PHOTOS: The plot thickens … like the gravy at a certain truck stop restaurant. The spectral presences of Jason Kenney and Stephen Harper eating breakfast are not quite visible in the booth. Below: Mr. Jean, plus the real Mr. Kenney and the real Mr. H…
Continue readingTag: Preston Manning
Alberta Politics: You take the high road and we’ll take the low road: The Kenney Cabal’s strategy to grab back power in Alberta for the right
PHOTOS: Jason Kenney with Preston Manning. Below: Likely Kenney opponents Sandra Jansen, another possible PC candidate, and Brian Jean, leader of the Wildrose Party in happier times. In many ways, as was said here two days ago, Jason Kenney is a miscas…
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: In or Out? Jason Kenney could have a rough landing into Alberta politics
CBC reports that after 19 years as a Member of Parliament in Ottawa, former federal cabinet minister Jason Kenney, 48, is considering entering provincial politics in Alberta. Postmedia’s Jen Gerson writes that he will not confirm whether this i…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Time for parties of the Canadian and Alberta right to deal with the violent extremists in their midst
PHOTOS: Nigel Farage, leader of the extremist U.K. Independence Party, at the 2013 Manning Conference in Ottawa. That’s former Australian prime minister John Howard with his back to the camera, for what it’s worth. Below: The target picturing Alber…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: On the War of the WRP, Saskatchewan’s Great Wall and the mysterious appeal of Alberta Health Services
PHOTOS: A meeting of the Opposition Wildrose Caucus gets under way with Leader Brian Jean and Leader Lite Derek Fildebrandt explaining their differences to each other. Actual Alberta politicians of the right may not appear exactly as illustrated. Then …
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If the Wildrose Party can’t unite the right on its terms, maybe there’s another way to skin that particular conservative cat
PHOTOS: Don’t look for a happy occasion like this any time in the near future of the Alberta Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties (grabbed from FashionEra.com). Below: Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean, Progressive Conservative Party Presiden…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Votaries of right-wing unity gather in Red Deer, vote to form yet another conservative party
PHOTOS: Progressive Conservative interim Leader Ric McIver and Wildrose Leader Brian Jean in a rare recent moment of amity at, but of course, the Manning Centre’s Ottawa beanfest for right wingers in February 2016. This snapshot, the only one of its …
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Preston Manning is now publicly, openly at the centre of Alberta’s latest ‘unite-the-right’ effort
PHOTOS: The Ambassadors reimagined. Actual unite-the-righters appearing with Preston Manning may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Preston Manning, Wildrose Opposition Leader Brian Jean, “united alternative” Ambassador Rick Orman, …
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Has Preston Manning Finally Lost His Marbles?
For years Preston Manning has been able to maintain a thin veneer of respectability. By posing as the slightly dotty elder statesman of the Reform rednecks of Alberta.But ever since his Harperite cult was defeated in the last election, that image has…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Wherever there’s Alberta unite-the-right chatter, Preston Manning’s name keeps popping up
PHOTOS: Preston Manning, looking right as usual, photo taken at the 2013 Manning Conference in Ottawa. Below: Alberta PC leader Ric McIver, Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean Wildrose Party photo), federal Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose (CBC photo) and…
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Preston Manning and the School for Cons
Well it's that time of the year again. When Preston Manning, the parson of The Church of the Reformers, summons his Con flock to gather in his presence at the Manning Centre Conference.But this year the stench of defeat hangs over the event. It'…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Don Getty, premier who battled economic downturn much like today’s, among the last of Alberta’s Red Tory leaders
PHOTOS: Don Getty and Peter Lougheed, going places politically back in the day. Below: Mr. Getty again, and Mr. Lougheed , as professional football players with the Edmonton Eskimos in the 1950s, the former in an Eskimos photo, the latter in a shot sna…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Unite-the-right poll results ring alarm bells and raise interesting questions, none of which are asked by the media
PHOTOS: A pollster asks a typical Albertan if she’d prefer to vote for a united Wildrose-PC Party … or the NDP. Actual Alberta pollsters and their subjects may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Pollster Quito Maggi, Alberta Prosperity Fund …
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It’s going to take more than Valentine cards and chocolate to unite Alberta’s fractious right
ILLUSTRATIONS: Hey Wildrose Party … the Tories send their love to you! But will this idea “bomb”? Actual Progressive Conservative strategists may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Former PC cabinet Minister Rick Orman, photographed during…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Uniting the Right: Is Wildrose Leader Brian Jean starting to wonder, ‘With friends like these, who needs enemies?’
PHOTOS: It’s getting crowded on the Wildrose Party’s “unite the right” bandwagon … and not necessarily with the “right” people from leader Brian Jean’s perspective. Actual Alberta political bandwagons may not appear exactly as illustrat…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It’s not just the #kudatah – it’s the feeling Alberta’s conservatives are all boarding the Crazy Train
PHOTOS: George Clark, Alberta’s answer to Joan of Arc. (Screen grab from Youtube.com.) Below: Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean, who with his MLAs is tacitly supporting Mr. Clark’s efforts; the origin of the #kudatah meme; Preston Manning, a conserv…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: New Year’s resolutions: Time for Alberta’s conservative leaders to speak out against violent and misogynistic political speech
ILLUSTRATIONS: Counting down to New Year’s. Three days to go is plenty of time for the leaders of Alberta’s conservatives to resolve to speak out in the New Year against threatening and misogynistic commentary by their supporters. Below: Former PM …
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Canadian market-fundamentalist right looks to ‘Super PACs’ like so-called Alberta Prosperity Fund to grab back power
PHOTOS: ‘Super PACs’ have access to corporate vaults, and very little control or oversight of what they do with the money they’re given. Below: Alberta Prosperity Fund Director Barry McNamar, APF Advisory Council members Dave Rutherford and Camer…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Dec. 17, 2014 – Defection Day – an Alberta anniversary to remember … and to forget!
PHOTOS: Defecting Opposition leader Danielle Smith, looking uncomfortable, gets an awkward and apparently unwanted hug from then-premier Jim Prentice at Government House in Edmonton as they announced their plans to merge the two parties’ caucuses. Be…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What’s with that Wildrose leadership review? (Inquiring Albertans want to know!)
PHOTOS: Wildrose Opposition Leader Brian Jean with the kind of cow a guy doesn’t have to get up at 4 in the morning to milk. (Photo grabbed from Wildrose.ca.) Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Wildrose Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt, Alberta Chambers of Commerce President Ken Kobly and former Wildrose Leader
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