Tweet“Danielle Smith will probably yell and scream. Brian Mason will yell and scream. They really don’t care about the City of Edmonton, I guess, but I would hope they would be wise enough to see it’s about Edmonton.” – Mayor Stephen Mandel (December 18, 2012) Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel took
Continue readingTag: Danielle Smith
Alberta Diary: Pollster’s take on Alberta leaders’ popularity sets stage for long Prairie slug-fest
Shades of things to come? Alison Redford, Canada’s second most popular premier, gets ready to break a board with Opposition Leader Danielle Smith’s face on it. Situations Alberta politicians find themselves in may not be exactly as described. Below: Ms. Smith. Alison Redford remains Canada’s second most popular premier behind
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Who are Alberta’s top MLAs of 2012?
TweetIt has become tradition on this blog that near the end of each year I publish a list of Members of Alberta’s Legislative Assembly who have been the best, worst, or most notable of the past year. Each year’s list has taken a different form and focus (see 2010 and
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Docs call health minister liar, liar, scrubs on fire, but their ad fails to persuade
The docs’ advertisement. Below: AMA President Dr. Michael Giuffre. The Alberta Medical Association, the province’s most powerful trade union, has gone back to the familiar ground of buying newspaper advertisements to call Alberta Health Minister Fred Horne and the Progressive Conservative government led by Premier Alison Redford a bunch of
Continue readingIn This Corner: Tories have bungled tobacco file, but it’s no scandal.
The Edmonton Journal’s main headline today, “Speaker clears Redford” takes its place on the list least surprising headlines ever, right up there with “Winter will be cold” and “City to raise taxes”. There was never any doubt that Speaker Gene Zwozdesky would find some way to proclaim that Premier Alison Redford in no way misled […]
daveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Wildrose MLAs stage walk out during dramatic tobacco conflict.
TweetTheatric and dramatic antics dominated this afternoon’s hour-long Question Period in Alberta’s Legislative Assembly. To start the drama, the official opposition Wildrose Caucus raised a point of personal privilege claiming that Premie…
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Hard pills to swallow: Tories duck-and-weave amid allegations of conflict.
TweetA CBC investigative team, led by intrepid reporter Charles Rusnell, reported this week that Premier Alison Redford may have put herself in a conflict with the government’s selection of a legal consortium in a $10-billion lawsuit against the …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Potted history: why the winter of 2012 feels like the summer of ’73
Richard Nixon after his overwhelming 1972 re-election victory. Below: George McGovern, Alison Redford. Here in Alberta’s icy capital, the winter of 2012 is starting to feel like the summer of ’73. If you’re an Alberta Progressive Conservative, this is not a good thing. Let me explain. In the spring and summer of 1972, Richard Nixon, …
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Wildrose Party wages permanent negative campaign against Redford Tories.
TweetThe Wildrose Party is running a permanent negative campaign against the long-governing Progressive Conservative Party. Not taking time to break after their defeat in the May 2012 election, Danielle Smith and her 16 Wildrose MLAs are pushing hard t…
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Alberta Politics – Danielle Smith the Meta-Populist
Lesson one in Alberta politics – Don’t fuck with private oil revenue. Lesson two in Alberta politics – There is no lesson two, please refer to lesson one for all concerns about governance. Full marks to Ed Stelmach for attempting to get the public’s meagre spoon into firehouse of wealth that is flowing out of […]
Alberta Diary: Wildrose leader to Albertans: You’re gullible and stupid!
Pastor Allan Hunsperger in exile, as seen by the Wildrose Party’s leadership. Below: Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith (mean photo by Dave Cournoyer); the real Allan Hunsperger; party strategist Tom Flanagan; Wildrose House Leader Rob Anderson. Despite an amusing Pierre Poutine moment before it started, the Wildrose Party’s one-day annual general meeting in Edmonton yesterday seems …
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Right-wing Sun News tries to rescue Conservative fortunes in Calgary-Centre.
TweetJust when it seems like Conservative candidate Joan Crockatt was losing ground and a tight three-way contest in the Calgary-Centre by-election, right-wing cable channel Sun News swooped in with news that will stir up the anti-Liberal sentiments …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Why tossing Alauddin Merali under the bus may not have been a good idea
Health Minister Fred Horne contemplates the Ghost of Firings Past. Or, wait, maybe that’s Michael Giuffre with the Ghost of Pre-Election Advertising Campaigns Past. Whatever, it’s not as grim as the Ghost of Elections Yet to Come, and players in Alberta’s health care system may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Allaudin Merali, Sheila Weatherill, …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Cone of Silence won’t make Albertans any less angry at expense account shenanigans
Alberta Health Minister Fred Horne, at right, and a representative of the media go inside the Cone of Silence to discuss the latest health care expense account revelations. Alberta politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated, but, boy, Maxwell Smart sure looks like Dalton McGuinty! Below: Premier Redford’s sister Lynn, CBC reporter Charles Rusnell and …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta health minister to doctors: shut up and take your medicine!
Long memories? D’ya think? Tory Health Minister Fred Horne overturns an Alberta physicians’ vehicle yesterday. Alberta Progressive Conservative ministers may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Fred Horne, Alberta Medical Association President Dr. Michael Giuffre, former AMA President Dr. Linda Slocombe. When Alberta’s most powerful union – the Alberta Medical Association, which until …
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Disappointed Wildrosers sit outside as Redford Tories abandon Klein-era financing.
TweetAlberta’s opposition parties are traditionally notorious for being unforgiving towards leaders who fail to meet or beat electoral expectations. Take for example former Edmonton Mayor Laurence Decore, who after leading his Liberal Party to it…
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Is a Wildrose ‘coup d’etat’ in the works as blog claims? Not very likely
Shades of Videodrome: Wildrose Deputy Leader Rob Anderson listens to Danielle Smith on a mysterious video about goings on in the Wildrose Party emanating from a French online video site. Actual clips from the missing movie may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Blogger Kathleen Smith, Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith, Progressive Conservative Premier Alison Redford …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta Tories send feds a message, but keep their most dangerous enemies close
Friends close, enemies closer: Alberta Tories, left, send a message to their federal counterparts. Alberta political parties may not be exactly as anthropomorphized. Below: Premier Alison Redford, Niccolo Machiavelli. Proving you really can have it both ways, Premier Alison Redford’s Alberta Tories rapped the knuckles of their federal counterparts yesterday but kept their most dangerous …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Tip for Tories: a grownup conversation about debt will pay political dividends
The House that Ralph built. Alberta mismanaged by market fundamentalists may not appear exactly as illustrated, but close enough. Below: Peter Lougheed, Alison Redford, Ralph Klein. As Alberta’s Tories gather today in Calgary to celebrate Peter Lougheed leading them out of the Social Credit wilderness 41 years ago, they will expend plenty of energy feuding …
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta Conservatives can relate to Tea Party “bozos eruptions.”
TweetGlued to my television last night, I, like probably millions of other Canadians, watched as the blue states and red states were tallied until President Barack Obama defeated former Governor Mitt Romney. Last night and over the course of the Americ…
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