Today will be a significant day in Alberta’s struggle with the coronavirus. We will learn, this afternoon, just how bad things are. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: Chris Schwarz, Government of Alberta). Will they be getting a little better after a worrisome statistical bump? If they aren’t, will they be
Continue readingTag: Tyler Shandro
Alberta Politics: Apparently desperate, health minister tells College of Physicians and Surgeons it can’t let doctors quit
Tyler Shandro’s on fire! Not in a good way, though. There was a strong signal yesterday that Alberta’s health minister has completely lost control of the fight he’s picked with the province’s physicians. Yesterday’s AMA newspaper advertisement (Image: Alberta Medical Association). It turns out that while the minister and the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Whether or not half of Alberta’s doctors are thinking of leaving, even a much smaller exodus would be a disaster
Publication by the Alberta Medical Association of poll results showing close to half the province’s physicians are thinking about leaving Alberta in response to the United Conservative Party’s War on Doctors seems to have enraged Premier Jason Kenney’s strategic brain trust. Leastways, the UCP’s immediate response — threatening to publish
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Whatever it is, former PC MLA Dave Rodney apparently has what it takes to be Alberta’s agent general in Houston
There may have been peaks and valleys along the way, but thanks to a hand up from Alberta Premier Jason Kenney this week, it looks as if Dave Rodney has finally ascended to the summit of his career. That is to say, for some reason Mr. Rodney was the recipient
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Bill 30, the UCP’s health care omnibus bill, is bad, but not as bad as it could have been
The two most striking features of the health care omnibus bill introduced yesterday by the United Conservative Party are that it opens the door to a higher degree of privatization and two-tier health care and escalates Health Minister Tyler Shandro’s feud with the Alberta Medical Association. Neither is a positive
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Would you like a nasal swab with your fries, sir? Health care comes to A&W, McDonald’s and Timmy’s in Jason Kenney’s Alberta
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney runs a government deeply committed to erasing the obvious connection between government and the services that are essential to the functioning of society. How else is he going to persuade Albertans to abandon public health care that works for the broken privatization model now destroying our
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Who will see their pandemic money first? The UCP’s political staffers, or Alberta’s health care aides?
In case you were wondering if Alberta’s United Conservative Party was also going to apply for funds from Ottawa’s Canada Emergency Response Benefit to keep party staff employed, that question has now been answered. Of course they are! Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Photo: Justin Trudeau/Flickr). The UCP trotted out the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Frustration grows as Tyler Shandro’s promised $2-per-hour top-up for health care aides fails to appear, again
More than a month has passed since Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro promised the government would pay the province’s health care aides a $2-per-hour coronavirus-crisis top-up — and there’s still no sign of the money. On April 20, Mr. Shandro announced the temporary raise for health care aides. He said
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 54: That’s a great Alberta politics question.
We dive into the mailbag in this episode of the Daveberta Podcast to answer questions about Alberta politics sent in by our listeners on topics ranging from the United Conservative Party’s influence on the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race to the details of the Alberta government’s Keystone XL Pipeline
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If COVID-19 proves anything, it’s that Ernst & Young was out to lunch when it recommended privatizing Carewest and Capital Care
Does anyone remember the $2-million “review” of Alberta Health Services by Ernst & Young launched a year ago by the United Conservative Party Government? Health Minister Tyler Shandro and Alberta Health Services President and CEO Verna Yiu were both on hand to ensure we understood it was an important matter
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Hot take: your gut’s probably right, it’s too soon to declare COVID-19 vanquished
At least Alberta Premier Jason Kenney didn’t have a “Mission Accomplished” banner hanging behind him. But then, being landlocked and all that, Alberta doesn’t own an aircraft carrier even if it now owns a hunk of a U.S. pipeline. Plus, Mr. Kenney wouldn’t look all that good in a flight
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Are cracks appearing in the wall of the Kenney Kremlin over Health Minister Tyler Shandro’s fight with Alberta’s docs?
Have the first hairline cracks started to appear in the Kenney Government’s hitherto solid front in its war with the province’s physicians, which is inexplicably being carried on in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic? Is someone inside the Kenney Calgary Kremlin signalling it’s almost time for Health Minister
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Jason Kenney’s Fight with Alberta’s Doctors
“The crisis we have in health care, rural included, is a void of leadership by the UCP government. They were voted in with a majority government, but do not seem to understand the difference between leadership and power.” — Dr Ed Aasman The Greeks defined hubris is a character flaw,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Hard to believe keeping meatpacking and oilsands plants running hasn’t contributed to COVID-19 spread
If you listened carefully to yesterday’s COVID-19 briefing in Edmonton, it was difficult to avoid the conclusion the Kenney Government’s reluctance to regulate certain industries has contributed to the spread of the disease, and not just inside this province. Particularly interesting was Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw’s carefully
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta spends up to $20K touting medical mask giveaway on Facebook to build social license for pipelines
The Alberta Government spent between $14,000 and $20,000 on Facebook advertisements promoting Premier Jason Kenney’s announcement Alberta would donate 750,000 N95 medical masks and other personal protective equipment to Ontario, Quebec and B.C., political blogger Dave Cournoyer revealed in a tweet yesterday afternoon. The heaviest promotion was in Ontario, Mr.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney offers medical equipment to Ontario, Quebec and B.C.; pitches national solidarity on resource development
One hates to play the skunk at a tea party, but somebody needs to ask the question a lot of Albertans must be thinking. To wit, if less than a week ago we barely had enough N95 medical masks for Alberta’s hard-pressed nurses, doctors and other front-line health care workers
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Docs fight Alberta pay cuts in court, seeking $250 million, while battling COVID-19 on the front lines of health care
Yesterday morning, Christine Molnar, president of the Alberta Medical Association, announced that the province’s doctors are launching a constitutional challenge and seeking $250 million in compensation from the United Conservative Party Government for the way it tore up their contract two months ago. Yesterday afternoon, Health Minister Tyler Shandro showed
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 52: Jobs, economy and pipelines? COVID-19 pushes small business to the brink.
Justin Archer joins Dave Cournoyer and Adam Rozenhart on this remotely recorded episode of the Daveberta Podcast to discuss the federal government’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan, the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, how our political leaders are responding to the pandemic and crashing oil prices. We also discussed the Alberta government’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The premier is disappointed? Where did Alberta’s Mr. Belligerence go when Donald Trump told 3M not to ship N95s to Canada?
Where’s the tough guy we got to know during the last Alberta election campaign, the Jason Kenney of the Summer of Repeal, the War Room and the War on Foreign Funded European Urban Greens? The Alberta premier’s favourite American president, Donald J. Trump, say’s he won’t let 3M Co. of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Smoke and mirrors aren’t cutting it — Alberta’s health minister still needs to go
Despite a lot of smoke and mirrors, Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government has never dispelled the queasy feeling many Albertans have that Tyler Shandro’s personal business dealings render him unsuitable to serve as minister of health. It was Mr. Shandro’s personal conduct, publicly berating a neighbour who posted a critical
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