Another aircraft takes off from Fort McMurray International Aerodrome loaded with CO2 captured from Alberta’s Athabasca bitumen sands. The gas will be stored in the basements of Russian buildings as part of a deal worked out through the province’s $2-billion “carbon capture” program. Actual Alberta carbon capture boondoggles may not
Continue readingTag: Danielle Smith
daveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noël! Feliz Navidad!
TweetWherever you find yourself these this week, I hope you have the opportunity to enjoy your time in the warm company of family and friends. Merry Christmas. As is annual tradition, some of Alberta’s leading politicians delivered their seasonal greetings through online video this week. Tweet
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: What a year 2014 has been in Alberta politics!
Tweet This year was a tumultuous time in Alberta politics. What does 2015 have in store for Albertans? December 20, 2014 Story by: Dirk Pranter, Edmonton Journal-Sun Building the next Alberta With the new year just weeks away, speculation is rampant Albertans could go to the polls early next year, less than four
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta politics 2013: The NDP Wildrose alliance
TweetPerhaps one of the most unexpected developments in Alberta politics in 2013 was the emergence of the informal alliance between the New Democratic Party and the Wildrose Official Opposition. It was not uncommon in 2013 to see NDP and Wildrose MLAs working together, or tackling the same issues during Question
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Hell freezes over in Alberta: Right-wing Wildrose Party sides with unions, sort of, over unconstitutional Tory bills
AUPE President Guy Smith, left, with Alberta Liberal MLA David Swann and Wildrose House Leader Rob Anderson on the steps of the Alberta Legislature last night. Below: Part of the crowd … the pots and pans start to come out. With blizzard conditions prevailing throughout most of Alberta today, it
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Redford Tories anti-labour laws too extreme for Wildrose
TweetAmid a storm of embarrassing news stories of unreported deaths of children in the foster care system, Human Services Minister Dave Hancock rushed forward last week with Bill 45: Public Sector Services Continuation Act and Bill 46: Public Service Salary Restraint Act. These two bills will allow the Redford Government to bypass a
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Wildrose to PC MLAs: It’s not your fault, your party left you. Come on over.
Tweet The Wildrose Caucus has released a flashy new YouTube video encouraging Progressive Conservative MLAs to join the Official Opposition. The video begins with two former PC MLAs making the pitch to cross the floor. “I was nervous when I first did I, but I have to tell you, it
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Secrecy of foster care deaths a sobering story
TweetThe normally hyper-partisan atmosphere in Alberta’s Legislative Assembly was sobered today with news of a tragic and startling story. A six-month investigation by Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald reporters based on death records unsealed after a four-year legal battle revealed a startling number of unreported deaths of children in care of
Continue readingAlberta Diary: No surprise, Alberta PCs endorse Alison Redford with the traditional 77% Solution
A couple of political pundits try to explain to Alberta Premier Alison Redford, centre, why the 77 Per Cent Solution may not be a good thing after all. Actual Alberta premiers may not appear exactly as illustrated. Note that the previous reference has nothing to do with illegal drugs or
Continue readingAlberta Diary: 70%? 66.9%? 55.9%? 50%+1 good enough for Alison Redford this evocative weekend
Alison Redford, ready for her endorsement vote tomorrow, as rendered by Edmonton artist William Prettie. Below: former Canadian prime minister Joe Clark, late U.S. president John F. Kennedy, both of whom figure in this blog post about Alberta politics for some reason. Was it insularity and tone deafness, or Machiavellian
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Does the PC Party have a revenue problem?
TweetDoes Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Party have a “revenue problem?” According to reports from the Calgary Herald, that is how PC Party president Jim McCormick described his party’s financial situation in an email to party officials. The PC Party recently backed down from a plan its board of directors approved for the party
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: A by-election in Cowboy Country. Conservatives line up in Macleod
TweetFour candidates have stepped forward to duel for the yet to be scheduled Conservative Party nomination in southern Alberta’s Macleod riding following the resignation of Member of Parliament Ted Menzies. A by-election is expected to be held in the eastern slopes of Alberta’s cowboy country the next six months. John Barlow,
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Nomination races begin for federal election 2015
TweetThere are 705 days until Monday, October 19, 2015, when the next Canadian federal election is scheduled to be held. With less than two years until Canadians choose who will serve as Members of Parliament and with new electoral boundaries coming into effect at the next election, candidates across Alberta
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Lukaszuk, Griffiths are prime targets for opposition parties
TweetDeputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk allegedly threatened to fight Official Opposition leader Danielle Smith during a heated Question Period on the afternoon of November 5. Observers say that Mr. Lukaszuk made a threatening gesture to the opposition leader to “bring it on” after responding to criticism about a ruling from the Office of
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Debt is debt, except when it’s hope
Sometimes Question Period is downright funny. Witness this exchange on the provincial debt between Opposition Leader Danielle Smith and Premier Redford.* Ms Smith: In Medicine Hat earlier this month the Premier said this about debt: it’s not debt; it’s hope. So let’s take some of the Premier’s other quotes and
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Hope and Debt
TweetThe political battle between the Wildrose opposition and long-governing Progressive Conservatives continued today as the Legislative Assembly resumed for the fall sitting. Debt was the biggest issue of the day. Wildrose leader Danielle Smith jumped at the opportunity to make light of comments Premier Alison Redford made that compared the government’s
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Are rats abandoning a sinking Alberta Tory ship? The evocative departure of Doug Elniski
Doug Elniski, back and centre, always the tallest guy in the room, at Alison Redford’s side on Oct. 2, 2011. Below: Kirk Patterson aboard Silk Purse somewhere, by the look of the clipping snatched from his Facebook page, in Japan; the ingenious Sir Winston Churchill. My university friend Kirk Patterson,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Disillusioned by Tory hard line, one union’s ad campaign suggests tilt toward Wildrose
“The Alberta Way,” a hard-hitting 30-second TV spot from the province’s largest union, attacks the Redford Government’s broken promises and hard-right policies. It will go into heavy rotation on Monday. Below: Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith; PC Environment Minister Diana McQueen. Never mind for the moment which of Alberta’s right-wing parties
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Wildrose can grow from Tory seeds of doubt
TweetDo you drain a Lake of Fire or do you dam it? Whatever it takes, Wildrose Party activists are expected to moderate the tone of their policies at their weekend policy convention in the booming central Alberta city of Red Deer. A delicate and sometimes shaky coalition of libertarians and
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta’s Wildrose Party strategists plan to have drained the Lake of Fire by Sunday
Explaining the new rules to the Wildrose Party’s many social conservatives. Wildrose political strategists may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Social conservative pastor and former Wildrose candidate Allan Hunsperger preaching; the late Oscar Wilde being the life of the party. To paraphrase Johnny Cash, they fell into a burning
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