PHOTOS: Social conservative publisher and ideologue Ted Byfield (Photo: Screenshot of Youtube Video). Below: United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney, NDP Education Minister David Eggen, and Calgary-West UCP MLA Mike Ellis (Photo: Screenshot of CBC broadcast). It’s fair to suggest Ted Byfield always dreamed of being able to direct Alberta’s
Continue readingTag: education policy
Alberta Politics: A wacky idea for getting more value from university administrators: pay them less and never mind competitiveness
PHOTOS: Alberta Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt serving pancakes at yesterday morning’s Premier’s K-Days Breakfast on the south lawn of the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton. Below: Just to stick with the photographic theme, even though it has nothing to do with the story, Premier Rachel Notley cooking up the flapjacks
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Media readers deserve the whole story about the sources reporters quote in public policy stories
PHOTOS: The question isn’t just whether Alberta’s students are getting the information they need, but whether media is giving the rest of us all the facts we require when we read news stories about education policy. Below: Former Edmonton Public Schools curriculum director Stuart Wachowicz, a frequent source used in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Holy smoke! Saskatchewan court’s Catholic education ruling is a bombshell
PHOTOS: Calgary Catholic School District headquarters (Screen grab from Google Street View). Below: Mr. Justice Donald Layh being sworn in in 2014 (Yorkton Today), Edmonton Catholic School District Headquarters, Edmonton Public School Trustee Michael Janz. Holy smoke! The ruling Thursday by a Saskatchewan judge that the province’s government may no
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Week in Review: We know where the Wildrosers are, but where’s Jason?
ILLUSTRATIONS: Where’s Jason? If anyone spots PC Leader Jason Kenney, who doesn’t have to show up in the Legislature because he’s not an MLA, please let a responsible grownup know. Below: Education Minister David Eggen and Opposition Leader Brian Jean. There’s no doubt about where Mr. Jean will be found,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Big changes coming to academic faculty, graduate student and postdoctoral bargaining rights in Alberta
PHOTOS: Could we someday see scenes like this one at Boston University in 1979 at an Alberta University? The late Howard Zinn, author of the People’s History of the United States (banned in Arkansas), is visible, quite naturally, I suppose, near the front on the left. (Photo from the Boston
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney and the GSA reverse-tip-line brouhaha: Is this conservative turning into the Anita Bryant of Canada?
PHOTOS: Is Jason Kenney turning into Canada’s Anita Bryant? Actual Canadian politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons.) Below: The real Jason Kenney, and singer-songwriters k.d. lang and Boy George. Is Jason Kenney turning into the Anita Bryant of Canada? If you’re of a certain age, you
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Education Minister deserves high marks for ordering recalcitrant religious schools to obey GSA law, but more is needed
PHOTOS: Alberta Education Minister David Eggen. Below: Edmonton lawyer Dan Scott, Kristopher Wells of the U of A’s Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services and Brian Coldwell of the Independent Baptist Christian Education Society. Sometimes a government just needs to do the right thing and let the chips fall
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Despite Opposition demands, Alberta NDP says no to risky conservative ideological experiments in its 2017 budget
PHOTOS: Finance Minister Joe Ceci. Below: Interim Progressive Conservative Ric McIver showing off his Three Stooges tie, the sale of which puts the gross in Gross National Product; Opposition Leader Brian Jean; and Alberta Liberal interim Leader David Swann. “Admit it, Alberta, after yesterday afternoon’s Budget Speech was read by
Continue readingAlberta Politics: School bus rides may not be free, as interim Tory leader reminds us, but we all benefit when we share the cost
PHOTOS: Former Progressive Conservative premier Jim Prentice and interim PC leader Ric McIver, back in 2015. Both men, one could argue, found math could be hard. Below: NDP Premier Rachel Notley and PC premier Ralph Klein. “There’s no such thing as a free ride to school on a bus.” —
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Conservative parties compete to demand fat tax subsidies for Alberta’s education special interest groups
