We interrupt this blog with an important bulletin from the Stable Reliable Liberal Democracy of Alberta! In an unexpected move, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has announced he will seek social license for new energy projects in the Canadian province. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). How unexpected was
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Warren Kinsella: My latest: ten reasons why Peter MacKay has a shot
Peter MacKay has hit a rough patch. Weird social media. Policy incoherence. Crummy French. Interviews going awry. Sure, he’s coughed up the big entrance fee, and proffered the requisite number of signatures. Came up with a nice logo. Attracted the support of smart backroomers, and figured out how to avoid
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Former U.S. ambassador to Canada unaware of any conversation like the plot described by Jason Kenney
There’s a small but important update to the story about Jason Kenney’s conspiracy theorizing in Washington at the end of last week. According to the man who served as the United States’ ambassador to Canada from 2014 to 2017, nothing was ever said to him that would suggest there were
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney names Gerry Butts and Barack Obama in latest UCP conspiracy theory!
Does anyone actually believe Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s startling claim that Gerald Butts, then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s principal secretary, secretly conspired with the White House in 2015 to engineer “a co-ordinated surrender” by Canada on President Barack Obama’s veto of the Keystone XL Pipeline project? Judging from the conversations
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Peter MacKay may be One Candidate to Rule Them All — but can he save the party of Preston, Stockwell & Steve?
There are those who say we should be bracing ourselves for the return of President Steve. Say it ain’t so! Stephen Harper (Photo: Remy Steinegger, Creative Commons). We can expect know today if Stephen Harper is going to re-emerge to make a re-run to re-lead the Conservative Party of Canada
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Con Leadership Race and the Day of the Dead
It was just another day in the Con clown leadership race, but before it was over the real face of the Harper Party had been revealed. Again.And it couldn't be more ugly.Or for the Cons more like the Day of the Dead. Read more »
Continue readingAlberta Politics: RCMP investigation of ‘Kamikaze Campaign’ moves into new phase; what it means remains to be seen
“Soon, we will find out if breaking the law is illegal.” The line is Stephen Colbert’s and, no, he wasn’t talking about Alberta. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). The well-known American comedian and TV personality, of course, was referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Stephen Harper and Preston Manning, joined at the hip by history and not particularly liking it, make changes
On Wednesday, former prime minister Stephen Harper abruptly quit the Conservative Party of Canada’s fund-raising board, supposedly to give himself time to prevent Jean Charest from becoming leader of Canada’s Conservatives or prime minister of Canada. Yesterday, we learned that Preston Manning would quit his eponymous market-fundamentalist call centre in
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Ugly Cons and the Return of Stephen Harper
In one of my recent posts I mentioned that Stephen Harper had been spotted stumbling around in his zombie crypt.And was threatening to intervene in the Con leadership race, to make sure the party he created remained the Harper Party.Well now EVERYONE should take cover.Because Great Zombie Leader has left the
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: Peter MacKay: he’s in
Does this mean Jean Charest is in or out? Does this mean Team Mulroney is going elsewhere? Does this mean Stephen Harper will not support anyone in the race, because none of them are him? Who knows. But he’s in, he says. Here’s a quickie take on MacKay, pro and
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper and the Con Zombies
Two years ago Stephen Harper told an American audience that he could still "easily" be Con leader, but didn't want to turn the party into his "personal political vehicle."But now he is working behind the scenes to elect the next leader. An associate told the Star that Harper is supportive of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Canadians want answers about tragic Iran air crash, but Canada has little influence with no embassy in Tehran
In the wake of yesterday’s air tragedy in Iran that took the lives of at least 63 Canadians, nearly half of them from Edmonton, and many others bound for Canada, all Canadians want and deserve answers to what caused Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS 752 to crash. Likewise, it is
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Foresight is 2020: It wouldn’t be New Year’s Eve without a Top Ten List of political predictions
This year, foresight is 2020! It wouldn’t be New Year’s Eve without AlbertaPolitics.ca’s Top Ten Political Predictions for 2020, so your blogger will gaze into his crystal ball one more time and tell you what’s up next. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). No one seems to have
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the criticisms which were used to push Andrew Scheer out of the Cons’ leadership role in fact reflect the fundamental problems with a party built around selfishness as the sole ideal to be pursued. For further reading…– David Akin reported on Scheer’s prolific spending when he was
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Andrew Scheer and the Ghost of Stephen Harper
Once upon a time Andrew Scheer's Twitter feed pumped out a grotesque anti-Trudeau attack ad about every six hours, seven days a week.But now that torrent of Con diarrhoea has all but dried up, along with Scheer's creepy smile which has apparently been replaced by a look of sheer terror.As he
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Scheer Resignation: Now It’s A Growing Scandal.
On Thursday, Andrew Scheer announced that he had decided to resign as Con leader claiming that he wanted to spend more time with his family.But yesterday he decided to skip Question Period.And as it turns out, for a very good reason.Read more »
Continue readingAlberta Politics: No way Conservatives will admit they look foolish for calls to legislate CN strikers back to work
Now that a tentative agreement in the national strike by 3,200 CN yard workers and train crew members has been reached in collective bargaining as God and the Canada Industrial Relations Board both intended, you’d think the Conservative politicians who were screeching for Ottawa to intervene and order the strikers
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What media mostly misses about the national rail strike by CN train crews and yard workers
Here in Alberta, what news coverage there has been about the strike for safer working conditions by Canadian National Railway train crews and rail yard workers has focused on the increasingly agitated calls by Conservative politicians for punitive back-to-work legislation. There is very little reporting on the issues behind the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: From the first nail in the Velvet Coffin to the death of Star Metro — the decline of Alberta’s newspapers
The bad news was delivered on social media yesterday by employees of Star Metro newspapers in cities outside Ontario. Whatever was behind the Toronto Star’s decision in April 2018 to hire real journalists and publish free print newspapers in five major cities across Canada, including Calgary and Edmonton, apparently it
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It turns out the UCP’s dream of grabbing the Canada Pension Plan won’t be as easy as it would like you to believe
How much of the United Conservative Party’s radical project to transform Alberta into a dystopic firewalled statelet, most of the details of which were revealed by Premier Jason Kenney for the first time at Preston Manning’s Red Deer clambake on Saturday, was predicated on a Conservative victory in last month’s
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