PHOTOS: Wildrose Leader Brian Jean. Below: Progressive Conservative leader-presumptive Jason Kenney, former PC leadership candidate turned NDP MLA Sandra Jansen, NDP Finance Minister Joe Ceci and a very large sewer rat, political affiliation unknown. Could Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean beat Progressive Conservative leader-presumptive Jason Kenney for the leadership of
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Alberta Politics: The Trump-like hallmark of Jason Kenney’s campaign: Its singular lack of ideas
PHOTOS: Jason Kenney crashing the Throne Speech party at the Legislature last week. Below: U.S. President Donald Trump; the late Ralph Klein, premier of Alberta; Rachel Notley, the present premier of Alberta; and political commentator Ricardo Acuna. Jason Kenny, the social conservative social media enthusiast who will almost certainly become
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Two polls and three by-elections signal an interesting spell in Alberta politics ahead
PHOTOS: No love lost for pipelines in B.C. – and all of a sudden that could have an impact on politics in Alberta (Rabble.ca photo). Below: Mainstreet research President Quito Maggi, B.C. Liberal Premier Christy Clark and Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley. Two polls were published this week by Mainstreet
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Are non-Albertans who FRWN on progress behind many of the online threats against Premier Rachel Notley?
PHOTOS: Part of the uninspiring, sometimes troubling, field of Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidates. Their names? Frankly, it’s too much work to note them all down (CBC photo). Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former prime minister Stephen Harper (CBC).
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It won’t hurt NDP for centrist voters to understand how close Rachel Notley’s energy policy is to Jim Prentice’s proposals
PHOTOS: Jim Prentice during his time as premier of Alberta. Below: Premier Rachel Notley, Prentice co-author Jean-Sébastian Rioux (Twitter), and journalist Jason Markusoff (Twitter). The revelation that the moderate and thoughtful energy policy proposed by the late Jim Prentice soon after he left politics in 2015 was very similar to
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Sad Fate of the Bigot Harper Party
This is how the Cons would like us to imagine them. As the kind of party that would send out a Valentine card like that one.Inviting us to bee their friends.But of course, the Cons and the truth don't go as well together as honey and peanut butter.And this is
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Canada’s Conservative Party, a once-great national organization, is being overwhelmed by its own extremists
PHOTOS: Federal Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi, a hard-working and talented former Edmonton Transit bus driver. Below: Alberta Infrastructure Minister Brian Mason, a hard-working and talented former Edmonton Transit bus driver. Mr. Sohi, a Liberal, and Mr. Mason, a New Democrat, are both used to cheap conservative shots about their former
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: How to Get Rid of an Autocrat
Donald Trump isn’t the first Western politician to attack the judiciary, muzzle scientists, erode evidence-based decision making by making up alternate facts, disenfranchise voters, create two-tiered citizenship, push a corporate agenda, insult the very government leaders he needs to help him achieve his vision, and wage a divisive Islamophobic campaign
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, expanding on this post about the Libs’ electoral reform betrayal – and the likelihood that it will encourage future Stephen Harpers to exploit the distortions created by first-past-the-post. For further reading…– I’ve linked to plenty of other commentary on the Libs’ broken promise here, here and here. And we
Continue readingAlberta Politics: This feels like it’s happened before … it’s Groundhog Day and the Liberals have just broken a promise!
PHOTOS: Can you not quite shake the feeling, like the Canadian voter at left, things keep happening over and over again? Actual Canadian voters may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair and NDP Democratic Reform Critic Nathan
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On false change
The Libs have made it official that they’re breaking their promise of electoral reform with no reason other than their own blinkered refusal to acknowledge the consensus in support of a more proportional system. But particularly in light of Justin Trudeau’s past claims that all anybody really wanted was a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: For a mild-mannered guy, Stephen Khan’s farewell to the PC leadership race was remarkably blunt
PHOTOS: Former Progressive Conservative Leadership candidate Stephen Khan in the Legislature as St. Albert’s MLA in February 2012. Below: PC leadership candidate Jason Kenney, former candidate Sandra Jansen, now a member of the NDP caucus, and St. Albert NDP MLA Marie Renaud. What’s remarkable about Stephen Khan’s farewell to the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Ted Byfield’s back, cyber-crusading for Jason Kenney’s bid to lead Alberta back to the Fifties!
PHOTOS: Ted Byfield at the microphone (Edson leader photo). Below: Alberta Education Minister David Eggen, the late Link Byfield, Mr. Byfield’s son, and a cover from the bad old days of Alberta Report magazine. Like the proverbial bad penny, Ted Byfield is back. It should come as no surprise that
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper and the Sad State of the Con Leadership Race
It's still his party. He created it in his own image. Those who survived the Great Humiliation are still trying to keep his monstrous legacy alive. But Stephen Harper these days is a shrunken version of the monstrous leader he once was, and has said nothing about Con leadership race, even
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Others sure to suffer as Sudden Apocalyptic Deficit Syndrome strikes affluent, older, white males from Saskatchewan
PHOTOS: The economic landscape nowadays in Saskatchewan. Below: Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman (Twitter), Canadian economists Jim Stanford (Twitter) and Toby Sanger, and, of course, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall. Saskatchewan appears to be suffering from a serious economic malady. Nobel Prize-winning economist and journalist Paul Krugman calls
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta Liberals launch leadership race as Tory contest takes an acrimonious turn
PHOTOS: The Alberta Liberal Party executive. From left to right: Vice-President Fundraising John Roggeveen, Secretary Alyssa Moore, Treasurer Greg Springate, President Karen Sevcik, MLA David Swann, VP David Khan, VP Policy David Gamble and VP Constituencies Dan MacLennan. Below: Potential candidates Nolan Crouse, Mr. Khan and Nirmala Naidoo. OTTAWA Optimistically
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Jason Syndrome: Conservative candidate melts down about Hollywood star turn in bid to derail NDP strategy that’s working
PHOTOS: Conservative carbon-tax foe Jason Kenney in a screen shot taken from his recent Facebook video. Actual best experiences may not result as promised from turning on the sound. Below: Hollywood actress Jane Fonda aboard a helicopter somewhere over Fort McMurray. Just what is the pilot pointing at? Below her:
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Lid’s still on the unite-the-right soup the Wildrose Party’s leader is cooking up, but there are hints about the recipe
PHOTOS: Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean gets ready to explain his plan to unite Alberta’s right under his leadership as a giant bull crashes through the wall behind him. The circumstances portrayed in this photo, found on the wildrose.ca website, may not have been exactly as just described. Below: Justin
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Past PC taxes disappear down conservative Memory Hole amid apocalyptic claims about similar NDP policies
PHOTOS: Then finance minister Robin Campbell and premier Jim Prentice explain their plan to increase taxes in March 2015. Criticism was mild. Below: Premier Ralph Klein and Stockwell Day, who was Mr. Klein’s provincial treasurer in the late 1990s (CBC photo); Wildrose MLA Heather Forsyth, who was interim Opposition leaders
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney – just visiting Alberta? – piously congratulates Michael Ignatieff for Order of Canada
PHOTOS: A screen shot from the Conservative Party of Canada’s vile “Just Visiting” ads, which were designed to undermine then Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff in the spring of 2009. They worked. Below: Dr. Ignatieff, who on Friday was awarded an Order of Canada, and Jason Kenney, candidate for the leadership
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