Max Fawcett is right to a point in discussing the need to acknowledge the political problems with carbon taxes as matters stand now. But there’s a serious problem with the conclusion he tries to draw. It’s true that carbon taxes were originally – and understandably – pitched as the form
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Alberta Politics: Former NDP leader Brian Mason said ready to bring Alberta-style politics to B.C.
Brian Mason, soon to be a resident of British Columbia, will seek a nomination as an NDP candidate in that province as soon as he can, AlbertaPolitics.ca is reporting. The former leader of the Alberta New Democrats and Edmonton city councillor who announced in July he was retiring from Alberta
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Be careful what you wish for, Conservatives: Canadians may like a tougher Trudeau
Memo to Conservatives, New Democrats and others who are crowing about how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears to have been revealed as a harsher and less cuddly politician than he has been thought to be till now: Be careful what you wish for. If Mr. Trudeau is revealed as a
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Why The Fake Scandal Is Now More Dead Than Alive
Well the fake scandal is now more than a month old, and it's starting to look its age. A little wizened, a little flaky, a little green around the gillsBut if you thought it might finally keel over, or return to its crypt, before it drives most decent Canadians crazy.Well I'm
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Deficit hawks fall silent in Washington but screech in Alberta and Canada – what gives?
It’s starting to feel like spring, the days are longer, and the deficit hawks, apparently, have all flown north for the summer. As a result, nowadays, the hawks’ angry shrieks are seldom heard in Washington! “The federal budget deficit is ballooning on President Trump’s watch and few in Washington seem
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Could Justin Trudeau be coated with Trump-like Teflon? It’s possible, and here’s why …
Is the SNC-Lavalin Affair really the Trudeau crusher Andrew Scheer and his strategic team obviously think it is? No sooner had former justice minister Jody Wilson-Reybould completed her startling testimony last Wednesday before the House of Commons Justice Committee – replete with detailed allegations of political interference in the justice
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: The Nothingburger Scandal And The Amazing Technicolor Dream World Of The Canadian Conservative
First, here are a few thoughts from Jody Wilson-Raybould’s committee testimony and the aftermath. What Jody Wilson-Raybould and Justin Trudeau are both saying could likely be true. They do not have to be mutually exclusive. We know now that Jody Wilson-Raybould is likely responsible for the leak, or had a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The stars of the NDP firmament are aligning today for someone in Burnaby South – it remains to be seen if it’s Jagmeet Singh
Even if all the New Democrats vote Liberal and all the Liberals vote NDP in the Burnaby South by-election today, the outcome could be a very close one. It’s rude of me to mention this just now, of course, but you have to admit something like this could very well
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Hey, Andrew Scheer! Do you know whose truck that is you’re riding in?
What are we to make, fellow Canadians, of federal Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer’s now justly famous Louis Riel Day Tweet? Bear with me while we ponder this. There is a troubling point. It will take us only a moment to get there. Mr. Scheer, who leads the Canadian political party
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: Who Is Andrew Scheer? Lesson #3
“Call me Stephen Harper with a smile” Andrew Scheer In this lesson, I am not going to be the one who explains Andrew Scheer. I am going to let the people with whom Andrew Scheer chooses to surround himself define him. In life, the true test of a person’s character
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The realpolitik of real politics: attack ads work, and sometimes they’re necessary
One of the enduring myths of our era is that Albertans (or Canadians, or whomever) don’t like negative political advertising, and therefore that political attack ads won’t work here. Now that Alberta’s New Democratic Party has published a website attacking Opposition Leader Jason Kenney’s record as a federal Conservative MP,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Restaurant lobby launches campaign to elect UCP, roll back $15-per-hour minimum wage
Alberta’s perpetually dissatisfied restaurant owners find themselves in such difficult straits they’re investing their hard-earned dollars in a high-profile PR campaign to make sure we all understand just how tough they have it – and while they’re at it, maybe they can get us to elect a right-wing government that
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: Andrew MacDougall: The Haze Runner
If you observe politics long enough, you will witness moments of pure political amnesia. Its almost as if the commentator/pundit forgets their own past in a moment of faux moral outrage meant to generate clicks, or set up their next serving of revisionist political pablum in Maclean’s, or the National
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: The Long Con And The Overton Window
I have been thinking a lot lately about the Overton window. I am beginning to apply it to long term strategy being employed by Conservative thinkers/politicians in Canada, what I like to refer to as the long con. What is the Overton window? The Overton window is a concept developed
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: Durham, We Need To Have A Talk About Erin
Dear people of Durham, we need to talk about Erin O’Toole. Your Minister of Parliament is becoming a national joke when it comes to Twitter. Times Erin O’Toole has directly tweeted about GM since the closure announcement? 16. A majority of those tweets were criticizing Justin Trudeau, 3 were criticizing
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: Conservative Memory Lane Is A Nightmare On Elm Street
The best part of being a conservative it seems is not remembering the recent past. Why is that conservative rhetoric never seems to pass the historical smell test, and the mythology of strong fiscal conservative is exactly that, mythology. “Is Kelowna Courier still interested in moderating a debate on defence
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: Andrew Scheer Goes Full Rebel Media
Lets follow a string. Andrew Scheer hired Hamish Marshall to be his campaign manager. First for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, in fact Andrew Scheer ran his campaign from the offices of Rebel Media and paid them money for advertising. Now, Hamish Marshall is running the national
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The best solution to gun violence actually possible in Canada in 2019 is an outright ban on handguns
Scream as they might about the idea of a ban on handgun ownership by Canadians, it is interesting to note that the tactics used by advocates of wide-open ownership of firearms against the so-called long-gun registry combined with the legislative strategy pursued by their allies in the Conservative federal government
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Duffy 2.0? Ottawa lawyer’s allegations about then-MP Jason Kenney’s expenses sets off Internet tempest
Allegations about United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney’s Calgary domestic and travel arrangements during the years he was the Conservative MP for Calgary Midnapore circulating on social media over the weekend had turned into a full-blown Internet tempest by last night. Parliamentary expenditure reports and flight records as well as
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s Top Ten Political News Stories of 2018: It’s not all about that pipeline …
Trying to come up with a list of the most important Alberta political news stories of 2018 is more challenging than one might imagine since the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion brouhaha sucked all the oxygen out of this place for most of the year. A court challenge was inevitable. So
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