The good news for Alberta’s Freedom Conservative Party is that it’s recruited a national figure as one of its candidates. The bad news for the FCP may be the national figure in question is Neal Bernard Hancock, better known as “Bernard the Roughneck.” A three-paragraph news story on Mr. Hancock’s
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Alberta Politics: This is serious now: the Mounties have entered the Kamikaze Campaign investigation
Some days Alberta politics are like that fine old Johnny Nash song: “I can see clearly now the rain is gone …” A lot has happened since 3 o’clock yesterday morning when the CBC broke the story the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had taken over the investigation by the Office
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Beware the Ides of March: Brian Jean, Jason Kenney, Joe Anglin and the annals of Alberta conservatism
I suppose today, the day before the date in 44 BC made famous by the demise of Julius Caesar, would be an appropriate moment to remind all potential victims of political plots … beware the Ides of March! It says something for both the ruthlessness and absent likeability of United
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A holiday toast to Don Getty, the father of Family Day, even if it was pretty much the only thing he achieved in office
Lord knows, Canadians need a February holiday! So thank God for small favours and, come to that, for Don Getty! As favours go, Mr. Getty, 11th premier of Alberta, was a pretty small one. Just the same, this was one for the ages! So, 30 years ago today, with an
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Paperwork SNAFU! Elections Alberta says Stephen Mandel can’t run! Alberta Party lawyers say he can! Stand by for video!
This just in! Elections Alberta’s updated list of candidates ineligible to run as candidates or serve as chief elections officers includes at least one name most Albertans will recognize. To wit: Stephen Mandel. Yes, that Stephen Mandel. That is, the Stephen Mandel who leads the Alberta Party. The former Edmonton
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Former Alberta immigration minister asks federal immigration minister for investigation of UCP candidate’s alleged immigration practices
Former Alberta employment and immigration minister Thomas Lukaszuk has written federal immigration minister Ahmed Hussein urging him to open a formal investigation into serious allegations a temporary foreign worker was improperly treated by a business person who is now a United Conservative Party candidate in Calgary. Mr. Lukaszuk, who was
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What gives? Polite crowd, no visible security, no official UCP critics at Edmonton open house for Bighorn Park proposal
I can’t tell you about the one in Drayton Valley on Friday, but everything seemed copacetic at the Bighorn Wildland Provincial Park proposal open house in Edmonton yesterday afternoon. But what would you expect? As is the case in most of Alberta, one suspects, support is pretty strong in Alberta’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney then and Now: UCP critics face abuse now, unlike a certain critic of PC housing allowances back in 1992
Public anger at politicians who bill taxpayers for their living expenses when in reality they live close to their work is nothing new in Alberta. Abusive attacks on their critics, up to and including death threats, are new. Back in April 1992, Progressive Conservative municipal affairs minster Dick Fowler, who
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Former UCP MLA warns more scandals are coming for party as election nears … but don’t count on it unravelling fast enough!
It would be a huge mistake to count on the United Conservative Party unravelling fast enough to blow its big lead in public opinion polls by the time the next Alberta provincial election is upon us, which will be almost before we know it. It is a virtual certainty that even
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Enough already! It’s time for the NDP to implement the Bighorn park plan immediately
Were provincial officials taking part in town hall meetings on the Alberta Government’s plan to create a park in west central Alberta’s Bighorn Country really harassed and threatened by all-terrain-vehicle enthusiasts opposed to restrictions on their motorized activity in the environmentally sensitive Rocky Mountain Foothills between Banff and Jasper national
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Death of Gene Zwozdesky, the mellifluous smoothie of Alberta politics, an apt symbol of the end of the Progressive Conservative Era
The death Sunday of Gene Zwozdesky – first elected as a Liberal but for many years afterward a Conservative, a cabinet minister who could be counted on to smooth over messes made by others, and eventually Speaker of the Legislature – can be said to mark the symbolic end of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Happy New Year! What’s Brian Jean up to? Is the former Wildrose leader plotting a comeback?
Happy New Year! So, now that it’s 2019, what’s Brian Jean up to? Maybe it’s just me, but he’s sure acting like a guy who’s thinking about being a political candidate again! You remember Brian Jean, don’t you? He used to be the leader of the Wildrose Party. Indeed, he
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Highwood Conservative discloses past conviction for failure to provide breath sample; UCP seems untroubled
With an investigation by the Alberta Elections Commissioner under way into allegations of irregularities in the United Conservative Party’s conduct of its nomination vote in the Highwood Constituency last fall, the winning candidate published a statement Friday admitting he was convicted and fined for failing to provide a breathalyzer sample
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Defeated in UCP nomination battle, Highwood MLA Wayne Anderson takes complaint to Elections Alberta
Is it just seasonal, or is this the new normal? No, I’m not talking about the weather and climate change. I’m talking about the daily stream of revelations about unsavoury goings on inside Alberta’s United Conservative Party under the leadership of Jason Kenney. Highwood MLA Wayne Anderson has filed a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Why is the UCP keeping the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties on life support?
Inquiring minds want to know: Why is Opposition Leader Jason Kenney keeping the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose Parties around? Media generally refer to Mr. Kenney as the United Conservative Party leader. But in reality, he’s the leader of the United Conservative Party, the Progressive Conservative Party and the Wildrose Party,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Former UCP MLA alleges ‘suspicious donations’ from PAC associated with Jason Kenney used in 2017 to undermine Brian Jean
Calgary-Greenway MLA Prab Gill used the final Question Period of the fall 2018 session of the Alberta Legislature Thursday to allege that “more than $40,000 in very suspicious donations” was given to a United Conservative Party leadership candidate to undermine candidate Brian Jean. Mr. Jean was the former leader of
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Doug Ford for the People? More Like For Big Business (Bill 66 discussion)
So, the Ontario government released or introduced Bill 66 today in the Legislature. It does many appalling things under the guise of “opening Ontario for business”. It may open Ontario for business but it strips the public of protections for clean water, health and safety regulations for wastewater and food
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Prab Gill is back in the news, rumoured eyeing Freedom Conservatives, so stand by for another attack on Tzeporah Berman!
Prab Gill is back in the news, offering up the potential for more embarrassment for Jason Kenney and the United Conservative Party. Stand by for Mr. Kenney to attack … Tzeporah Berman! Isn’t that what always happens when Mr. Gill hits the news? Mr. Gill is the former Progressive Conservative
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Professors protest Moe Government plan to shutter archives in four locations, including University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon
SASKATOON, Sask. No sooner did the government of Saskatchewan oh-so-discreetly announce it is about to close four branches of the provincial archives and consolidate it all in one location in Regina than more than 30 Canadian scholars had an open letter of protest circulating on the Internet. When the branch
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s Bill 27 may not take the politics out of pensions, but it will certainly help
Tabling on Tuesday of Bill 27, Alberta legislation that will wrest control of public service pensions from the sole hands of the minister of finance and hand it to joint boards run by public service employees and employers, should be the denouement of a long and sometimes dramatic story. “This
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