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
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Alberta Politics: Respected community advocate and educator Janis Irwin to seek NDP nomination in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood
Former high school teacher, vice-principal, university lecturer and education curriculum specialist Janis Irwin announced to a packed auditorium of supporters last night she will seek the NDP nomination in the Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood riding. Ms. Irwin will have to forgive me for introducing her this way. Her news release acknowledged her background
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Surely it’s time for us in the reality based community to act on our convictions as decisively as conservatives do
Surely it’s time for the reality based community – that’s us, my progressive friends – to start making some new democratic realities! In 2015, as you will recall, many of us overcame our reservations and voted for Justin Trudeau’s Liberals on the basis of his firm, clear, unequivocal promise to
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: When it comes to Sandra Jansen, it’s a grudge match for the UCP
It was supposed to be an event highlighting an effort to recruit more conservative women into politics in Alberta, but it was overshadowed by the news that former Prime Minister Stephen Harper plans to personally campaign against New Democratic Party MLA Sandra Jansen in the next provincial election. Laureen Harper
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Saskatchewan, Ontario have no constitutional case against Ottawa’s carbon tax, only a political strategy
By vowing to go to court to fight the federal government’s carbon tax, Saskatchewan and now Ontario are rejecting the most cost effective way to reduce carbon pollution, the Pembina Institute complained yesterday. “It is deeply irresponsible of the Saskatchewan and Ontario governments to reject carbon pricing,” said Isabelle Turcotte,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Prab Gill saga seems to have legs, so UCP Leader Jason Kenney attacks environmentalist Tzeporah Berman …
Astonishingly, the Prab Gill saga appears to have legs. Yesterday, the Star Metro arm of the Toronto Star’s effort to create a national footprint, informed Alberta readers there’s no way the United Conservative Party will be revealing the contents of its insider investigation of ballot stuffing and snatching by Mr.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP by-elections wins in central and northern Alberta are no surprise, but offer little cause for optimism to NDP
It’s Friday the 13th, and after two by-elections yesterday in central and northern Alberta, supporters of the province’s NDP government are awaking to a new reality that’s pretty much the same as the old reality. That is, rural Central Alberta is deeply Conservative country pretty well no matter what, and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Stephen Harper’s Paris speech to Mojahedin-e Khalq: No laws were broken; appropriate interests were served; get over it!
Many readers would be offended if someone were to suggest the Roman Catholic Church was a former terrorist organization with cult-like attributes. Still, wouldn’t terrorism be a fair description of the Inquisition, the brutal effort to root out heresy carried out from the 12th to the early 19th centuries by
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Do we need a Canadian version of the Logan Act to put a stop to dangerous freelance diplomacy?
Most observers of Canada-U.S. politics and the two countries’ unexpectedly fraught trade relationship would agree former prime minister Stephen Harper’s no-longer-secret visit to the White House on Tuesday is unlikely to do much good and has the potential to do harm. What Mr. Harper, now just another private citizen in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It’s not equalization! It’s the taxes, stupid! They’re almost too low to keep the lights on and something’s gotta give
It’s not equalization. It’s the taxes, stupid! That is to say, Alberta’s taxes are too low to run the place over the long term and something’s gotta give. The great thing about Alberta’s never-ending tantrum about equalization and how the province of Quebec taxes and spends, at least from the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Nothing new under the Prairie sun as Alberta Conservatives ratchet up their faux outrage about equalization and Quebec
Jason Kenney, leader of Alberta’s Opposition United Conservative Party, calls the Trudeau Government’s renewal of Canada’s current equalization formula for an additional five years “a slap in the face to Alberta.” “It means we will continue to be forced, even when times are bad in Alberta, forced to subsidize public
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Group making incendiary ‘ideological sex clubs’ claim about Gay-Straight Alliances has history of backing social conservative causes
As was widely reported yesterday, a judge of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench will begin hearing arguments in Medicine Hat today in a legal effort by a social conservative group to upend the Alberta law that prevents schools from informing parents when students join a gay-straight alliance. The claim
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Former Ontario MP Jeff Watson running for UCP nomination in Calgary-Peigan
Photo: Jeff Watson (left) speaks at a rally in support of Ontario PC candidate Chris Lewis (right) on May 11, 2018. Former Essex Member of Parliament Jeff Watson is the fourth candidate to enter the UCP nomination contest in the new Calgary-Peigan district. Watson served as the Conservative Party MP for
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer boots Maxime Bernier, self-appointed chief party ideologue, from Opposition front bench
It’s hard not to feel some sympathy for federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, what with right-wing purists jumping all over him for canning Maxime Bernier from the Opposition party’s front bench. In addition to being the normally ineffectual Mr. Scheer’s chief rival for the hearts and minds of the country’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Day We Burned Ole D.C. Down … I blame Stephen Harper for Canada’s latest trade troubles!
I blame Stephen Harper. Face it, Canada’s latest trade troubles wouldn’t have happened without him! If Mr. Harper hadn’t spent $30 million or so of our tax money “commemorating” the War of 1812, who would’ve known our side burned down the White House and sundry other buildings in Washington, D.C.,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Trudeau Liberals call the opposition’s bluff and ‘nationalize’ (sort of, maybe) the Trans Mountain Pipeline
OK, so Ottawa’s going to buy the Trans Mountain Pipeline for $4.5 billion and run it as a Crown corporation. That’s a good start. (Caveats to follow.) Theoretically, it could ensure transparency and accountability, even responsibility, to a business in which the private sector adamantly refuses to deliver any such
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Pipeline politics in Canada circa 2018: Destroying the rule of law in order to save it
Obviously, we have to destroy the rule of law in order to save it! With Kinder Morgan Inc.’s do-or-drop-it deadline set to arrive on Thursday, that seems to be the idea behind the argument advanced by the increasingly furious Canadian pipeline lobby that the Trans Mountain Expansion project must be
Continue readingAlberta Politics: 28 years and counting, Conservatives in Alberta and Ontario continue to misrepresent Bob Rae’s record
Now that he’s sworn to be nice to Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Opposition Leader Jason Kenney is running against Bob Rae. Ralph Klein was a high school dropout & TV reporter before becoming Mayor. Bob Rae was a Rhodes scholar & accomplished MP before becoming Premier. Who do you think
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: UCP draws huge crowds, huge controversy to its first policy convention
(Photo credit: @Alberta_UCP on Twitter) With more than 2,500 party members in attendance, this weekend’s United Conservative Party founding convention was one of the biggest political events in Alberta’s recent memory. It was a big show of force for the official opposition party, which continues to dominate in the polls
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Embarrassing honorary degree stories: ‘Did no one warn them?’
You have to ask why universities bother handing out honorary degrees like bonbons when you think about all the trouble it can cause them. Consider the embarrassing 2012 case of the Israeli university that came up with a scheme to give an honorary degree to an unsavoury right-wing foreign politician
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