PHOTOS: Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley. Below: Calgary MLA Sandra Jansen, elected as a Progressive Conservative and now a member of the NDP, Municipal Affairs Minister Danielle Larivee, and the late Jim Prentice, the last PC premier of Alberta. 2016: It was the International Year of the Bean. I kid
Continue readingTag: Jason Kenney
Alberta Politics: Merry Christmas to all! Santa is bringing presents for everyone this holiday, regardless of political orientation
PHOTOS: Merry Christmas! Your blogger with a man who can penetrate North American air defences with ease. Russian President Vladimir Putin may not appear exactly as illustrated. (Joke.) Below: Political strategist Stephen Carter with the same blogger; Alberta pollster Janet Brown; Conservative strategist Alan Hallman, who is now associated with
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: The PC Party’s Christmas gift to the NDP
A defamation lawsuit wrapped with a big bow. Any hope Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Party had of making the story of Sandra Jansen’s harassment go away is long gone as a political operative working for Jason Kenney’s leadership campaign has launched… Continue Reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Canada’s Conservatives have taken their greatest strength and bulldozed it to the ground: this will not end well for them
PHOTOS: Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidates Kellie Leitch, Chris Alexander and Brad Trost get ready for their next debate on how best to Make Canada Great Again. Actual CPC leadership candidates may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Former Alberta Progressive Conservative premier Ed Stelmach, Alberta PC leadership candidate
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Tory harassment investigation: Move along please; nothing to see here, folks…
PHOTOS: MLA Sandra Jansen makes an impassioned plea in the Alberta Legislature on Nov. 22, calling out the hate and misogyny she has endured since announcing she was running for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party. On that occasion, the PC members in the House joined the standing ovation
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Wildrose shadow shuffle leaves Derek Fildebrandt in finance; Brian Jean rumoured eyeing shuffle off to Wood Buffalo
PHOTOS: Yon Fildebrandt has that lean and hungry look … Wildrose Leader Brian Jean, right, and his finance critic, still, Derek Fildebrandt, in happier times. Below: Wildrose MLAs Drew Barnes, Leela Aheer and Tany Yao. Seemingly flying beneath the radar, Wildrose Opposition Leader Brian Jean has completed a significant reshuffle
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Trouble on the ‘Alb-Right’? What are the details of Wildrose Leader Brian Jean’s better way to unite the right?
PHOTOS: Opposition Leader Brian Jean. He says he has a better plan than Jason Kenney’s to unite the right. The only thing is, he won’t say what it is. If it involves changing the party name, though, as this picture shows there are going to be a lot of “Wildroses”
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rogue One, a Right Wing Wars Story: wherein the Wildrose Party’s Derek Fildebrandt slips his leader’s leash
PHOTOS: Wildrose Party Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt going rogue at Rebel Media’s Calgary anti-everything rally last Sunday (CBC photo). Below: Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Jason Kenney as imagined for this story’s rather labored metaphor. (They said I couldn’t do it. Actual PC leadership contenders may not appear exactly as illustrated.)
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Ten Alberta MLAs to watch in 2017
Despite its past reputation, Alberta politics has become extraordinarily unpredictable over the past decade. This makes forecasting the future a very tricky business for political pundits. As is tradition on this blog, each December I sit down by the open… Continue Reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A ‘merger’ between the Alberta Party and the Progressive Conservatives? Unlikely
PHOTOS: A meeting of the Alberta Party’s “Big Listen,” circa 2010. Actual Alberta Party coffee parties may not have appeared exactly as illustrated. Below: Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark, former leaders Sue Huff and Glenn Taylor, and PC Party President Katherine O’Neill (from Facebook). Don’t bet the farm on a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: They can still feel shame! Conservative leaders duck and cover in wake of Saturday’s disgraceful display
PHOTOS: Chris Alexander, at the moment the chant of “lock her up” began from the right-wing mob at the Alberta Legislature Saturday. Does this look to you like a man who is “shocked, taken aback, mortified even”? Me neither. Below: Michael Chong, Deepak Obhrai, Rona Ambrose and Brian Jean, all
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Pipeline politics leads to strange bedfellows in Alberta and BC
Fresh from winning the approval of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is off to British Columbia to pitch the benefits of the pipeline. On pipelines and climate change, Alberta’s New Democratic Party appears to be more… Continue Reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Now for something completely different: The Climenhaga podcast, as transmitted by the sensational, sinister Minister Faust
PHOTOS: David Climenhaga yaks … and yaks and yaks and yaks … about Turmoil in the Tories! Art work by Malcolm Azania. Below, Mr. Azania, also known by his nom de plume, Minister Faust (from Twitter). I am the first to admit I am not a podcasting kind of guy
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Wildrose defence of Christian home schooling group unravels on news of operators’ big salaries
PHOTOS: The Trinity Christian private school in Cold Lake. Court documents indicate its principal was paid $322,813 over three years. One news report says it currently has 13 students. Below: Ken Noster, board chair and administrator of Wisdom Home Schooling Society, his wife Marlane Noster, and Trinity School principal Richard
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Pipeline File: NDP’s ‘social license’ approach worked where Conservative shouting failed, it’s that simple
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Kananaskis, Alberta, in April 2016 (photo by Chris Schwarz, Government of Alberta). Below: Anti-pipeline demonstrators in British Columbia (Rabble photo by Alyse Kotyk). They may not find it reassuring that Alberta conservatives are praying for their success. Without
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Backstory to purloined party list whodunit hints Wildrose civil war may be brewing
PHOTOS: Veterans of the Wildrose Caucus civil wars get together in 2046 to compare their experiences. Actual aged Wildrose MLAs are unlikely to appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Wildrose Leader Brian Jean (CBC photo), his party’s finance critic, Derek Fildebrandt, and former Wildrose House leader Rob Anderson reading his confession
Continue readingAgainst the Grain: Jason Kenney has a Richard Nixon-shaped hole in his campaign
Man, what the fuck is going on in Alberta? In an email to supporters sent late Sunday with the bland subject line, “A Wildrose Update,” Opposition Leader Brian Jean drops a bombshell with the revelation someone broke into the party’s Edmonton office several weeks ago, stole two laptop computers and tried
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Wildrose offices burgled, computers stolen, membership data being misused
David Climenhaga over at AlbertaPolitics.ca has the scoop. Here is an excerpt from his piece tonight: In an email to supporters sent late Sunday with the bland subject line, “A Wildrose Update,” Opposition Leader Brian Jean drops a bombshell with… Continue Reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Robo-gaffe: What do you do when caller-ID says it’s a PC on the line and you get the NDP?
PHOTOS: The offending caller ID message (photo found on Twitter). Below: Edmonton-Castle Downs NDP MLA Nicole Goehring, former Edmonton-Castle Downs Progressive Conservative MLA Thomas Lukaszuk and NDP Caucus Outreach Director Garret Spelliscy. Memo to politicians: Make sure – really, really sure – that when you send out a robo-call alerting
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Bygone bleats: Ray Speaker speaks again, while your blogger still awaits his letter
PHOTOS: Past and present at the Alberta Legislature. Progressive Conservative campaign vehicles may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Former MLAs Ray Speaker, a Social Crediter and Progressive Conservative, Tory Steve West, New Democrat Ed Ewasiuk, and Conservative Ted Morton, the worst premier Alberta never had. Below them, Calgary MLA
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