Remember Nov 13, 2020 when Jason Kenney said “Covid is starting to win and we cannot let that happen…This two-week push is, I believe our last chance to avoid more restrictive measures.” Just for context that same day Dr Rosenblum, an Edmonton ER doc, said the healthcare system was within
Continue readingTag: Rachel Notley
The Daveberta Podcast: 63: Defending Alberta Parks
Annalise Klingbeil joins the Daveberta Podcast to discuss the latest developments in United Conservative Party government’s plans to close and privatize more than 160 provincial parks and recreation areas. We also discuss the mixed-messaging about the COVID-19 pandemic that Albertans are hearing from Premier Jason Kenney and his cabinet ministers
Continue readingAlberta Politics: COVID-19 is out of control and Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government looks like a deer in the headlights
Faced with a real crisis — a deadly pandemic that won’t quit when you yell at it to knock it off — Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government apparently has no idea what to do. COVID-19 is out of control. Alberta hospitals and care facilities are in near chaos. Alberta’s premier,
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 62: Maybe Keystone XL wasn’t a very good investment after all
In this episode of the Daveberta Podcast we discuss: the election of Joe Biden as President of the United States and the future of the Alberta government’s $7 billion investment into the Keystone XL Pipeline. the Kenney government’s response to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and Health Minister
Continue readingAlberta Politics: How propaganda became memory: Pierre Trudeau, Alberta and the National Energy Program
On this day 40 years ago, prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s finance minister and deputy PM, Allan MacEachen, rose in Parliament to introduce a new national budget. Warning that Canada could become increasingly dependent on foreign supplies of oil and subject to the vagaries of the world oil market, Mr. MacEachen
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Chris Champion and the Curriculum Review
Mr Kenney handpicked Mr Champion, a historian, as a subject area expert to provide recommendations for the Kenney government’s revamp of the social studies curriculum for kindergarten to grade 4 students. Mr Champion’s education and experience, while interesting, are utterly irrelevant. He obtained an MA in philosophy from Magdalene College,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP launches ambitious legislative session, with 20 bills packed into six weeks and no time for COVID-19
An ambitious six-week fall sitting of the Alberta Legislature commenced in Edmonton yesterday with Premier Jason Kenney telling the House during Question Period that his government isn’t about to publish any updated COVID-19 modelling. As Opposition Leader Rachel Notley argued, it would be useful to know what the experts say
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta must learn to walk and chew gum at the same time, premier muses on the topic of energy and the environment
Jason Kenney may have missed it, but Lyndon Johnson’s famous comment about how certain people weren’t up to walking and chewing gum at the same time was an observation about their lack of intelligence, not their ability to get away with saying contradictory things at the same time. Alberta’s premier
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Shopping Alberta’s Future: Boycott-loving UCP is shocked, just shocked, when the tactic is aimed at its supporters
Alberta’s United Conservatives: They can dish it out, but they can’t take it. Well, Premier Jason Kenney’s UCP wasn’t the first political party to discover turnabout is fair play, and it’s unlikely to be the last. United Conservative Party Caucus Deputy Executive Director Ryan Hastman in 2011 when he was
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 60: Explaining the BC election to Albertans
There is an election happening on the other side of the Rockies. Ian Bushfield and Scott de Lange Boom from the Politicoast Podcast join Dave in this episode of the Daveberta Podcast to help Albertans understand what is happening in British Columbia’s provincial election. Thank you to Ian and Scott
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Riding high in the polls, B.C.’s New Democrat premier calls a snap election — the right, predictably, whinges
VICTORIA — Strangely, all those conservatives who are anxious to get us back to school and business as soon as possible didn’t seem to be very happy yesterday when B.C. Premier John Horgan called a snap election for Oct. 24. Supporters of B.C. political parties other than Mr. Horgan’s New
Continue readingAlberta Politics: We have met the enemy and he is us — Alberta in the midst of a climate damn emergency
VICTORIA — The world is waking up to the fact the climate emergency is, well, an emergency. This certainly isn’t good news for Alberta, although, perversely, it may be good news in the short term of the United Conservative Party of Premier Jason Kenney and governments like his in other
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 59: The Fiscal Reckoning and Alberta’s 70-year old Revenue Problems
After a very eventful summer in Alberta politics, Dave and Adam tackle big questions about Alberta’s fiscal challenges (and revenue problems) and Premier Jason Kenney’s promised ” fiscal reckoning,” the mini-cabinet shuffle, Erin O’Toole’s win in the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race, what a return to school during a
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Day of (Fiscal) Reckoning
Jason Kenney’s warning came just prior to the government’s economic update announcement. He said “when we get through all of this there will be a fiscal reckoning”. Reckoning. It has a biblical ring and in this context the implication is that no matter what calamity is visited upon us, we
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Good union jobs! Green jobs! UCP supporters need not panic, they’re not for anyone around here!
Jason Kenney and the United Conservative Party, friends of the union man and woman, not to mention the environment! Who would have seen that coming? Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: Chris Schwarz, Government of Alberta). Yet there was Energy Minister Sonya Savage, her words in black and white in the text
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Education minister changes tune on masks when schools reopen, but credits ‘emerging evidence,’ not public pressure
According to Education Minister Adriana LaGrange, it turns out “emerging evidence has made it clear that masks can play an important role limiting the spread of COVID-19 in our schools.” Who knew? Those were pretty much the first words out of Ms. LaGrange’s mouth as yesterday morning’s news conference on
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Shocking coffee mug has conservatives clutching their pearls, political Alberta all atwitter
Now that right-wing snowflakes have officially made “cancel culture” a thing, let’s talk about that controversial coffee mug they’d like to cancel that rudely mentions Jason Kenney, shall we? Tout le monde political Alberta was abuzz yesterday, with many conservatives bemoaning the sorry state of political discourse in Wild Rose
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Whatever happened to the UCP’s belligerent response to inconvenient European bankers and environmental litigators?
Once upon a time in Alberta if some foreign bank had dared to announce it wasn’t about to put money into any more Alberta oilsands projects there would have been a furious roar from Jason Kenney. There would have been threats to unleash a War Room on the bankers as
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Canada, keep your eye on Alberta — it’s not going to be pretty, but it should be instructive
You can just tell it’s likely to be a crazy week in Alberta politics. To understand just how crazy, you have to think about what the Kenney Government is noisily focusing on, and what is actually happening. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). In the Legislature, Premier Jason
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 58: Alberta Politics Summer Q&A
You sent us your questions and we answered! In this edition of the annual Alberta politics Q&A episode, Daveberta Podcast host Dave Cournoyer and producer Adam Rozenhart dive into the mailbag to answer listener questions about provincial parks, the Heritage Savings Trust Fund, the reopening of schools in September, political
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