Alberta Politics: Advocates of more choice in education unite to condemn public school board chair’s call for more choice in education

PHOTOS: Edmonton Public School Board Chair Michael Janz, at the podium and on the job. Below: Canadian Taxpayers Federation Communications Vice-President Scott Henning, Parents for Choice in Education Director Donna Trimble, and the Edmonton Christian High School, which is run under the auspices of the EPSB. Conservative politicians, their vocal

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Alberta Politics: Past PC taxes disappear down conservative Memory Hole amid apocalyptic claims about similar NDP policies

PHOTOS: Then finance minister Robin Campbell and premier Jim Prentice explain their plan to increase taxes in March 2015. Criticism was mild. Below: Premier Ralph Klein and Stockwell Day, who was Mr. Klein’s provincial treasurer in the late 1990s (CBC photo); Wildrose MLA Heather Forsyth, who was interim Opposition leaders

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Alberta Politics: Canada’s Conservatives have taken their greatest strength and bulldozed it to the ground: this will not end well for them

PHOTOS: Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidates Kellie Leitch, Chris Alexander and Brad Trost get ready for their next debate on how best to Make Canada Great Again. Actual CPC leadership candidates may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Former Alberta Progressive Conservative premier Ed Stelmach, Alberta PC leadership candidate

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Alberta Politics: Bygone bleats: Ray Speaker speaks again, while your blogger still awaits his letter

PHOTOS: Past and present at the Alberta Legislature. Progressive Conservative campaign vehicles may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Former MLAs Ray Speaker, a Social Crediter and Progressive Conservative, Tory Steve West, New Democrat Ed Ewasiuk, and Conservative Ted Morton, the worst premier Alberta never had. Below them, Calgary MLA

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Alberta Politics: Brian Jean goes full Trump for the Wildrose masses: Total disaster! We need to Make Alberta Great Again! Believe me!

PHOTOS: I tell you, it’s a total disaster! Believe me! Brian Jean speaks with members after his Trump-like Friday evening speech at the Wildrose Party’s 2016 AGM in Red Deer (CBC photo). Below: Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, whose former speech-writers may soon be able to find productive work

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Alberta Politics: Location of immigration office in Vegreville steeped in Mulroney Era pork barrel politics, and never made sense

PHOTOS: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s soon-to-be-moved national case-processing centre in Vegreville, Alberta. Below: Mulroney Era deputy prime minister Don Mazankowski, the man who pushed for the centre to be located in his riding; Vegreville’s famed giant Ukrainian egg; and Vegreville Mayor Myron Hayduk. News Ottawa is at long last

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Alberta Politics: Never mind the evidence! Full speed ahead! An expert unpacks Alberta’s unending experiment in health care staffing

PHOTOS: Nursing professional responsibility advisor Joshua Bergman addresses UNA’s annual general meeting in Edmonton Wednesday (Dave Cournoyer photo). Below: Conservative premier Ralph Klein, whose government began the province’s long experiment in health care staffing mixes as part of an ideologically motivated attack on social programs. For nigh on 20 years,

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Alberta Politics: It’s official: Sandra Jansen is now running for the Progressive Conservative leadership

PHOTOS: Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Sandra Jansen, in hat, in the Calgary Pride Parade, photo grabbed from her campaign website. Interestingly, the same photo was used on a Rebel Media page attacking Ms. Jansen. Below: PC leadership front-runner Jason Kenney, political strategist Stephen Carter, who will be working for Ms.

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Alberta Politics: Meet Alberta PC leadership candidate Richard Starke: thoughtful, centrist, kind to animals … and thus probably doomed

PHOTOS: Vermilion-Lloydminster Progressive Conservative MLA Richard Starke, looking appealingly Clint-Eastwood-like in this official portrait from his website, announced yesterday he is seeking the leadership of the Alberta PC Party. Below: NDP Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt, another member of the Legislative Squeeze Box Caucus, and former Speaker Gene Zwozdesky, a

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Alberta Politics: The blogger as art critic: If we’re paying the piper, we should get to call the tune!

PHOTOS: A detail from Liela Chan’s just unveiled portrait of Alison Redford: Below: Ms. Chan’s full portrait, as it now hangs in the Legislature; what we could have had if Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) had been around to paint Ms. Redford; what the still unrevealed portrait of Dave Hancock really ought to look like, with apologies […]

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