PHOTOS: Premier Rachel Notley speaks with well wishers in the Alberta Legislature Rotunda yesterday after her government’s Speech from the Throne was read by Lieutenant Governor Lois Mitchell. Below: Finance Minister Joe Ceci, Ms. Mitchell and Premier Peter Lougheed, back in the day. (Mitchell and Lougheed photos: Government of Alberta.)
Continue readingTag: Jim Prentice
Alberta Politics: Brian Jean, former Opposition leader and unsuccessful contender to lead United Conservative Party, quits Alberta politics
PHOTOS: Brian Jean, when he was still running for the leadership of the United Conservative Party in 2017. Below: Mr. Jean feeling the love during the race to lead the UCP, and as he would probably like his political career to be remembered. (The second and third photos were grabbed
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Stephen Mandel to lead Alberta Party; probably won’t take Tory insider’s advice to go ‘ultra-left’
PHOTOS: Stephen Mandel, always a natty dresser, was chosen as the leader of the Alberta Party last night. He was dressed more conservatively than in this old picture, though, which has the advantage of having been taken by your blogger back when Mr. Mandel was Jim Prentice’s unelected health minister.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Andrea Horwath will be Ontario’s next premier – remember where you heard it first, Albertans
PHOTOS: Andrea Horwath, leader of the Ontario NDP. Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, sometime Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leader Patrick Brown, the late Jim Prentice when he was PC premier of Alberta, and former Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak. (All photos except those of Mr. Prentice and Ms. Notley are
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Fallout from Klein Government mismanagement two decades ago drifts in on the winds of the Carillon collapse
PHOTOS: Winter driving in Alberta (Photo: Wikimedia Commons). Below: Alberta Transportation Minister Brian Mason and Opposition Transportation Critic Wayne Drysdale. That Carillon bankruptcy … did it ring any bells with you? It certainly should have. The spectacular collapse of the U.K. construction giant Carillon PLC has not just shaken the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Stephen Mandel, Janson Kenney and the Messiah Strategy Alberta conservatives are confident will save their bacon
PHOTOS: Alberta’s latest would-be conservative leader, as seen by party insiders and supporters. (Actually, it’s Bonaparte. Alberta conservative leaders may not appear exactly imagined by Jacques-Louis David.) Below: Would-be Tory messiahs Stephen Mandel and the late Jim Prentice, and Jason Kenney. Below them: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley. Stephen Mandel, former
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The UCP may be a different party, but ts policy document shows it’s peddling the same old … stuff
PHOTOS: Among other things, the aspirational UCP policy document would have you believe the party could balance environmental protection and the wants of recreational vehicle users if it were the government. What do you think that means? (Photo, for illustrative purposes only, grabbed from SHERP ATV.) Below: Alberta premiers Rachel
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Those lame green coroplast arrows point to one thing: the UCP’s cozy relationship with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
PHOTOS: United Conservative Party MLA Wes Taylor with his notorious green coroplast arrow. Below: An example of the fun made of Mr. Taylor by Internet wags; Porky the Waster Hater, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s mascot; Wildrose MLA Derek Fildebrandt and Wildrose Leader Brian Jean in happier times with their lame
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Today marks the 10th anniversary of AlbertaPolitics.ca – which presumably makes this blog an Internet institution!
PHOTOS: Part of the original header on this blog, back in its St. Albert Diary days, which ran from the last week of 2007 to mid-2009. The blog, of course, has continued under slightly different names to the present. Below: The first post, and my picture with Alberta’s two best
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Dave Hancock, Alberta’s second-to-last Progressive Conservative premier, named by NDP as Provincial Court judge
PHOTOS: Dave Hancock as premier, in pink shirt at left, at the Edmonton Pride Parade in June 2014. With him are former Edmonton City Councillor Michael Phair and City Councillor Scott McKeen. Below: Mr. Hancock speaks with the media at Government House in Edmonton on one of the darkest days
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Bill 24 passes, making it hard for Alberta schools to obstruct gay-straight alliances and illegal to out members to their parents
PHOTOS: Alberta Education Minister David Eggen, whose Bill 24, An Act to Support Gay-Straight Alliances, was passed by the Alberta Legislature yesterday. Below: UCP Leader Jason Kenney, former Alberta Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman, and social conservative activist John Carpay. Bill 24, An Act to Support Gay-Straight Alliances, passed third and
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Will the Alberta Together takeover turn the Alberta Party into PC 2.0?
