By Cam Westhead One of the first things I learned in nursing school was not to panic during times of crisis. Medical professionals are trained to act like a duck – appearing calm on top of the water but paddling like mad underneath. Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena
Continue readingTag: Tyler Shandro
Alberta Politics: It’s the pandemic, stupid!
Another day, another COVID-19 infection record broken. This time, 1,155. There are 11 new deaths. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Health Minister Tyler Shandro, as they appeared at yesterday’s news conference. Is it just me, or is there a whiff of panic in the cold Alberta air? Not among the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Corporate lobbyist and former aide to two Conservative premiers named University of Alberta external relations VP
A high-profile lobbyist with connections to past Alberta Conservative governments and involvement in a controversial effort to open a large private hospital in Edmonton has been named as the University of Alberta’s new vice-president of external relations. U of A leadership, presumably, concluded lobbyist Elan MacDonald has the connections necessary
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Ignoring worried doctors, Jason Kenney sticks with largely voluntary ‘pause’ to keep lid on COVID-19
The pandemic is bad and quickly getting worse in Alberta with 860 new daily cases reported yesterday, but Premier Jason Kenney remains deeply committed to the please-knock-it-off-guys approach to controlling the spread of COVID-19. Only, this time, he really means it. Really! Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 62: Maybe Keystone XL wasn’t a very good investment after all
In this episode of the Daveberta Podcast we discuss: the election of Joe Biden as President of the United States and the future of the Alberta government’s $7 billion investment into the Keystone XL Pipeline. the Kenney government’s response to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and Health Minister
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s story about Ottawa’s COVID-19 app keeps changing, but the ending’s still the same: You can’t have it!
Premier Jason Kenney issued a new explanation yesterday for why Alberta won’t adopt the COVID Alert tracing app created by the federal government. In a testy response to a question by the Globe and Mail’s Emma Graney, Premier Kenney claimed the federal smartphone app isn’t compatible with Alberta’s coronavirus infection
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It’s the UCP Government that’s been blocking Albertans’ access to Ottawa’s COVID Alert app, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says
We now know with reasonable certainty it’s the United Conservative Party Government that’s been responsible for blocking Albertans from having access to the federal COVID Alert smartphone app. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made it clear in a radio interview in Edmonton yesterday morning that Ottawa views Alberta’s UCP Government as
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP plan to lay off 11,000 public sector health workers sparks wildcat walkouts at 45 Alberta health facilities
Infuriated at the Kenney Government’s determination to lay off 11,000 public sector health care workers and privatize their jobs, members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees walked off the job in a province-wide wildcat strike yesterday morning. Last night, the Alberta Labour Relations Board ruled the work stoppage to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Activate the COVID Alert App in Alberta. Activate it right now!
With coronavirus pandemic surging in most parts of Canada, most definitely including Alberta, the federal government needs to make its COVID Alert exposure notification app available in this province immediately. Needless to say, with case numbers rising rapidly in Alberta, it is extremely frustrating for Albertans concerned about their health
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Sundre hospital renamed to honour MP Myron Thompson, long-time foe of equality for same-sex couples
“They’re trying to take away our culture, they’re trying to take away our history,” Donald Trump complained back in 2017 about activists who call for the removal statues of Confederate and colonialist heroes. Mr. Trump’s supporters have been loudly making their agreement known ever since, including here in Alberta where
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Throwing health care into chaos isn’t easy, but the UCP’s political staffers are willing to sacrifice to do it
Throwing Alberta’s health care system into chaos isn’t easy. It takes hard work and sacrifice. But thanks to the United Conservative Party’s front-line fighters in the war against fair and efficient public health care, what even Ralph Klein couldn’t achieve is finally happening: Clinical chaos! Hospital havoc! Medical mayhem! Just
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Math is hard, but not so hard you can’t spot the holes in Tyler Shandro’s cost-saving shell game
Math, apparently, remains hard. Except, perhaps, calculus of a political sort. The real Mr. Shandro (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). On its face, Health Minister Tyler Shandro’s claim that firing 11,000 low-paid public sector health care employees will save about $600 million makes little sense. Others have done the same calculation and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP government announces massive health care layoffs at hastily called news conference
If you think this morning was a crazy moment for Health Minister Tyler Shandro to announce a major restructuring of public health care in Alberta, including the layoffs of 11,000 public health care workers, right in the middle of the most serious health care crisis in 100 years, you’re right.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If you want to know how an Alberta Provincial Police force would behave, read between the lines of yesterday’s announcement
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police may be no paragon of liberalism and progressive enforcement, but they’re apparently too liberal and progressive for the members of the so-called Fair Deal Panel that Alberta Premier Jason Kenney appointed to trot out his quasi-separatist hobbyhorses. Mr. Kenney’s supposedly cash-poor government announced yesterday it
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Kaycee Madu, no stellar cabinet performer, is promoted to where he can do less harm; other stars fall
Kaycee Madu, possibly Alberta’s least successful cabinet member in the estimation of his portfolio’s key stakeholders, as Alberta justice minister? Who saw that coming? Former Economic Development, Trade and Tourism Minister Tanya Fir (Photo: Facebook). Of the three major political events affecting Alberta that took place while your blogger was
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The COVID-19 emergency may not be over, but your hospital parking fee holiday is
It was a big deal back in April when the government of Alberta suspended hospital parking fees for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic. Health Minister Tyler Shandro was Johnny on the Spot, telling media reporters that “health-care workers and the general public should not have to worry about paying
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thanks to a public-spirited leaker, a risky health-care privatization scheme is exposed
Panicky sounding United Conservative Party “issues managers” were frantically insisting yesterday everything is copacetic and above board with secret plans to build a $200-million private orthopedic surgical hospital in Edmonton. No way will this result in two-tier health care, they contended, often shrilly calling anyone who suggested otherwise a liar,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: AHS to Pincher Creek docs: We made a mistake, we gave it to you, now we won’t take it back … and you can’t quit!
Physicians in Pincher Creek who gave three months’ notice they were withdrawing from hospital service in response to Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro’s War on Doctors were told they had to show up for August on-call duty anyway in letters Tuesday from a top official of Alberta Health Services’ South
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta political roundup: The paper-pile premier, furious doctors, rebel ’Roser rumours, Total disaster, and more …
Having rammed through two controversial bills Tuesday night, one opening the door to more health care privatization and the other eliminating workplace fairness and declaring war on unions, the Alberta Legislature wrapped up its business just after 8 o’clock yesterday morning. United Conservative Party social media spent the afternoon bragging
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Side deals with specialists emerge as latest UCP tactic in escalating war with Alberta Medical Association
The Kenney Government yesterday again escalated its continuing war with the Alberta Medical Association, indicating it would consider letting rival groups representing medical specialties quit the doctors’ collective bargaining association and negotiate directly with the government. In a statement obviously intended to rock the AMA, Health Minister Tyler Shandro commented
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