Alberta! Go suck a lemon! I don’t endorse that sentiment, of course. I’m an Albertan, after all. The person who did say something like that, as it happens, didn’t say it about Alberta. It was a long, long time ago, 1976 as a matter of fact, when Catherine Ford said
Continue readingTag: Pierre Trudeau
Alberta Politics: Rick Strankman out as UCP candidate, latest Horner Dynasty scion in, deep in Alberta’s dinosaur country
Even if you’re no fan of Rick Strankman, United Conservative Party MLA for Alberta’s dinosaur country, you have to feel a little sympathy for the poor guy, skidded from his nomination by a candidate more appealing to party leader Jason Kenney. Mr. Strankman, 65, may not have been the sharpest
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Doug Ford achieves the impossible: he’s gotten Canadians interested in constitutional reform!
Office-holding Conservative politicians and operatives of their well-funded Astro-Turf and think tank support network across Canada have now virtually to a man and woman jumped aboard Ontario Conservative Premier Doug Ford’s runaway constitutional train, defending his use of Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ override clause to gerrymander electoral districts in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Conservatives defend racist heckler who tried to sandbag the prime minister … so how’s that working out for them?
Hmmmmmmm … Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives appear to have picked defending a racist heckler who tried to sandbag Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with a string of tendentious questions about immigration as the hill they want to die on! I wonder how this will work out for them? Not well, I imagine.
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Justin and Pierre: Like Father Like Son
It's a striking scene, Justin Trudeau celebrating Quebec's Fête nationale in his Montreal riding, being confronted by an angry protester.And forced to defend his right to call the province his home. “You came to speak English to us?” the man asked in French. “Isn’t your party next week?” The man
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Day We Burned Ole D.C. Down … I blame Stephen Harper for Canada’s latest trade troubles!
I blame Stephen Harper. Face it, Canada’s latest trade troubles wouldn’t have happened without him! If Mr. Harper hadn’t spent $30 million or so of our tax money “commemorating” the War of 1812, who would’ve known our side burned down the White House and sundry other buildings in Washington, D.C.,
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Day Justin Trudeau Told Donald Trump Enough Is Enough
Justin Trudeau's relationship with Donald Trump has always reflected our national character.He was always polite, he tried to be as friendly as possible, but he didn't let Trump manhandle him.And when he tried to bully him, and Canada, he finally said enough is enough.Read more »
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Frances Ryan rightly calls out the anti-choice right for having no interest in the well-being of children once they’re born: (S)mall-state ideology can make it devastatingly difficult for a low-income parent to look after a child. Look at the controversial “two-child” limit
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Trudeau Liberals call the opposition’s bluff and ‘nationalize’ (sort of, maybe) the Trans Mountain Pipeline
OK, so Ottawa’s going to buy the Trans Mountain Pipeline for $4.5 billion and run it as a Crown corporation. That’s a good start. (Caveats to follow.) Theoretically, it could ensure transparency and accountability, even responsibility, to a business in which the private sector adamantly refuses to deliver any such
Continue readingAlberta Politics: 28 years and counting, Conservatives in Alberta and Ontario continue to misrepresent Bob Rae’s record
Now that he’s sworn to be nice to Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Opposition Leader Jason Kenney is running against Bob Rae. Ralph Klein was a high school dropout & TV reporter before becoming Mayor. Bob Rae was a Rhodes scholar & accomplished MP before becoming Premier. Who do you think
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
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Justin Trudeau and the Humiliation of Jason Kenney
Well it's the night of the Royal Wedding, and maybe a little dress up, and a little Vaseline on the lens, will make Jason Kenney feel better after his bruising bout with Justin Trudeau.Where he insulted Trudeau in the most queenish manner, by claiming he had the political depth of a "finger
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Knickers in a twist over David Suzuki’s U of A honorary degree
Photo: Environmentalist, scientist, author, and broadcaster David Suzuki (credit: David Climenhaga) The decision by the University of Alberta Senate to present an honorary degree to high profile environmentalist, scientist, author, broadcaster and Order of Canada recipient Dr. David Suzuki has aroused much controversy from conservative partisans, Postmedia columnists, U of A
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Why demanding Ottawa intervene to bend B.C. to Alberta’s will is probably a terrible idea … from Alberta’s point of view
PHOTOS: Perfidious Pierre, villain of the National Energy Program, as the late prime minister is understood by all good Albertans to have been (Photo: Wikimedia Commons). Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Alberta Opposition Leader Jason Kenney, and British Columbia Premier John Horgan (Photo: B.C. NDP).
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rachel Notley and Jason Kenney find common ground, sort of … on dubious pipeline posturing
PHOTOS: Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Trans Mountain Pipeline. (Photo: Handout from Kinder Morgan Canada.) Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Alberta Opposition Leader Jason Kenney, U of A economist Andrew Leach, and British Columbia Premier John Horgan. I guess we can understand why Jason Kenney acts like Alberta has all the powers of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s NDP borrowed more than export-cut threats from Peter Lougheed for yesterday’s Throne Speech
PHOTOS: Premier Rachel Notley speaks with well wishers in the Alberta Legislature Rotunda yesterday after her government’s Speech from the Throne was read by Lieutenant Governor Lois Mitchell. Below: Finance Minister Joe Ceci, Ms. Mitchell and Premier Peter Lougheed, back in the day. (Mitchell and Lougheed photos: Government of Alberta.)
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Trudeau in India, Part I: PM’s family goes full Bollywood; Conservatives freak out; some alterations suggested
PHOTOS: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau and their children visit the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, India, during Mr. Trudeau’s official visit to that country. Below: Mr. Trudeau, resplendent in gold and making it work. Below him, his late father, prime minister Pierre Trudeau, doing his famous
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Awesome Courage and Class of Justin Trudeau
When I saw this picture of Justin Trudeau preparing to face a town hall in Edmonton the other day, I wondered how it must feel to go where no Prime Minister has gone before.And I was impressed by his courage, for it takes guts to face a crowd like that
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thanks to Donald Trump, the post-war American imperium that’s run like a Swiss watch is coming unsprung!
PHOTOS: U.S. President Donald Trump’s inaugural parade makes its way through Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2017, just before the stuff hit the fan and everything went to hell in a handbasket. (Photo: United States Navy.) Below: President Trump, former president Barack Obama, the late Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Conrad Black is right: The media is full of baloney about the president!
PHOTOS: Presidents Donald J. Trump of the United States and Vladimir V. Putin of Russia at the 2017 G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany (Photo: Kremlin.ru, Wikimedia Commons). Below, the great former Canadian, Lord Black of Crossharbour. It is hard not to concur with the words of the prominent formerly Canadian
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