Rob Anders’ recent trouble with the law reminds us of the former Reform Party and Conservative MP’s past thoughts about the laws of nature. Twenty-one years ago, Mr. Anders made up half of the party’s much-remarked-upon Parliamentary chastity caucus, of which Jason Kenney was the other half, or the only
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The Maple Monarchists - Blog: The Ongoing Problem of Governor General Julie Payette and How it Could Have Been Prevented
Gov. Gen. Julie Payette The tenure of current governor general Julie Payette could be described as a wee bit turbulent. Early missteps were largely forgiven as the actions of someone new to the role. But as the one year anniversary of Her Excellency’s appointment rolled around there were new questions. Her presence at various events was being scaled back.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Kaycee Madu, no stellar cabinet performer, is promoted to where he can do less harm; other stars fall
Kaycee Madu, possibly Alberta’s least successful cabinet member in the estimation of his portfolio’s key stakeholders, as Alberta justice minister? Who saw that coming? Former Economic Development, Trade and Tourism Minister Tanya Fir (Photo: Facebook). Of the three major political events affecting Alberta that took place while your blogger was
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On policy bubbles
While Justin Trudeau is putting any economic planning in the hands of somebody with a vested interest in privatizing profits, it’s also worth noting how his government is deliberately avoiding any of the type of consultation needed to make a minority Parliament work at a time when cooperation should be
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On preemptive action
Others have rightly pointed out Norlaine Thomas’ thread about the threat Stephen Harper and his acolytes pose to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But I’ll take the opportunity to expand on the prospect of stopping that crusade in its tracks in Saskatchewan’s provincial election (which, to be clear,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Canada, keep your eye on Alberta — it’s not going to be pretty, but it should be instructive
You can just tell it’s likely to be a crazy week in Alberta politics. To understand just how crazy, you have to think about what the Kenney Government is noisily focusing on, and what is actually happening. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). In the Legislature, Premier Jason
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What’s making Ottawa’s environment minister suddenly give the Vista coal mine proposal the fish eye?
Yesterday we learned that Jonathan Wilkinson, the federal environment minister, is reconsidering a decision he made in December to leave it up to the industry-funded Alberta Energy Regulator to decide if a huge coal mine expansion should be approved near Hinton, just east of the Jasper National Park gate. Even
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Canada Day Mystery: What happened between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. to Jason Kenney’s holiday message?
It’s a true Canada Day political mystery! What happened between 9:03 a.m. and 1:02 p.m. that dramatically changed Jason Kenney’s holiday message? Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). At 9:03 a.m. yesterday, a minion on the Alberta premier’s staff sent the media the sort of Canada Day Message
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Kenney Government’s recovery plan — in times like these, we’re all Keynesians, up to a point, anyway
It’s not actually true that that everything was just copacetic in Alberta when COVID-19 kicked down the door and started smashing up the dishes. But you’ve got to give Travis Toews some credit for his acting ability. Alberta’s finance minister sure made it sound as if that were so for
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Kenney’s controversial speechwriter listed as CEO of federal Conservatives’ Edmonton Strathcona constituency association
Given the uproar over an article widely perceived as expressing racist sentiments by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s speechwriter, it will be interesting to see how the Conservative Party of Canada reacts to the fact Paul Bunner is also chief executive of its Edmonton Strathcona constituency association. As of the close
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The federal Conservative leadership race takes a turn both sinister and juvenile
Probably the last thing the Conservative Party of Canada needs right now is a side battle over allegations of dirty tricks and data theft between the campaigns of the two leading candidates in an already uninspiring leadership race. I mean, it’s not as if frontrunners Peter MacKay or Erin O’Toole
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If he loves his country as he says, Jason Kenney needs to dump rebel MLA for peddling dangerous separatist twaddle
Jason Kenney can mildly admonish Drew Barnes for spouting separatist twaddle if he wishes, but the Alberta premier’s protestations of Canadian patriotism won’t be very persuasive if he lets the Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA remain in his United Conservative Party Caucus. I know, Mr. Kenney has a problem with the loony
Continue readingAlberta Politics: As predicted, ‘Fair Deal’ Panel reheats the Firewall Manifesto to manufacture consent for policies Albertans don’t want
Consider the report of Alberta’s “Fair Deal” Panel, released yesterday by Premier Jason Kenney with considerable fanfare. It strongly suggests the Harper-Kenney wing of the Canadian Conservative movement is made up of people who purport to be Canadian patriots when they’re in power in Ottawa but are Prairie separatists when
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alert the media! Fair Deal Panel recommendations to be trotted out today
Today we will see the results of the efforts of Alberta’s Fair Deal Panel throughout the first half of 2020. We know this because the Kenney Government yesterday emailed out one of those media notices beloved of all democratic governments (and some not-so-democratic ones as well) alerting the media to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Athabasca U: The redheaded stepchild of Alberta universities faces a Cinderella moment
Is Athabasca University, long the redheaded stepchild of Alberta’s universities, about to have its Cinderella moment? After years of financial insecurity and deep angst about a mission seemingly made redundant by the Internet that sometimes gave the impression of an existential crisis about to go critical, there are signs the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Corrupt language corrupts minds: Police are civilians, under control of civilians
One of the bees in my bonnet has long been the misuse of the term civilian to describe people who are not sworn police officers. I wrote the post below almost a decade ago — as the startling appearance of the then-sitting prime minister in the text as if he
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Eric Cadesky writes about the psychology behind adherence to – and deviation from – the social distancing rules needed to keep us all safe. – Nora Loreto discusses how COVID-19 has exposed the lethal problems with Canada’s long-term care system. Karl Belanger points
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper’s Incredible Shrinking Legacy
A few days ago I wrote a post about Stephen Harper's appearance on an American right-wing talk show. Where he claimed that the only reason he lost the 2015 election was because the media was united against him.And like others I wondered whether he had returned to replace the hapless Andrew Scheer
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Will The Cons Replace Andrew Scheer With Stephen Harper?
In my last post I looked at how Stephen Harper is now blaming the Con media for his humiliating loss to Justin Trudeau. And I had a good laugh, for it sounded so ridiculous. But I'm not laughing anymore.Because now a Con in Quebec is comparing Harper to Churchill…Read more »
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Pathetic Return of the Con Zombie Stephen Harper
In October it will be five years since a pale, shell shocked Stephen Harper stumbled out into the night after being humiliated by Justin Trudeau, the leader he claimed wasn't ready.Since that fateful night Harper hasn't had anything to say about why he lost the election.But now in an interview with
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