In March 2016, Kevin Davediuk’s new job as chief government advisor on negotiations with Alberta’s public sector unions was described by media and Conservative politicians as a grave blunder by the NDP government. Mr. Davediuk as seen and assailed by the Calgary Herald in 2016 when he was appointed as
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Alberta Politics: ‘Blue-Ribbon Panel’ report sets stage for full-blown austerity, private health care, soaring tuition and much more
The recommendations of the Kenney Government’s “blue-ribbon panel” on Alberta’s finances yesterday went further over the top than you’d even have expected from a report ginned up by a couple of Fraser Institute ringers, a former bank president, and a few additional followers of the government’s low-tax, market-fundamentalist ideology. As
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Derek Fildebrandt, UCP ‘liberty’ advocate, calls for return to ugly 1940s labour relations, labour studies professor says
PHOTOS: The late Jim Prentice, during his successful 2014 campaign to lead the Progressive Conservative Party, with supporters in Edmonton. Below: Anti-union “liberty conservative” Derek Fildebrandt, NDP Premier Rachel Notley, and Athabasca University Labour Studies Professor Bob Barnetson. It was probably his “math is hard” moment in a televised debate
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Thomas Walkom Today
The union movement is one of the last remnants of the great postwar pact between labour, capital and government. That pact provided Canadians with things they still value, from medicare to public pension plans. Good wages in union shops kept pay high, even in workplaces that weren’t organized. Unions agitated
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: That Man Behind the Curtain
While I strongly believe in being critical of unions when their behaviour warrants it, I am steadfast in my belief that they serve a vital role for the working person, which, essentially, is all of us, at least until retirement. I therefore must disagree with those who claim that the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Ontario’s Impending Austerity Budget
Reading my morning Star, I learned that there is wide-spread support among the public for austerity measures to reduce Ontario’s deficit. I suspect that there will be a particular appetite for the following: Hundreds of thousands of teachers, nurses and all other public employees face higher pension contributions or reduced
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