Albertans are getting hammered this summer by high electricity prices – just one of the impacts of the chaotic wide-open Alberta electricity market that was Conservative premier Ralph Klein’s gift to the province at the turn of the century. Back in 2000, as readers with long memories may recall, we
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Alberta Politics: It wasn’t supposed to be like this! Alberta sheds jobs while the rest of the country creates them
In January, as the Globe and Mail put it in a colourful old-timey headline last week, Canada’s job market blew past the forecasts for the month. Unemployment also fell. In Alberta, not so much. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Indeed, Alberta was the only province in Canada
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Canadian Taxpayers Federation commentary on nurse salaries isn’t research so much as an echo chamber
Has anyone noticed how the propaganda produced by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation seems to be growing more inept of late? Misleading arguments and anti-union bias have long characterized many of the claims made by the Regina-based CTF, which claims to be a non-partisan “citizens’ group,” although its only legal members
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Where’s the crisis austerity is supposed to fix? Not necessarily in the numbers the government’s consultant crunched
In the decade between 2008 and last year, the number of civil servants in Alberta on a per capita basis fell by 5 per cent. In the same period, Alberta’s population grew by almost 20 per cent. I know, I know, that isn’t what your heard. You certainly didn’t read
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Where’s the beef? Smells like what Restaurants Canada is serving you is nothing but baloney!
Baloney: a large smoked, seasoned sausage made of various meats. Where’s the beef? In an opinion piece in the Calgary Herald last week, Restaurants Canada claimed that “a perfect storm of tax increases and painful policy changes … have worsened conditions for restaurants over the past four years.” This was
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Happy Valentine’s Day! Don’t worry, even with a fair minimum wage, you can take your sweetie to a restaurant tonight!
Readers whose hearts are breaking at Restaurants Canada’s tale of woe supposedly caused by increases in the minimum wage and other calamities can take some Valentine’s Day comfort from the fact that despite all the tears Albertans have been dining out in record numbers. Last fall’s annual report on the
Continue readingMontreal Simon: How The Con Hate Mongers Are Slowly Poisoning Canada
I've spend the last few days flying around all over the place, so it's great to be back home. And to make matters even better, the rink is fully functional.But just as I was saying to myself, yes, that's MY Canada.Then I saw this. Read more »
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Doomsayers, Chicken Littles and Conservatives get it wrong on the impact of minimum wage increases
Now there’s a surprise! Ontario’s minimum wage increase behaved exactly as predicted by most mainstream economists. That is, the 21-per-cent wage increase implemented by the former Liberal government that took effect on Jan. 1 this year did none of the terrible things Conservative politicians, right-wing think tankers, Astro-Turf “tax watchdog”
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Is rural crime actually getting worse in Alberta? What we know and what we don’t
PHOTOS: Unlike these guys, real RCMP officers cost money to train, pay and outfit. When he promised many more of them to rural Alberta, Jason Kenney didn’t explain how he proposes to pay the freight. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons.) Below: Mr. Kenney and Postmedia political columnists Don Braid, Rick Bell and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Blockbuster’ job creation in Alberta leaves UCP in search of new talking points about ‘job killing’ carbon levy
PHOTOS: The Calgary skyline in 2016. After a bad patch, the city is now back in the BMO Capital Markets’ Top Ten performance list, thanks in part to falling unemployment rates. (Photo: Kevin Cappis, Wikimedia Commons.) Below: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci, Alberta Environment Minister Shannon Phillips, and Calgary Chamber
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Silence on the right and in the media about NDP role as Alberta adds an impressive 20,000 full-time jobs in March
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, who is not getting any credit for her economic successes from the Opposition or the media. Below: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci; Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall; and University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe (CBC photo). Alberta added an impressive 20,000 full-time jobs in March, according
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Guest Post: Five things you need to know about Alberta’s latest Electoral Boundaries Commission
PHOTOS: A rural scene grabbed from the Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission’s website. Can you spot a rural voter? Remember, the driver of the car may actually be from Calgary. Below: Post author John Ashton and Electoral Boundary Commission members Laurie Livingstone, Jean Munn, Bruce McLeod and Gwen Day. By John
Continue readingAlberta Politics: For the sake of a healthy democracy, Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission needs to extend submissions deadline
PHOTOS: Dunvegan-Central Peace … where your vote counts for more than double! (Town of Fairview photo.) Below: Progress Alberta’s Duncan Kinney, NDP House Leader Brian Mason, Justice Myra Bielby of the Alberta Court of Appeal and former Progressive Conservative Deputy Premier Doug Horner. By trying to ensure the boundaries of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Fearless champion of the corporate overdog snarls at CCPA’s eye-popping New Year CEO salary tally
PHOTOS: Beggars and bazillionaires, not really as far apart as you think, the Fraser Institute insists. Top 100 Canadian corporate executives may not appear exactly as illustrated. Minimum wage workers, though? Not so different. Below: CCPA researcher …
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Has Stats Canada Screwed Up job Numbers?
#ldnont has never had a month where 4000 people left the labour force. This month’s data? 5000 gone. It’s an error. @LFPress @KevinLabonte — Mike Moffatt (@MikePMoffatt) May 8, 2015 Same day we got new warnings about bad data in the census.
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: In An Information-Based Economy When You Provide Crap Information You Hurt The Economy
From here. Original stats-can report is here.
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper and the Case of the Missing Job Numbers
OMG. All hail Great Merciful Leader !!! It seems that Statistics Canada has been saved from a horrible fate.After a long search, and a lot of heat, it has found the missing job numbers. The Canadian economy created 42,000 jobs in July – not 200 as mistakenly reported last week by
Continue readingMontreal Simon: When the Cons Make the Poor Pay for Their Mistakes
It really couldn't be more disgusting or more Kafkaesque. Or more of a horror show.The Cons gut Statistic Canada. The battered agency screws up its job numbers.And now Jason Kenney is making the poor pay. Read more »
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Is Stephen Harper Trying to Fiddle With the Disastrous Job Report?
I think it's safe to say that Statistics Canada's last job report was not well received in Stephen Harper's PMO.Because when you can only create 200 jobs in the whole of Canada in July, it is the Con Gotterdammerung. And the end of the myth of Great Economist Leader.So I'm
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Reveling In Ignorance
It is perhaps the supreme irony of our age; for the first time in history we have access to a world of information and data literally at our fingertips; it is an era when profound ignorance should be quickly receding into the status of historical artifact; yet we are led
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