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
Continue readingTag: Ralph Klein
Alberta Politics: Former Alberta premier Dave Hancock to be the subject of a hanging Monday afternoon at the Legislature
PHOTOS: The official portrait of premier Dave Hancock, second-to-last Progressive Conservative premier of Alberta, will not likely look like this, although one could make a strong case it really should. After all, consider what Mr. Hancock was left to deal with by his predecessor, Alison Redford, whose official portrait is
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Alberta’s odd tradition of naming electoral districts after former politicians
Become famous in Alberta politics and one day you could have a provincial electoral district named in your honour. It has become a custom in recent decades in Alberta for electoral districts to be named after former politicians. As far… Continue Reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Fred Henry, departing Catholic bishop, held strong pro-labour stance in addition to controversial social conservative views
PHOTOS: Frederick Henry during his 19 years as Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Calgary. (Screen shot from a diocese video.) Below: Two scenes from the picket line at the Calgary Herald during the 1999-2000 strike. In the first, striker Murdoch Macleod and others bravely face down a truck
Continue readingAlberta 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
Continue readingAlberta 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
Continue readingAlberta 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
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The puzzling legacy of Calgary mayor Rod Sykes: not even one pathetic cul-de-sac has been named after him!
PHOTOS: Former Calgary mayor Rod Sykes sometime during his heyday between 1969 and 1977 (Glenbow Museum photo). Below: The cover of Thin Power, How Former Calgary Mayor Rod Sykes Stamped His Brand on the City … And Scorched Some Sacred Cows, and its author, retired Alberta journalist Andy Marshall. Rod
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Guest Post: Where’s the evidence for a health care sustainability crisis in Canada?
PHOTOS: Well, that’s one way to “bend the cost curve” … premier Ralph Klein’s way. The old Calgary General Hospital begins to fall an instant after the dynamite was triggered on Oct. 4, 1998, the Klein PC Government’s approach to health care infrastructure. Within seconds, Calgary’s only downtown hospital had
Continue readingAlberta 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
Continue readingAlberta 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
Continue readingAlberta 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,
Continue readingAlberta 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.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Five years ago today, Alison Redford was sworn in as premier of Alberta … and the wheels fell off the Tory bus
PHOTOS: Alison Redford takes the oath of office as Alberta’s 14th premier. Below: Ms. Redford speaks her first words as premier of Alberta and is greeted by enthusiastic well-wishers as she walks through the Legislature’s Rotunda. Bottom: Gary Mar, whom Ms. Redford defeated for the leadership of the PC party
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta Tories pray ‘third time’s a charm’ as their effort to recover their party’s missing mojo begins today
PHOTOS: Ever wonder what happened to Hazel? Do you still think Father Knows Best? Did you love Donna Reed? Will Alberta’s PCs decide to try to take us Forward to the Fifties … in Jim Prentice’s car? That’s The $64,000 Question! Below: Declared PC leadership candidates Richard Starke, Jason Kenney,
Continue readingAlberta 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
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Former Alberta PC MLA Alana DeLong running as a Liberal in BC election
A former Alberta MLA has been nominated to run in the upcoming British Columbia provincial election for the Liberal Party. Alana DeLong, who served as the Progressive Conservative MLA for Calgary-Bow from 2001 to 2015, has been nominated as a… Continue Reading →
Continue readingAlberta 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 […]
The post The blogger as art critic: If we’re paying the piper, we should get to call the tune! appeared first on Alberta Politics.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A dispatch from the road: Enron and the power boys played Ralph Klein’s government for suckers
PHOTOS: With the revelations about how Enron and like companies got what they wanted from Ralph Klein’s government, are we seeing the sunset of Alberta’s disastrous experiment with electricity “deregulation”? Below: The old Kleinster himself an…
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The NDP’s Power Play: Myths and Facts
Alberta’s NDP government wants to save Albertans $2 billion and the Wildrose, the Progressive Conservatives and the media are churning up a dust storm of misinformation trying to stop them. Let’s take it from the top, shall we? Klein deregulates … Continue reading →
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