Alberta Politics: Regardless of Tyler Shandro’s promises, private clinics won’t shorten surgical wait times — they’ll make them longer

Using private medical clinics to remedy long wait times for surgeries in Alberta’s public health care system, as the United Conservative Party Government says it expects to do, is about as likely to work as treating iron-poor blood by attaching blood-sucking leeches to patients’ arms and legs. That is to

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Alberta Politics: Kenney to Trudeau: Adopt Andrew Scheer’s energy platform or Alberta will hold a meaningless equalization referendum!

If you concluded as New Brunswick’s Conservative premier just did that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s somewhat reduced victory in Monday’s federal election indicates a certain level of support for carbon taxes and like policies in Canada, the premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan beg to differ. Blaine Higgs told reporters in

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Alberta Politics: Professors protest Moe Government plan to shutter archives in four locations, including University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon

SASKATOON, Sask. No sooner did the government of Saskatchewan oh-so-discreetly announce it is about to close four branches of the provincial archives and consolidate it all in one location in Regina than more than 30 Canadian scholars had an open letter of protest circulating on the Internet. When the branch

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Alberta Politics: Saskatchewan, Ontario have no constitutional case against Ottawa’s carbon tax, only a political strategy

By vowing to go to court to fight the federal government’s carbon tax, Saskatchewan and now Ontario are rejecting the most cost effective way to reduce carbon pollution, the Pembina Institute complained yesterday. “It is deeply irresponsible of the Saskatchewan and Ontario governments to reject carbon pricing,” said Isabelle Turcotte,

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Alberta Politics: Brad Wall out! Jason Kenney not yet sworn in! Is Rachel Notley now the Real Leader of Western Canada?

PHOTOS: Brad Wall, the former premier of Saskatchewan, offers his farewell attack on the Alberta NDP to enthusiastic Saskatchewan Party supporters in Saskatoon last night. (Photo: Screenshot from Saskatchewan Party video.) Below: New Sask Party Leader Scott Moe, NDP Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Manitoba Progressive Conservative Premier Brian Pallister, B.C.

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Alberta Politics: Brad Wall hoist with his own petard as Saskatchewan climbs down from its embarrassing licence plate war

PHOTOS: Brad Wall, Saskatchewan’s cranky premier and Canada’s answer to Basil Fawlty. (Photo: Saskatchewan Party, grabbed from Facebook.) Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Alberta Trade Minister Deron Bilous, and Saskatchewan Trade Minister Steven Bonk (Photo: Saskatchewan Party). Devotees of slapstick political humour will be disappointed to learn Saskatchewan’s Monty Pythonesque

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Alberta Politics: Happy New Year! It wouldn’t be New Year’s Eve without AlbertaPolitics.ca’s Top Ten political predictions for 2018

PHOTOS: Will U.S. spear hunters like this guy still be able to come to Alberta after 2018? Your blogger predicts they’ll have to find ursine victims elsewhere. (Photo: Youtube screengrab, grabbed by the CBC and re-grabbed by me.) Below: Demonstrators on Cambie Street in Vancouver protest against the Kinder Morgan

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Alberta Politics: Saskatchewan’s War on Licence Plates: Is Brad just mad because he’s been upstaged by a woman, and an NDP woman at that?

PHOTOS: No press releases about Texas plates? Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall didn’t used to have a problem with out-of-province tags on work trucks, at least when they were being used to undermine publicly owned Crown corporations, as this photo posted on social media by Saskatchewan Federation of Labour President Larry

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Alberta Politics: It was wall-to-wall Brad Wall as premier exits, stage right, before wheels fall off Saskatchewan Party bus

PHOTOS: Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, smiling like old times, says farewell in this video screenshot to an adoring media on his last day in the provincial Legislature in Regina yesterday. Below: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and Alberta Trade Minister Deron Bilous. Political coverage was wall-to-wall Brad Wall yesterday as mainstream

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Alberta Politics: The Great Alberto-Saskatchewanian Licence Plate War of 2017: Everything you need to know …

PHOTOS: Tough talk from Alberta Economic Development and Trade Minister Deron Bilous, above, was directed at Saskatchewan’s cranky government. Below: Saskatchewan’s lame duck premier, Brad Wall (Photo: Jake Wright, Wikimedia Commons); Alberta United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney, who calls Mr. Wall “the real leader of Western Canada”; Saskatchewan Highways

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Alberta Politics: So long, Denis; Hello Valérie … Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

PHOTOS: Just-defeated Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre (Photo: City of Montreal.) Below: Montreal Mayor-elect Valérie Plante, who defeated Mr. Coderre in the city’s civic election Sunday, and Saskatchewan Senator Denise Batters, both photos from their Twitter accounts. I’ve got some advice for those right-wingers from Western Canada cheering the political demise

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Alberta Politics: Derek Fildebrandt’s mini-Skypalace: proof Tory entitlement is still a thing in Alberta

PHOTOS: A scene from Derek Fildebrandt’s mini-Skypalace, the taxpayer subsidized Fildepartment in downtown Edmonton, grabbed from his Airbnb listing. Note the binoculars to the right of the window, presumably used for spotting examples of taxpayer dollars being wasted in the high-rises beyond. Below: The Fildebed, the Fildecloset, the Fildepot and

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