Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her United Conservative Party government may look like fools for having paid $70 million up front to a Turkish drug manufacturer last December for a huge supply of children’s pain medication most of which will likely never reach Alberta. A bottle of ‘Tylenot’ (Photo: Alberta
Continue readingTag: Danielle Smith
Susan on the Soapbox: The Alberta Pension Plan: Pierre Poilievre Weighs In
It took Danielle Smith five months to go from “Nobody is touching anyone’s pension” to “Look! It’s a shiny new APP! Albertans will get much more and it will cost much less!!” And she had the LifeWorks report to backup her claim. LifeWorks says Alberta is entitled to 53%
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Will Danielle Smith’s pension scheme drive a wedge right into the heart of Conservative support?
In the past few hours, a lot of metaphorical ink has been spilled on the duelling open letters about the Alberta Government’s scheme to pull the province’s still-skeptical population out of the Canada Pension Plan, the first from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday and the response from Alberta Premier
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Arijit Chakravarthy and Martha Lincoln offer a reminder that COVID-19 isn’t about to go away just because we’re refusing to deal with it. And CBC News and Adam Toy report on renewed masking requirements in Manitoba and Alberta health care facilities respectively.
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Protecting the Environment: There has to be a better way
In 2019 the federal government enacted the Impact Assessment Act which regulated “designated projects” (think: oil sands, mining and other major projects within provincial boundaries). The Kenney government tagged it the “No More Pipelines Act” and brought a reference case to the Supreme Court of Canada arguing that the IAA
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Canadian Ditchley Foundation tells TBA’s David Parker he’s out as a director; Premier Smith does damage control
According to Take Back Alberta Executive Director David Parker, he has been informed by the Canadian Ditchley Foundation he’s being dumped as a director of the organization. Canadian Ditchley Foundation President Pierre Lortie (Photo: The Ditchley Foundation). In a bitter sounding tweet on the social media site known as X
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Conservative Danielle Smith vows to dismantle Alberta Health Services, Conservative Ed Stelmach’s greatest achievement
Today’s political weather forecast: Ill winds that blow no good will begin throughout Alberta on Wednesday. Mr. Stelmach’s health minister, Ron Liepert, in 2012 (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). After that, conditions will get worse. Wednesday is when Premier Danielle Smith has promised us her health minister will present a plan
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Danielle Smith’s Alternative Reality
Albertans live in an alternate universe. How else can we explain last week’s press conference where Danielle Smith pilloried the draft electricity regulations which are designed to ensure Canada’s electrical grid is running on 100% clean energy by 2035* and unveiled a national advertising campaign of print, radio, TV, social
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The $334 Billion Assumption or Why Smith’s APP is a Non-Starter
Well that inspires confidence. When LifeWorks respectfully submitted its report to the Smith government outlining how Alberta could move from CPP to an Alberta Pension Plan, the executive summary was signed by someone who preferred to remain anonymous, hence their signature was “Redacted to protect privacy.” Perhaps Anonymous was
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Political Leadership in Crisis
“We’d like to know why we have not heard from you. Surely the suffering of our children merits more communication than a single tweet.” – Open letter to Danielle Smith from the parents and supporters of children infected in the E. Coli public health crisis The only thing worse
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Damian Carrington reports on a “scientific health check” showing that Earth’s life support systems are well outside what’s safe for humanity. But Jonathan Cook discusses how an obsession with growth over health and well-being is preventing us from taking any meaningful steps to
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Aug 3: The day Danielle Smith kneecapped wind and solar energy
The low point of my summer (and there were many with this UCP government) came on Aug 3 when Danielle Smith announced a 7 month moratorium on wind and solar renewable energy projects—a decision that paralyses more than 100 projects valued at $33 billion—ostensibly to address policy concerns that could
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Proposed federal clean-electricity rules are ‘unaffordable blackout regulations’? … UCP environment minister floods the zone
“Unaffordable blackout regulations”? Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). It wasn’t exactly a surprise that Alberta’s United Conservative Party started September by issuing a wildly misleading statement calling the federal Government’s proposed 2035 net-zero electricity generation regulations “unaffordable blackout regulations.” This kind of nonsense is the UCP’s schtick, after
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It’s hard to take Danielle Smith’s hysterical outburst at federal environment minister very seriously
Apparently Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is determined to make the flagging Trudeau Liberals look like the grownups in the room! Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault (Photo: UN Biodiversity, Creative Commons). What other explanation is there for Ms. Smith’s childish official outburst yesterday assailing federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault for his
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Premier and feisty reporters spar over details of UCP plan to freeze new renewable electricity generation projects
What was supposed to be a scripted jeremiad by Danielle Smith attacking the federal government’s proposed clean-electricity regulations yesterday turned into a verbal sparring match with some feisty reporters over when the government actually decided to freeze the application process for new renewable electricity generation projects. Globe and Mail reporter
Continue readingAlberta Politics: How is it possible basic communications work for Alberta’s renewables freeze announcement wasn’t done?
Between them, the Alberta Ministry of Energy and Minerals and the Ministry of Environment and Protected Areas employ at least a dozen qualified communications professionals easily earning more than a million dollars a year in combined salary and benefits. Alberta Energy Minister Brian Jean (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). In addition,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: With freeze on renewables and vow to ignore federal net-zero rules, Alberta’s on its way to being a three-alarm international dumpster fire!
Whether or not Premier Danielle Smith and her enabler and office manager Rob Anderson carefully planned their freeze on renewable electricity generation last week or just came up with it on a whim, it’s now turning into a three-alarm international dumpster fire. Deputy Premier Nathan Neudorf (Photo: Linked-In). On Wednesday
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: A Letter to Protest Moratorium on Renewable Energy Projects
Dear Readers: It’s August.We should be enjoying what’s left of summer but with the Smith government it’s one stupid thing after another. Premier Smith Smith’s decision to impose a 6 month moratorium on new renewable energy projects was the last straw. Yesterday I sent a letter of protest to Smith,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Danielle Smith in damage-control mode as freeze on new renewable electricity generation projects sparks hostility
The nearly universally hostile reaction to Alberta Utilities Minister Nathan Neudorf’s announcement last Thursday that the province had imposed a seven-month freeze on new renewable electricity generation projects over one megawatt seems to have taken the United Conservative Party by surprise. Utilities Minister Nathan Neudorf, who is also one of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Why saying Alberta Health Services’ original mandate was only running acute care hospitals is dangerous and false
A dangerously misleading statement appeared in an op-ed story under Health Minister Adriana LaGrange’s byline Thursday in the Calgary Herald. To wit, “that Alberta Health Services has evolved beyond its original acute-care hospital system mandate.” Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange (Photo: Facebook/Adriana LaGrange). Everyone makes mistakes and most politicians spin
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