Martin Olzynski’s submission this week has called plenty of attention to the Kenney UCP’s funding of climate denialism through an inquiry attacking environmentalism. But let’s note that the response to Olzynski’s observations only makes the inquiry look all the worse. Here’s the excuse from the inquiry’s spokesman: Boras suggested to
Continue readingTag: Jason Kenney
Alberta Politics: ‘Public’ inquiry into ‘anti-Alberta’ campaigns descends into fiasco with request for third extension, apparently posted in error
Having just been busted for commissioning three reports that an expert critic dismissed as “textbook examples of climate change denialism,” the commissioner of the so-called Public Inquiry into Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns now appears to be seeking a third extension of time before delivering his final report. Commissioner Steve Allan’s request
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Climate-change denial, bias, and a Marxist under every bed of leaves characterize papers commissioned by energy campaigns inquiry
An “engagement process update” published Wednesday night by the so-called Public Inquiry into Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns reveals inquiry head Steve Allan commissioned reports by climate-change skeptics and a fossil fuel industry advocacy group in the United States. A critical submission to the $3.5-million inquiry by University of Calgary law professor
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Kenney kicks Lesser Slave Lake MLA Pat Rehn, often missing in action, out of UCP Caucus
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney moved quickly to kick Pat Rehn out of the United Conservative Party Caucus this morning, a day after an Edmonton researcher revealed the Lesser Slave Lake MLA spent almost all of last April, May, June and July in Edmonton while constituents complained he was never in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Expense claims show MLA who rarely visits his own riding spent almost every day in Edmonton for four months last year
Lots of Pat Rehn’s constituents may think the Lesser Slave Lake MLA is about as helpful as a screen door on a submarine, but it turns out the fellow’s been able to dine out on his exalted status just the same. Quite literally, it would seem. Researcher Tony Clark (Photo:
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Teachers are bound to be furious about UCP’s Christmas coup to consolidate control over their pensions
If the Kenney Government’s Christmas Eve coup to consolidate control over $18 billion in Alberta Teachers Retirement Fund assets shows anything, it’s that the United Conservative Party’s investment strategy is as good as its political strategy! Or maybe we should put that the other way: that the government’s political strategy
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Roger McNamee argues that online platforms need to be held to account for their role in fomenting political violence. And Rebecca Traister writes about the need for U.S. Democrats to focus on improving people’s lives rather than sacrificing the public good in the
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 66: Aloha! Flying into Alberta politics in 2021
What lies ahead for Alberta politics in 2021? Dr. Jared Wesley joins Dave Cournoyer on the Daveberta Podcast to discuss Jason Kenney’s leadership of the United Conservative Party, Rachel Notley’s focus on health care during the pandemic, the Alberta Party and Wildrose Independence Party leadership races, and the equalization referendum
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: What Albertans Can Learn From the Attack on the Capitol
Federal Judge Damon Keith said democracy dies in the dark, but as we’ve learned over the last four years, it can also die in broad daylight if it is abused by power-mad leaders like Donald Trump and, it should be noted, equally determined leaders like Jason Kenney. Trump tried to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Clarity on pandemic travel: it’s bad, but it’s safe; it’s not recommended, but it’s facilitated … OK?
Travelling by air is safer than going to the grocery store, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney explained to yesterday’s COVID-19 news conference. But that doesn’t mean you should travel by air. Or shouldn’t go to the grocery store. Or something. Chief Medical Officer Deena Hinshaw at the same event (Photo: Chris
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta premier piously pleads for restoration of order in Washington, smooth ascension of Joe Biden to U.S. presidency
“Alberta has always had close ties to the United States, so it’s painful to watch the bizarre scenes unfolding at the U.S. Capitol,” Jason Kenney lamented yesterday, presumably tweeting from a secure command post atop the office building that overlooks the Alberta Legislature. “Political violence is always wrong, especially when
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Hola Tany Yao! You’ve got voicemail! Meanwhile, Energy Minister Sonya Savage completes essential holiday home maintenance in B.C.
One of Our MLAs is Missing! I know, this sounds like the title of a bad movie, the kind that might earn three rotten tomatoes on an online review site, but it’s for real. Energy Minister Sonya Savage – her Okanagan holiday home needed “essential maintenance” (Photo: David J. Climenhaga).
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Jason Kenney: A Failure to Communicate?
On Jan 1, 2021, Jason Kenney held a press conference to respond to the alarming news that some of his MLAs, political staff and senior government officials decided it was just fine to fly off to places like the UK, Mexico and Hawaii over the holidays notwithstanding the federal and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Defiant Kenney on minister’s Hawaiian hijinks: No rules were broken, so no consequences
Aloha, Alberta! Jason Kenney doesn’t give a hoot* what you think. Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard’s Christmas post on Instagram, published while she was in Hawaii (Photo: Instagram). That’s the key takeaway from the premier’s defiant news conference early this afternoon about the cabinet minister who jetted off for a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Political New Year’s fireworks go off as Alberta learns Tracy Allard, minister responsible for vaccine rollout, is just back from Hawaiian vacation
Happy New Year, Alberta! And welcome to the first United Conservative Party Government scandal of 2021: Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard has been caught vacationing in Hawaii, mid-pandemic. Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf shows a copy of today’s edition of his local newspaper in a video posted to Facebook this morning
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Social media abuzz with reports of UCP staffers, MLA vacationing abroad despite pandemic travel warnings
Social media is abuzz with reports of United Conservative Party staffers and at least one UCP MLA enjoying vacations abroad notwithstanding the federal government’s pleas for Canadians to cancel all travel during the coronavirus pandemic. Most mainstream media in Alberta, however, seem to be engaging in an anguished internal debate
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Emma Ladds, Alex Rushforth, Sietse Wieringa, Sharon Taylor, Clare Rayner, Laiba Husain and Trisha Greenhalgh study the wade-ranging and severe symptoms resulting from “long COVID”, while Jennifer Lutz and Richard Carmona point out how a health care system dependent on individual funding
Continue readingAlberta Politics: More than 1,000 Albertans have died from COVID-19, half of them in the past month
Albertans learned yesterday the grim toll from COVID-19 in the province has now passed 1,000 deaths. This is a terrible tragedy but it need surprise no one, given humanity’s extensive knowledge of the science of infectious disease and the way the Kenney Government nevertheless dragged its feet each step of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Owen Jones writes that the oft-repeated message that the public is responsible for the control (or spread) of COVID-19 serves mostly to deflect from gross failures of government. Grant Robertson reports on the deterioration of Canada’s capacity to respond to a pandemic.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: AlbertaPolitics.ca marks its 13th anniversary today as 2020, annus horribilis, nears its end
Today marks the 13th anniversary of the first post published on this blog, known at the time as St. Albert Diary, and later, for a spell, as Alberta Diary. So, by the standards of the Internet, this makes AlbertaPolitics.ca an institution. Premier Jason Kenney, striking an avuncular pose himself (Photo:
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