Having rammed through two controversial bills Tuesday night, one opening the door to more health care privatization and the other eliminating workplace fairness and declaring war on unions, the Alberta Legislature wrapped up its business just after 8 o’clock yesterday morning. United Conservative Party social media spent the afternoon bragging
Continue readingTag: Jason Nixon
Alberta Politics: Canada, keep your eye on Alberta — it’s not going to be pretty, but it should be instructive
You can just tell it’s likely to be a crazy week in Alberta politics. To understand just how crazy, you have to think about what the Kenney Government is noisily focusing on, and what is actually happening. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). In the Legislature, Premier Jason
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 58: Alberta Politics Summer Q&A
You sent us your questions and we answered! In this edition of the annual Alberta politics Q&A episode, Daveberta Podcast host Dave Cournoyer and producer Adam Rozenhart dive into the mailbag to answer listener questions about provincial parks, the Heritage Savings Trust Fund, the reopening of schools in September, political
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Timing is everything: Alberta announces seven charges against Suncor mid-morning on Sunday
Interesting timing. Mid-morning yesterday — Sunday, that is — the press secretary to Environment Minister Jason Nixon published a 79-word press release, 111 words if you count the headline and the sub-head required by the format of the Alberta government’s website. Alberta Environment and Parks Minister Jason Nixon (Photo: David
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Public service managers’ return-to-workplace guide outlines plan to return public employees to government offices
With talk managers of Alberta’s public service are likely to be back in their offices next Monday preparing for the return of most of the rest of the government’s direct employees to their workplaces by July 20, the public service has prepared a 41-page “Government of Alberta Return to the
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 55: Alberta Parks need to be protected and expanded, not closed and privatized.
As Environment & Parks Minister Jason Nixon moves forward with his plans to downgrade, close or privatize 164 provincial parks, outdoor enthusiast Annalise Klingbeil joins Dave Cournoyer on the Daveberta Podcast to discuss the importance of Alberta’s provincial parks and why they need to be protected and conserved. Annalise is
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Never mind the Kenney Government’s ‘Blueprint for Jobs’ — 26,000 jobs gone with the wind in a day
So, make that 26,000 Alberta jobs, gone with the wind! Now that some of the smoke is starting to clear from Premier Jason Kenney’s Saturday Afternoon Massacre of school board jobs, it’s apparent initial estimates by school trustees and union leaders of 20,000 jobs lost were about 30 per cent
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta COVID-19 cases rise to 74; UCP to push budget through; Jason Kenney visits the airport
Faced with the embarrassment of having to rewrite Alberta’s budget to acknowledge economic reality and public health necessity in the midst of a global pandemic or stick with one that fails to meet even that low bar and sets the stage for a attacks on public health care in the
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 49: Radical Sabbatical. Climate justice and Alberta politics with Chris Gusen
Is Alberta ready to face the challenges of climate change? Climate activist and communicator Chris Gusen joins Dave Cournoyer to discuss Alberta politics, climate justice, and a Green New Deal on the latest episode of the Daveberta Podcast. Chris shares some insight into his transition from his role as the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: This just in! Stable Reliable Liberal Democracy of Alberta suddenly adopts social license strategy for fossil fuel development
We interrupt this blog with an important bulletin from the Stable Reliable Liberal Democracy of Alberta! In an unexpected move, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has announced he will seek social license for new energy projects in the Canadian province. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). How unexpected was
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Teck Decision Provides a Lesson on Handouts
For a long time Ms Soapbox has been trying figure out what Mr Kenney and the UCP mean when they talk about a “hand up” and a “handout”. She knew from the context that a “hand up” was good and a “handout” was bad, but she was never quite sure
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Freedom of information filing reveals supposedly independent ‘Blue Ribbon’ Panel had help from staff in Alberta premier’s office
It turns out Janice MacKinnon’s six-member “expert panel” was using a script cooked up in Premier Jason Kenney’s office at least part of the time it was supposedly taking its “deep dive” into Alberta’s books last year. Alert readers will recall that when freshly elected United Conservative Party Premier Jason
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Brace yourselves, Alberta, Premier Kenney’s promising us another spring of renewal!
Good Lord, can Alberta survive another spring of renewal like the last one? Another springtime of renewal — that’s what Government House Leader Jason Nixon and the United Conservative Party’s meme machine were promising yesterday with the announcement the Alberta Legislature well get back to business on Feb. 25. Alberta
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Foresight is 2020: It wouldn’t be New Year’s Eve without a Top Ten List of political predictions
This year, foresight is 2020! It wouldn’t be New Year’s Eve without AlbertaPolitics.ca’s Top Ten Political Predictions for 2020, so your blogger will gaze into his crystal ball one more time and tell you what’s up next. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). No one seems to have
Continue readingAlberta Politics: For the 12th anniversary of AlbertaPolitics.ca, here’s a Top Ten List of Alberta political stories in 2019
Today marks the 12th anniversary of the first post published on this blog, known at the time as St. Albert Diary. Later, for a long spell, it was Alberta Diary, and still retains that name on Rabble.ca, where it is also published. By the standards of the Internet, this makes
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Energy War Room’s crack team isn’t exactly ‘cookin’ with gas’
Should we be worried about operatives employed by the Alberta Government’s public-private Energy War Room masquerading as journalists? Of course we should. But it’s also OK to be amused by the astonishing ineptitude with which they’re going about the task. As King Solomon is said to have observed, pride goeth
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 44: Live from the Parkland Institute Conference: Truth, the First Casualty? War Rooms and Rumours of War Rooms
Daveberta Podcast host Dave Cournoyer teamed up with AlbertaPolitics.ca writer David Climenhaga at the annual Parkland Institute Conference at the University of Alberta last weekend to share what we know and what we speculate might happen with the Canadian Energy Centre Ltd. (a.k.a. the War Room) and the Public Inquiry
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Plan to roll back public employees’ pay is no surprise, but the way it’s being rolled out seems surprisingly inept
When Alberta’s finance minister announced the Kenney Government’s plan to roll back unionized public employees’ pay by 2 to 5 per cent yesterday, he blamed Alberta’s debt and deficit, not the huge hole he’d just blown in the province’s budget with $4.5-billion in tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What a strange, strange night it’s been: Andrew Scheer snatches defeat from the jaws of victory!
Well! There’s certainly no shortage of safe Conservative seats in Alberta Jason Kenney could use to saddle up and ride back to Ottawa to save conservatism after Andrew Scheer’s disastrous impersonation of the Conservative Party of Canada’s leader ended in ignominy last night. It takes a special talent to snatch
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Gretamania strikes Alberta! Be afraid! Be very afraid!
Be afraid. Be very afraid. Gretamania appears to have struck Alberta! Yesterday, 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, who is apparently the environmental movement’s answer to St. Joan of Arc with a planetary mass following to suit, was spotted in Calgary. This wasn’t like your usual Alberta Elvis sighting, either. There was an
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