Who can forget the “Big Society”? Just about everyone, it turns out. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Photo: Justin Trudeau/Flickr). “The Big Society,” cooked up by a senior aide to former British Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, was the ridiculous idea neoliberal governments could shuffle off their key responsibility for assuring
Continue readingTag: conservative party of canada
Alberta Politics: Hot potatoes: Federal Conservatives prudently drop talk of bringing down the Liberal government just yet
It was faintly amusing yesterday to watch the haste with which the Conservative Opposition backed away from the idea of trying to bring down the Liberal government in Ottawa over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s now rescinded plan to have a charity with ties to his family administer a $900-million summer
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Kenney’s controversial speechwriter listed as CEO of federal Conservatives’ Edmonton Strathcona constituency association
Given the uproar over an article widely perceived as expressing racist sentiments by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s speechwriter, it will be interesting to see how the Conservative Party of Canada reacts to the fact Paul Bunner is also chief executive of its Edmonton Strathcona constituency association. As of the close
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The federal Conservative leadership race takes a turn both sinister and juvenile
Probably the last thing the Conservative Party of Canada needs right now is a side battle over allegations of dirty tricks and data theft between the campaigns of the two leading candidates in an already uninspiring leadership race. I mean, it’s not as if frontrunners Peter MacKay or Erin O’Toole
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Who will see their pandemic money first? The UCP’s political staffers, or Alberta’s health care aides?
In case you were wondering if Alberta’s United Conservative Party was also going to apply for funds from Ottawa’s Canada Emergency Response Benefit to keep party staff employed, that question has now been answered. Of course they are! Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Photo: Justin Trudeau/Flickr). The UCP trotted out the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Federal Conservatives seek emergency support to help kick unemployed people off emergency support!
Surely there’s a special corner of Hell for the leaders of political parties who try to get unemployed people kicked off federal pandemic emergency supports at the same time they demand federal emergency supports for their private army of trolls! Or am I the only one who finds it ironic
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The likely future history of the Keystone XL Pipeline: Yes, Alberta! The answer is still No!
Who can forget Nov. 6, 2015, the day that will live in infamy? Just about everybody, as it turned out. Jason Kenney and Stephen Harper (Photo: Facebook). That was the day that U.S. President Barack Obama decided to pull the plug on the Keystone XL Pipeline, declaring that it was
Continue readingAlberta Politics: That rumble you hear is the sound of the Shock Doctrine artillery softening up Alberta for austerity on steroids
In trench warfare, before the shock troops go over the top, the artillery softens up the defenders with a barrage at the point of the attack. In the midst of a great struggle with a mysterious coronavirus that threatens all mankind, we are being subjected to such a barrage by
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s statement on Ottawa’s gun ban illustrates how little the rule of law really matters to Conservatives
Jason Kenney marked May 1 with a message to the Conservative base complaining about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decisive move in the wake of the murderous shooting rampage in Portapique, Nova Scotia, to ban 1,500 makes of military-style rifles. While a significant majority of Canadians breathed a sigh of relief
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Should we welcome Michelle Rempel Garner home with a festive serving of Oklahoma’s official state meal?
Did you know Oklahoma has an official state meal? The State Legislature in Oklahoma City designated the repast as an official state symbol in 1988. And, I must say, it sounds delicious: fried okra, squash, cornbread, barbecued pork, biscuits, sausage and gravy, grits, corn, black-eyed peas, chicken-fried steak, strawberries and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Virus-blocking masks are part of our future — it’s time to dump Canada’s unconstitutional anti-mask law
Universal adoption of homemade face masks would have huge health and economic benefits in the current global coronavirus pandemic, says a paper published a few days ago by seven Yale professors. “We estimate that the benefits of each additional cloth mask worn by the public are conservatively in the $3,000-$6,000
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: My latest: leadership in tough times
Leadership in good times means little. Leadership in bad times means everything. And these times, they are indisputably bad. Grim, grinding, grotesque. For the rest of our lives, we will all remember the dark days of 2020, when nothing was again the same. Everyone, everything, everywhere: it’s all different, now.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Bill Morneau’s COVID-19 response: This economic and health crisis is no time for timidity or hesitation
According to Bill Morneau, “as Minister of Finance, my only job is to make sure that Canadians can keep food in the fridge.” That’s actually a rare useful thought for a federal finance minister to keep front of mind in calamitous circumstances like the present ones. Economist Jim Stanford (Photo:
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Remember when Canada was about to become ‘a global energy powerhouse’? So how’d that work out?
Anybody remember Stephen Harper’s plan to turn Canada into “an energy superpower”? That was in July 2006, a dream articulated in Mr. Harper’s first speech abroad as Canada’s prime minister. Canada was not only about to become “a new energy superpower,” Mr. Harper told the Canada-U.K. Chamber of Commerce in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: With coronavirus chaos south of the line, brace yourself for some of it to come to our way in Canada
U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s incompetent and ideologically driven response to the international coronavirus crisis poses a serious national security threat to Canada. Can we do anything about it? Say, closing the border to non-Canadian travellers from the United States, as Russia sealed its border with China in the first
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Can Canada’s Conservatives resist temptation to try to sabotage the accord with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs?
It will be interesting to see how the Conservative Opposition in Ottawa and Alberta’s Conservative government react to yesterday’s announcement the federal and British Columbia governments have reached an accord with the Wet’suwet’en First Nation that would recognize its system of hereditary governance. Participants said the agreement reached yesterday in
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: My latest: police, politicians and protestors
Can the politicians tell the police to take down the barricades? If not, why not? Those are the two questions that have been mooted for more than two weeks now. Around the nation’s water coolers, in just about every Tim Horton’s, frustrated and angry Canadians – Indigenous and otherwise –
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What really happened to the Teck Frontier oilsands mine? It’s the market, stupid!
So what really happened to the Teck Frontier oilsands mine? Hint: It wasn’t anything Justin Trudeau did or didn’t do. That’s pure United Conservative Party gas lighting, a game a career politician like Alberta Premier Jason Kenney just can’t make himself stop playing. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J.
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