Never mind the Throne Speech. Yesterday’s excitement all took place in the basement media room of the Alberta Legislature Building an hour afterward. The afternoon Speech from the Throne by Alberta’s NDP Government was pretty much what you’d expect under the circumstances, which are that Premier Rachel Notley is expected
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Political Potshots: My Last Post About SNC Lavalin (Also, I Lie Sometimes)
The worst part of this whole SNC-Lavalin faux scandal has been the polarizing effect that it has had on Canadian politics. I have never seen such a disconnect between journalism, the political class, and the voting public. The truth of the matter is, polling numbers show that the story has
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: #CPCracists Leader
About the time that the odious racist Kellie Lietch was contending for the leadership of the CPC with Maxime Bernier and the guy who kept Syrian refugees out of Canada for years to suffer in camps instead, the media dropped the ball. It’s been objectively clear for years now that
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: My Second Podcast Appearance – The View Up Here (And Of Course Some Thoughts On SNC Fakegate)
//percolate.blogtalkradio.com/offsiteplayer?hostId=711695&episodeId=11232575 I sat down for a wide ranging chat with Canada Glen (@canadianglen) about the United We Roll convoy and the SNC Lavalin story, it is actually quite fair, and the deep analysis into these stories that I wish corporate media would have done. The way Canadian mainstream media has
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: The Nothingburger Scandal And The Amazing Technicolor Dream World Of The Canadian Conservative
First, here are a few thoughts from Jody Wilson-Raybould’s committee testimony and the aftermath. What Jody Wilson-Raybould and Justin Trudeau are both saying could likely be true. They do not have to be mutually exclusive. We know now that Jody Wilson-Raybould is likely responsible for the leak, or had a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Evening Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Kate Aronoff highlights the lack of realism on the part of “adult” politicians demanding that the existential threat of climate breakdown be met with a grossly insufficient response. And Anders Fremstad and Mark Paul write about the dangers of an ideology of climate
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: My Saturation Point
I have realized there is a lower point than disillusionment with mainstream Canadian media. I call it my bullshit saturation point. Canada’s news media has decided that it wants to be the main influencer/decider of the 2019 election. For the last few weeks, a common thread has emerged in mainstream
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: The Conservative News Media Circle Of Lie
I did not get into blogging, or commenting on politics to criticize the media. Some people say that criticizing the media means attacking the media, which undermines democracy itself. I disagree, I feel that media criticism is necessary in a market in which hyper-partisan niche media outlets are directly created
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Happy Valentine’s Day! Don’t worry, even with a fair minimum wage, you can take your sweetie to a restaurant tonight!
Readers whose hearts are breaking at Restaurants Canada’s tale of woe supposedly caused by increases in the minimum wage and other calamities can take some Valentine’s Day comfort from the fact that despite all the tears Albertans have been dining out in record numbers. Last fall’s annual report on the
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: Andrew MacDougall: The Haze Runner
If you observe politics long enough, you will witness moments of pure political amnesia. Its almost as if the commentator/pundit forgets their own past in a moment of faux moral outrage meant to generate clicks, or set up their next serving of revisionist political pablum in Maclean’s, or the National
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Jonathan Watts interviews David Wallace-Wells about the existential threat posed by climate breakdown – and our gross failure to act in the face of a disaster of our own making: The sense of speed comes across very strongly. It is as if
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: Introducing Political-Potshots.com (And Now For Something Completely Different)
I am so absolutely excited and proud to launch my very own website, Political Potshots! It is less a culmination of a lifelong dream, and more a step into the the future. I have been writing blogs on various formats about politics for years, but I have never felt this
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Fake News and Russian Collusion
In a recent interview in AcTIVism, Glenn Greenwald, one of few people Edward Snowden agreed to speak to, shamed other countries that benefited from Snowden’s revelations but refused to grant him safe passage. Because of Snowden, many are taking means to protect their personal privacy online, but his revelations had
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: How To Fix Canadian News Media, The Neil Before Zod Method.
Take any media bailout money and use it to fully fund the CBC, especially CBC News. This will take the CBC out of the advertising market, giving a bigger piece of the advertising pie to the other news and media organizations. Take the CBC out of direct competition with other
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: Andrew Scheer Goes Full Rebel Media
Lets follow a string. Andrew Scheer hired Hamish Marshall to be his campaign manager. First for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, in fact Andrew Scheer ran his campaign from the offices of Rebel Media and paid them money for advertising. Now, Hamish Marshall is running the national
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation And The Astroturf Lawnmower
Astroturfing is the practice of masking the sponsors of a message or organization (e.g., political, advertising, religious or public relations) to make it appear as though it originates from and is supported by grassroots participants. Doesn’t that sound like it was written for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation? Given Canadian media’s reliance
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: “Playing The Part Of Old Yeller Today Is CBC News.”
I cannot believe I am saying this. A few years ago I would have never believed that I would be writing this post. CBC News is completely horrible and has lost its objectivity. Somewhere along the way, the politicization of the news division has eroded it’s standards and it has
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: CBC Picks Up Attack On Environment
Dismayed to see the “foreign funding” conspiracy theory gaining traction in Canada’s #oilsands discussion again. For perspective, I’ve pulled a few great articles from @Garossino written way back in 2012: https://t.co/uUilaclpfv #cdnpoli 1/ — Martyn Schmoll (@martynschmoll) January 21, 2019 Wow, feels a bit surreal to see such a hackneyed
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Everything you always wanted to know about Rand Paul and the Shouldice Hernia Hospital * but were afraid to ask
I’m sorry to report, Canada, that Rand Paul, the nutty libertarian son of the crazy uncle of the American Right, isn’t the only politician to stumble into a controversy for getting repairs at the Shouldice Hernia Hospital. We’ll get to that in a minute, but first there’s a backstory. According
Continue readingAlberta Politics: University of Calgary acted like ‘Big Oil U’ in 2015 controversy, paper by B.C. academic researchers concludes
It’s not every day you see terms like “corporate obstructionism” and “institutional corruption” used to describe the way things are done at one Canadian university in a peer-reviewed academic paper written by scholars from two other institutions and published in a respected academic journal. This is one reason I think
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