Today marks the 12th anniversary of the first post published on this blog, known at the time as St. Albert Diary. Later, for a long spell, it was Alberta Diary, and still retains that name on Rabble.ca, where it is also published. By the standards of the Internet, this makes
Continue readingTag: Rachel Notley
Susan on the Soapbox: Is This a Time for Hope?
It’s hard to find hope when so many Albertans are hurting. It’s even more difficult when you realize Alberta’s own government is the source of their pain. Nevertheless, there is cause for hope. I saw that eye-roll. Let me tell you why I’m hopeful. The Notley opposition
Continue readingAlberta Politics: No more pipelines? Another day, another UCP talking point exposed as codswallop
Another day, another Alberta Government talking point exposed as codswallop. Yesterday, we compared and contrasted what the United Conservative Party Government used to say about the former NDP government’s carbon tax with reality. Viz., it was destroying the economy (UCP), versus, it effectively had no negative impact on the Alberta
Continue readingAlberta Politics: That’s embarrassing! Alberta’s court filing in carbon tax fight says NDP carbon tax did no harm
The linked weekend revelations that the NDP’s carbon tax had no meaningful negative impact on Alberta’s economy and that 40 per cent of Albertans received carbon-tax rebates larger than the tax they paid were ill timed from the government’s perspective. After all, the CBC’s report on Saturday of what the
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 46: Best of Alberta Politics in 2019
With a provincial election, a change in government, a federal election, and much more in between, 2019 was a big year in Alberta politics. Tina Faiz and Natalie Pon join Dave Cournoyer on this episode of the Daveberta Podcast to discuss the year in Alberta politics and their hopes and wishes
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Day We Demonstrated Outside the UCP AGM
“Public services are under attack. What do we do? Stand up, fight back!” – Protest cheer Ms Soapbox, her husband and her good friend from Edmonton joined the public school teachers, healthcare workers, and deeply concerned Albertans at the huge rally outside the Westin Hotel where the UCP were holding
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Bill 22: An Attack on Democracy
Someone once said, “The only thing worse than knowing where the bodies are buried, is watching your enemies dig them up.” In order to ensure the Elections Commissioner’s investigation into the UCP leadership race didn’t dig up any more bodies—heaven forbid, he’d find a trail of breadcrumbs leading directly to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP to give Alberta government ‘a giant enema,’ minister of ‘red tape reduction’ proclaims
Grant Hunter, associate minister in charge of Alberta’s ministry of “red tape reduction,” got up on his hind legs in the Legislature Wednesday evening and proclaimed that the intention of the United Conservative Party majority is “to give this government a giant enema.” I wish I could tell you I
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Being kicked out of the Legislature means never having to say you’re sorry
Apparently, being kicked out of the Alberta Legislature means never having to say you’re sorry! Judging by the smile on her face yesterday morning as a crowd of more than 800 Registered Nurses furious at the prospect of having their pay cut substantially by Premier Jason Kenney’s hard-right government roared
Continue readingAlberta Politics: From the first nail in the Velvet Coffin to the death of Star Metro — the decline of Alberta’s newspapers
The bad news was delivered on social media yesterday by employees of Star Metro newspapers in cities outside Ontario. Whatever was behind the Toronto Star’s decision in April 2018 to hire real journalists and publish free print newspapers in five major cities across Canada, including Calgary and Edmonton, apparently it
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If you’re shocked by the firing of Alberta’s Election Commissioner, you shouldn’t be
If you’re shocked that Jason Kenney’s Government has effectively just fired the guy who’s been investigating the sleazy Kamikaze Campaign that preceded the premier’s choice as leader of the United Conservative Party in 2017, you really haven’t been paying attention. Alberta’s best-known political commentator is so shocked… How shocked is
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Fog of Politics
The fog of politics is like the fog of war. It’s hard to see what’s really going on. Albertans are choking in UCP fog. We wonder why Mr Kenney who came to power on the Thatcher/Reagan ideology—small government, low taxes and less red tape—is wasting valuable time and resources
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Mr Kenney’s Fair Deal Panel
They just keep coming, fast and furious, like water gushing from a firehose. Yesterday Mr Kenney announced the formation of the Fair Deal Panel, the latest in a suite of things Mr Kenney says we need to protect ourselves from those who prey on us. So far, he’s created:
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 43: The UCP’s pick-a-fight budget
David Climenhaga from AlbertaPolitics.ca joins Dave and Adam on this episode of the Daveberta Podcast to discuss the cuts in Alberta’s provincial budget and the United Conservative Party’s growing list of public enemies, the federal election fallout in Alberta, and how the mainstream media is reporting on the Wexit group
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: How did we get to Wexit?
“Is this democracy’s death spiral? Are we falling, in this and other countries, into a lethal cycle of fury and reaction, that blocks the reasoned conversation on which civic life depends?” – George Monbiot The cycle of conservative fury and reaction hasn’t stopped for Albertans. It started with relentless attacks
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Federal election results show why abandoning ‘social license’ was a dumb idea for Alberta’s oilpatch
Seeking “social license” for Alberta’s fossil fuel industry was said by the NDP government of former premier Rachel Notley to be a way to win approval for more pipeline capacity to Canada’s ocean ports. This was true enough as far as it went, and the idea getting such approval required
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What a strange, strange night it’s been: Andrew Scheer snatches defeat from the jaws of victory!
Well! There’s certainly no shortage of safe Conservative seats in Alberta Jason Kenney could use to saddle up and ride back to Ottawa to save conservatism after Andrew Scheer’s disastrous impersonation of the Conservative Party of Canada’s leader ended in ignominy last night. It takes a special talent to snatch
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Massive Edmonton rally greets eco-activist Greta Thunberg; tiny truck counter-protest ignored by all but media
It would have been a remarkable accomplishment for any group to summon a throng the size of the multitude that enthusiastically greeted 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg in Edmonton yesterday afternoon. To do it on three days’ notice in the capital city of Canada’s fossil fuel heartland where everyone
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Edmonton Strathcona voters should vote for NDP’s Heather McPherson, says former Alberta leader Brian Mason
No name was mentioned, but it was pretty clear exactly whom former Alberta New Democratic Party Leader Brian Mason had in mind Wednesday when he posted a social media comment stating he will be voting for the federal NDP candidate in his own riding on Monday. In case that message
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Doug O’Halloran, 66, Alberta union leader for more than 30 years, never shied from tough fights for his members
Doug O’Halloran, a pillar of the labour movement in Alberta and one of Canada’s last old-style union leaders, died peacefully yesterday. Mr. O’Halloran, who was 66, succumbed to cancer after a long illness. “It is fitting that he chose to leave us on Thanksgiving, a day for celebrating the two
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