Heeeeere’s Kenney! One night after saying he was quitting, Alberta’s premier is back by unpopular demand. UCP Party Secretary Janice Nett (Photo: Linked-in). You have to admit that, by any yardstick, Jason Kenney’s announcement he would be resigning as leader of the United Conservative Party and premier of Alberta after
Continue readingTag: Danielle Smith
Alberta Politics: Impossible dreams: Former Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith says she’ll seek UCP leadership if Jason Kenney loses party vote
She’s baaaack! Apparently Danielle Smith – the other former leader of the Wildrose Party – has made it official that she intends to make a run to lead the United Conservative Party. Danielle Smith in 2008 on the day she announced she was running to lead the Wildrose Party (Photo:
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 82: Best of Alberta Politics with Adrienne King and Matt Solberg
Adrienne King and Matt Solberg join the Daveberta Podcast for our year-end episode of 2021. We delve into Premier Jason Kenney‘s leadership challenges, the fireworks at the end of Alberta’s longest legislative session on record, and the upcoming Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche by-election. Adrienne King works for the Now Group,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney’s keynote didn’t amount to much beyond the usual bromides and braggadocio
Jason Kenney’s keynote speech at the United Conservative Party’s annual general meeting yesterday didn’t amount to much more than the usual Conservative bromides, empty promises, and unjustified braggadocio. Typical headlines for the day’s efforts emphasized the unity theme: “Alberta premier urges unity among UCP members ahead of April leadership review,”
Continue readingDJ Kelly | Ward 4: Interview with Danielle Smith for Common Sense Calgary
DJ was invited to be interviewed by Common Sense Calgary to be interviewed by Danielle Smith. You can view their conversation below. … The post Interview with Danielle Smith for Common Sense Calgary appeared first on DJ Kelly | Ward 4.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What’s next for former Wildrose leader Danielle Smith now that she’s dropping out of right-wing talk radio?
Former school trustee, former Wildrose Party leader, and former controversial legislative floor-crosser, Danielle Smith announced yesterday she will add right-wing talk-radio bloviator to her long list of former occupations. The woman thought in 2012 to be on track to become Alberta’s first Wildrose Party premier announced yesterday she is ending
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Overwhelmed by new cases, Alberta outsources contact tracing to people testing positive for COVID-19
Overwhelmed by a rising tide of new daily COVID-19 cases – “about 800” were reported yesterday by Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw – Alberta Health Services has announced it will no longer notify most close contacts of Albertans who test positive for the disease. Starting today, if you
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Second COVID-19 wave rolls into Alberta as Premier Jason Kenney continues to emphasize ‘personal responsibility’
Alberta has now passed a significant milestone — more COVID-19 cases than at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic in the spring, 3,138 compared to 3,022 on April 30. There were 898 new cases over the weekend if you count Friday, as Alberta Health Services does, and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: From us to WE: The Dickensian ‘Big Society’ seems to be back again, if it ever left
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 readingAlberta Politics: Hinterland Who’s Who: Hear the haunting call of the wild Deep South Alberta UCP MLA …
With friends like Drew Barnes, does the United Conservative Party really need enemies in these troubles times? The right-wing Frankenparty may have won the 2019 provincial election convincingly soon after it was cobbled together from the fringy Wildrose Party and the old Progressive Conservatives by former Harper Government cabinet minister
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Ted Morton, worst premier Alberta never had, has had another big idea, this time about a sales tax
From time to time it’s worth reminding ourselves that Ted Morton is the worst premier Alberta never had. That’s because now and then Dr. Morton, now 71, pops up like the proverbial bad penny with some scheme so ridiculous we need to give our heads a shake and recall this
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s UCP deploys the red tape weapon: an example from the War on Education
Never let it be said Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government hates red tape. On the contrary, Premier Jason Kenney’s Government loves the stuff – at least if you define red tape as most dictionaries do, to wit, excessive bureaucratic rules that make it more difficult to get stuff done. Advanced
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Things just keeping getting weirder in Alberta as Jason Kenney sings the Moody Blues!
If a tree falls in the forest and Jason Kenney isn’t there to hear it, is it still the sound of European environmentalists and the Rockefellers plotting against Alberta’s ethical oil industry? Is it still Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s fault? Your blogger only spent three days on B.C.’s misty and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What’s with the United Conservative Party’s emerging fury at nurses, of all people?
What’s with the sudden hate on for nurses by United Conservative Party supporters? It comes from somewhere. Your average UCP internet troll doesn’t just come up with this stuff on his – or occasionally her – own. The traditional Conservative approach to attacking nurses and other predominantly public and female
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Fifty-four forty or what? Is this Wexitopia’s last territorial demand in British Columbia?
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any nuttier out here in Wexitopia, former Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith took to the Twittersphere to promote a territorial corridor from Alberta to the B.C. Coast. I know what you’re thinking, but as regular readers of this blog well understand, I never
Continue readingAlberta Politics: First reading of Bill 207 reveals zero UCP votes for women’s reproductive rights
Here are two important statistics about the United Conservative Party’s Bill 207, the Conscience Rights (Health Care Providers) Protection Act, which was introduced in the Alberta Legislature yesterday … Just a minute, you say, Bill 207 is a private member’s bill, brought forward by Peace River UCP MLA Dan Williams,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Wexit’ isn’t likely, but that doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous
“Wexit” is dangerous, but not because it’s ever likely to come to pass. The economic case for Prairie separatism is so obviously lame — because of what’s happened to the world market for fossil fuels and because people who actually live where there’s tidewater aren’t interested and never will be
Continue readingAlberta Politics: This just in from washed-up Wildroser: Alberta separation if necessary, but not necessarily separation!
It looks as if Rob Anderson has found a new gig — Alberta separation if necessary, but not necessarily Alberta separation. For those of you scratching your heads and asking the most obvious question — Rob Who? — Mr. Anderson is one of the few Alberta politicians to have crossed
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Court’s decision to turn off Alberta’s turn-off-the-taps law should surprise no one
Alberta’s so-called turn-off-the-taps law was pretty obviously unconstitutional when Rachel Notley’s New Democratic Party passed it and it continued to be unconstitutional when Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party had it proclaimed into law. So yesterday’s ruling of the Federal Court of Canada granting British Columbia a temporary injunction blocking application
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP Government, with no apparent short-term Plan B, seeks leave to appeal injunction suspending Bill 9
Unsurprisingly, the United Conservative Party Government has filed notice of appeal on the temporary injunction granted by the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench that halted application of Bill 9, playing havoc with Premier Jason Kenney’s strategy for putting off a crisis with the province’s public sector unions until after the
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