It was Jason Kenny unchained, and a horrible sight if ever there was one.He looked more like a feverish Alabama preacher than a premier-elect. All he was missing was a handkerchief to wipe the dribble off his chin.But he had worked hard for three long years to build up his bigot party, and
Continue readingTag: Jason Kenney
Politics and its Discontents: A Call For Leadership
Jason Kenney’s UCP has achieved a majority in Alberta. Proclaiming that Alberta is open for business and that “[h]ope is on the horizon,” he joins Ontario’s Doug Ford both in identical sloganeering and rabid contempt for all measures related to carbon taxes or anything else that would discourage the consumption
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Alberta that God forgot.
“O outcast land! O leper land! Let the lone wolf-cry all express The hate insensate of thy hand, Thy heart’s abysmal loneliness.” From the poems of Robert Service. Jason Kenney won the Alberta election and the embittered battles over bitumen are drawing clearer lines. He joins the blow-hard conservatives of
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: This Could Be Another Difficult Day for Mr. Trudeau
He panicked and tossed away $4.5 billion on a pipeline project, money we might not (probably won’t) get back. He’s about to pour another seven to nine billion into constructing the Justin Trudeau Memorial Trans-Mountain Pipeline. At the time the prime minister justified this climate wrecking venture as the price
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Andrew Phung highlights how important it is for younger voters to be heard in Alberta’s election. Travis Benson offers plenty of suggestions as to why even people who aren’t always NDP supporters should be happy to re-elect Rachel Notley. And PressProgress rounds
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Chuckles checks conservative campaigns.
You would expect that one of these days, conservative leader Andrew ‘Chuckles’ Scheer will have to take the training wheels off his federal election campaign. He was out on the hustings with Jason Kenney in Alberta last week and little new came from either conservative. The signature complaint we have
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Nearly a third of Alberta’s electorate voted in advance polls – whatever can it mean?
One of the mysteries of the 2019 Alberta election campaign that comes to an end with today’s election is the truly astonishing number of advance ballots cast. Nearly 700,000 Albertans voted in advance polls. That is close to 30 per cent of the electorate. This is unheard of in Alberta,
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: A Really Great Photo…
I know, I know, I’ve already done an article on why I voted for Rachel, but I took this really great photo at the Calgary Rally on Saturday and I had to share it. Ta da!! So, now that I’ve got your attention here are my top 10 reasons to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week. – Martin Regg Cohn discusses how workers are bearing the brunt of Doug Ford’s budget. Joe Light offers a reminder that Donald Trump’s populist rhetoric predictably gave way to a tax scheme designed to further enrich CEOs at the expense of everybody else. And
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 34: When you play the Game of Thrones… Alberta election edition.
In this episode Dave and Ryan discuss the huge turnout at the advance polls, some of the key races to watch on election night, and recap of the final days of the campaign. We also dive into the mailbag to answer some great questions from our listeners. And because we couldn’t help ourselves,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rachel Notley, one of the finest political orators of her generation, raises the rafters with optimistic speech in Edmonton
Rachel Notley looked and sounded like a politician on a roll yesterday afternoon as she addressed at least 1,500 people sardined into Edmonton’s Polish Hall – energized, by turns forceful, funny, and inspiring. This runs counter to the media narrative about this 2019 election campaign from the get-go, of course,
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: A Guide to UCP “Conservatives”
The Peter Lougheed Progressive Conservatives parted company with the Kenney “conservatives” when Kenney created the free enterprise unity party. Those three little words signaled the transformation of the conservative party into one that cares only about money. With the Lougheed PCs gone the UCP turned elsewhere to fill out their
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Alex Hemingway points out that British Columbia has a long way to go in raising readily-available revenue in order to provide even the essentials of life for its residents. And Toby Sanger examines the foreseeable distribution of Jason Kenney’s tax slashing scheme –
Continue readingAlberta Politics: RCMP raid on UCP candidate’s business, polling trends, hordes of advance voters wind up the Internet
Alberta’s Internet was in a furious swivet last night. There seemed to be something to wind everyone up as we enter the final stretch of a provincial election both sides have characterized as an epochal event sure to seal the fate of the province if it goes the wrong way.
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Will Andrew Scheer’s Con Friends Help Justin Trudeau Defeat Him?
In Alberta the advance polls are open, and Albertans have started voting in a provincial election Jason Kenney and his United Conservative Party are favoured to win.But the UCP has been hit by one bigot eruption after the other. The RCMP is looking into allegations of voter fraud during Kenney's leadership
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Notice to public employees: Jason Kenney and the UCP are eyeing your pensions again
If you’re a public employee in Alberta and you’ve been deferring your salary for years to build a secure retirement through your modest pension, Jason Kenney would like to take it away. If he can’t do that, he at least wants to ensure no one else can have the same
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Don’t Look Away
We’re on the cusp of the election and many moderate conservatives still don’t know who they’ll support. Will they ignore the allegations of vote tampering in the UCP leadership race and the slate of unfit candidates stacking up “25 deep” to support Jason Kenney or will they follow the lead
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Donald Gutstein examines the crucial difference between advancing toward a zero-carbon economy, and incentivizing further fossil fuel development through misleading terms such as “low-emission”. And Arthur White-Crummey reports on Nic Rivers’ response to the Saskatchewan Party’s attempt to self-assess climate policy while
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In Alberta, vote, wash hands, wash hands again.
With less than a week to another Alberta provincial election I cannot forecast the vote. It is one of those times you can only vote against. There seem to be few positive options. The entire campaign is a disaster and a disappointment. It is a given that I despise Jason
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A question begged: Where were the UCP’s top operatives if they weren’t vetting candidates?
Apparently someone in the United Conservative Party could run a sophisticated vote-diversion scheme but the party didn’t have the technical wherewithal to operate a simple candidate vetting process capable of eliminating candidates with a high potential for causing embarrassment. And not at the same time either, so it’s not as
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