Alberta Politics: Political New Year’s fireworks go off as Alberta learns Tracy Allard, minister responsible for vaccine rollout, is just back from Hawaiian vacation

Happy New Year, Alberta! And welcome to the first United Conservative Party Government scandal of 2021: Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard has been caught vacationing in Hawaii, mid-pandemic.  Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf shows a copy of today’s edition of his local newspaper in a video posted to Facebook this morning

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Alberta Politics: Professors protest Moe Government plan to shutter archives in four locations, including University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon

SASKATOON, Sask. No sooner did the government of Saskatchewan oh-so-discreetly announce it is about to close four branches of the provincial archives and consolidate it all in one location in Regina than more than 30 Canadian scholars had an open letter of protest circulating on the Internet. When the branch

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Alberta Politics: No apologies: Rachel Notley sure didn’t sound as if she were conceding anything at campaign-style speech Sunday

In what was probably the first speech of the 2019 Alberta provincial election campaign, if not quite officially, Premier Rachel Notley was comfortable, confident, funny, hopeful, energized, charismatic, fiery and, yes, inspiring. She sounded, in other words, like a winner. By any measure, it was a terrific speech. And the

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Alberta Politics: Guy Kerr can’t be blamed for the Alberta WCB’s troubles, but his resignation is an opportunity to get it back on track

Guy Kerr cannot be blamed for the tragic wrong turn the Alberta Workers Compensation Board took nearly 30 years ago under the Conservative governments of premiers Don Getty and Ralph Klein. Under those premiers, Alberta’s effective workers’ compensation system was subverted and undermined. The victims have been injured workers. By

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Alberta Politics: Alberta Government and AUPE sign tentative agreement for three-year public service contract

The Alberta Government and the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees both announced yesterday they’ve signed a tentative agreement on a new collective agreement covering the union’s approximately 23,000 members who work directly for the provincial government. This is the group of public employees the union accurately calls “front-line government service

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daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Tom Olsen beats Megan McCaffrey in Calgary-Buffalo UCP nomination, Liberal David Khan to run in Mountain View

Photo: Tom Olsen and Ric McIver (source: Facebook) Lobbyist Tom Olsen surprised many political watchers last weekend when he defeated Megan McCaffery in the United Conservative Party nomination contest in Calgary-Buffalo. McCaffery, who has strong ties with the Manning Centre and had the endorsement of 9 UCP MLAs, was believed to

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daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Episode 15: Politicians pretending to be Cowboys. It’s Stampede Week in Calgary!

It is Calgary Stampede season, which means politicians from across Canada are flocking to Alberta’s largest city to show off their recently purchased plaid shirts and cowboy hats. In this episode of the Daveberta Podcast, Dave Cournoyer and Ryan Hastman discuss politicians pretending to be cowboys, the latest federal and provincial nomination news, including

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daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Alberta Candidate Nomination Update: Pitt bests Millions in Airdrie-East, Michael Connolly moves to Calgary-Varsity, and more.

Photo: Calgary-West MLA Mike Ellis and Airdrie MLA Angela Pitt were greeting party members outside the nomination voting station in the Town and Country Centre in Airdrie on July 20, 2018. (Source: Dave Cournoyer) Despite indications of a dogfight in Airdrie-East, United Conservative Party members voted overwhelmingly to choose incumbent

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daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Alberta Candidate Nomination Update: NDPer Stephanie McLean retiring, Mike Nickel runs for UCP nomination, UCP MLAs face challengers

The big nomination news since my last update was the announcement by Stephanie McLean that she was withdrawing from the New Democratic Party nomination contest in Calgary-Varsity. McLean is Minister of Status of Women and Minister of Service Alberta and is the second NDP MLA to announced plans not to seek re-election

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