Pastor Artur Pawlowski and members of his flock march uninvited in 2012 at the head of the Calgary Stampede Parade, also known as the March for Mammon. Pastor Pawlowski, who holds extreme views about homosexuality, also has his own parade, which he calls the March for Jesus. Below: Ric McIver,
Continue readingTag: Ric McIver
Alberta Diary: Tory candidate Ric McIver to voters: No to green light speed enforcement; yes to booze sales at 4 a.m.; maybe to chain gangs
Edmonton’s Whyte Avenue at 4 a.m., as imagined by Ric McIver, would-be Tory leader and premier. Actual Alberta street scenes are unlikely ever to be as described with regard to the availability of taxicabs. Below: Mr. McIver, candidates Jim Prentice and Thomas Lukaszuk. Well, no one can say that Ric
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Tories shut down any possibility leadership candidate Thomas Lukaszuk will get to shine
Thomas Lukaszuk is an entertaining speaker with a full range of facial expressions. His party is going to make darned sure he doesn’t have a chance to use those talents in the service of his leadership bid. Below: PC leadership frontrunner Jim Prentice and candidate Ric McIver. While Thomas Lukaszuk’s
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: The Gang of Eight MLAs who have not endorsed Jim Prentice
TweetBy my count, there remain eight Progressive Conservative MLAs who have not endorsed a leadership candidate Jim Prentice in the race to become that party’s next leader. As of this week, 49 of 59 PC MLAs have endorsed Mr. Prentice’s candidacy to become their next leader. Leadership candidates Ric McIver and Thomas Lukaszuk have not earned any
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Could Ric McIver still win the Alberta Tory leadership race? Actually, yes, he could!
Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets. All the money’s on Jim Prentice – but is it the smart money? Below: Ric McIver, Jim Prentice, Jim Dinning and Gary Mar. CALGARY Could Ric McIver actually win the Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership race? Or, to put that another way, could Jim Prentice
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta Tories hold the World’s Most Boring Leadership Race
TweetIn 53 days, members of Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Party will vote to choose their next leader and the next Premier of Alberta. Unlike previous PC leadership races, where Albertans of all political-inclinations were excited to participate in the vote to directly choose the next Leader of the Natural Governing Party, there does
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Once a Tory leadership front-runner, Gary Mar reaches out from Asia to haunt Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives
Brian Mulroney, right, famously responds to the claim made by John Turner, left, that he had “no option” but approve Pierre Trudeau’s patronage appointments. Below: Gary Mar in 2011. Advice to Jim Prentice: If, in some future pre-election leaders’ debate someone asks you about Gary Mar’s 2013 compensation package, don’t
Continue readingCalgary Grit: Politicians in Cowboy Hats
For a brief history of Stampede fashion, you can read the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013 round-ups – or “100 Years of Bad Photo-Ops“ This week’s pilgrimage of politicians to the Stampede was met with less fanfare than some years gone by. This wasn’t the first rodeo
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Tories invite Mike Allen back in, Wildrose show Joe Anglin the door
TweetProgressive Conservative MLAs have voted to extend an invitation to Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo MLA Mike Allen to rejoin their caucus. Mr. Allen, a relatively popular first-term politician in his constituency, left the PC caucus after he was arrested while trying to hire two prostitutes in St. Paul, Minnesota. Unfortunately for the Mr. Allen,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Maybe it’s time to state the obvious: promises aren’t enough for Alberta Tories to win back any progressive votes
Tory leadership front-runner Jim Prentice on the campaign trail. Below: Former premier Alison Redford; Education Minister, though presumably not for long, Jeff Johnson; leadership candidate Thomas Lukaszuk. Perhaps it’s time to just come right out and state the obvious: If Tory leadership front-runner Jim Prentice wants even a few of Alberta’s
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Front-running PC leadership candidate Jim Prentice may have just set benchmark for party vote in September
Tory candidate Jim Prentice greets supporters at the opening of his Edmonton campaign headquarters Tuesday evening, showing the first signs of development of the hard-to-avoid campaign paunch. Below: Prover Tory vote-getter Ed Stelmach; Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre MLA Joe Anglin. Looking tired and uncharacteristically slightly rumpled, Progressive Conservative leadership front-runner Jim
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Progressive Conservative leadership candidates take aim at federal bogeyman, demand Alberta’s own immigration policy
Alberta’s three Progressive Conservative leadership candidates contemplate Ottawa mucking about with the beloved Temporary Foreign Worker Program. From left to right: Ric McIver, Jim Prentice and Thomas Lukaszuk. Actual would-be Alberta premiers may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: the real Messrs. McIver, Prentice and Lukaszuk. Never mind Alberta’s Lake
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Ric McIver Stumbles…the PC Party Falls
“Closed-mindedness or intolerance have no place in the PC [party].” —The PC party’s response to Ric McIver’s participation in the March for Jesus led by anti-gay pastor Artur Pawlowski. Instead of belabouring Ric McIver’s pathetic too-little, too-late apology for participating in last Sunday’s March for Jesus (led by Pastor Pawlowski
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The only hope for Alberta’s Tories now may be a call to Ghostbusters, or an exorcist!
The Ric McIver campaign balloon makes its way through downtown Calgary. Who ya gonna call? Kathleen Wynne? Some of the cast of the Gong Show, Alberta Edition, below: Former infrastructure minister McIver, Infrastructure Minister Wayne Drysdale, and actual acting infrastructure minister Dave Hancock. Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Party is looking for
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Cue The Persecution Complex 3…2…1…
… here we go. Concerned Christians Canada was one of Craig Chandler’s creations … until he sold it to its current owner when the political heat got a little to much. To nobody’s surprise, according to CCC’s Jim Blake, Ric McIver has been done a grave injustice by the National
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Sincerity Is Hard In Politics
Apparently, PC Leadership Candidate Ric McIver hasn’t learned that lesson. After getting caught in a firestorm over ribbon cutting the “March For Jesus” event the same weekend that others were at the Edmonton Mayor’s Pride Brunch, he issues the following rather flaccid retraction: He says he blames himself for not
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Ric McIver tosses the PC Party’s ‘Lake of Fire’ trump card
TweetThe day after it was revealed that Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Ric McIver attended and endorsed the March for Jesus, a group which has posted hateful homophobic rants on its website, Mr. McIver was nowhere to be found. As a proud supporter of the March for Jesus and its organizers at the extreme religious Calgary
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Pride goeth before destruction: Tory leadership candidate Ric McIver’s already slim chances fall into a burnin’ Lake of Fire
Progressive Conservative leadership candidate opens the 2013 March for Jesus in Calgary. If he hadn’t gone back this year, he’d probably be OK. Below: King Solomon. He fell into a burnin’ Lake of Fire He went down, down, down and the flames went higher! And it burns, burns, burns …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Rachel Notley will either enter the Alberta NDP leadership race today or hold the strangest news conference ever
About-to-declare NDP leadership candidate Rachel Notley with the author of this blog. Below: Already declared NDP leadership candidate David Eggen with the same guy; Grant Notley. Bottom: Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Ric McIver at the “March for Jesus” in Calgary yesterday, grabbed from Mr. McIver’s Twitter account. Good morning, everyone.
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Ric McIver and the March for Jesus: A Lake of Fire Redux?
Tweet “Last year alone, Calgary’s streets were flooded with people of wrong sexual preferences during a homosexual parade of over 30,000 attendees and none of them were embarrassed the slightest to publicly even present their nakedness in front of families and in front of future generations to openly proclaim and manifest
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