, Canada’s Truckers Have a Political Champion.” The champion it was referring to was the Conservative Party of Canada. The article went on to explain how “Many in the party are busy rewriting what happened on those chaotic
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: About That Conservative Leadership Campaign
It would seem that the leading contender for the helm of the federal Conservatives, Pierre Poilievre, brings neither credit nor credibility to his party. H/t de Adder Bruce Arthur writes about the divisive tactics of this strange man, tactics that seem in many ways reminiscent of the nonsense that goes
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Hysterical Conservatives outdo themselves with ‘coalition’ histrionics, but Parliament is operating exactly as it should
Let it be conceded that the Conservative histrionics over yesterday’s confidence and supply agreement between the Liberals and the New Democrats in Parliament has far outdone the “spectacular national Conservative tantrum” predicted in this space. Naturally one would have expected a right-wing Opposition party to argue that any deal between
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: 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: Alberta signs on to federal child care deal its premier once mocked as ‘9-to-5, urban, government and union-run institutional daycare’
Premier Jason Kenney didn’t look all that cheerful at yesterday’s announcement Alberta had finally signed on to participate in the Trudeau Government’s national $10-a-day-child-care program. While the premier fidgeted in the background, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the other federal Liberal politicians at the morning news conference in Edmonton seemed
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Are the new Conservatives the old Conservatives?
Erin O’Toole’s Conservatives showed a new face during the recent campaign. A surprisingly progressive one. The leader said the party has let Canadians down, citing climate policies and engaging with working Canadian and union leaders. Not only the electorate was surprised. Many Conservatives were as well. When did we start
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 readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 77: Back from the Best Summer Ever
We are back from the summer with the first episode of Season 4 of the Daveberta Podcast and we dive right into Alberta’s response to the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, speculation about how long Jason Kenney might last in the Premier’s Office, the federal election, municipal political parties
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s ‘Energy War Room’ appears to be operating in defiance of the Canada Elections Act
Alberta’s “Energy War Room” appears to be continuing to operate in defiance of Canada’s election laws, campaigning against positions clearly identified with a Canadian political party without registering as an election third party. Greenpeace Canada Senior Energy Strategist Keith Stewart argued recently in a tweet thread that the War Room,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Ne media welcome: Jason Kenney reappears, virtually, answering curated questions via Facebook Live
Having been spotted out for shawarma in Calgary Tuesday night, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney cautiously emerged back into the artificial light of political life yesterday. Rather than making an actual public appearance and risking having to answer rude questions by the province’s media, uncharacteristically uncooperative after Mr. Kenney’s two-week vacation
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Erin O’Toole’s promise he’d put workers on corporate boards is meaningless at best, harmful at worst, unlikely to be implemented
Federal Opposition Leader Erin O’Toole has launched a charm offensive to win over unionized workers normally treated as lepers or enemies by modern North American “conservative” parties. A key policy in the Conservative Party of Canada’s platform, Mr. O’Toole insisted yesterday, will be to require about 100 corporations under federal
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Pandemic election an outrage: Alberta Conservatives. Pandemic over, we’re open for good: Also Alberta Conservatives
It’s an outrage, practically a crime against humanity, for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call a federal election in the midst of a global pandemic, Alberta’s Conservatives say. The pandemic is over and thanks to the wise leadership of Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, we are open for good, enjoying the
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Canada’s progressive tilt—mitigating first-past-the-post
From 2006 to 2015 we endured a decade of Conservative rule even though the Conservatives never won the support of even 40 percent of Canadian voters. Such are the idiosyncrasies of the First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) electoral system. Since 2015 we have been governed by the Liberals, but not with much more
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu waves a red flag in front of her irascible Alberta counterpart, Tyler Shandro
Obviously, federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu didn’t expect to get a serious answer from Tyler Shandro, her Alberta counterpart, when she wrote the irascible minister to warn him the Kenney Government’s “unnecessary and risky gamble” to drop COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and mandatory isolation will put children at risk. In
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