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 readingTag: disasters
Views from the Beltline: Disaster city
“Canada is increasingly a riskier place to live, work and insure,” said Craig Stewart, Vice-President, Climate Change and Federal Issues, Insurance Bureau of Canada. The bureau’s stats back up Mr. Stewart’s words. Canada’s top 10 highest insurance loss years all occurred since 2011 with the exception of 1998, the year
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Danielle Smith Stands her Ground (or something)
Last week the Feds unveiled the Sustainable Jobs Act, Danielle Smith responded in her typical word-salad fashion and the press lauded her for standing her ground. Against what? The Feds said… Natural Resources Minister, Johnathan Wilkinson, says the Act is about creating and protecting jobs as we shift to a
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Politicization of the Beast
Welcome to “Life in a Conservative Province” also known as “they say the wackiest things.” “They” being conservative premiers who say idiotic things when asked: how do you reconcile your government’s policies with the impact of climate change on the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires? Before we get into
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Wildfires and Gordon Lightfoot
“Do the best with what you’ve got.”—Gordon Lightfoot News of Gordon Lightfoot’s death, while not unexpected, still came as a shock. We didn’t think he’d live forever; truth be told we didn’t think about him very much anymore, then boom! he was gone. And I’ve been thinking about him
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Reno
Ms Soapbox is on week six of an eight week renovation. The sad little room in the photo is what is left of her writing room. She’s taken to working in the basement wrapped in a blanket and her energy is flagging. While this situation lends itself to all sorts
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: “Hold the Line” and other malarkey
The Public Order Emergencies Commission was convened to determine whether the federal government erred by invoking the Emergencies Act. It will be months before we have a decision, but it only took a week of testimony for many Canadians to decide the organizers of the trucker convoy are a bunch
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Let’s Talk About Insurance
While Jason Kenney is running all over the province trying to convince UCP members he’s there for them, the actions of his government in the House last week tell a different story. But before we go there, let’s play a game. I’ll say a word and you say the first
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Ukraine Under Attack
My parents fled Hungary in 1950. They met on the boat coming over to Canada and were married a couple of years later. I’m a first generation Canadian. Ever so grateful to have been born here. I can’t write about what’s happening in Ukraine. But I do know this, we
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Kenney’s Awesome Summer and Disastrous Fall
“So, no, I don’t apologize for the decision to relax public health restrictions in the summer.” – Jason Kenney Let’s recap what’s happened since July 1 when Kenney waxed eloquent about a new day dawning and the future looking brighter because we’d “crushed” covid and were officially open for summer.
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Another Covid Solution, Another Non-Plan
Nero fiddled while Rome burned; Jason Kenney hid while Albertan’s lives and livelihoods went up in smoke. Last Thursday Health minister Shandro and Drs Hinshaw and Yiu unveiled the government’s latest non-plan to get Alberta through the pandemic. Alberta’s ICUs are at 130% capacity when surge capacity is excluded (87%
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Jason Kenney Reverses Peter Lougheed’s Coal Policy
Remember 2017 when Jason Kenney continually invoked Peter Lougheed’s name in his quest for the UCP leadership? Well, it’s 2021 and Mr Kenney isn’t wrapping himself in Mr Lougheed’s mantle any longer. He’s ripping it to shreds. Next week the Kenney government is going to court to defend
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Kenny: Rights and Responsibilities During a Pandemic
Last week when Alberta’s covid infection rate spiked to record highs, the positive-test rate climbed to 10.5%, and doctors across the province begged for more restrictive public health measures to avoid the refrigerator trucks, Mr Kenney appeared on Facebook to answer questions about the restrictions he had imposed on Nov
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Jason Kenney’s Miniscule Pandemic Bump
He’s tried everything from rolling up his shirtsleeves and pointing at graphs to quoting Franklin Roosevelt (“we have nothing to fear but fear itself”), but still Albertans refuse to give him his due. Jason Kenney’s pandemic performance gave him a one point bump in approval ratings (from 47 to
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: What Did I Miss?
Ms Soapbox just returned from a week in British Columbia. As you might expect, the residents of BC are more interested in their own issues than what ails the richest and whiniest province in the country. Consequently, the only Alberta news we received from the local news outlets was the
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Greta Visits Alberta
“So today is Friday and as always, we are on Climate Strike, young people all around the globe are today sacrificing their education to bring attention to the climate and ecological emergency.”—Greta Thunberg On Friday my friend Elaine and I joined more than 10,000 Albertans to show our support for
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: What a Week
The week started out strange and got a whole lot stranger. Derek Fildebrandt’s Bev Oda moment This week we learned that Derek Fildebrandt Airbnb-ed his taxpayer subsidized apartment, pocketed the cash and claimed the full rental expense in his housing allowance. Most people would call it double dipping but Mr
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Wildfire Reports: A political firestorm
Wildrose leader Brian Jean is furious with the NDP government’s response to two reports on the Fort McMurray wildfire. He says the government is attempting to whitewash the reports’ findings and delayed releasing them in a shocking display of arrogance which is “totally unacceptable in any democracy.” He wants a
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Cassandra Award
This is an interesting concept. Check out the website and watch the following brief video. Recommend this Post
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Principles vs Politics
The Wildrose Opposition spent the last three weeks berating the NDP government for not spending millions and millions of dollars fast enough. Wait, what? The Wildrose says farmers are being “held to ransom” because they’ve had to delay the 2017 planting season waiting around for AgriInsurance adjusters to declare their
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