You can just tell it’s likely to be a crazy week in Alberta politics. To understand just how crazy, you have to think about what the Kenney Government is noisily focusing on, and what is actually happening. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). In the Legislature, Premier Jason
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The Daveberta Podcast: Episode 58: Alberta Politics Summer Q&A
You sent us your questions and we answered! In this edition of the annual Alberta politics Q&A episode, Daveberta Podcast host Dave Cournoyer and producer Adam Rozenhart dive into the mailbag to answer listener questions about provincial parks, the Heritage Savings Trust Fund, the reopening of schools in September, political
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Zach Carter highlights how jurisdictions whose governments have rushed to reopen businesses in the wake of COVID-19 have been rewarded with nothing other than mass death. And Peter Hartcher calls out Australia’s for right-wing government for lacking any plan for a recovery. –
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Alberta is Not for Sale
“Greed is good. Greed is right. Greed works.” — Gordon Gekko in the movie ‘Wall Street’ Our Covid numbers are rising, GDP is falling and the UCP government is burying us in a blizzard of announcements promising a relaunch strategy that will return us to “normal”. The challenge for Albertans
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Auguries aren’t auspicious for September amid UCP’s rush to reopen Alberta schools
Alberta has been relatively lucky up to now with the impact of the global coronavirus epidemic on its population. Premier Jason Kenney and his United Conservative Party Government are ready to bet your life that good luck will continue. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Desperate to relaunch
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Little sister is watching: Was Jason Kenney’s Southern Alberta RV tour fake news?
“The premier of Alberta rolled into Fort Macleod last week with a message of hope,” the Fort Macleod Gazette reported enthusiastically in its July 8 edition. What’s more, the Gazette went breathlessly on, “Premier Jason Kenney held court at Stronghold Brewery on June 30 during his tour of southern Alberta
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Side deals with specialists emerge as latest UCP tactic in escalating war with Alberta Medical Association
The Kenney Government yesterday again escalated its continuing war with the Alberta Medical Association, indicating it would consider letting rival groups representing medical specialties quit the doctors’ collective bargaining association and negotiate directly with the government. In a statement obviously intended to rock the AMA, Health Minister Tyler Shandro commented
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta now has the highest per capita rate of COVID-19 infections in Canada: this is nothing to be proud of
Today will be a significant day in Alberta’s struggle with the coronavirus. We will learn, this afternoon, just how bad things are. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: Chris Schwarz, Government of Alberta). Will they be getting a little better after a worrisome statistical bump? If they aren’t, will they be
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Iglika Ivanova examines who has lost jobs to COVID-19, and who needs public support to be able to return to the workforce. Tara Deschamps reports on an RBC study showing women’s participation in the workforce has been set back three decades by
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Murray Mandryk writes about the history behind the possibility of a large-scale irrigation project. But Jason Warick reports that in trying to make a snap decision, Scott Moe completely failed to consult with First Nations who stand to yet again lose land to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What’s making Ottawa’s environment minister suddenly give the Vista coal mine proposal the fish eye?
Yesterday we learned that Jonathan Wilkinson, the federal environment minister, is reconsidering a decision he made in December to leave it up to the industry-funded Alberta Energy Regulator to decide if a huge coal mine expansion should be approved near Hinton, just east of the Jasper National Park gate. Even
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On foreign interference
Of course, while Scott Moe is accepting the plans of pseudo-separatists to hand Saskatchewan over to Jason Kenney, it’s also worth asking what he’s getting in return for his subservience. On that front, the Breakdown has reported that public funds funnelled by Kenney into Alberta’s War Room have been used
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On meritless demands
Mitchell Anderson is right to question why Jason Kenney is so obsessed with betting the pensions of every Albertan on dirty fossil fuels. And that goes doubly when his government’s previous exercise in gambling with provincial wealth has produced massive losses due to a grossly flawed risk evaluation strategy. But
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Justin Ling discusses the dangers of the U.S.’ fever swamp conspiracy theories as they get shared – and warped – for Canadian marks. Ryan Cooper writes about the conservative victimhood complex which has made it impossible for the U.S. to be governed in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What’s it tell us that a couple of bad-boy Lethbridge cops almost got away with illegal surveillance of an NDP minister?
It’s tempting to write off yesterday’s big story about that pair of none-too-bright county mounties from the Lethbridge Police Service caught stalking an NDP cabinet minister as just a dumb cop comedy without much significance. But Sgt. Jason Carrier and Const. Keon Woronuk were no Gunther Toody and Francis Muldoon,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Whether or not half of Alberta’s doctors are thinking of leaving, even a much smaller exodus would be a disaster
Publication by the Alberta Medical Association of poll results showing close to half the province’s physicians are thinking about leaving Alberta in response to the United Conservative Party’s War on Doctors seems to have enraged Premier Jason Kenney’s strategic brain trust. Leastways, the UCP’s immediate response — threatening to publish
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – T.M. Scanlon analyzes the dangerous effects of wealth inequality. And Philip Alston discusses how COVID-19 has only exposed an existing pandemic of poverty and inequality which was previously masked by grossly insufficient poverty lines: The consequences of this highly unrealistic picture of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Whatever it is, former PC MLA Dave Rodney apparently has what it takes to be Alberta’s agent general in Houston
There may have been peaks and valleys along the way, but thanks to a hand up from Alberta Premier Jason Kenney this week, it looks as if Dave Rodney has finally ascended to the summit of his career. That is to say, for some reason Mr. Rodney was the recipient
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thatcher brouhaha: When your slippery opponent’s on the ropes, maybe you should focus on keeping him there!
When you’ve got a slippery political opponent on the ropes with a completely legitimate issue, what’s it profit a New Democrat to stand up in the Legislature and create a massive distraction from the fight the party’s winning with one that has no advantage for it? This is what NDP
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Making Child Labour Great Again! Alberta’s new labour law breaks old ground while undermining unions
Alberta’s about to Make Child Labour Great Again! If you think this is a breakthrough, you’re probably a fast-food franchise owner. Cabinet’s “private sector union liaison,” MLA Searle Turton (Photo: Screenshot of Alberta Government video). Yesterday, Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party introduced a bill called the Restoring Balance in
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