PHOTOS: Tory Dream Team, 2014 edition. From left to right, Jim Prentice, Ric McIver and Thomas Lukaszuk. You’ve got to admit, from the perspective of 2016, Mr. Lukaszuk is lookin’ pretty good, and not just because of the orange tie! Below: Extreme …
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daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Alberta PCs to debate leadership changes, including delegated conventions
Activists from Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Party will be electing executive officers and debating amendments to their organization’s constituency at an annual general meeting on May 7, 2016 in Red Deer. After 44 years as government,…
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Five CEOs hold a press conference in a penthouse boardroom
It was a case of political friendly fire. With only days left before Election Day, the anti-NDP fear campaign was in full-gear but this shot might have been the final nail in the coffin for Alberta’s 44-year old Progressive Conservative… Continue R…
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: The election rally that convinced me the Tories were running on fumes
I will be reminiscing on this blog over the next few days about some of the key moments from Alberta’s May 5, 2015 election campaign that stand out in my memory. The one year anniversary of that historic election, which saw the defeat of… C…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Same old same old at the CPC: The Conservative boss hasn’t gone crazy, and he may even be the same guy …
PHOTOS: The Conservative Party of Canada is still singin’ the same old tune – Stephen Harper’s. (CBC photo.) Below: Senator Mike Duffy, former Conservative cabinet member Jason Kenney, Manitoba Tory MP Candice Bergen, Ontario Court Judge Charles …
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Just when the nattering nabobs of neoliberal negativism felt safe to write off the NDP, the crack of Doomsday opens!
PHOTOS: Actor David Suchet as Agatha Christie’s imaginary Hercule Poirot. Below: Postmedia Alberta Frankenpaper political columnist Lorne Gunter, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Alberta Prosperity Fund President Barry Mc…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Former Alberta Health Services CEO’s accusations of NDP ‘interference’ raise more questions than they answer
PHOTOS: Former Alberta Health Services CEO and president Vickie Kaminski, who was back in the news yesterday. Below: Former Progressive Conservative health minister Stephen Mandel; NDP health Minister Sarah Hoffman. Vickie Kaminski’s self-justifying …
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Time to share the pain and stop wasting taxpayers’ dollars on elite private and cherry-picking charter schools
PHOTOS: A typical Alberta charter school class, at least as imagined by supporters of the expensive idea. Actual charter and private school students in 2016 may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Progressive Conservative Party interim Leader Ric…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Tory victory in Calgary-Greenway riding turns ‘unite the right’ merger on Wildrose terms into political roadkill
PHOTOS: Progressive Conservative candidate Prabhdeep Gill, centre, celebrates after last night’s results were announced in the Calgary-Greenway by-election. (CBC photo.) Below: The night’s biggest loser, arguably, was Opposition Leader Brian Jean. …
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Whatever the outcome, today’s Calgary-Greenway by-election is sure to be a spinner’s dream
PHOTOS: Some of the candidates in today’s Calgary-Greenway by-election. (CBC photo) Below: Manmeet Bhullar, the PC MLA for the riding killed in a highway crash last November, NDP candidate Roop Rai and PC candidate Prabhdeep Gill. Today is the day of…
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Expect the unexpected in the Calgary-Greenway by-election
The second by-election since Alberta’s May 2015 election will be held on March 22, 2016 in the northeast Calgary constituency of Calgary-Greenway. With the re-election of Manmeet Bhullar, this constituency was one of eight in Calgary to elect a Prog…
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Big population growth means it’s time to redraw Alberta’s Electoral Boundaries
Alberta’s population has grown by 517,365 since the last time our provincial electoral boundaries were redrawn to reflect population growth. According to population estimates released on the provincial government’s Open Data portal this week…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Throne Speech suggests Alberta NDP won’t let oil price crisis go completely to waste
PHOTOS: Status of Women Minister Stephanie McLean with her new son, Patrick, in the rotunda of the Alberta Legislature Building after yesterday’s Throne Speech. Below: Royal Canadian Artillery Band conductor Capt. Patrice Arsenault starts the proceed…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Annals of the Alberta Party: A mystery created, a mystery solved
PHOTOS: Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark, the party’s sole MLA in the Alberta Legislature. Below: Then-Wildrose leader Danielle Smith during the campaign leading up to the October 2014 “mini-election” and Alberta Party President Pat Cochrane (phot…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Wherever there’s Alberta unite-the-right chatter, Preston Manning’s name keeps popping up
PHOTOS: Preston Manning, looking right as usual, photo taken at the 2013 Manning Conference in Ottawa. Below: Alberta PC leader Ric McIver, Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean Wildrose Party photo), federal Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose (CBC photo) and…
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Ezra Levant: Once a lawyer always a lawyer?
Ms Soapbox is grateful to Ezra Levant (and that’s not an easy thing to say). Thanks to Ezra she’s discovered that journalism is not a profession (actually she suspected it all along); she’s also learned that “once a lawyer always … Continue reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Appointment of Michael Phair as chair U of A Board of Governors sends exactly the right message
PHOTOS: Newly appointed University of Alberta Board of Governors Chair Michael Phair, left, with Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt at yesterday’s announcement (photo grabbed from MLA David Shepherd’s Twitter feed). Below: Former U of A Boa…
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Documentary film about Alberta’s 2015 Election premieres on March 2, 2016
Filmmaker Kelly Wolfert will premiere his 23-minute documentary about Alberta’s historic May 5, 2015 election at a special screening on March 2, 2016 at Metro Cinema in Edmonton. You can watch the film’s teaser trailer on YouTube (th…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Go figure! Jim Prentice, failed former politician, resurfaces with sweet gig at Washington think tank
PHOTOS: Those were the days! This time last year, Jim Prentice was everyone else’s favourite Albertan, or so it seemed. Now look at him, already the last Conservative premier of Alberta. Below: Woodrow Wilson, the only American president with a PhD a…
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Oil Pipeline still King in Notley’s Interprovincial Agenda
Three years ago this week, Conservative Premier Alison Redford took to the airwaves to warn Albertans about the ominous “bitumen bubble.” Ms. Redford warned that a pipeline bottleneck and a dramatic drop in the price of oil would rob the… Continu…
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