Just for the record progressive voters really don’t care where Jason Kenney lived when he served in Harper’s government or whether he visited Alberta often enough or whether he’s using Alberta as a stepping stone in his quest for the Prime Minister’s office. What progressives care about is Kenney’s track
Continue readingTag: Rachel Notley
daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: It’s not quite Wayne’s World and it’s not quite The Mercer Report. It’s The McIver Report.
Photo: UCP MLA Jason Nixon (left) and UCP MLA Ric McIver (right) as the host of The McIver Report. I was surprised to discover this week that Ric McIver, the United Conservative Party MLA from Calgary-Hays and former Calgary Alderman, is the host of a TV show which is recorded
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Calgary MLA Brian Malkinson joins NDP cabinet as Alberta shuffle unfolds as more micro than macro
Alberta Premier Notley runs a pretty tight ship when it comes to her cabinet. So, as expected, there wasn’t much shuffling in the cabinet shuffle announced on the weekend and smoothly executed yesterday morning. Changes were minimal. So minimal, indeed, that mainstream media were calling it a “mini-shuffle.” One new
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Saskatchewan Catholic school funding case likely to drag on despite deadline; cabinet shuffle today in Alberta
You’d think the province of Saskatchewan would be almost out of time to figure out how to deal with a judge’s ruling last year that non-Catholic students may not receive public funding if they attend separate schools. After all, the bombshell decision by Mr. Justice Donald Layh of the Saskatchewan
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Trump’s anti-Canadian antics are good news for Alberta pipeline advocates – whether or not that was the plan
U.S. President Donald Trump may not actually have intended to deliver a blow to West Coast environmentalists opposed to the completion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project, but he has done so with his recent dubious allegations about Canada’s trading practices. Building a pipeline capable of carrying diluted bitumen
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: July by-elections called in two UCP-friendly districts.
Photo: Laila Goodridge, Jane Stroud, Nicole Mooney, and Abigail Douglass By-elections were called today and will be held in the provincial districts of Innisfail-Sylvan Lake and Fort McMurray-Conklin on July 12, 2018. The by-elections are needed to replace United Conservative Party MLAs Don MacIntyre and Brian Jean. MacIntyre resigned in
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: New Democrats party and Kenney cringes. It’s Pride Week in Edmonton.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley was dancing up a storm in front of thousands of Edmontonians at the capital city’s Pride Festival Parade on Saturday. The annual march travels down Whyte Avenue in the heart of Notley’s Edmonton-Strathcona district. Notley was joined by dozens of Alberta NDP MLAs and Olypmian Jen
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Ontario Elects Doug Ford; Alberta Unleashes the Valkyries
Valkyrie: from Norse mythology, meaning “chooser of the slain”; female figures who choose who will die in battle and who will live. Ms Soapbox has a message for all the politicians who “know” what their female constituents need but can’t be bothered to ask them; who condescendingly brush aside
Continue readingAlberta Politics: No Progressives Allowed! No entry without secret decoder! UCP serves up private Pride pancakes only today
While thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, were taking part in Pride events throughout Edmonton today, Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party held a private, conservatives-only “Pride Breakfast” a few blocks from the route of the parade along fashionable Whyte Avenue on the city’s south side. This reflects the unique problem Mr.
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: What do Jason Kenney, John Horgan and Elizabeth May have in Common?
This just in from the “strange-bedfellows” department: When it comes to the Trans Mountain pipeline, Jason Kenney, BC premier John Horgan and Green Party leader Elizabeth May are singing from the same song sheet. They all agree that the federal government’s decision to buy Trans Mountain changes nothing. Elizabeth
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Donald Trump’s trade war, the Ontario Election, the Trudeau government’s pipeline and more
Photo: Donald Trump with United States Secretary of Commerce Kim Kardashian (kidding). There was no shortage of political news to talk about this week on the Ryan Jespersen Show. On Friday morning I joined political analyst John Brennan, Global News provincial affairs reporter Tom Vernon and Ryan Jespersen to talk about
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On history repeating
I haven’t yet commented much on Ontario’s provincial election campaign – and readers interested in the race will find plenty of noteworthy observers on the blogroll. That said, it’s worth noting the parallels between this campaign and a couple of the NDP’s other recent breakthroughs. To start with, Ontario’s 2018
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: We bought a pipeline! How the federal government’s purchase of the Trans Mountain Pipeline impacts the key players in this never-ending dispute
We own a pipeline! Well, not yet. Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced yesterday that the federal government plans to purchase the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline from Kinder Morgan Inc. by August 2018 if another investor cannot be found. The federal government has committed to help the Texas-based corporation find a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Trudeau Liberals call the opposition’s bluff and ‘nationalize’ (sort of, maybe) the Trans Mountain Pipeline
OK, so Ottawa’s going to buy the Trans Mountain Pipeline for $4.5 billion and run it as a Crown corporation. That’s a good start. (Caveats to follow.) Theoretically, it could ensure transparency and accountability, even responsibility, to a business in which the private sector adamantly refuses to deliver any such
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Episode 12: Trans Mountain Pipeline deadline, NDP family conflict, and Horwath NDP vs. Ford Nation in Ontario’s Election
How are Canada’s political leaders are positioning themselves ahead of the Kinder Morgan corporation’s imposed May 31 pipeline deadline? What will federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau say when he visits Calgary this week? What is the long term impact of the pipeline dispute between the provincial and federal New Democratic Parties?
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Pipeline politics in Canada circa 2018: Destroying the rule of law in order to save it
Obviously, we have to destroy the rule of law in order to save it! With Kinder Morgan Inc.’s do-or-drop-it deadline set to arrive on Thursday, that seems to be the idea behind the argument advanced by the increasingly furious Canadian pipeline lobby that the Trans Mountain Expansion project must be
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Martin Lukacs offers a reminder that Doug Ford is nothing but a mercenary for his fellow children of privilege, while Andrea Horwath’s NDP actually offers a platform which will benefit the 99%. And Michal Rozworski observes that Ontario’s election is properly focusing on
Continue readingAlberta Politics: 28 years and counting, Conservatives in Alberta and Ontario continue to misrepresent Bob Rae’s record
Now that he’s sworn to be nice to Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Opposition Leader Jason Kenney is running against Bob Rae. Ralph Klein was a high school dropout & TV reporter before becoming Mayor. Bob Rae was a Rhodes scholar & accomplished MP before becoming Premier. Who do you think
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Shark Jumping in Alberta: NDP and UCP strive to outdo each other with ridiculous statements
As the Alberta Government’s fight with British Columbia over the Trans Mountain Pipeline takes on comic opera proportions, Premier Rachel Notley’s New Democratic Party and Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party Opposition appear to be struggling to see which one can come up with the most ridiculous things to say about
Continue readingAlberta Politics: 11 days from the brink, and Rachel Notley’s dice roll brings back memories of Mulroney and Meech
Rachel Notley, Alberta’s tough NDP premier who has clearly concluded her government’s survival depends on there being shovels in the ground building a pipeline by the time she asks the lieutenant governor to call an election next year, rolls the dice a lot like Brian Mulroney. Well, not exactly like
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