“I am your density…I mean your destiny.” — George McFly, Back to the Future (1985) All eyes were riveted on Lois Mitchell, Her Honour the Honourable the Lieutenant Governor, last Wednesday as she delivered the Kenney government’s first Throne Speech…er…your eyes weren’t riveted on HHHLG? You were having coffee with
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Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Leslie Hook offers a reminder of the dangers of methane as a particularly damaging type of carbon emission which is both associated largely with fossil fuel production, and poorly tracked when it is emitted. And the Edmonton Journal makes the case for Jason
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Fighting the facts of the future.
In a discussion of what is currently happening in politics, the realization emerged that provincial politicians such as Alberta’s Kenney, Saskatchewan’s Moe and Ontario’s Ford are denying our progeny a future. It was not a question of a planned or malevolent denial of a future but simple ignorance. These men
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What should we make of the post-election Edmonton Journal editorial urging the UCP to keep the carbon tax?
I suppose we should never attribute to mischief what can be explained by incompetence, but what else are we to make of the Edmonton Journal’s earnest editorial yesterday urging Alberta Premier Jason Kenney not to pull the plug on the carbon tax? “Killing the provincial carbon tax is one political
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Scheer would do better if he shut up.
Sure, it is almost five months until the federal election but everyone is out stumping anyway. You would swear that the election was in June and everyone is getting desperate. But there is no excuse possible for the blather we are getting from the conservatives. Who told conservative leader Andrew
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney fiddles (with climate policy) while Alberta burns
It is an irony, though not a particularly satisfying one to observe, that while Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party Government moves swiftly to repeal Alberta’s carbon tax, the province is aflame, with more than 5,000 Albertans required to leave homes and communities in imminent danger of destruction. It is
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Crib notes: Understanding yesterday’s United Conservative Party Throne Speech
As the documents that lay out the government’s policy agenda for the next couple of years, Throne Speeches are by nature tendentious. In the service of making what is a curse to many citizens appear to be a blessing they tend to be faintly Orwellian as well. That is, they
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On defining images
I’ve previously linked to Doug Cuthand’s column on the climate obstructionists who are endangering our future. But I’d think it’s worth putting his most powerful conclusion in a form which better connects the perpetrators to the problem. And so…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Nathan Cooper chosen as Legislative Speaker – so how about those early mornings?
Now that Nathan Cooper has been chosen as Speaker of the Alberta Legislature, I wonder if the business of the Assembly will be getting under way at a more civilized hour, say 10 a.m., suitable for bankers, gentlemen of leisure, and elected Conservatives? Mr. Cooper, United Conservative Party MLA for
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: War Rooms from the political past.
It started back in the late 1970s and 80s when Senator Keith Davey, some of us liberal apparatchiks and the marketing communications experts, who volunteered their time, started to look on other parties as enemy combatants. I was even quoting Carl von Clausewitz’ On War when talking about campaigning to
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 37: Return of the Leg and in the Federal Election Red Zone
Along with guest co-hosts Lianne Bell and Chris Henderson, Dave discusses what to expect from the United Conservative Party and New Democratic Party when the Legislature reconvenes on May 21 and how the cabinet and opposition critics will match-up this session. We also talk about how federal Liberal leader Justin
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Keep your eyes on the story of Jason Kenney’s ‘War Room’ – it’s going to be a boondoggle!
The discovery last week Postmedia was trying to cash in on Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s promised $30-million anti-environmental “war room” at the same time it has its hand out to Ottawa for a federal bailout has rather surprisingly turned out to be a story with legs. The irony of a
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Day the Circus Came to Town
On May 21, 2019 Jason Kenney’s UCP government will officially be “open for business” in every sense of the word. Mr Kenney’s government will kick off with a Throne Speech which will outline how Mr Kenney intends to deliver on his promise to pull Alberta out of its state of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On cult leadership
Andrew Scheer’s scheming with oil lobbyists in advance of this fall’s federal election has received at least some attention. But it’s worth pointing out just how drastic a step Scheer has taken in aligning himself with a shadowy group trying to push dirty energy sources as “miracles” rather than commercial
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Stewart Elgie and Nathalie Chalifour write about the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal’s recognition of the importance of action on our climate crisis. Alexis Wright comments on the need for global action to address the common global problem of impending climate breakdown. Brian Eckhouse
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Postmedia bid for role in UCP ‘war room’ illustrates the folly of Trudeau’s lifeline for failing newspapers
Connect the dots, Mr. Prime Minister! That newspaper industry bailout package you’re foolishly planning in the name of preserving democracy is principally designed to keep a corporation afloat that will do anything, no matter how unethical, to destroy your government. If you want proof, look no further than Postmedia’s astonishing
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Uh-oh! Look for unhappy campers: Premier Kenney has vowed to end ‘the War on Fun’
Hey, who can be against ending Canada’s War on Fun? Not me, and not Jason Kenney either by the sound of it. You have to admit, though, the Alberta premier’s announcement yesterday that he plans to end what he calls “the War on Fun” by allowing the booze to flow
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Annals of Justice: Vice-Admiral Mark Norman gets an apology and Conrad Black gets a pardon
Remember this important fact: None of us knows whether Vice-Admiral Mark Norman is guilty of the crime with which he was charged. Well, Vice-Admiral Norman knows, presumably, and his legal team would have a pretty good idea, as would a few Crown prosecutors and members of the Royal Canadian Mounted
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Karl Nerenberg writes that the ultimate test of the public’s willingness to facilitate a climate breakdown is fast approaching – but that the parties pushing delay and denial may be surprised with the outcome. Brett Chandler challenges the argument that we’re somehow entitled
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP posturing around public sector wages portends a return to perpetual crisis in health care
The United Conservative Party Government’s transparent early manoeuvres around public sector wage negotiations and the heavy hints found in a paper by the chair of Premier Jason Kenney’s “blue ribbon panel” on Alberta’s finances portend a stormy period ahead in public sector labour relations, especially in health care. Since health
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