Sounding a mite panicked by the negative public response to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s willingness to bend rules to help political allies in trouble with the law, the United Conservative Party has retreated to its ideological safe space: Law ’n’ Order, with a side of dog-whistles and urban crime stereotypes.
Continue readingTag: Danielle Smith
Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – IOS Press discusses new research showing that COVID-19 accelerates the cognitive decline in people already living with dementia. F. Perry Wilson examines how COVID has both directly exacerbated the U.S.’ fatality rate, and further exposed existing deficiencies in public health. And John Klein
Continue readingAlberta Politics: On Monday Danielle Smith quoted government lawyers; now Alberta’s premier says the UCP is paying for her to sue the CBC
Can you imagine the almighty hoo-ha that would break out across this country if the Alberta NDP ponied up the dough for its leader to sue Postmedia or the Western Standard for defamation? Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Don’t worry. It’s not going to happen. And
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta premier hides behind lawsuit that hasn’t happened to dodge reporters’ difficult questions
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith hid behind a lawsuit that doesn’t exist yesterday to avoid answering reporters’ questions about her sympathetic telephone chat with an unsavoury political ally facing criminal charges. Premier Smith’s controversial telephonic interlocutor, Artur Pawlowski (Photo: Facebook/Artur Pawlowski). If this gambit proves anything, I suppose, it’s that there’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Last week wasn’t a good one for Alberta’s UCP – this week holds the promise of more … snow
They say a week is a long time in politics, but last week must have felt like eternity to the United Conservative Party brain trust. Deputy Premier Kaycee Madu (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). Its efforts to make the revelations of that leaked phone call between Premier Danielle Smith and anti-vaxx, pro-Convoy
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Smith’s 11 Minute Phone Call with the Pastor
“That’s an astounding thing to say from the Premier of the province.” – Law prof Eric Adams On May 29 Danielle Smith issued a press statement to pre-empt a CBC story about a conversation she had with street-pastor Artur Pawlowski. People thought she was bracing for renewed accusations that she
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Premier threatens CBC for reporting her own words in phone conversation with anti-vaxx pastor facing criminal charges
It may not be Lake of Fire 2.0, but you wouldn’t think Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s blustering response yesterday to the CBC’s release of a recording of her telling an anti-vaccine pastor facing criminal charges that she was talking to Justice officials “almost weekly” about his case is going to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: So what kind of UCP candidates will replace Finance Minister Travis Toews and Environment Minister Sonya Savage?
Friday’s revelation that neither Finance Minister Travis Toews nor Environment Minister Sonya Savage would be running for re-election in the expected May 29 provincial vote quickly gave way to speculation about who, or at least what kind of candidate, would replace them in the short spell remaining till the election
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Who Do You Trust?
In less than 70 days Albertans will decide whether Daniel Smith’s UCP or Rachel Notley’s NDP will form the next government. Political junkies like me have pretty much made up our minds about who’s getting our vote, but we’re always interested in what others are thinking. which was why I
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Budget ’23: The Same Old Razzle Dazzle (with sprinkles on top)*
I’m not sure what Trevor Tombe did that caused Danielle Smith to say he was becoming one of her favourite economists, but it certainly wasn’t this. In a recent article about Budget 2023 Tombe said the budget moved Alberta into a “new fiscal reality where we are more reliant on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Lucky Tran offers a reminder not to take seriously the anti-science cranks determined to claim that COVID-19 mitigation measures (including masking) should be dispensed with. And Joy Jiang et al. find that COVID vaccination helps to lower the risk of cardiac events
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Astonishing! It’s Budget Day and suddenly there’s no health care crisis, and Alberta Health Services is A-OK!
It’s a shocker! But it turns out there is no crisis at Alberta Health Services! NDP Seniors and Housing Critic Lori Sigurdson (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). No need to take my word for this. It comes straight from the lips of Dr. John Cowell, the sole Administrator appointed by Premier
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Day Premier Smith Lost All Credibility
Albertans are asking a lot of questions about RStar, the $100 million pilot program designed to give owners of inactive wells a royalty credit on new wells if they clean up their old wells which they’re legally obligated to clean up in the first place. The question asked by a
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 85: Naheed Nenshi on Calgary in Alberta’s 2023 election
Former Calgary mayor shares his thoughts on Danielle Smith, Rachel Notley and the city he calls home ahead of Alberta’s provincial election. Former Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi joins the Daveberta Podcast to talk about provincial politics in Alberta’s largest city, the upcoming election, and The Last of Us and the
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The RStar Debacle (Who’s going to clean up this mess?)
“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” — opening scene, Star Wars The first thing I thought of when I heard the word RStar was the opening sequence in the first Star Wars movie: yellow letters scroll up the screen and the audience learns about the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Paula Span discusses how older Americans (and their peers elsewhere) have been left to navigate the pandemic with no consideration for their health and safety. Kailin Yin et al. examine the ways in which long COVID can affect immune system function. And Linda
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The ‘RStar’ scam’s not a good deal, but it’s a done deal, even if it goes against a ‘core capitalist principle’
The shocker isn’t that the awful “RStar” scam is a done deal. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). The old fixeroo for that dirty deal has been in ever since Danielle Smith was chosen last year as leader of the United Conservative Party, and therefore as premier of Alberta, with
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Health care funding: Trudeau looks serene, even mischievous; premiers look like they’re just going to have to take it
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looked like the smooth old political pro he has become yesterday as he laid out his health care deal for Canada’s perpetually dissatisfied and mostly Conservative premiers. Former Alberta premier Rachel Notley looks askance of Mr. Trudeau’s proffered hand (Photo: Canadian Press). Try as they might
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Former premier, CMOH – both battered by the winds of COVID controversy – find soft post-pandemic landings
Surely it was mere coincidence that two of the principal actors in Alberta’s COVID-19 drama had soft post-pandemic landings announced yesterday. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney, pushed out of office by the schemes of the current premier, former talk-radio host and conspiracy
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Shandro’s Disciplinary Hearing
The “boiling frog syndrome” is a metaphor used to describe the failure to act against a problematic situation which will increase in severity until reaching catastrophic proportions.—Wikipedia. Let’s talk about Tyler Shandro’s disciplinary hearing. While it’s easy to get drawn into the melodrama and pathos (key elements in a
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