Family values: Not so long ago they were all swinging left, but now the Progressive Conservative caucus of Premier Jim Prentice is swinging right. Getting ready to launch, from left to right, new PC caucus member Kerry Towle, Mr. Prentice, new caucus member Ian Donovan, and an unidentified former Redford
Continue readingTag: Danielle Smith
Alberta Diary: Collapse of rickety Wildrose coalition of market fanatics and religious fundamentalists could be bad-news/good-news story for Alberta’s NDP
A recent meeting of the Wildrose Party Legislative caucus. Actual members of the official Opposition party may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: NDP Leader Rachel Notley and Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith. Monday’s bombshell that the rickety coalition of ideological market-perfection fanatics and social-conservative religious fundamentalists called the Wildrose Party
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Wildrose Party endures its cruelest day as two MLAs quit to join Jim Prentice’s PC government
Ian Donovan, Alberta Premier Jim Prentice and Kerry Towle at yesterday afternoon’s floor-crossing news conference in the Legislature Building. (Ici Radio-Canada photo.) Below: Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith and quotable former prime ministers Harold Wilson, Brian Mulroney and Winston Churchill. There was the cruelest sort of irony in the battering suffered
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Who Has The Worst Job in Alberta Politics?
Why does the public go bananas when Danielle Smith, the leader of the Official Opposition, criticizes the PC government? They say she’s too negative, too shrill, too something. Can’t she be more positive they ask? More supportive? Clearly they haven’t a clue about the role of the Opposition. A thankless
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The bloom is off the (Wild)rose – Opposition Leader Danielle Smith assailed by doubts, dissent and departures
Are the wheels falling off the Wildrose bus, which may or may not look exactly as illustrated any more? Below: Beleaguered Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith, Taber-Warner-Cardston MLA Gary Bikman and Wildrose House Leader Rob Anderson. These may be happy days for the Progressive Conservatives under Premier Jim Prentice, but the
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Are the wheels falling off the Wildrose bus?
TweetA short few months ago, it almost felt inevitable that the Wildrose Party would sweep into a majority government at the next election. They were up in the polls and the long-time governing Progressive Conservatives looked corrupt, broken and battered. But over the past few weeks, it appears the Official Opposition
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: WildRose Revisited
The other day I wrote a post about the Wildrose Party’s retraction of its definitive equal rights clause that covered almost every conceivable individual. Although leader Danielle Smith had enthused the day before about its inclusiveness, when party delegates voted it down, she quickly changed her tune, saying that the
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: The least interesting part of Legislative Session: The Throne Speech
TweetEvery year, political watchers gather at the Alberta Legislature for the pomp and circumstance of the Speech from the Throne, hoping to get a glimpse of a political agenda. And every year they are sorely disappointed at the Throne Speech’s lack of detail. Yesterday’s Throne Speech, delivered by elderly Lieutenant
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Perhaps They Forgot (In)Alien(able) Rights?
The Edmonton Journal reports the following story about the Wildrose Party: Wildrose members on Saturday voted down a “definitive statement” on equality rights, one day after leader Danielle Smith trumpeted the motion that had been adopted by the party last year. Perhaps its specificity offended some of the party’s ‘less
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Two political general meetings in one weekend: Wildrosers conduct gloomy post-mortem while PCs flirt with characteristic hubris
Steady as she goes! Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith, centre, works to keep party stalwarts, on either side, on the right course, which would be not too far to the right, of course. Alberta Premier Prentice, at the wheel above, tries to get the earnest Wildrosers to take a wrong turn.
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta Politics Roundup – Eve of Fall Sitting
TweetFall Legislative Session November 17, 2014 will mark the start of the first legislative session for new Premier Jim Prentice, Health Minister Stephen Mandel and Education Minister Gordon Dirks. The 43-year old governing Progressive Conservatives have promised to introduce new laws focusing on property rights and ‘ending entitlements’ for their MLAs. This will
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Limping Alberta Liberals face more financial troubles
Tweet Did Liberal leader Raj Sherman break Alberta’s political donations limits when making donations to his own party? The Calgary Herald is reporting that Dr. Sherman may have exceeded the $15,000 limit for donations three times in the past four years and donated double the limit this year through corporations he
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Business arising from the minutes: Unionized St. Albert workers sign deal; CTF Alberta director suddenly departs
Toronto’s once notorious Rochedale College, now a perfectly respectable apartment building. Below: Outgoing Canadian Taxpayers Federation Alberta Director Derek Fildebrandt and the King’s Noodle Restaurant (grabbed from TripAdvisor). TORONTO It was my intention, since I am away from Alberta on business, not to file an Alberta Diary post this evening.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Said to be sought as candidate by Wildrose Party, ‘tax watchdog’ spokesperson’s intentions are for the moment unclear
CTF Alberta spokesperson Derek Fildebrandt last summer at the Legislature in Edmonton. Below: Premier Jim Prentice and political blogger Dave Cournoyer. Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith is “working hard” to recruit Canadian Taxpayers Federation Alberta spokesperson Derek Fildebrandt as a candidate for the next provincial general election in the Calgary-Bow riding,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Annals of Irony: Those alleged Wildrose caucus recordings and Danielle Smith’s 1999 school board ‘opposition research’ escapade
A mean note found in a trashcan or a coffee cup and reassembled. Actual mean notes found in actual trashcans may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Former Wildrose MLA Joe Anglin, Wildrose Party Leader Danielle Smith, former Calgary Herald editorial page editor Peter Stockland, former Calgary Liberal candidate and
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Look who’s running in 2016: Alberta Election nominations
TweetWith the four provincial by-elections over, the focus will soon turn back to nominating candidates to stand in Alberta’s next general election. The next election is scheduled to be held sometime between March 1 and May 31, 2016, but can be called earlier if premier requests the Lieutenant Governor to issue a writ of election.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Conservative parties squirm as fired AHS executive triumphs over government, controversial MLA quits opposition caucus
This just in from Alberta’s two conservative parties. Below: former Alberta Health Services CFO Allaudin Merali, Alberta Premier Jim Prentice, MLA Joe Anglin (CBC Photo), Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith, former health minister Fred Horne. Alberta’s governing Progressive Conservative Party and its Opposition Wildrose Party, in addition to sharing an identical
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Danielle Smith’s Leadership Review: A Game of Power
“No one wants less power; everyone wants more.”—Robert Greene Danielle Smith, leader of the Wildrose party, put her leadership on the line after failing to capture any seats in the four Alberta by-elections. Her leadership review was to take place in mid-November, well ahead of the leadership review scheduled to
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Joe Anglin fires opening shot in Wildrose Civil War
TweetCiting a “civil war” within the Wildrose Party, MLA Joe Anglin has decided to leave the Official Opposition caucus to sit as an Independent MLA. Mr. Anglin said in a Facebook message posted this morning that he did so in advance of today’s caucus meeting, where leader Danielle Smith was
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Wildrose leader faces Rocky [Mountain House] challenges and leadership review
TweetReacting to her party’s poor results in four provincial by-elections held this week, Wildrose leader Danielle Smith announced that she will face a leadership review at her party’s annual convention on November 14 and 15, 2014 in Red Deer. This is a smart move by the official opposition leader, as a solid
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