TweetThe strange comedy of errors that has become Edmonton’s Downtown Arena project continued this week as City Council scrambled to fill a $100 million gap in a funding plan they approved months ago. Despite repeated claims by Mayor Stephen Mandel that provincial government money would fill the $100 million gap, anyone
Continue readingTag: Stephen Mandel
daveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Michael Walters, Ray Martin jump into the municipal election.
TweetWith much attention focused last week on Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel‘s harsh criticisms of the recent provincial budget, it may have been easy to miss news that candidates planning to seek election in this October’s municipal election are beginning to creep out of the woodwork. Community organizer Michael Walters launched
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Mayor Mandel on the warpath, keeps re-election plans secret.
Tweet Stephen Mandel is not ready to announce whether he will run for a fourth-term as Edmonton’s Mayor. Speaking to a crowd of more than 2000 people at his annual state-of-the-city address to the Chamber of Commerce, Mandel avoided the topic of his political future, instead taking aim at Premier Alison
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta still needs a “city party” – a role the New Democratic Party could fill
Typical Alberta Progressive Conservative Party members. Or, wait, are those Wildrose members? Alberta’s rural elite may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths, Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel. Where’s the NDP when we need them? Here it is 2013, the Earth is
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Could Chinese “stadium diplomacy” save Daryl Katz’s downtown arena dream?
TweetDid Canada miss an opportunity when the federal government acquiesced to a Chinese Government owned company purchasing Alberta energy company Nexen for $15 billion? Did we miss an opportunity when Canadian energy companies agreed to build a pipeline exporting raw oilsands bitumen to China? Perhaps we are not driving a
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Wildrose rink lotto scheme: a new tax on the prodigal and the poor
Imagine the millions we can scoop up from the foolish and the intoxicated! Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith extemporizes on the advantages of using gambling to subsidize billionaires. Below: Drugstore and hockey billionaire Daryl Katz; former Wildrose candidate Pastor Alan Hunsperger. It was almost a relief yesterday when Danielle Smith, leader
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Wildrose KENO-Arena lottery gambles with future of charities and non-profits.
TweetWildrose Official Opposition leader Danielle Smith re-injected herself into the latest round of news coverage about how to fund the Katz Group’s on-again, off-again arena north of Edmonton’s downtown. At a press conference this afternoon, Ms. Smith proposed that the provincial government should examine using the “KENO gambling model” to
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Edmonton Mayor takes swipes at NDP, Wildrose over Katz arena funding.
Tweet“Danielle Smith will probably yell and scream. Brian Mason will yell and scream. They really don’t care about the City of Edmonton, I guess, but I would hope they would be wise enough to see it’s about Edmonton.” – Mayor Stephen Mandel (December 18, 2012) Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel took
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: A case for finance reform: Reclusive billionaire allegedly donated $430,000 to PC Party.
Tweet“Mr. Katz declined requests for comment” was probably the least surprising sentence printed in the Globe & Mail this week as the national newspaper published reports that reclusive billionaire Daryl Katz had allegedly donated $430,000 to Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Party during the recent provincial election. The maximum contribution limits allowed
Continue readingIn This Corner: What does Katz want? Try everything.
Mayor Stephen Mandel professes to be baffled by what Oilers owner Daryl Katz wants in the ongoing agony that is the arena negotiations. “I can no longer define what Mr. Katz is asking for or what he’s not asking for,” a deeply frustrated mayor said on Tuesday, after Katz gobsmacked
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: pity the billionaire. katz group asks city council for more.
TweetOne week after Edmonton’s Chamber of Commerce warned of dramatic consequences if construction of the new downtown arena did not begin soon, the Katz Group, owned by billionaire Daryl Katz, has demanded further financial concessions to the already rich deal that City Councillors agreed to last year. Despite the weak-kneed stance
Continue readingIn This Corner: On Mandel’s ‘What, Me Worry?’ attitude, and the ex-Capital Ex.
The city of Edmonton continued its arena tease last week, releasing the latest renderings of the new hockey pleasure palace. It took exactly one day before it was declared “world class” by the typically rapturous coverage of the Edmonton Journal. Of course, anything built in Edmonton these days is immediately
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel channels Henny Youngman: ‘Take my Opposition leader … Please!’
Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel and your blogger at a much warmer meeting than the one Wildrose Party Leader Danielle Smith had with His Honour yesterday. The guy with the cigarette may be one of the new Wildrose MLAs. Below right: Mayor Mandel after his meeting with Ms. Smith, not exactly
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: edmonton’s advantage: we owe danielle smith nothing.
After three years of slagging him in the media, Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith met Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel for the first time yesterday (The image is a dramatization of actual events). Three years after becoming leader of her party, Official Opposition Wildrose Party leader and southern Alberta MLA Danielle Smith
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: alison redford and her new cabinet could lead a new urban agenda.
Premier Alison Redford's new cabinet ministers (photos from premierofalberta Flickr feed). Premier Alison Redford appointed her post-election cabinet ministers today after forgoing an initial press release and announcing them on Twitter. These picks and the legislation they will bring forward over the next four years will shape the direction Premier 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 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: planning to end poverty and homelessness in alberta.
Homeless Connect Edmonton at the Shaw Conference Centre (photo by Mack Male). Last weekend Homeward Trust Edmonton and its community partners held their biannual Homeless Connect event at the Shaw Conference Centre. The event is a one-stop-shop of free essential services for Edmontonians experiencing homelessness and those at risk of becoming homeless. These
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: david dorward to seek progressive conservative nomination in edmonton-gold bar.
David Dorward Accountant and recent Mayoral candidate David Dorward is expected to announce this morning that he will seek the Progressive Conservative nomination in Edmonton-Gold Bar, according to a reliable source. As the PC candidate in the 2008 election, Mr. Dorward placed a strong second to MLA Hugh MacDonald in
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Happy Halloween: The Mystery of the Missing Museum and what Edmonton needs to tell the Tories
Looking for the money: The typical Albertan, and the Albertosaurus, above, may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Federal Tories never offered more than $30 million to Edmonton museum project, says MP Laurie Hawn … whoops, the latest Conservative …
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