Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Katharine Wu writes that contrary to the continued attempt by right-wing talking heads to equate mass viral transmission with immunity, we can’t assume that the spread of the Omicron COVID strain will offer substantial protection from future infection. Kayla Rosen reports on new
Continue readingTag: Tom Flanagan
Alberta 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: Preston Manning, the bad penny of Canadian politics, turns up again on Alberta’s sovereignty-association commission
Preston Manning is the bad penny of Canadian politics. So no one should be surprised he’s turned up again! Much good rarely comes from Mr. Manning’s interventions in politics, which never seem to end, so don’t expect positive results from his appointment by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney to what might
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 readingAlberta Politics: Peak Separatism has passed in Alberta, no thanks to Postmedia’s sly campaign to undermine the Trudeau Government
Happy Holidays! It may take a few days for its perpetrators to admit this, but Alberta has all but certainly already passed Peak Separatism. The current 2018 spasm of Alberta separatist sentiment peaked late last week, probably some time Thursday afternoon. By the time we’re all saying Happy New Year
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Andrew Scheer and The Rebel Connection
I'm pretty sure that most Canadians know very little about Andrew Scheer, the new leader of the Cons, who likes to call himself "Harper with a smile."They just see a friendly looking man who always has a smile on his face, even when he's talking about the recent death of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Oilsands phase-out freak-out explained: Conservatives see the road back to Ottawa going through Edmonton
PHOTOS: G7 leaders including Canada’s then prime minister, Stephen Harper, wander down the garden path in Schloss Elmau, Germany, in June 2015. Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Alberta Federation of Labour leader Gil McGowan, Opposition Leader Brian Jean and would-be Progressive Conservative Leader Jason Kenney. OTTAWA “Funny,” Alberta Federation of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney’s sleazy campaign tactics explained: He’s rolling the dice on a first-ballot win
PHOTOS: Baby needs new shoes! Jason Kenney prepares to roll the dice on winning the Alberta PC leadership race on the first ballot. Actual Alberta conservative politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Mr. Kenney, plus candidates Steve Khan and Richard Starke. If you’re surprised by reports
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney reported ready to announce his bid to lead a Tory Restoration effort as soon as tomorrow
PHOTOS: Former federal Conservative cabinet minister Jason Kenney looks like he’s describing how he’ll capture the Alberta PC Party, then the Wildrose, and unite them whether they like it or not, in this shot grabbed from his Parliamentary Flickr a…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A spectre is haunting Alberta, and Wildrose Leader Brian Jean wants to assure you it’s not him!
PHOTOS: The plot thickens … like the gravy at a certain truck stop restaurant. The spectral presences of Jason Kenney and Stephen Harper eating breakfast are not quite visible in the booth. Below: Mr. Jean, plus the real Mr. Kenney and the real Mr. H…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: You take the high road and we’ll take the low road: The Kenney Cabal’s strategy to grab back power in Alberta for the right
PHOTOS: Jason Kenney with Preston Manning. Below: Likely Kenney opponents Sandra Jansen, another possible PC candidate, and Brian Jean, leader of the Wildrose Party in happier times. In many ways, as was said here two days ago, Jason Kenney is a miscas…
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: In or Out? Jason Kenney could have a rough landing into Alberta politics
CBC reports that after 19 years as a Member of Parliament in Ottawa, former federal cabinet minister Jason Kenney, 48, is considering entering provincial politics in Alberta. Postmedia’s Jen Gerson writes that he will not confirm whether this i…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta NDP defies voters by continuing to govern as if it won the election that put it in power: political scientist
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, running the province as if she had a majority government! What next? Below: University of Calgary political scientist and Calgary Herald columnist Barry Cooper, Broadbent Institute Director Rick Smith and Wildrose…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If we’d been paying attention, perhaps we wouldn’t be so shocked by the U of C’s corporate-influence scandal
PHOTOS: The University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, conveniently located adjacent to the oil corporations’ towers in downtown Cowtown. Below: The writers of the notorious Alberta separatist Firewall Manifesto, which then-premier Ralph Klein wisely tossed into the garbage; Calgary School alumni and Firewall signa-Tories Stephen Harper, Tom Flanagan and
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper, Strangelove Flanagan, and the Politics of Fear
We know what he has become; the monstrous leader of the most evil political cult this country has ever known.A morally depraved demagogue who is using fear as a weapon against his own people, and using racism to divide them. So he can snatch another another bloody majority, and use his anti-terrorist
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta, I give you Alison Redford, Person of the Year for 2014!
Former premier Alison Redford at the moment of her leadership campaign victory in 2011. Former opposition leader Danielle Smith in a typical campaign pose last summer. Back in the mists of time, or rather, Time, there used to be a regular December feature called “Man of the Year.” That was
Continue readingAlberta Diary: On those Wildrose attack ads: they can hardly say Jim Prentice has ‘no plan’
The harshest of the three Wildrose Attack ads. Just let Youtube play, and you can see the Wildrose Party’s other two current attack ads plus its single positive spot. Below: A screen shot from one of the spectacularly ineffective 2006 No Plan ads attacking then premier Ed Stelmach. The full
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Be careful what you ask for! Jim Prentice walks away with the Wildrose political play book
Premier Jim Prentice. Below: Wildrose Party Leader Danielle Smith and former party strategist Tom Flanagan, this time on the button. As the expression goes: be careful what you ask for! You might just get it. There is irony – perhaps even bitter irony – in what newly minted Alberta Premier
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Don’t let any ‘celebrities’ tell you different, we’ve got friends of science here in Alberta
Don’t worry: you have absolutely nothing to do with the apocalypse. You might as well mine more bitumen while you wait for it. Below: Barry Cooper; another version of the Friends of Science billboard; yet another great billboard supporting democracy and the people. Billboard photos found on the Internet. Alberta’s
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Lonely At The Top?
If Stephen Harper isn’t ‘feelin’ the love,’ it is a situation of his own making. Two brief excerpts from Tim Harper’s column in today’s Star, entitled Stephen Harper’s slide into isolation, are instructive. Tom Flanagan, former best-buddies with Dear Leader, wrote in his recent book, Persona Non Grata, this about
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