The European refugee crisis continued unabated this week, and the numbers are staggering. For example, Germany has announced that it will accept 500,000 refugees. Every year. For several years. Germany is a big country, with 81 million people, but a half-million refugees every year for several years is an awful
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In This Corner: Stuff Happens, week 35: Refugees keep coming; Liz sets employment record
The European refugee crisis continued unabated this week, and the numbers are staggering. For example, Germany has announced that it will accept 500,000 refugees. Every year. For several years. Germany is a big country, with 81 million people, but a half-million refugees every year for several years is an awful
Continue readingIn This Corner: Stuff Happens, week 32: Markets dive; Calgary has arena envy
OK, now I don’t want to panic anyone, but if you’re in the stock market, I have a few words of advice. GET OUT NOW!! IT’S A BLOODBATH, PEOPLE!! Just a suggestion. On Friday, markets around the world went in the crapper. the reason being, apparently, China. Seem the world’s
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Throwback Thursday: Trudeau in Edmonton
Throwback Thursday: Justin Trudeau wows crowd of Liberal supporters in Edmonton.
Continue readingIn This Corner: Stuff Happens, week 31: Oil falls, gas goes up … again.
If you’re a regular reader of this blog (and if you are, ask yourself why), you’ve probably grown tired of my ranting about Big Oil’s rip off of the Canadian consumer. From the Globe and Mail, a little proof: “Crude prices have tanked since early May, but gasoline prices have
Continue readingIn This Corner: Stuff Happens, week 28: Your bribe is in the mail; Republicans are Trumped
So, have you received your bribe yet? Stephen Harper’s utterly shameless federal Conservatives are in the process of giving away $3 billion in tax dollars to “hard working Canadian families” (is there any other kind of Canadian family?) in the form of monthly cheques for families with kids. The benefit cheques
Continue readingIn This Corner: Stuff Happens, week 27: ‘Ice’ to see you; El Chapo el escapos; oil spill oops.
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 readingIn This Corner: Stuff Happens, week 25: Grexit explained; bike lanes deflated; Cowboyhatgate
The big international story this week continues to be the Greek debt, and the threat of Greece getting kicked out of the Eurozone, a situation called the Grexit (if this had been an American crisis, it would have been called Greekgate). As a service to my 27 regular readers, I
Continue readingArt Threat: Montreal Fringe: Three for the road
Cootie Catcher, written and performed by Lucas Brooks, focuses on Brooks’ close encounters of the transmissible kind. Using a cootie catcher, better known to some as a fortune teller, Brooks regales the audience with tales of all the times he thought he had been exposed to one STD or another,
Continue readingIn This Corner: Stuff Happens, week 22: A death in Edmonton; Peter MacKlown strikes again; an NDP miscue
A dark week in Edmonton. Const. Daniel Woodall, performing what should have been a fairly routine arrest at a west Edmonton home, was greeted with a hail of gunfire that took his life, and injured another officer. It’s an oft-repeated cliche (that’s what makes it a cliche) that cops never know when the
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 readingIn This Corner: Stuff Happens, Week 2. Target misses the mark, Roxy razed.
The big story of the week in Canada was the departure, with its tail between its legs, of U.S. retail giant Target. The purveyor of so-called ‘cheap chic’ clothing is a big hit in the U.S., but its venture into Canada was a disaster of New Coke proportions. Empty shelves,
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: As Much As I Like Snow…
I think so much at once kinda sucks. 20cm and still accumulating… The view from my front window. Filed under: personal Tagged: Break it down! Its shovel time!, Edmonton, Snow, Too Much Snow
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Business arising from the minutes: Unionized St. Albert workers sign deal; CTF Alberta director suddenly departs
Toronto’s once notorious Rochedale College, now a perfectly respectable apartment building. Below: Outgoing Canadian Taxpayers Federation Alberta Director Derek Fildebrandt and the King’s Noodle Restaurant (grabbed from TripAdvisor). TORONTO It was my intention, since I am away from Alberta on business, not to file an Alberta Diary post this evening.
Continue readingCalgary inches closer to a charter
In 1867, Canada’s founding fathers created two levels of constitutional government—provincial and federal. The municipal level didn’t make the cut. This was excusable at the time. Over 80 per cent of Canadians lived on farms and in villages, so local government seemed rather unimportant in the grand scheme of things
Continue readingIn This Corner: Ode to the bridge to somewhere: a mini-memoir
I went for lunch today with my old pal Bruce Miller. I chose the Original Joe’s on 102 Avenue because a) it’s relatively cheap and good (I always have a wrap, which is enough food for today’s AND tomorrow’s lunch), and b) I wanted to see the gaping hole where
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Photos: Justin Trudeau rally in Edmonton
TweetSee more photos of the “Team Trudeau” rally on Flickr. Tweet
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Justin Trudeau in Edmonton: dismiss this guy as a flake or a lightweight at your peril
Liberal Party of Canada Leader Justin Trudeau energized a crowd of Liberals and the curious last night in Edmonton. Below: His father, Pierre Trudeau, circa 1968; the chip off the old block. I’m pretty sure it was in the spring of 1968 that I heard Pierre Trudeau speak in Victoria’s
Continue readingIn This Corner: The Fringe: Edmonton’s holiest sacred cow.
Every city has its sacred cows, institutions that are so established and so revered, that they are beyond genuine criticism. Edmonton has more than its share. The folk fest is invariably praised to the skies, regardless of the quality of its lineup. The Heritage Festival is always lauded despite the
Continue readingThings Are Good: Edmonton Has a Massive Waste to Biofuel Facility
The province of Alberta is usually only mentioned on this site when people are campaigning against the tar sands and the destruction of the environment. Today though, the capital of Alberta, Edmonton, has done something rather great. Edmonton is home to a large industrial-scale waste processing plant that converts what
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