Photo: Former PC MLAs Richard Starke (left) and Rick Fraser (right) at the 2016 Calgary Pride Parade (Photo from Facebook). The recently formed United Conservative Party may be leading in the polls but the party is looking a lot less united. One of the party’s 28 MLAs, Calgary-South East MLA Rick
Continue readingTag: Doug Schweitzer
Alberta Politics: Alberta Legislature Members’ Services Committee passes ‘Derek’s Rule,’ banning Airbnb rentals of MLA apartments
PHOTOS: Former Wildrose and UCP caucus member Derek Fildebrandt, now an Independent Alberta MLA, in happier times for him when he was an employee of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Below: UCP interim Leader Nathan Cooper, former Progressive Conservative interim leader Ric McIver, NDP MLA Estefania Cortes-Vargas, and Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Tracking MLA endorsements in the UCP leadership race
Members of the United Conservative Party will be selecting the party’s first permanent leader on October 28, 2017. After of this week’s fee payment deadline, four candidates will be listed on the ballot: Brian Jean, Jason Kenney, Doug Schweitzer and Jeff Callaway. Of the 28 UCP MLAs represented in Alberta’s
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: The big problem facing Alberta that none of our politicians want to talk about
As the Alberta New Democratic Party enters the half way mark of their first four-year term in office and the United Conservative Party chooses its next leader, a big question that remains unanswered in Alberta politics today is how, in the long-term, the Alberta government plans to deal with the revenue
Continue readingAlberta Politics: This week at the UCP: huge cuts, social conservative sins, and complaints of fractious fibs dominate the conversation
PHOTOS: A screenshot of United Conservative Party leadership frontrunner Jason Kenney as he appeared during his Internet town hall Tuesday. Below: UCP leadership contenders Doug Schweitzer and Brian Jean, U of A Professor Russell Cobb and Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley. Jason Kenney, front-running candidate to lead Alberta’s United Conservative
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Alberta politics never slows down, even in the summer.
Politics never slows down in Alberta, even in the summer. Here is a quick look at some of what has been happening: New UCP caucus has a spending problems A day after the United Conservative Party lined up to criticize Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci, it was revealed that the
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Lessons in Leadership from a Red Tory
Are there any Red Tories left in Alberta? If so they should consider what Kim Campbell has to say about leadership and apply her comments to the men vying for the leadership of the UCP. Kim Campbell was Canada’s 19th Prime Minister. A few short months after being sworn in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Breakup on the right? Naw, Canadian conservative politicians’ long romance with the Rebel isn’t over
PHOTOS: Wildrose-UCP MLA Drew Barnes, who still stands with and by Rebel Media, at a protest on the steps of the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton in December 2015. Below: Federal Conservative leader Andrew Scheer (Photo: Marcos Oliveira, Wikimedia Commons), UCP leadership candidates Jason Kenney and Brian Jean, and Alberta NDP
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Candidate’s proposal to kick B.C. out of New West Partnership is likely to delight West Coast Dippers
PHOTOS: UCP leadership candidate Doug Schweitzer, grabbed from his campaign website. Below: B.C. NDP Premier John Horgan (Wikimedia Commons), Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley, and former WCP president Jeff Callaway. Supporters of United Conservative Party leadership candidate Doug Schweitzer shouldn’t get their hopes up that threatening to kick British Columbia
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Rebel Media becomes a wedge issue in the United Conservative Party leadership race
This weekend’s violent march of Nazis and white supremacists through the streets of Charlotteville, Virginia made international headlines and also had repercussions for the United Conservative Party leadership race in Alberta. Leadership candidate Doug Schweitzer, a Calgary lawyer who is trying to position himself as a social moderate in the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Never mind the Ottawa bashing, Jason Kenney launches bid to lead UCP pitching coded woo to religious right
PHOTOS: Jason Kenney makes it official he’s running to lead Alberta’s United Conservative Party at Edmonton’s Italian Cultural Centre yesterday (Photo: Radio Canada). Below: NDP Premier Rachel Notley and Education Minister David Eggen. How soon before Jason Kenney makes permitting the teaching of “creation science” in Alberta schools a formal
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Brian Jean vows to lead Alberta back into the health care wilderness where we wandered with Ralph Klein
PHOTOS: Calgary General Hospital at the moment it was blown to smithereens in November 1992 by Ralph Klein’s conservative government (Photo: City of Calgary). Below: Outgoing Wildrose leader and United Conservative Party leadership candidate Brian Jean, former Alberta Health Services CEO Vickie Kaminski and current AHS CEO Verna Yiu. Outgoing
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Wildrose-PC merger a big deal, but not a silver bullet for 2019
Albertans will find out on July 22 whether members of the Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties have voted to amend their party constitutions in order to abandon their existing parties and form a new party named the United Conservative Party. For the vote to pass, it will need the support
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The race is on … unity voting starts tomorrow and UCP candidates are already at the clubhouse turn
PHOTOS: The race is on and it looks like … “a dangerous leader.” (Old horseracing print with that title found on the Internet, artist unknown.) Below: Would-be United Conservative Party leaders Brian Jean, Jason Kenney, Doug Schweitzer and Derek Fildebrandt. Calling an effort to merge two large mammals into a
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Two weeks until decision day for Conservatives in Alberta
On July 6, 2016, Jason Kenney officially launched his campaign to capture the leadership of Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives and lead them into a merger with the right-wing Wildrose Party. After 19-years as an Ottawa politician, Kenney was easily able to stage a hostile take-over the broken and battered former governing party.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Mapping the ‘Kleintastrophe’ – veteran journalist and researcher tracks energy policies of past Alberta PC governments
PHOTOS: Alberta premier Ralph Klein at the start of the Kleintastrophe in 1992. (Screenshot of CBC broadcast.) Below: Calgary journalist and researcher Gillian Steward, former Alberta Liberal leader Kevin Taft, the best premier Alberta never had, and would-be United Conservative Party leadership candidate Doug Schweitzer. As the years Ralph Klein
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Looking past pipelines, the NDP-Green agreement looks pretty good for BC
“Mark my words, that pipeline will be built, the decisions have been made.” – Alberta Premier Rachel Notley Alberta politicians, media and pundits are unsurprisingly focused on what the governing agreement between British Columbia New Democratic Party leader John Horgan and Green Party leader Andrew Weaver will mean for the
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Byron Nelson to announce PC leadership bid, pans Kenney’s hostile takeover bid
Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson is expected to announce his plans to seek the leadership of Alberta’s third-place Progressive Conservative Party tomorrow in Calgary. Mr. Nelson was his party’s candidate in Calgary-Bow in the 2015 election and was defeated by New… Continue Reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Strategist Stephen Carter’s reputation instantly boosts Sandra Jansen’s still-unannounced PC leadership bid
PHOTOS: Political strategist Stephen Carter, who says he’s now advising potential Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Sandra Jansen. Below: Ms. Jansen, who says she’s very close to making a decision on whether to run, and Jason Kenney, so far the only declared candidate in the race. It must be great to have a reputation so highly […]
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Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Doug Schweitzer is out of the PC leadership race
Calgary lawyer Doug Schweitzer announced in an email to his supporters today that he will not seek the leadership of Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Party. Mr. Schweitzer is the former CEO of the Manitoba PC Party and was involved in Jim… Continue Reading →
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