TweetHe is a leadership candidate backed by long-governing party establishment. He has chased away his potential rivals. He has experience in both the federal cabinet and the corporate sector. He is a respected party insider. He has a track record as a moderate conservative and can raise significant amounts of
Continue readingTag: Jim Prentice
Alberta Diary: And then there were two … decline of the Alberta Tory leadership race mirrors decline of Progressive Conservative Party
Hail the conquering hero … now starring Jim Prentice, above. Actual Progressive Conservative Enlightened Beings may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Non-leadership contenders Ken … Ken, we hardly knew ye! … Hughes, Doug Horner, Diana McQueen and Jonathan Denis. And then there were two… Ken Hughes, the former minister
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Who wants to be leader of the Alberta NDP?
TweetWhile most political chatter in Alberta is focused on how big Jim Prentice’s victory will be on the first ballot of the Progressive Conservative leadership vote on September 6, there is another race about to begin – the race to become the leader of the Alberta NDP. At his press
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Aging long-shot ‘blockhead’ candidate knocks off huge Journal political team to capture Yeggie political category award
Yeggie winning blogger David Climenhaga with a familiar-looking Albertan. What was her name again? Below: The same guy with some other political types who look faintly familiar. When the podcast site for the Edmonton Journal’s entire 11-member political affairs team was nominated for one of this year’s Yeggies, the annual
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Miraculously, no one trampled as Tories race for Alberta Legislature’s exits
Alison Redford crashes through the Alberta Legislature. Below: Frightened and relieved, Alberta Progressive Conservative MLAs race from the vicinity of the Legislative Building in Edmonton yesterday; Nostradamus; Moses. Actual Alberta politicians and legislative architectural renderings may not appear exactly as illustrated. It must have seemed a little like the panic
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta Workers Compensation Board poised to give back more than $500 million to employers
Alberta Workers Compensation Board officials ready shipments of money to send back to employers. Actual WBC staff may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Labour Minister Thomas Lukaszuk and now-official Tory leadership candidate Ric McIver, who gave up the K in his first name for the benefit of all Albertans.
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: The All-Calgarian PC Party leadership race
TweetAnother Calgarian has entered what has been, at least so far, an all-Calgarian Progressive Conservative leadership race. Announcing his candidacy in the contest to become the next PC Party leader and premier, former Infrastructure minister Ric McIver declared he would bring a “common-sense new approach to replace insider, establishment thinking, with new common-sense thinking.” The
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Finance minister’s joint news conference with civil service union leader sure looked like a total climb-down
AUPE President Guy Smith, left, and Finance Minister Doug Horner on the podium together at yesterday’s news conference in Edmonton. Below: NDP leader Brian Mason as he spoke to reporters moments afterward. There’s no question, after a year of something approaching total warfare between the Government of Alberta and its
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Pension bill delayed as Hancock softens ground for next PC Party leader
TweetIn another move suggesting the spring sitting of Alberta’s Legislative Assembly could end within days, it appears that the passage of the Progressive Conservative Government’s controversial public sector pension law – Bill 9: Public Sector Pension Plans Amendment Act, 2014 – will be delayed until the fall sitting later this year. The opposition filibuster of
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Calgary mayor hands Alberta PCs a ‘Get Out of Jail Card’ on public service pensions
Alberta Premier pro tem Dave Hancock, who does not appear exactly as illustrated, of course, pictured on a Get Out of Jail Free card given him today by Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi. Below: Mr. Nenshi and the real Mr. Hancock. Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi handed Alberta Premier pro tempore Dave
Continue readingAlberta Diary: A Tale of Two Leaders: His was the best of exits, hers was the worst
Retiring Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason with your blogger’s introduction-to-journalism class in 2011: he was witty, passionate and persuasive, a big part of why the Alberta NDP continues to draw young supporters in significant numbers. Below: Mr. Mason with Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who has also retired from politics; in
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Four-year, 6.75% AUPE tentative agreement ends threat of open war between civil service union and Hancock Government
If not cordiale, at least entente. Alberta Premier Dave Hancock and AUPE President Guy Smith celebrate their tentative contract agreement yesterday. Actual Alberta public figures may not appear exactly as illustrated. (I freely admit stealing this idea from Daveberta.ca.) Below: Jim Prentice, Mr. Hancock and Mr. Smith. The threat of
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Detente or Entente Cordiale? AUPE and Hancock Government reach tentative agreement
TweetAt 10:00 a.m. on April 28, 2014, Hugh McPhail, a lawyer representing the Alberta Government requested the Court of Appeal to adjourn a scheduled hearing on Bill 46, the controversial anti-labour law that had been halted by a court injection months ago. The law would have forced a regressive contract on the 22,000 government employees
Continue readingCalgary Grit: Sing a Song for Jim
The Alberta PCs may very well be beyond saving, but if anyone can give new life to the 43-year old dynasty, it’s Jim Prentice.
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta Tories waiting for a Jim Prentice coronation
TweetCould the snoozer that has become Alberta’s Progressive Conservative leadership race risk becoming a coronation if former federal cabinet minister Jim Prentice jumps into the race? Necessitated by the resignation of Premier Alison Redford on March 19, the race to choose the next leader of Alberta’s 43-year long governing PC Party has so far
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The ‘Self Preservation Society’ wants Jim Prentice for ‘The Alberta Job’ – but can he forgo his ambition to be PM?
“The Alberta Job.” Will the original “Self Preservation Society” get to keep the Tory gold? Is Jim Prentice – above, not exactly as illustrated – the man to help them do it? Read on to find out why we’ll probably never find out. Below: The actual Jim Prentice. Below him:
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Municipal Affairs Minister Ken Hughes quits Alberta cabinet – presumably to run for PC leadership
Half-confirmed Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Ken Hughes, on the night in 2011 Alison Redford won the party’s leadership. Well, that was then and this is now, as the appalled looking unidentified passerby sensed to have sensed. Below: Doug Horner. Anyone else? Alberta’s Municipal Affairs Minister quit his cabinet post yesterday,
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: PC Party leadership race off to a very slow start
TweetNineteen days have passed since former Premier Alison Redford announced her resignation and not one candidate has officially announced their intentions to enter the race to become the next leader of Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives. But there is at least one unofficial candidate, maybe. Municipal Affairs minister Ken Hughes made the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Halloween 2013: a meditation on power
Prime Minister Stephen Harper just one year ago. Actual Canadian prime ministers may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Senator Mike Duffy and former Harper cabinet member Jim Prentice. Last Halloween, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper went trick ’n’ treating, he was monarch of all he surveyed. This year, he’s
Continue readingImpolitical: Natural Resources asks media outlet to destroy records
Postmedia had a report last night on Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver writing to his officials, in email, on his needing briefings on major energy projects in Canada so he could speak to them knowledgeably. He made the request in the aftermath of a Jim Prentice speech which mentioned a
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