Alberta’s 24 NDP Opposition MLAs were sworn in yesterday and Opposition Leader Rachel Notley, not so long ago the province’s premier, named the MLAs who will fill her shadow cabinet portfolios. Meanwhile, Premier Jason Kenney’s MLAs will have to wait a few days while their boss gets on with his
Continue readingTag: Jason Kenney
Alberta Politics: Stephen Mandel, as impudent as ever, pleads for public subsidy for his Alberta Party
Hello, Alberta! Stephen Mandel here! My Alberta Party didn’t manage to elect a single MLA last month, but we’re good guys and we got 9.1 per cent of the vote. How about you give us some money? That wasn’t really Stephen Mandel saying that, of course. It was me, your
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Lessons from the AFL and AOC
What if we’ve run out of time? What if there’s no time left for baby steps; for one step forward and two steps back? What if it’s time to go big or go home? Last weekend Ms Soapbox attended two events focused on our future. One was a convention hosted
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Tony Burman writes about the seismic change we can expect as the importance of our climate crisis – as well as the need to act on a global basis – starts to permeate our political decision-making. And KC Golden warns that the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Lest we forget? Does Veterans Affairs’ video blooper signal something more seriously amiss in Canada?
On Thursday 13,000 soldiers of what used to be known as the Red Army marched through the heart of Moscow to military bands playing “The Sacred War” as Russia marked the 74th anniversary of the surrender of Berlin and the end of the road for Hitler’s “Thousand Year Reich.” According
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP Health Minister Tyler Shandro hesitates over risky ideological plan to pull plug on medical ‘Superlab’
When it opted to build a $590-million “Superlab” in Edmonton, Alberta’s former NDP government was relying on sound advice from the Health Quality Council of Alberta, which recommended medical lab services be consolidated under “a single public sector platform.” But never mind the HQCA was set up under legislation created
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Your tax dollars at work: Looks like public funding for religious schools likely helped today’s large anti-abortion march
Taxpayers’ contributions to publicly funded parochial schools appeared to be hard at work today in Edmonton as a throng of students from religious high schools throughout the province marched through the capital city’s downtown in opposition to women’s reproductive rights. The annual anti-abortion March for Life sponsored by the Roman
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Edward Keenan writes about the chaos being created by Doug Ford’s reckless and thoughtless slashing of crucial public services. CTV reports on one six-year-old cancer patient as just one of the many victims, while CBC News points out the global trend of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Albertans, in their ‘bitumen bubble,’ may have missed the significance of West Coast Green goings on
We Albertans have been living in a bit if a bubble – a bitumen bubble. As a consequence, we may not all have noticed what’s been happening on Canada’s West Coast. So the potential significance of the victory in a federal by-election Monday by Paul Manly of the Green Party
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Feeling blue? Don’t worry, Jason Kenney’s got a ‘blue ribbon panel’ sharpening its razors for you!
Brace yourselves, people. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has announced his “Blue Ribbon” panel to do a “deep dive” into the province’s books and figure out how to get them into the black in less than three years, eliminate debt, and do it all without raising taxes or introducing a sales
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who runs this country?
Like it or lump it, Canada is a confederation. And that means the parts of the country that created it think they are just as important as the whole. As many wise politicos have noted over the years, it makes the country a bitch to govern. The federal government got
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 36: Jason Kenney’s first week and what’s next for Rachel Notley
In this episode of the Daveberta Podcast we discuss the election results, Jason Kenney’s first week as Premier of Alberta and who he appointed to the United Conservative government cabinet, and Rachel Notley and what’s next for the Alberta NDP. We also dive into the mailbag to answer the great
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Is Kenney a Constitutional Crisis?
It seems that between Jason Kenney and his predecessor as premier of Alberta, Kenney has the shriller voice. When he goes to Ottawa to bitch and whine about how his province is not given everything it wants, he knows the buttons to push and the people to harangue. There was
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Mike Benusic points out that the success of public health programs is found in the absence of preventable illnesses and dangers – meaning that Doug Ford’s slashing of Ontario’s funding is likely to lead to far more health costs in the long
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rachel Notley sets out to do a little narrative building of her own about what Jason Kenney is up to, now that he’s premier
CALGARY – In her first major speech since losing the Alberta election to Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party on April 16, Rachel Notley called on her supporters not to allow conservatives to rewrite history to suit their own ends. “Make no mistake,” she warned a friendly crowd at the Alberta
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Doug Ford and Jason Kenney’s Grotesque Love-In
It was supposed to be a joyous occasion, a chance for Jason Kenney to visit Doug Ford and celebrate Kenney's coronation as the new King of Albertonia.And although I never thought that the meeting between the two men could be hotter than the one in the above picture.It turns out
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Vindication? Board of Internal Economy renders a Scotch verdict on Jason Kenney’s ethical lapse
CALGARY – Jason Kenney’s been in power for less than a week and already his election promises are falling like dominoes.* Yesterday, another wobbled when the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled that the federal government has the power to establish limits on greenhouse gas production that provinces must meet, and
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Day Justin Trudeau Put Jason Kenney In His Place
In my last post I warned that Jason Kenney's imperial ambitions could help take this country to a very bad place.Even if they did help re-elect Justin Trudeau. But when I wrote about how Trudeau should tame Kenney, I didn't know that the two would meet in Ottawa yesterday.Or that Kenney
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Meanwhile, back on the Alberta farm, when in doubt, blame Ottawa
CALGARY – Meanwhile, back on the farm, a new template for government of Alberta news releases is a-birthin’. Henceforth and forevermore, presumably, all news releases issued by Alberta’s New Government ™ – a phrase that hasn’t appeared yet, but likely soon will, I reckon – will have to include the
Continue readingMontreal Simon: How Justin Trudeau Can Tame Jason Kenney
Jason Kenney has been the unquestioned ruler of the cowboy province of Alberta for only a day, and already he is trying to break up the country.Demanding that British Columbia give him his pipeline or else. Premier Jason Kenney has touched off a legal battle with British Columbia after his new Alberta
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