PHOTOS: In Alberta, private schoolboys like these would have 70 per cent of the cost of their education paid for by taxpayers! (BBC photo.) Below: Progressive Conservative leadership frontrunner Jason Kenney and Wildrose Education Critic Leela Aheer, both of whom support tax subsidies for shee-shee private schools. Below them: NDP
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Advocates of more choice in education unite to condemn public school board chair’s call for more choice in education
PHOTOS: Edmonton Public School Board Chair Michael Janz, at the podium and on the job. Below: Canadian Taxpayers Federation Communications Vice-President Scott Henning, Parents for Choice in Education Director Donna Trimble, and the Edmonton Christian High School, which is run under the auspices of the EPSB. Conservative politicians, their vocal
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Athabasca U’s future seems brighter as Saskatchewan prof named to conduct sustainability review
PHOTOS: The participants in this morning’s Athabasca University news conference in Edmonton. From left to right: Saskatchewan Professor Ken Coates, Athabasca University Board Chair Margaret Mrazek, Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt and AU President Neil Fassina. Below: A closer look at Mr. Schmidt’s new beard; newly appointed Municipal Affairs Minister
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Anticipated court scrap between government and home schoolers ends with whimper, not bang
PHOTOS: The school run by the Trinity Christian School Association in Cold Lake (photo from the group’s website). Below: Alberta Education Minister David Eggen, Alberta Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley, NDP MLA Heather Sweet, and Progressive Conservative Party interim Leader Ric McIver. The resolution yesterday of the much-anticipated cage fight between
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Fred Henry, departing Catholic bishop, held strong pro-labour stance in addition to controversial social conservative views
PHOTOS: Frederick Henry during his 19 years as Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Calgary. (Screen shot from a diocese video.) Below: Two scenes from the picket line at the Calgary Herald during the 1999-2000 strike. In the first, striker Murdoch Macleod and others bravely face down a truck
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney states his support for public funding of home-schooling, parents’ right to veto sex education, and more
PHOTOS: Jason Kenney … he’s got some thoughts on education and we thought you might like to know what they are (CBC photo). Below: Alberta Education Minister David Eggen, Progress Alberta Executive Director Duncan Kinney and defiant Pastor Brian Coldwell of Parents for Choice in Education. Where does Jason Kenney
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thinking about my dad on the 100th anniversary of his birth and Canada’s need for public post-secondary education
PHOTOS: My dad, John L. Climenhaga, as a University of Saskatchewan undergraduate. Below: My father, in the foreground, circa 1917, about the time the asteroid now named Climenhaga in his honour was discovered, and, many years later, in his modest office at the University of Victoria. Below those shots, the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: In the debate over home schooling and ‘parents’ rights,’ we need to remember children have rights too
PHOTOS: Alberta Education Minister David Eggen. Below: Wildrose Opposition Leader Brian Jean and film director and former American evangelical Frank Schaeffer (Salon photo). Controversy in Alberta over the provincial government’s decision to withdraw funding and accreditation from a private Christian school association that oversaw about a third of the province’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: We don’t need an inquiry – we need to bring the hammer of defunding down now on scofflaw private schools
PHOTOS: NDP Education Minister David Eggen – he’s trying to do the right thing, but he’s making it worse. The time has come to bring the hammer down and defund schools that won’t obey Alberta’s law on gay-straight alliances. Below: Rev. Brian Coldwell, chair of two private schools determined to break the law (CBC photo), […]
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Continue readingAlberta Politics: Where exactly is the ‘compromise’ Jason Kenney thinks the NDP should make on sexual minority rights?
PHOTOS: Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Jason Kenney back in the day … welcoming refugees? Well, not if they wanted health care. Unintended ironic juxtaposition, I suppose. (Photo from abbotsfordtoday.blogspot.ca.) Below: Alberta Education Minister David Eggen; New Testament Baptist Church, just west of Edmonton. Where exactly is this “sensible Alberta compromise” Jason Kenney advises the province’s […]
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