According to Bill Morneau, “as Minister of Finance, my only job is to make sure that Canadians can keep food in the fridge.” That’s actually a rare useful thought for a federal finance minister to keep front of mind in calamitous circumstances like the present ones. Economist Jim Stanford (Photo:
Continue readingTag: Justin Trudeau
Alberta Politics: Community transmission of COVID-19 seen in Alberta; all classes cancelled; no layoffs of health workers — for now
Community transmission of COVID-19 is now taking place in Alberta as numbers of cases grew by 17 over the past 24 hours to 56, Premier Jason Kenney told the province’s daily briefing on the local spread of the global pandemic today. Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw said seven
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: COVID-19: A Study in Leadership
“The first role of government is to help people in crisis or need. That’s why we have government.”– John McCain Crisis separates the leaders from wannabes. We will be watching our leaders and wannabes very carefully over the next few months to see how they respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: #Coronavirus: crisis comms in a crisis comms situation
Daisy Group has been around for almost 15 years. Generally speaking, we are basically a war room for hire. Specifically, we help folks through crisis communications situations. Like coronavirus. What has made things worse – what has made people anxious, and pushed them towards panic – isn’t the virus itself.
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: Trudeaus, Singh in self-isolation
Hope all of them are okay. And that everyone exposed to this remorseless, foul pestilence are okay, too. #BREAKING: Justin Trudeau and Sophie Gregoire Trudeau are in self-isolation over COVID-19 concerns. The latest: https://t.co/pjACmRre4w — Toronto Star (@TorontoStar) March 12, 2020 #Breaking: NEW: NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he's limiting
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It’s almost as if the new coronavirus has evolved to exploit the vulnerabilities of the modern neoliberal state
“The risk to Albertans is still low,” the Government of Alberta’s official website soothingly assured us yesterday afternoon, the day the World Health Organization officially declared the effects of the coronavirus swiftly coursing ’round the globe to be a pandemic. This may reassure some of us. Others, not so much.
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: My latest: washing your hands is smart politics
A press conference. In the Spring of 2003, the coronavirus variant called SARS was raging, killing many Canadians, making them sick. So Ontario’s health minister, Tony Clement, held a press conference. Standing in front of the assembled media, this is all he did: he washed his hands. Washing your hands
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: Failure-ology
Why did Justin Trudeau lose a million votes in the 2019 election? Why did he lose his majority? Why did he lose his standing in the world, and with Canadians? Because of LavScam. Because of the Aga Khan, and unbalanced budgets, and no electoral reform, and serial scandals. Because of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Kenney to Edmonton: Drop dead!
When the New York Daily News published its famous FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD headline on Oct. 30, 1975, all president Gerald Ford had done was deny a federal bailout to Gotham, which was nearly bankrupt. It shows the power of a great headline that Oct. 29, the day President
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Can Canada’s Conservatives resist temptation to try to sabotage the accord with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs?
It will be interesting to see how the Conservative Opposition in Ottawa and Alberta’s Conservative government react to yesterday’s announcement the federal and British Columbia governments have reached an accord with the Wet’suwet’en First Nation that would recognize its system of hereditary governance. Participants said the agreement reached yesterday in
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: My latest: police, politicians and protestors
Can the politicians tell the police to take down the barricades? If not, why not? Those are the two questions that have been mooted for more than two weeks now. Around the nation’s water coolers, in just about every Tim Horton’s, frustrated and angry Canadians – Indigenous and otherwise –
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What really happened to the Teck Frontier oilsands mine? It’s the market, stupid!
So what really happened to the Teck Frontier oilsands mine? Hint: It wasn’t anything Justin Trudeau did or didn’t do. That’s pure United Conservative Party gas lighting, a game a career politician like Alberta Premier Jason Kenney just can’t make himself stop playing. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J.
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Jason Kenney and the Teck Frontier Fiasco
For months Jason Kenney has been strutting around like a puffed up mini Mussolini, bellowing "Trudeau gimme that mine, or else!!!!"And threatening that Alberta could separate if the Liberal government didn't approve the Teck Frontier project, a massive oil sands mine.But today you could hear the air hissing out of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Is the Conservative Opposition a national government in waiting or a separatist bloc? Andrew Scheer must decide
Who said, “At time of global economic instability, Canada’s government must stand unequivocally for keeping the country together”? I won’t tease you. It was Stephen Harper, on Dec. 3, 2008. Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper (Photo: Prime Minister of Greece). Prime minister Harper, desperate to avoid a non-confidence vote
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 49: Radical Sabbatical. Climate justice and Alberta politics with Chris Gusen
Is Alberta ready to face the challenges of climate change? Climate activist and communicator Chris Gusen joins Dave Cournoyer to discuss Alberta politics, climate justice, and a Green New Deal on the latest episode of the Daveberta Podcast. Chris shares some insight into his transition from his role as the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The state of the art of Conservative victimhood in Alberta: Cue the violins! Here comes the Buffalo Declaration!
Cue the violins! No one does victimhood like an Alberta Conservative contemplating the prospect of another term in Opposition overlooking the Ottawa River. Michelle Rempel Garner, the Blocker Queen of Twitter and Conservative MP for the monochromatic suburban wasteland of Calgary Nose Hill, apparently wants us to think she is
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Justin Trudeau and the Day of Decision
He waited as long as he could, too long in the opinion of many.He was obviously hoping that peaceful negotiation could bring down the rail barricades, in the best Canadian tradition.But at last Justin Trudeau's patience was exhausted.And it was the day of decision.Read more »
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: JWR offers a solution
But Trudeau won’t listen. He doesn’t like strong women who talk back. Story: Wilson-Raybould, now an independent MP, called for Trudeau to fly to B.C. to get personally involved in meetings, a cooling-off period in B.C. during which construction would cease and the RCMP leave the area, and the immediate
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