This and that for your Tuesday reading. – The Globe and Mail’s editorial board is rightly aghast at Doug Ford’s choice to facilitate the spread of the coronavirus as a devastating fall wave hits, while Bruce Arthur writes that there may be no choice but to impose a lockdown as
Continue readingTag: Jason Kenney
Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Kelly Grant and Andrea Woo write that soaring infection numbers show how Canada’s response to COVID-19 has fallen far short of the mark. Andre Picard makes the point – which seems obvious to everybody other than right-wing premiers – that loosening restrictions on
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 62: Maybe Keystone XL wasn’t a very good investment after all
In this episode of the Daveberta Podcast we discuss: the election of Joe Biden as President of the United States and the future of the Alberta government’s $7 billion investment into the Keystone XL Pipeline. the Kenney government’s response to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and Health Minister
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Auditor General’s Report: $1.6 Billion is NOT a Rounding Error
By a miraculous coincidence the Auditor General’s report on the Kenney government’s first year in office landed smack in the middle of the American election. Well, the election is over. Mr Biden won. Agriculture minister Devin Dreeshen can put away his MAGA hat and we can turn our attention back
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman offer another look (PDF) at the growth of income and wealth inequality in the U.S. Andrew Jackson and Toby Sanger examine (PDF) the case for an annual net wealth tax to reduce its severity in Canada. And
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Antoine Genest-Grégoire, Luc Godbout and Jean-Herman Guay highlight how people are willing to pay more in taxes if they see the benefit to be derived from the revenue. But Laura Kruse notes that Jason Kenney is just one of the anti-social ideologues instead
Continue readingAlberta Politics: With COVID-19 infections surging, Jason Kenney doubles down on failing voluntary strategy
With Alberta’s COVID-19 infection rates surging toward Red State proportions, Premier Jason Kenney opted yesterday to double down on the strategy that’s already failing. Using an unusual Friday COVID-19 briefing as his stage, Premier Kenney bragged about how well Alberta used to be doing, then urged Albertans to do their
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Bruce Arthur writes that Doug Ford’s already-pitiful response to COVID-19 is getting worse as Ontario opens up businesses in the midst of a deadly wave. And Adam Hunter reports that Saskatchewan businesses are worried about Scott Moe’s refusal to require masks anywhere other
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Overwhelmed by new cases, Alberta outsources contact tracing to people testing positive for COVID-19
Overwhelmed by a rising tide of new daily COVID-19 cases – “about 800” were reported yesterday by Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw – Alberta Health Services has announced it will no longer notify most close contacts of Albertans who test positive for the disease. Starting today, if you
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Derrick O’Keefe writes about the possibilities raised by the B.C. NDP’s majority election win – as well as a need for far more ambition to achieve them. – Elise von Scheel reports on new polling results showing that no matter how desperately
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s story about Ottawa’s COVID-19 app keeps changing, but the ending’s still the same: You can’t have it!
Premier Jason Kenney issued a new explanation yesterday for why Alberta won’t adopt the COVID Alert tracing app created by the federal government. In a testy response to a question by the Globe and Mail’s Emma Graney, Premier Kenney claimed the federal smartphone app isn’t compatible with Alberta’s coronavirus infection
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: A Halloween Tale: Jason and The Mirror
For obvious reasons the usual batch of Halloween witches and vampires, pirates and princesses did not ring our doorbell this year. So to mark a different kind of Halloween Ms Soapbox would like to tell you a story. It’s about a magic mirror and a provincial premier named Jason
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta chases multi-billion-dollar deal with Saudis, never mind what Jason Kenney used to say about them
Now that Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party is desperately trying to a do a deal with a Saudi Arabian company to build a petrochemical plant in Alberta, I wonder how long it will take before some clever environmentalist in Quebec or British Columbia says they don’t want no stinkin’ “dictator
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It’s the UCP Government that’s been blocking Albertans’ access to Ottawa’s COVID Alert app, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says
We now know with reasonable certainty it’s the United Conservative Party Government that’s been responsible for blocking Albertans from having access to the federal COVID Alert smartphone app. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made it clear in a radio interview in Edmonton yesterday morning that Ottawa views Alberta’s UCP Government as
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Earth scientist David Hughes, latter-day Cassandra, predicts completed TMX will see extra losses for every barrel shipped to Asia
Earth scientist David Hughes has become well known in certain circles as the Cassandra of the oilpatch. Cassandra, as the classically educated will recall, was the priestess of Apollo cursed to foretell the truth and never persuade anyone. A figure of Greek myth, and a walk-on part with a few
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Public inquiry, conducted in secret, gets another extension to find elusive foreign funders of ‘anti-Alberta’ campaigns
Apparently commissioner Steve Allan still isn’t having any luck finding those sinister foreign funders of “anti-energy” campaigns. But don’t worry, the government of Alberta has given the head of its “inquiry into anti-Alberta energy campaigns” yet another extension to keep looking for the elusive foreigners featured in Premier Jason Kenney’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: How propaganda became memory: Pierre Trudeau, Alberta and the National Energy Program
On this day 40 years ago, prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s finance minister and deputy PM, Allan MacEachen, rose in Parliament to introduce a new national budget. Warning that Canada could become increasingly dependent on foreign supplies of oil and subject to the vagaries of the world oil market, Mr. MacEachen
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP plan to lay off 11,000 public sector health workers sparks wildcat walkouts at 45 Alberta health facilities
Infuriated at the Kenney Government’s determination to lay off 11,000 public sector health care workers and privatize their jobs, members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees walked off the job in a province-wide wildcat strike yesterday morning. Last night, the Alberta Labour Relations Board ruled the work stoppage to
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Chris Champion and the Curriculum Review
Mr Kenney handpicked Mr Champion, a historian, as a subject area expert to provide recommendations for the Kenney government’s revamp of the social studies curriculum for kindergarten to grade 4 students. Mr Champion’s education and experience, while interesting, are utterly irrelevant. He obtained an MA in philosophy from Magdalene College,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: COVID-19? Forget about it! Alberta restaurants to stay open, Premier Jason Kenney vows
“Alberta restaurants to stay open, barring ‘catastrophe,’ premier says,” the CBC’s online headline writer summarized yesterday. Here, as they say on social media, let me fix your headline: “Alberta restaurants to stay open, sparking ‘catastrophe,’ premier says.” Premier Kenney visits an Alberta Restaurant that presumably will be staying open no
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