Shorter Preston Manning: Mike Duffy openly flouted the Parliamentary Press Gallery’s rules for years by seeking to trade his celebrity for a patronage appointment. When Stephen Harper was the only Prime Minister willing to offer that deal for political gain, Duffy proceeded to flout every new set of rules which
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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta politics 2013: Big City Mayors
TweetA generational shift in Edmonton Framed as a lacklustre and uneventful campaign, local media and many mainstream pundits missed one of the most important stories of this year’s mayoral election in Edmonton. The city’s crusty local establishment has lamented for years about the constant stream of locally-raised young talent choosing
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Remember the reason for the season: It’s time to put Krampus back into Christmas
Jiggers, look busy, it’s Krampus! And why is this mom giving him the thumbs up, I wonder? Below: Santa Claus, the God of Coca-Cola; Che Guevara; and Jesus Christ. Never mind Jesus Christ! It’s time to put Krampus back into Christmas. Who the hell is Krampus, you wonder? Well, we’ll
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: The ghosts of senate reform haunt the Harper Conservatives
TweetThe ghosts of Senate reform will haunt Prime Minister Stephen Harper as his party establishment gathers in Calgary on Halloween to discuss and debate party policy. After more than seven years in office, Mr. Harper’s Conservatives have accomplished little on the issue of reforming the Canadian Senate. Who would have
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: A “Two Minute Tory” Spends an Evening with Ted Morton
Ted Morton, the former Finance Minister and unsuccessful PC leadership candidate, was holding court at the Manning Foundation. He was going to give a speech on how a bunch of lefty carpet baggers (aka the “Two Minute Tories”) hijacked the PC leadership selection process to the enduring detriment of the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Got trouble with ‘overbearing urban planners’? The Manning Centre wants to help!
A civic election all-candidates’ meeting in Calgary. “Why don’t we pass the time with a game of solitaire?” Actual Manning Centre supported candidates may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Manning Centre namesake Preston Manning; Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi; Calgary developer Cal Wenzel (CTV photo). If on Oct. 21 the
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Who is driving the conservative agenda in Canada?
TweetIn America’s Forbes Magazine this week, Alejandro Chafuen praised the leadership of the conservative policy think-tanks that helped set the stage for the election of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative majority government in 2011 and the success of conservative politicians across the country. This apparatus of conservative special interest groups, think-tanks and news
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Doctor of Panama: a strange tale of Harperite politics and national security
Positive vetting? Where’s George Smiley when you really need him? Not in Canada, by the sound of it. Below: Dr. Arthur Porter with his former pal Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Globe and Mail photo). It’s almost bizarre, and almost certainly driven by political expediency, that no one seems to have
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Bad planning: Edmonton Arena funding and Calgary urban sprawl.
TweetWhile too much media attention was focused this week on the fate of a statue of a hockey player who left Edmonton twenty-five years ago for sunny southern California (and piles of money), City Council desperately tried to draw up a Plan B (or Plan C) to fund the proposed downtown arena.
Continue readingcalgaryliberal.com: Calgary: A Tale of Two Slates
If you’ve been paying attention to Calgary’s municipal election over the last week you would likely have heard about the Manning Centre, a $1,100,000 donation by the home builders to “in order to bring Preston [Manning] on board,” and the recent comments by Cal Wenzel on buying council members —
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Sprawl Cabal of wealthy developers plot to take over Calgary City Council.
TweetA video leaked to Global Calgary showing a large group of prominent wealthy developers plotting to stack Calgary City Council with sympathetic candidates is making waves in Alberta’s largest city. The video shows developer Cal Wenzel presenting a plan to defeat certain members of City Council who he perceives to
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Is Chuck Strahl’s dual role on the Manning Centre and security committee appropriate?
Chuck Strahl listens to a participant in the Manning Centre conference in Ottawa in March. Below: Manning Centre founder and figurehead, Preston Manning. Should Chuck Strahl be able to serve simultaneously on the board of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy, a partisan political organization tied to the ruling Conservative
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Annals of Digital Recording: ‘Preston is out of the country and cannot comment’
Your blogger with Preston Manning, both exactly as illustrated, although, in fairness, Mr. Manning may not have known just who your blogger was. Then again, maybe he did. He did say something like, “Oh, you…” Below: Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Is somebody going around trying to pull a
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: J’accuse! Thomas Mulcair’s treason and the Keystone XL Pipeline.
TweetThe rhetoric is running high this week with President Barack Obama expected to soon decide the fate of the controversial TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline. In Washington D.C. last week, federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair criticized the pipeline that would ship bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands to refineries in Texas. Mr. Mulcair also
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Preston Manning’s libertarian manifesto for City government.
TweetNot satisfied with their conquests of the provincial and federal levels of government, the right-wing activists behind the Manning Centre for Building Democracy are expanding their political agenda to city-level politics. Preston Manning‘s followers plan to treat this year’s elections in Calgary as a petri-dish for their yet-to-be-completed libertarian manifesto for
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Manning Doctrine: I Won’t Let My People Go
By now, those who follow such things will be aware that the Manning Networking Conference was held last weekend in Ottawa, during which the main message seemed to have been, if I may use the old cliche, “Loose lips sink ships.” Conservatives, apparently not content to censor the flow of
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Is the right-wing Manning Centre plotting ‘Manchurian Municipal Candidates’?
Former Texas Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul, the crazy uncle of American politics, with some of his young acolytes at this weekend’s Manning Centre “Big Ideas” conference. Below: anti-medicare crusader Dr. Brian Day, a sign directing conferees to advice on how to sell their kidneys, and Mr. Manning himself.
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Preston Manning Is Gonna Shit A Phonebook!
An outdated and insulting column from an appointed hack. The dumbest bit: Members of various ethnic communities are fed up with platitudes. They are active members of our society at all levels, and they demand no special status – they just want an equal opportunity to contribute to the continued
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Former Aussie PM’s unintended message to Canadian progressives: coalitions work!
Former Australian PM John Howard at the Manning Centre’s Ottawa gabfest Sunday. Below: Tom Flanagan pictured on a button worn by many at Preston Manning’s “big-tent” conservative revival meeting, “Calgary School” professor Rainer Knopff seen in passing sporting his Flanagan button. OTTAWA Was former Australian PM John Howard sending Canadian
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The House of Manning and the Con Conspiracy
They flew into Ottawa this weekend like a swarm of bats from some dark netherworld.Hundreds of Cons, religious fanatics, sinister would be Republican operatives, climate change deniers, right-wing kooks like Ron Paul.All there to try to figure out how to make Canada conservative FOREVER.All there at the invitation of the
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