It’s just one long summer vacation for Alberta’s Tory family. Premier Alison Redford, possibly not exactly as illustrated, can be seen in the front seat of the Edsel at left. Below: The Wildrose Party on their way to summer school at Chestermere Slough; Kelley Charlebois; Thomas Lukaszuk. It’s summertime, and
Continue readingTag: Stephen Carter
David Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Lee Richardson: Alberta Ambassador to the Mulcair Government? Or what?
Alberta Premier Alison Redford speaks with Principal Secretary Lee Richardson while Chief of Staff Farouk Adatia looks on. Alberta officials, elected and not so elected, may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Mr. Richardson and Mr. Adatia. So what exactly is a principal secretary, anyway? And why does Alberta Premier
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: return to the dome and inside baseball politics.
Alberta's Legislative Assembly Building With election withdrawal setting in like a bad hangover, much of the media attention this week focused on the 38 rookie MLA’s attending outgoing Speaker Ken Kowalski‘s Legislature 101 course and the resumption of inside baseball politics under the Dome. Bridget Pastoor and Premier Alison Redford
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: return to the dome and inside baseball politics.
Alberta's Legislative Assembly Building With election withdrawal setting in like a bad hangover, much of the media attention this week focused on the 38 rookie MLA’s attending outgoing Speaker Ken Kowalski‘s Legislature 101 course and the resumption of inside baseball politics under the Dome. Bridget Pastoor and Premier Alison Redford
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: About Conrad Black’s return: surely Canadians deserve honest answers
Lord Black gesticulates at Communications Energy and Paperworkers Local 115A President Andy Marshall in 1999. Below: Omar Khadr, Jason Kenney, George Galloway, Farouk Adatia. Let’s mark this international day of the worker by having a grown-up discussion about the readmission to Canada of Conrad Black, the former Canadian citizen and
Continue readingImpolitical: "People just don’t care about (political) labels"
From Stephen Carter, Alison Redford’s now former chief of staff who was instrumental in her campaign win: He was, however, willing to talk about the three campaigns that established his reputation — Naheed Nenshi’s successful out-of-nowhere bid for Calgary’s mayoralty, Redford’s bid for the Tory leadership, which she started with
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Top Ten Losers and Winners of the Alberta Election
Danielle Smith, leader of the upstart Wildrose Party celebrates her… Wait! That’s not Danielle! That’s Alison Redford! (Reuters Photo, snatched from the Internet.) Remember: Alberta political winners may not always be exactly as illustrated by the media and the pollsters. Below: The real Danielle Smith. ’Tis late and the CBC’s
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Who wins if the Alberta Legislature’s fit to be tied?
Strange Bedfellows: Danielle Smith and Brian Mason imagined discussing voting strategy in the Legislature… Alberta politicians may not be exactly as illustrated … or as weird as reality! If you think the Alberta election campaign has been exciting up to now, just wait. Any minute now, someone’s going to start
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Floundering Redford Tories’ fecundity fiasco no April Fool’s joke
When are they gonna learn? Loose Tweets Sink Fleets! Below: An agenda item from the Conservative brain trust’s emergency meeting yesterday. Actual Tory agendas may not be exactly as illustrated, and are unlikely to involve shotguns. Below that: Premier Alison Redford, campaign strategist Stephen Carter. Tempting as it may be
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Alberta Campaign 2012, Day 1: Fear & Loathing on the Shaganappi Trail
The “chicken ranch” proposed for Calgary back in 2003 by Danielle Smith, now leader of the Wildrose Party, may not have been exactly as illustrated. (You didn’t seriously think I was going to post a picture of a house of ill repute, did you?) Also not exactly as illustrated, below:
Continue readingElection 2012 Begins – A real race is expected.
As expected Premier Alison Redford visited the Lieutenant-Governor’s office today and started Alberta’s 2012 general election. She waited until the Alberta legislature passed the budget to get the campaign started in an effort to reinforce the party image as stable competent managers. The strategy seemed sound: pass a fair and
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Will any of this stuff ever stick to Alberta’s Teflon-coated premier?
Finance Minister Ron Liepert, centre, lets a couple of oil drilling contractors know what he thinks of their political judgment. Alberta politicians may not be exactly as illustrated and may not always come in threes. Below: Gary Mar, Doug Griffiths and Alison Redford; Don Herring of the CAODC. So far
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Alberta’s long political sitzkrieg gives way today to Tory blitzkrieg
Alberta Premier Alison Redford, second from left, gets ready to take the “air war” to the Wildrose Party’s Calgary stronghold with strongly negative radio ads. Alberta politicians may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: former Premier Ed Stelmach as portrayed in 2008’s Albertans for Change campaign; the premier’s chief of
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: tory attack ad tame by all standards.
Alberta's culture of negative attack ads began with this nasty Social Credit Party newspaper ad during the 1971 election. Alberta’s political twitterati were atwitter yesterday after a Progressive Conservative radio advertisement was leaked to the Calgary Herald. The ad defend the new law passed by Premier Alison Redford‘s government that
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: one week. too many tweets. two apologies.
Loose tweets sink fleets With Alberta’s pre-election season in full-swing, molehills are becoming mountains and politicians are clinging to any issue they believe could help them score political points. Kicking off this past week, Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths announced that Progressive Conservative MLAs would boycott an annual breakfast hosted by
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: No breakfast for Conservative champions? Alberta’s Tories as churlish as ever
Doug Griffiths, apparently still wearing black, has sent a message on behalf of his premier to Alberta politicos: resistance is futile, and will not be tolerated. Below: Edmonton City Councillor and AUMA President Linda Sloan; Chief of the premier’s staff, Stephen Carter. As Ken Kowalski, the venerable and soon-to-retire Speaker
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Who shot Shariff? More lessons in democracy, Alberta-style
Shiraz Shariff works the phone in his Calgary office yesterday afternoon. Below: interim PC Executive Director Kelley Charlebois; former AHS Chair Ken Hughes; outgoing Calgary-West MLA Ron Liepert. The Alberta Progressive Conservative Party has now given the bum’s rush to Shiraz Shariff, the 30-year party supporter and former MLA who
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Alberta’s Electrolux Throne Speech: breathtaking in its vacuity, but quite possibly effective
Your blogger with Tory campaign mastermind Stephen Carter. Below, Charles Dickens, who also wrote a good story; Finance Minister Ron Liepert. It was either the best of Throne Speeches or it was the worst of Throne Speeches. Heck, maybe it was both at the same time. Yesterday being the 200th
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Did Forlorn Friday’s leak of Snelgrove resignation sink ‘Super Saturday’ spoiler?
Somebody blabbed! Below: Stephen Carter, Tweeting; Mr. Carter’s Tweet. All across Alberta it was “Super Saturday” yesterday and throughout the province members of the eternally ruling Progressive Conservative Party were being nominated to run in the looming general election! Oh wow! Oh, Holy Cow… Guess what’s going to be all
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Liberal Conservative appoints conservative Liberals to battle progressive conservatives, true conservatives
I’m with him… Conservative Alberta Liberal Leader Raj Sherman with his new chief of staff, Jonathan Huckabay. Below: Jeff Melland, from his Facebook page. Earlier today, Alberta Liberal Leader Raj Sherman emailed out a press release announcing big changes to his staff. Key among these were the additions of Jeff
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