The big non-news in Edmonton this week was the announcement that the area surrounding the new arena, previously known by the rather prosaic ‘arena district’, has been renamed Ice District. (Apparently, it is just ‘Ice District’, not ‘The Ice District’, according to the pretentious PR hacks behind this rebranding.) The
Continue readingTag: edmonton oilers
In This Corner: Stuff Happens, week 25: The great $15 debate; more McMania; new low for Tories
“The folks over there think it’s totally appropriate for a single mother of two or three to have to work 70 hours a week in order to earn a living wage. I say to you that they’re just wrong, and that’s why we are changing the minimum wage in Alberta.”
Continue readingIn This Corner: Stuff Happens, week 24: McMania; a flag flap; PACing it in
Connor McDavid, wearing the surprisingly bold Edmonton Oiler travelling suit. OMG! OMG! OMG! Connor McDavid is an Oiler! Connor McDavid is an Oiler! Connor McDavid is an Oiler! Sigh. Poor Connor. The hopes of an entire city are apparently resting on his muscled shoulders. This city’s infatuation with the Edmonton
Continue readingIn This Corner: Stuff happens, week 19: Debbie does disgrace; gold for Canada; Edmonton icon passes
For the third week in a row, Deborah Drever reigned as Alberta’s most talked-about NDP MLA. Or, more to the point, Alberta’s most talked-about former NDP MLA. The last straw. Drever finally shamed Rachel Notley to the point that she was kicked out of caucus, setting a possible world record
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: The future of Rexall Place without the Edmonton Oilers
TweetIn the great rush to relocate the Edmonton Oilers to Daryl Katz‘s new downtown arena district, there appears to have been little serious thought or planning focused on what to do with the professional hockey team’s long-time current home, Rexall Place. Located north east of downtown on the Northlands Exposition Grounds, Rexall Place is an
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Hockey millionaires and pharmacare tell you everything you need to know about who the Canadian Taxpayers Federation really works for
The Montreal Canadiens in 1912-13. Now the highest-taxed hockey players on the continent, they’re still the best and likely to stay that way. Below: Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions President Linda Silas; U.S. anti-public-health-care fruitloop and Canadian Taxpayers Federation ally Grover Norquist. For a while now it’s seemed as if
Continue readingIn This Corner: ‘The Magnificient New Coliseum’ turns 40, and I was there.
I don’t know about you, but I know exactly what I was doing on the evening of Nov. 10th, 1974, exactly 40 years ago Monday. My ‘I was there’ certificate to the first Oiler game at Northlands Coliseum. I was at a hockey game. Not just any hockey game, mind
Continue readingIn This Corner: The Sun will never darken my door again.
A few weeks ago, a nice young man came to my door, offering a three-month subscription to the Edmonton Sun for $30. I know the Sun essentially sucks, but I figured, hey, $30 for three months of a newspaper. What’s the harm? After about a week, I contemplated cancelling my
Continue readingIn This Corner: Someone save me from another NHL season.
So here I am, basking in the late September sunshine, relishing a 27C day. That can only mean one thing — it’s hockey season! Oh God, no! Didn’t it just finish last month? Or does it only seem like it? I’ve actually grown to kind of hate the National Hockey
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Conservative former Edmonton mayor endorses conservative future Alberta premier: Yawn
Former Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel and PC leadership candidate Jim Prentice, obviously pleased to be in one another’s company, at a news conference yesterday in Edmonton at which Mr. Mandel endorsed Mr. Prentice. Below: The other Tory leadership candidates, Ric McIver and Thomas Lukaszuk, and New Democrat MLA Rachel Notley,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: A tsunami of Tory troubles? Naw, the Alberta universe is unfolding as it should…
All we want are the facts, Ma’am. A couple of investigators hired by Alberta Chief Electoral Officer O. (for Olaf) Brian Fjeldheim prepare to go through the files of friends, relatives and employees of billionaire Daryl Katz who may or may not have donated money to the Redford Tories. Actual
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Eureka! Labour relations in Alberta explained by, of all things, NHL hockey!
An Alberta Labour Relations Board official suddenly realizes how the world works, and immediately rules in favour of the employer. Application of the law in Alberta may be pretty much exactly as illustrated. All but forgotten amidst the rejoicing about the tentative end of the National Hockey League lockout reached
Continue readingAlberta Diary: With the NHL back on the ice, why not let Chinese taxpayers subsidize Canada’s billionaires?
The Great Leap Forum: what Edmonton’s luxurious new ice hockey palace could look like with a little gesture of internationist solidarity from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Communist Chinese friends. Conceptual art by Dave Cournoyer used with permission. It’s a moment of such perfect convergence that it’s astonishing Alberta’s Wildrose Party,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Wildrose rink lotto scheme: a new tax on the prodigal and the poor
Imagine the millions we can scoop up from the foolish and the intoxicated! Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith extemporizes on the advantages of using gambling to subsidize billionaires. Below: Drugstore and hockey billionaire Daryl Katz; former Wildrose candidate Pastor Alan Hunsperger. It was almost a relief yesterday when Danielle Smith, leader
Continue readingIn This Corner: The year in political bloopers.
Ah, politics. It has the potential to inspire, and an even greater potential to inspire derisive laughter or fits of rage. Here, for your reading and enraging enjoyment, are my choices for the top 10 political blunders of 2012, local edition. 1. Allan Hunsperger and the ‘lake of fire’ In
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Fair or not, Opposition targets Katz donation(s) as symbol of Tory sleaze
Caesar repudiates Pompeia: “You’re outta here!” Below: Danielle Smith and Alison Redford. The Wildrose Party strategy for defeating the Progressive Conservative government of Premier Alison Redford when the next election rolls around in 2016 is a variation of the right-wing party’s plan when it came close to winning earlier this
Continue readingcalgaryliberal.com: The Katz Katastrophe
The bending of election rules by the provincial Conservatives isn’t new. It’s a regular affair by now. Kevin Taft’s lawsuit against Elections Alberta, the ongoing debacle of large union and corporate donations, and the disproportionate sway that the oil patch has on Albertan democracy, are not new. Daryl Katz is
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Welcome to Alberta’s Wild West, where the market sets the value of your vote
Drug store billionaire Daryl Katz, right, discusses his plans for a new Edmonton hockey arena with a representative of the Alberta government. Since Wild West hockey barons may not appear exactly as illustrated, a photo of the real Mr. Katz is shown below. (CBC Photo, circa 2008.) Look, people, this
Continue readingIn This Corner: Could it be that Katz sank arena deal because he wants to unload the Oilers?
So the arena deal is dead, at least in its present form. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Daryl Katz has shown that he is not a man the city should be in business with, so let’s wash our hands of this whole sordid mess and consider ourselves lucky. So what
Continue readingAlberta Diary: NHL and NHLPA in labour relations face off: no penalties for Alberta employers caught offside
Members of the NHLPA wait around for their Sui Generis Alberta employers to obey the law. Alberta hockey players may not appear exactly as illustrated – for one thing, they wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the stove. Since the regular season of the National Hockey League was supposed to start
Continue reading