Thank you to the readers of Vue Weekly, Edmonton’s alternative-weekly magazine, for voting daveberta.ca as the city’s Best Local Affairs Blog as part of the magazine’s annual Best of Edmonton list for 2017. Mack Male’s excellent mastermaq.ca blog – a solid standard of Edmonton’s online media establishment – and Jeff
Continue readingTag: Michael Janz
daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Nomination Day kicks off Edmonton’s 2017 Municipal Elections
Photo: Sarah Chan (left) and her husband, Mayor Don Iveson (right), at Nomination Day at Edmonton City Hall. Dedicated citizens across Alberta gathered this morning in town halls and community centres to submit their nomination forms to become official candidates in this year’s municipal elections. In Edmonton, 132 candidates and
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Edmonton Election Update: School Board Trustees Now Included.
We are now five months away from the October 2017 municipal elections in Edmonton. Here are some of the latest updates to the list of candidates running in Edmonton’s municipal election, now including candidates running for trustee positions on the Edmonton Public School Board and Edmonton Catholic School District. Edmonton
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Holy smoke! Saskatchewan court’s Catholic education ruling is a bombshell
PHOTOS: Calgary Catholic School District headquarters (Screen grab from Google Street View). Below: Mr. Justice Donald Layh being sworn in in 2014 (Yorkton Today), Edmonton Catholic School District Headquarters, Edmonton Public School Trustee Michael Janz. Holy smoke! The ruling Thursday by a Saskatchewan judge that the province’s government may no
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Now the public’s tuned in, it’ll be hard to put a lid back on discussion of rich subsidies to ritzy private schools
PHOTOS: An illustration grabbed from the Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School’s website. The elite private school charges annual tuition of $21,000 per year per student … and received more than $20 million in subsidies from Alberta taxpayers over five years! Below: Alberta Education Minister David Eggen, Edmonton School Trustee Michael Janz and Alberta
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Advocates of more choice in education unite to condemn public school board chair’s call for more choice in education
PHOTOS: Edmonton Public School Board Chair Michael Janz, at the podium and on the job. Below: Canadian Taxpayers Federation Communications Vice-President Scott Henning, Parents for Choice in Education Director Donna Trimble, and the Edmonton Christian High School, which is run under the auspices of the EPSB. Conservative politicians, their vocal
Continue readingAlberta Politics: In subversive move, Edmonton school board chair calls for optional Catholic programs in public schools
PHOTOS: Edmonton Public School Board Chair Michael Janz. Below: CBC evening drive show host Portia Clark, and the logos of the Alberta Catholic School Trustees’ Association and Edmonton Public Schools. In a brilliantly subversive move, Michael Janz, chair of the Edmonton Public School Board, has publicly wondered in a blog
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta Advanced Education Ministry now maintaining close watch on Athabasca University
PHOTOS: A recent newspaper ad seeking a new board chair for Athabasca University. Below: Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt at the Legislature on Budget Day; Athabasca MLA Colin Piquette; and Athabasca University interim President Peter MacKinn…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Motion demanding public support for private and charter schools backfires on Alberta Tory Leader
PHOTOS: Interim Alberta Tory Leader Ric McIver and another PC are ejected from the Legislature yesterday by the Sergeant at Arms. Actual Alberta MLAs may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: The Real Ric McIver and Edmonton Public School Board Cha…
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: How to break from the pack in a 32 candidate by-election race
Thirty-two candidates will be listed on the ballot in the Feb. 22 by-election to fill Edmonton City Council’s Ward 12. With this many candidates on the ballot, it could be challenging for voters to choose who would best represent them on… Cont…
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Putting protection of sexual & gender minorities back on the agenda at provincial school boards meeting
Amid allegations of financial misspending and a lack of transparency, representatives from sixty-one elected Public, Catholic, and Francophone school boards from across Alberta will gather at the fall general meeting of the Alberta School Boards Association on November 15, 16 and… Continue Reading →
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Pressure builds for Alberta to ban corporate and union donations in municipal elections
On June 22, 2015, Alberta’s new NDP Government passed Bill 1: An Act to Renew Democracy in Alberta, imposing a retroactive ban on corporate and union donations to provincial political parties starting on June 15. Since that law passed, pressure has… Continue Reading →
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Notley NDP waste no time implementing popular progressive agenda in former conservative heartland
Banning corporate and union donations: Check. Restoring funding to health, education and human services: Check. Increasing corporate taxes: Check. Introducing a new climate change strategy: Coming soon. Phasing in a $15 per hour minimum wage: Coming soon. Reviewing Alberta’s natural resource… Continue Reading →
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: The Final Countdown: 6 days left until Election Day in Alberta
Staying above the fray of Alberta’s wild 2015 election campaign, Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson argued in his annual State of the City Address that which ever political party forms the provincial government after the May 5 election will have to focus… Continue Reading →
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: NDP inspired by Lougheed, PCs wage war on Wildrose
Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley released her party’s election platform and fiscal plan over the weekend, with a focus job-creation, a serious review of royalty rates and a reversal of cuts to health care and education included in the Progressive Conservative government’s recent… Continue Reading →
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Monday morning candidate nomination updates in Alberta
The Progressive Conservatives held their first “Super Saturday” on Feb. 21, 2015, during which contested nominations were held in seven constituencies. The handful of contested PC nominations have been overshadowed by the nearly forty acclamations by incumbent PC MLAs across the province…. Continue Reading →
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Tuesday Night candidate nomination updates in Alberta
With the spectre of a spring provincial general election hanging over us, the Progressive Conservative, Wildrose and New Democratic parties are in a hurry to nominate candidates in Alberta’s 87 constituencies. On Jan. 19, 2015, the PC Party announced that… Continue Reading →
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