Photo: Alberta Party leader Greg Clark on the campaign trail in Calgary-Elbow in 2014. Source: Twitter. In the latest shakeup in Alberta politics, Greg Clark announced last Friday that he would resign as leader of the Alberta Party at the party’s upcoming annual general meeting on November 18, 2017. Clark
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Which way will the wedge slice? Alberta NDP and UCP adopt opposite strategies on gay-straight alliances
PHOTOS: Jason Kenney may be the UCP’s leader now, but he’s still doing his best to appeal to his red-meat social conservative base. (Photo: Dave Cournoyer, Daveberta.ca.) Below: NDP Education Minister David Eggen, NDP Premier Rachel Notley, and UCP House Leader Jason Nixon. The impassioned, at times bitter, tone of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Where are they now? Well-known Tories, including former justice minister and former police chief, have ‘gone to pot’
PHOTOS: Jonathan Denis, during his tenure as premier Alison Redford’s Progressive Conservative Justice Minister. Below: Former Calgary Police Chief and PC candidate Rick Hanson (Photo: CBC), former PC culture minister Lindsay Blackett, and Conservative activist Piotr Pilarski (Photo: Twitter). A couple of high-profile Progressive Conservative candidates swept away by the
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: A wild first week back at Alberta’s Legislative Assembly
Photo: Premier Rachel Notley rallies her NDP Caucus MLAs before the start of the fall legislative sitting on Oct. 30, 2017. (photo by Chris Schwarz/Government of Alberta Flickr) NDP focus their attacks on Kenney A first-time visitor to the Assembly this week could have confused Premier Rachel Notley‘s New Democrats with the
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Get ready for a by-election in Calgary-Lougheed
Photo: A map of the Calgary-Lougheed constituency. With Calgary-Lougheed MLA Dave Rodney expected to resign tomorrow in order to provide new United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney an opportunity to enter the Legislative Assembly, a by-election will need to be called by May 1, 2018. The exact timing of the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Calgary MLA Dave Rodney to make way for new Conservative Leader; ex New Democrat Karen McPherson to join Alberta Party
PHOTOS: Calgary-Lougheed MLA Dave Rodney, centre right, gets close to the new Conservative leader … in 2011. Below: Newly elected United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney; another look at Mr. Rodney, the renowned Everest summiteer; and Alberta Party recruit Karen McPherson (Photo: Connor Mah, Wikipedia Commons). Members of the Alberta
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Nenshi in a tight race while Iveson coasts to victory
Photo: Diana McQueen, Don Iveson, Jim Prentice and Naheed Nenshi sign the Framework Agreement that paved the way for the development of city charters on Oct. 7, 2014 (Photo source: Government of Alberta on Flickr) With six days left until municipal election day in Alberta, the mayors in the province’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jim Dinning 6.0: how Jason Kenney is repeating the same failed Tory strategy, and expecting different results
PHOTOS: Singer k.d. lang (handout photo, via CBC). Below: Jim Dinning 1.0 and Jim Dinning 6.0. Is it just me, or is it mildly surprising that Jason Kenney turned down k.d. lang’s offer of free tickets to Calgary Pride on Sept. 3 and 4? Mr. Kenney, of course, is the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Derek Fildebrandt, UCP ‘liberty’ advocate, calls for return to ugly 1940s labour relations, labour studies professor says
PHOTOS: The late Jim Prentice, during his successful 2014 campaign to lead the Progressive Conservative Party, with supporters in Edmonton. Below: Anti-union “liberty conservative” Derek Fildebrandt, NDP Premier Rachel Notley, and Athabasca University Labour Studies Professor Bob Barnetson. It was probably his “math is hard” moment in a televised debate
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