On Wednesday, former prime minister Stephen Harper abruptly quit the Conservative Party of Canada’s fund-raising board, supposedly to give himself time to prevent Jean Charest from becoming leader of Canada’s Conservatives or prime minister of Canada. Yesterday, we learned that Preston Manning would quit his eponymous market-fundamentalist call centre in
Continue readingTag: John Horgan
Cowichan Conversations: Lifelong New Democrat Voting Green
Dorothy Field-Contributor Dear John Horgan and Carole James, Just a note should you care to hear from me. I will almost certainly be voting Green in the upcoming federal election. Next year, unless Read more…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: B.C. Appeal Court’s Trans Mountain ruling may not be quite the slam-dunk Alberta thinks it is
The unanimous ruling Friday by the British Columbia Court of Appeal that the B.C. Government does not have the constitutional authority to control what goes inside the federally regulated Trans Mountain Pipeline is being hailed as a great victory in Alberta. Church bells didn’t actually ring on Friday, but the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Quebec premier vows drive to slash oil use; Alberta premier calls climate worry ‘flavour of the month’
Over the weekend, Quebec Premier François Legault vowed to implement an ambitious electrification drive that would reduce the province’s use of oil by 40 per cent by 2030, which in case you’re not counting happens to be in only 11 years. Quebec will electrify transportation systems, buildings and businesses to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Vindication? Board of Internal Economy renders a Scotch verdict on Jason Kenney’s ethical lapse
CALGARY – Jason Kenney’s been in power for less than a week and already his election promises are falling like dominoes.* Yesterday, another wobbled when the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled that the federal government has the power to establish limits on greenhouse gas production that provinces must meet, and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Fielding questions about Jason Kenney’s apparent effort to channel Vladimir Putin, B.C. premier sounded like the grownup
CALGARY – For those of us used to listening to Alberta politicians on the topic of pipelines, British Columbia Premier John Horgan made for a refreshing change yesterday, sounding remarkably like the grownup as he responded to Premier Jason Kenney’s proclamation into law of the NDP’s unconstitutional bill to shut
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Nearly a third of Alberta’s electorate voted in advance polls – whatever can it mean?
One of the mysteries of the 2019 Alberta election campaign that comes to an end with today’s election is the truly astonishing number of advance ballots cast. Nearly 700,000 Albertans voted in advance polls. That is close to 30 per cent of the electorate. This is unheard of in Alberta,
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Vaughn Palmer: NDP gets Green scorn, Liberals’ props for getting LNG to a finish line
It is a sad day when the BCNDP embrace such destructive projects as LNG Canada to the detriment of our environment, economy and political independence free from the muscle of foreign corporations. Who suspected that Read more…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What would Green Party of Canada Leader Elizabeth May do in Rachel Notley’s shoes? Not the same thing as Alberta’s premier
What would have Elizabeth May have done in Rachel Notley’s shoes? The leader of the Green Party of Canada says she would have summoned up the memory of Peter Lougheed, founder of Alberta’s 44-year Progressive Conservative Dynasty, but not the way the province’s first NDP premier has. “I think that
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Has Trudeau committed treason?’ The answer is no and the question is completely bonkers!
Donna Kennedy-Glans, by all accounts an intelligent and accomplished Alberta Conservative, recently posted and pinned a Tweet asking, “Has Trudeau committed treason?” If her intention was to grab the attention of Alberta’s chattering classes, she succeeded. If she was out for attention, though, I’m not sure she really wanted the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Calculating the winners and losers in yesterday’s Trans Mountain Pipeline debacle
No doubt they were chuckling discreetly at Kinder Morgan headquarters in Houston yesterday as they counted up their additional spare change. They had, after all, just managed to sell off the Trans Mountain Pipeline to the Liberal government led by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, backstopped by Premier Rachel Notley’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Arno Kopecky points out that new highs in nominal standards of living around the globe are being paired with unprecedented environmental damage which puts our future at risk. And Laila Yuile responds to John Horgan’s version of the line that any smaller jurisdiction
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Lana Payne writes that there’s no reason to turn Donald Trump’s giveaway to the rich into an excuse for similarly destructive policies in Canada: If tax policy levers need adjusting, there is a more effective and sophisticated approach that can be taken,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Kinder, gentler Kenney must be for real! UCP lavishes 13 words of praise on NDP for capping super superintendent salaries!
Alberta’s United Conservative Party generates a lot of noise. Other than the Trans Mountain Pipeline, however, not a lot of it seems to have much to do with the principal issues facing Alberta these days. Education Minister David Eggen’s decision to slap a cap on the outrageous salaries paid to
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: What do Jason Kenney, John Horgan and Elizabeth May have in Common?
This just in from the “strange-bedfellows” department: When it comes to the Trans Mountain pipeline, Jason Kenney, BC premier John Horgan and Green Party leader Elizabeth May are singing from the same song sheet. They all agree that the federal government’s decision to buy Trans Mountain changes nothing. Elizabeth
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: We bought a pipeline! How the federal government’s purchase of the Trans Mountain Pipeline impacts the key players in this never-ending dispute
We own a pipeline! Well, not yet. Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced yesterday that the federal government plans to purchase the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline from Kinder Morgan Inc. by August 2018 if another investor cannot be found. The federal government has committed to help the Texas-based corporation find a
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Episode 12: Trans Mountain Pipeline deadline, NDP family conflict, and Horwath NDP vs. Ford Nation in Ontario’s Election
How are Canada’s political leaders are positioning themselves ahead of the Kinder Morgan corporation’s imposed May 31 pipeline deadline? What will federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau say when he visits Calgary this week? What is the long term impact of the pipeline dispute between the provincial and federal New Democratic Parties?
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Pipeline politics in Canada circa 2018: Destroying the rule of law in order to save it
Obviously, we have to destroy the rule of law in order to save it! With Kinder Morgan Inc.’s do-or-drop-it deadline set to arrive on Thursday, that seems to be the idea behind the argument advanced by the increasingly furious Canadian pipeline lobby that the Trans Mountain Expansion project must be
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Shark Jumping in Alberta: NDP and UCP strive to outdo each other with ridiculous statements
As the Alberta Government’s fight with British Columbia over the Trans Mountain Pipeline takes on comic opera proportions, Premier Rachel Notley’s New Democratic Party and Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party Opposition appear to be struggling to see which one can come up with the most ridiculous things to say about
Continue readingAlberta Politics: 11 days from the brink, and Rachel Notley’s dice roll brings back memories of Mulroney and Meech
Rachel Notley, Alberta’s tough NDP premier who has clearly concluded her government’s survival depends on there being shovels in the ground building a pipeline by the time she asks the lieutenant governor to call an election next year, rolls the dice a lot like Brian Mulroney. Well, not exactly like
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