“Soon, we will find out if breaking the law is illegal.” The line is Stephen Colbert’s and, no, he wasn’t talking about Alberta. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). The well-known American comedian and TV personality, of course, was referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in
Continue readingTag: Jeff Callaway
Alberta Politics: Fallout from dual probes into 2017 United Conservative Party leadership campaign still drifting down
It may not be fair, and you may not like it, but politics is like French justice: Guilty until proven innocent. OK, the French say it ain’t so, and we have to take them at their word. They’ve signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, bien sûr! But in politics,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: More questions than answers in last week’s fallout from 2017 UCP leadership campaign
Eight Alberta United Conservative Party MLAs, five of them cabinet ministers, now admit they’ve been interviewed by the RCMP in the federal police force’s ongoing investigation into the curious goings on during the party’s 2017 leadership race, from which Premier Jason Kenney emerged victorious. Every time another UCP Caucus member
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Why wouldn’t Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer appoint an independent prosecutor in the Kamikaze Campaign case?
So riddle me this: Why wouldn’t Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer appoint an independent Crown prosecutor to oversee the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation into allegations of voting fraud in the 2017 United Conservative Party leadership race? Especially now it’s been revealed by the CBC that Mr. Schweitzer, who himself was
Continue readingAlberta Politics: United Conservative Party introduces the Open for Fast Food Act – sorry about the 13% pay cut, kids
Premier Jason Kenney’s newly elected United Conservative Party introduced its second bill yesterday, calling it the Open for Business Act. The NDP immediately dubbed Bill 2 the Pick Your Pockets Bill, seeing as its provisions include a 13-per-cent pay cut to $13 an hour from $15 for students under 18
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Vote-anywhere made it easier to cast a vote against the government from, well, anywhere
Well, God bless the NDP, I guess, who could apparently be depended upon to do the right thing, even if it killed them. Alberta’s official vote results are now in and they suggest how the province’s new “vote anywhere” provisions did no favours for the departing government. Elections Alberta published
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 readingAlberta Politics: Were Mark Smith’s comments on gay love a Lake of Fire moment for the UCP, or just another insignificant bozo eruption?
With the revelation United Conservative Party candidate Mark Smith holds the offensive view gay love can never be real love, and equates LGBTQ people with pedophiles, it appeared that Alberta’s United Conservative Party was finally having its own genuine Lake of Fire moment. But was it? It certainly looked like
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jeff Callaway bids to derail Kamikaze Campaign finance probe – why won’t he wait, like Trump?
Despite obviously having been tempted to shut down the “Russian collusion” investigation when he saw friends and supporters charged with lying to the FBI, aides to U.S. President Donald Trump managed to persuade him to hold his fire. How? Although many of us wondered about this during Special Counsel Robert
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Prodigal Roughneck returns – Bernard the Roughneck throws his hardhat into the ring for FCP in Grande Prairie
The good news for Alberta’s Freedom Conservative Party is that it’s recruited a national figure as one of its candidates. The bad news for the FCP may be the national figure in question is Neal Bernard Hancock, better known as “Bernard the Roughneck.” A three-paragraph news story on Mr. Hancock’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta Election Day 2: Will UCP scandals keep traction once parties start rolling out their policies?
Premier Rachel Notley’s NDP clearly hopes to make Opposition Leader Jason Kenney’s character the ballot box issue for voters in the April 16 provincial election, but will the United Conservative Party’s scandals have as much traction now that the election writ has been dropped? The risk for the NDP strategy,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Never mind the Throne Speech, yesterday’s excitement was still about the Kamikaze Campaign
Never mind the Throne Speech. Yesterday’s excitement all took place in the basement media room of the Alberta Legislature Building an hour afterward. The afternoon Speech from the Throne by Alberta’s NDP Government was pretty much what you’d expect under the circumstances, which are that Premier Rachel Notley is expected
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rachel Notley accepts nomination; accuses Jason Kenney of coolly lying about ‘Kamikaze Campaign’
Based on what we’ve learned in the past 24 hours, it’s hard to dispute Premier Rachel Notley’s blunt assessment at her nomination meeting in the Edmonton-Strathcona riding yesterday that Opposition Leader Jason Kenney has been coolly lying about the role of his 2017 leadership campaign in the so-called “Kamikaze Mission”
Continue readingAlberta Politics: CBC exposé about Jason Kenney’s campaign has echoes of Richard Nixon
Perhaps it’s just me, but with each passing day Jason Kenney reminds me a little more of Richard M. Nixon, the talented but deeply flawed American president who in 1973 resigned from office rather than be impeached by the House of Representatives and sent packing by the Senate. Last night’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: This is serious now: the Mounties have entered the Kamikaze Campaign investigation
Some days Alberta politics are like that fine old Johnny Nash song: “I can see clearly now the rain is gone …” A lot has happened since 3 o’clock yesterday morning when the CBC broke the story the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had taken over the investigation by the Office
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP candidate who played role in Kamikaze Campaign forced to walk the plank
Another United Conservative Party candidate has been sent packing for being neither “forthright” nor “forthcoming” with party Leader Jason Kenney. Leastways, that’s the UCP’s story, and they’re stickin’ to it. Randy Kerr, recently chosen as UCP candidate in the Calgary-Beddington riding and a prominent figure in the party’s rapidly metastasizing
Continue readingAlberta Politics: $3,500 fine levied in Callaway Kamikaze Campaign Case, this time for illegal pass-through donation
Another fine has been levied in the Callaway Kamikaze Campaign Case, this time for an illegal pass-through donation. Karen Brown was handed the $3,500 administrative penalty yesterday by the Office of Alberta’s Election Commissioner. She has been identified as a former United Conservative Party financial officer. In a characteristically terse
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alleged UCP electoral shenanigans begin to attract a wider audience than just Alberta
Thanks to Opposition Leader Jason Kenney and the United Conservative Party leadership race he won last year, not to mention the way he won it, electoral politics in Alberta are starting to get international attention. I kid you not! I had a long phone conversation today with a journalist from
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Another twist in the ‘Kamikaze Campaign’ pretzel – Callaway campaign manager fined, fired, vows fight
The manager of Jeff Callaway’s 2017 campaign to lead the United Conservative Party was slapped with $15,000 in fines yesterday by Alberta’s Election Commissioner for “obstruction of an investigation.” Talk about fear and loathing on the campaign trail! This strange yarn has more twists than a fairground pretzel! From the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Justice Minister needs to ask for RCMP investigation of Election Commissioner’s concerns, and quickly
Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley needs to ask the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to investigate concerns raised by Alberta Election Commissioner Lorne Gibson that someone is trying to interfere with his office’s inquiry into alleged irregularities in the 2017 United Conservative Party leadership race. Mr. Gibson expressed his alarm in a
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