…but at least he managed to keep his ass outta jail. That is all.
Continue readingTag: Pierre Trudeau
daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: liberal party of canada convention 2012 – renewal past the tipping point.
Zack Siezmagraff Guest Post by Zack Siezmagraff I am confident that the LPC convention this past weekend, which I attended as a delegate and past candidate for AB-Yellowhead , is an event that I will look back at in 50 years and tell people, “I was there”. For those of you
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Your seasonal anti-social-media message: Have a V**y Me**y Christmas!
Pierre Trudeau: What? Fuddle-Duddle? Below: Justin Trudeau; Pat Martin. O Sir, we quarrel in print… I blame Twitter, one of the first examples of genuinely anti-social media online, for the recent decline in the already debased state of public discourse in Canada. Leastways, Twitter certainly makes it easy to slam
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: First impressions: Brian Topp comes to Alberta
Federal NDP leadership candidate Brian Topp focuses on a questioner during his stopover in Edmonton last night. Oddly enough, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Brian Topp on TV. Not so as I’d have noticed, anyway – him or any of the other candidates for the impossible job of filling
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: If we’d heeded Tom Kent in 1981, our democracy would be healthier today
Tom Kent, chair of the Royal Commission on Newspapers, 1981. (Canadian Press photo). Below: The cover of the 1981 Royal Commission report; Edmonton-St. Albert MP Brent Rathgeber. Today we mark the passage of Tom Kent, the man who got it right about the state of Canada’s news media and was
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Letting Go of the Urban Legends
I attended an event yesterday for Ron Hartling, who is running as president of the Liberal Party of Canada. Speakers included Peter Milliken and Liberal MP Ted Hsu.However, I learned more from one of the guests, who like me, had been a supporter of the…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: A Country For Old Men
On Tuesday, at the Museum of Civilization, David Frum argued in favour of the proposition that Pierre Trudeau was “Canada’s most disastrous prime minister:”Pierre Trudeau was a spending fool. He believed in a state-led economy, and the longer he lasted…
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Jack Layton: A Funeral Befitting A Great Canadian
It’s one of those solemn Canadian moments: A casket draped in the flag of Canada. A body lying in state on Parliament Hill. Canadian flag on the Peace Tower and public buildings across the country flying half-mast. Canadians, in their thousan…
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: The Alberta Party’s ‘democratic renewal’ policy: a disappointment with the potential for disaster!
The Ministry must enjoy the confidence of the House. Notwithstanding this, Alberta’s Legislature may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Alberta Party Leader Glenn Taylor, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the former Governor General – plotti…
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: by design or by default, a low-key alberta party leadership race.
A small crowd of around 80 interested Edmontonians gathered to hear the candidates seeking the leadership of the Alberta Party this week at MacEwan University in downtown Edmonton. It is a low-key contest that will culminate this weekend at a leadership convention at Edmonton’s Shaw Conference Centre. The forum could be described as tame and […]
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Success places Harper Conservatives between a rock and a hard place
A young Stephen Harper with the rock in the background. The hard place was yet to come. Below: Pierre Trudeau, Canada’s last truly liberal prime minister.This column appeared in Friday’s edition of the Saint City News.The people of Canada have spok…
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