Alberta’s Local Authorities Pension Plan was in “the healthiest position in its 58-year history” at the end of 2019, and things are still fine, the president and CEO of LAPP Corp. said in a message Friday to plan members and retirees. It would be going too far to call Chris
Continue readingTag: Jason Kenney
Alberta Politics: Did the premier just forget to tell his Chief Medical Officer of Health he’s about to end Alberta’s public health emergency?
It was a short exchange during Wednesday afternoon’s daily COVID-19 briefing by Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw. It carried quite a bit of information, though. CBC Provincial Affairs Reporter Michelle Bellefontaine (Photo: Twitter). Here is my transcription: Disembodied official voice: “Operator, can you put through the next
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Evening Links
Assorted content for your mid-week reading. – Christine Boyle, Penny Gurstein, Matthew Norris and Jim Stanford make the case for a public option in housing. And PressProgress documents how for-profit seniors’ homes are dominated by board members with no knowledge or experience in caring for people’s health. – Toby Sanger
Continue readingAlberta Politics: This is not the Beaverton: Energy Minister Sonya Savage finds the bright side of COVID-19
Well, it’s nice to know someone’s happy about the global coronavirus pandemic! Canadians got a rare glimpse into Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage’s thinking yesterday thanks to a friendly podcaster at the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors. On the topic of the TransMountain pipeline expansion, John Bayko, who is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Ethan Cox writes that a large majority of Canadians favours massive public investments funded by more fair taxes on the wealthy as our road to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. And Aaron Wherry points out the folly of fixating on deficits and public-sector
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Day Kenney Bet $7.5 Billion on the US Election
In September 2019 Jason Kenney began negotiating with TC Energy to invest $7.5 billion in cash and loan guarantees in the Keystone XL pipeline. In March 2020 Kenney announced negotiations were complete and the government had signed an agreement which he said had been rigorously vetted by the government and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Distinction Rebellion? There are plenty of reasons breaking up is hard to do, so don’t expect the UCP to do it
Is a rebellion brewing in Southern Alberta against Alberta Premier Jason Kenney among the United Conservative Party’s old Wildrose crowd? Is there a Prairie fire smouldering in the heart Wild Rose Country that might turn into another “upstart conservative party”? Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, as he looked in 2017 as
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The likely future history of the Keystone XL Pipeline: Yes, Alberta! The answer is still No!
Who can forget Nov. 6, 2015, the day that will live in infamy? Just about everybody, as it turned out. Jason Kenney and Stephen Harper (Photo: Facebook). That was the day that U.S. President Barack Obama decided to pull the plug on the Keystone XL Pipeline, declaring that it was
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 54: That’s a great Alberta politics question.
We dive into the mailbag in this episode of the Daveberta Podcast to answer questions about Alberta politics sent in by our listeners on topics ranging from the United Conservative Party’s influence on the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race to the details of the Alberta government’s Keystone XL Pipeline
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: When Jason Kenney Told Off China and It Backfired
Covid-19 upended everything. No one knows whether the world will snap back to “normal” like an elastic band or be gone forever. Economists, futurists, and historians are all over the map when it comes to what to expect in the future. Some, like conservative historian Niall Ferguson, suggest we
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Government puts ‘Fair Deal’ report on the shelf after panel hands in its homework late
Alberta’s so-called Fair Deal Panel, which might have seemed like a good idea when Premier Jason Kenney announced it last fall, presents something of a political problem for a government that has more often than not let Ottawa do the heavy lifting throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Premier Kenney pitched the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Bryan Borzykowski recognizes that many Canadian families are weathering the COVID-19 crisis only by taking on more debt – though it’s worth questioning whether the burden should fall on individuals to dig their way out from under it, rather than receiving systemic relief.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If COVID-19 proves anything, it’s that Ernst & Young was out to lunch when it recommended privatizing Carewest and Capital Care
Does anyone remember the $2-million “review” of Alberta Health Services by Ernst & Young launched a year ago by the United Conservative Party Government? Health Minister Tyler Shandro and Alberta Health Services President and CEO Verna Yiu were both on hand to ensure we understood it was an important matter
Continue readingAlberta Politics: That rumble you hear is the sound of the Shock Doctrine artillery softening up Alberta for austerity on steroids
In trench warfare, before the shock troops go over the top, the artillery softens up the defenders with a barrage at the point of the attack. In the midst of a great struggle with a mysterious coronavirus that threatens all mankind, we are being subjected to such a barrage by
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Hinterland Who’s Who: Hear the haunting call of the wild Deep South Alberta UCP MLA …
With friends like Drew Barnes, does the United Conservative Party really need enemies in these troubles times? The right-wing Frankenparty may have won the 2019 provincial election convincingly soon after it was cobbled together from the fringy Wildrose Party and the old Progressive Conservatives by former Harper Government cabinet minister
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The oilsands’ other dirty little secret — Canadians barely own ’em
It’s the other dirty little secret of the oilsands: Foreign companies and their shareholders are benefitting from the huge dividends produced by Alberta’s vast bitumen sand deposits while Canadians are stuck with the vast bill for the cleanup. It’s like a latter-day update on one of those Country & Western
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week. – John Nichols writes about Pramila Jayapal’s recognition that mass unemployment is a policy choice – and her plan for wage supports to make sure workers aren’t left without needed income. Nicole Aschoff discusses how profiteers have been taking advantage of programs set up
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Coronavirus has U.S. physicians eyeing politics — will COVID-19 and the UCP’s War on Doctors spur the same thing here?
The New York Times reported yesterday how the coronavirus crisis is prodding a wave of mostly progressive American physicians to enter politics. Many are women and most have connected the dots between the United States’ appalling Third World health care system and the disastrous rate of COVID-19 infection and death
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Kenney Rejects Notley’s Request for a Public Inquiry. Why?
At last count there have been 1,550 Covid-19 infections and three deaths connected with the Cargill, JBS and Harmony Beef meatpacking plants in Alberta. This is frightening in a province that prides itself on having the highest testing levels in the country and was so comfortable with its Covid-19
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney calls Elizabeth May, Yves-François Blanchet ‘un-Canadian,’ accuses them of ‘blaming the victim’
Now that Premier Jason Kenney has declared it “un-Canadian” to say oil is dead, I wonder if it’s OK to admit Alberta’s fossil fuel industry is on the ropes? Probably. Mr. Kenney said as much himself in a remarkable rant yesterday directed at the Parliamentary Leader of the Bloc Québécois
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