It is fairly bizarre, now that you mention it, that Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is plowing ahead with his constitutionally meaningless anti-equalization referendum at a moment he’s so messed up Alberta’s response to COVID-19 that other provinces and the Canadian Armed Forces are having to send us ICU nurses to
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Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Smriti Mallapaty reports on new research suggesting that vaccines provide only partial protection against the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19. Sarath Peiris asks when Scott Moe and his minions will be held accountable for sacrificing hundreds of lives and thousands of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Best Summer Ever’ takes its toll on Jason Kenney as Alberta premier’s approval rating tumbles
All of political Alberta was agog yesterday at the revelation 77 per cent of adult Albertans disapprove of Premier Jason Kenney’s leadership according to a recent online survey by ThinkHQ Public Affairs Inc. The premier’s approval rating, which the Calgary-based polling company characterized as tumbling, has now reached 22 per
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Jason Kenney the Anecdotal Policy Maker
“Anecdotal” (anəkˈdōdl) adjective: an account not necessarily true or reliable, because based on personal accounts rather than facts or research. And the gong show continues. On Sept 30, we learned Jason Kenney puts more weight on random anecdotal stories than the expert opinions of healthcare professionals. At last Thursday’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – The Canadian Press reports on the overwhelming public support for vaccine mandates and other public health rules – as well as the supermajorities recognizing that Jason Kenney and Scott Moe have failed their provinces: Unsurprisingly given their provinces’ struggles with the fourth
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – The Globe and Mail’s editorial board discusses the need to consider whether to lift public health measures with care rather than stubborn anti-social ideology. Adam Miller writes that Alberta’s failure to do anything of the sort in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Anand Giridharadas writes about the dangers of letting political discussions become primarily a matter of process and personalities, rather than the real impact decisions have on people’s lives. – Graham Thomson calls out Jason Kenney for his consistent refusal to acknowledge the reality
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta premier’s rambling, uninformative news conference fails to live up to billing
All direct employees of the Alberta Government will now be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or provide regular negative test results, Premier Jason Kenney announced yesterday. Umm… That’s it. Alberta Public Service Commissioner Tim Grant (Photo: Screenshot of Alberta Government video). Of course, that’s not just it. As
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Teachers overwhelmingly reject Alberta’s draft K-6 curriculum, but that’s unlikely to change Jason Kenney’s mind
It won’t come as a shock to anyone in Alberta that the Kenney Government’s draft Kindergarten-to-Grade-6 curriculum is a dangerous and ideologically motivated dud, or that most professional teachers despise it. Still, kudos to the Alberta Teachers Association for actually going to the trouble of commissioning an exhaustive professional review
Continue readingAlberta Politics: As volcano spews lava from Spanish island into Atlantic, huge bozo eruption reported in Alberta city north of Calgary
Lava flowing from a volcanic eruption in Spain’s Canary Islands reached the Atlantic Ocean yesterday, raising fears among scientists who study geophysical and geochemical phenomena of dangerous explosions and toxic gases. Meanwhile, in the Canadian province of Alberta, political scientists were tracking a major bozo eruption in the small city
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Conservative MLA, notorious for ‘Cheezies’ remark, righteously scorched by indignant Edmonton physicians
It’s a wonder Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s inbox didn’t spontaneously combust yesterday when the letter from the Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association landed in it. Signed by EZMSA President Erika MacIntyre, Vice-President Cheryl Mack, and 10 other physicians, the letter was intended to take UCP MLA Shane Getson to task
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Don Braid discusses how Alberta’s health care system and polity are both collapsing under the weight of a UCP government which has utterly failed to protect either from readily-preventable damage. And Emily Pasiuk reports on Jason Kenney’s continued excuses for letting COVID-19 run
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney says it ain’t so, but with Alberta’s high COVID-19 rates, a hard lockdown seems inevitable soon
Brace yourselves, Alberta, for a hard, circuit-breaker lockdown to rein in the province’s surging, out-of-control COVID-19 infection rate. We can be reasonably certain this is coming soon to Alberta’s error-riddled pandemic response because Jason Kenney informed us yesterday there’s no way it’s going to happen. Former health minister Tyler Shandro
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 78: Orange and Red in a Sea of Blue
Brad Lafortune joins Dave Cournoyer on the Daveberta Podcast to discuss the federal election results in Alberta, including NDP candidate Blake Desjarlais‘ spectacular win over Kerry Diotte in Edmonton-Griesbach, and the ongoing troubles in the United Conservative Party and how many more days Jason Kenney might have as leader. We
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: On Liberty and Alberta’s Covid Crisis
This is for the woman who yelled “Do you feel safer now?” when my daughter stepped off the sidewalk to give the woman and her rambunctious dog room to pass. Do you feel safer now? My daughter stepped off the curb to give the woman and her dog some space.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Ian Austen takes Alberta’s shame to the international stage by pointing out how the UCP’s “best summer ever” has given rise to the fourth wave of COVID-19. Adam Hunter points out how similarly disastrous pandemic mismanagement hasn’t yet produced the same political
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Napoleon’s advice to the Alberta NDP: ‘Never interfere with your enemy when he’s busy destroying himself’
VICTORIA – At least some in the Alberta NDP must have been offering up discreet prayers of thanks last night. Premier Jason Kenney, threatened with a vote of confidence yesterday by his rebellious United Conservative Caucus members, bluffed the lot of them into silence. Alberta Opposition Leader Rachel Notley, the
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: An Open Letter To Jason Kenney
Dear Premier Kenney, The time for you to step down has come. It actually arrived in July of 2021 when COVID-19 modelling was showing Alberta going into a fourth wave in mid-August. Your government decided to do nothing then, and things got worse than they needed to. You disappeared on
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta Health Minister shuffled to Labour; Labour Minister shuffled to Health … premier says he won’t quit
VICTORIA – Say what you will about Jason Kenney, he never fails to disappoint. When the buzz hit social media yesterday morning that Alberta’s premier would attempt to shore up his shaky perch atop Alberta’s government with a post-federal-election cabinet shuffle, the assumption was natural that he was about to
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.
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