We may be living in the 21st Century, but Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Government is apparently still suffering from the 19th Century distrust of voters and democracy that convinced the Fathers of Confederation to give us that unelected Senate. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). So, yesterday, Alberta
Continue readingTag: United Conservative Party
Alberta Politics: Plan to have patients at Calgary clinic pony up ‘membership fees’ might have had a chance if the UCP’s War on Ottawa had heated up sooner
Timing is everything, so Dr. Sally Talbot-Jones must have been kicking herself yesterday for launching her effort to charge patients as much as $4,800 a year up front to see a doctor in a timely fashion when she did. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). It must have been
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Busted! Globe outs Danielle Smith’s unpublicized pandemic data ‘task force’ headed by physician who attacked COVID restrictions
When Alberta Premier Danielle Smith mused in the midst debate over her government’s new funding turf war with Ottawa that “we could also establish our own research programs” to ensure ideological balance in academic research, many Albertans suspected they understood precisely what she had in mind. Dr. Gary Davidson, the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Danielle Smith sets out to ensure the ideological purity of federally funded university research in Alberta
It must seem unfair to the United Conservative Party base that flat-earth researchers consistently get the short end of the stick when it comes to federal research funds while the spherical-earth crowd so obviously favoured by Ottawa gets all the dough! CBC Power & Politics host David Cochrane (Photo: BroadcastDialogue.com).
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Some amusing thoughts on Wexit, Wexitry, and Wexiteers in a potentially confusingly united Western Canada
Let’s imagine a scenario that even a year ago would have seemed all but impossible but is now within the realm of possibility. Participants in a pre-pandemic pro-Wexit demonstration at the Alberta Legislature in December 2020 (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). First, let’s assume that the NDP Government of British Columbia
Continue readingAlberta Politics: No surprise, Alberta’s privatized surgery clinics don’t seem to be doing anything to reduce wait times
Does anyone remember Premier Danielle Smith’s handpicked administrator of Alberta Health Services confidently predicting that wait times for surgeries in this province were about to fall and fall dramatically? NDP Opposition Health Critic Luanne Metz (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Reduced surgical wait times would be the biggest single mark of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rush to ‘Recovery Alberta’ mental health agency sure looks like an ideological drug-treatment hobbyhorse
Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government is about to carve thousands of employees and $1.13 billion out of Alberta Health Services to create what looks like a drug-treatment hobbyhorse for a small group of ideologues in the office of Premier Danielle Smith. Soon-to-be Canadian Centre for Recovery Excellence CEO Kym Kaufmann
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Why Naheed Nenshi is running for the Alberta NDP leadership
Nenshi shares his thoughts on Rakhi Pancholi’s endorsement and what it means to be NDP in 2024 He’s a household name in Calgary, Alberta, and across Canada, and now he’s running to become the next leader of the Alberta NDP. Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi joins the Daveberta Podcast to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Tegan and Sara call out Smith Government for UCP’s anti-trans policies at Junos
Thank you to the musical Quin twins, universally known as the indie pop duo Tegan and Sara, for speaking up at the Juno Awards in Halifax last night about the Danielle Smith Government’s grotesque War on Trans Kids. Alberta Premier Marlaina Danielle Smith – sorry, but who could resist? –
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Beware the Ides of March! You might get a subpoena from Elections Alberta!
“He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction,” King Solomon is reputed to have said, with the wisdom for which he was renowned. King Solomon, as imagined by Gustave Doré, circa 1866 (Image: Wikimedia Commons). Whether it was Solomon who
Continue readingAlberta Politics: After five years, RCMP investigation into Kamikaze Affair ends with a whimper, not a bang
After five years, Canada’s national police force has concluded no charges will be laid in the notorious Kamikaze Affair, as allegations of fraud and identity theft in Jason Kenney’s victorious 2017 campaign to lead the newly formed Alberta United Conservative Party came to be known. RCMP Superintendent Rick Jané at
Continue readingAlberta Politics: David Parker, the bad boy of Alberta conservatism, reflects, sort of recants, and promises to be less rude
After reflecting on Premier Danielle Smith’s recent words of chastisement, the bad boy of Alberta conservatism, David Parker, said in a tweet yesterday evening that he’s repented and “will not use personal insults in my public communications going forward.” Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, the last target on X of
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Why Sarah Hoffman is running for the Alberta NDP leadership
The former health minister shares her plans for health, climate, and housing NDP MLA Sarah Hoffman joins the Daveberta Podcast to talk about why she is running for the Alberta NDP leadership and her plans for health care, climate, and housing. We discuss Hoffman’s experiences as Minister of Health and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Will Take Back Alberta’s sinister supremo meekly submit to the premier’s command to quit tweeting?
Now that he’s been ordered by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith shut the heck up and stop slagging federal Conservative boss Pierre Poilievre and his lovely wife, will Take Back Alberta’s founder and sometime executive director David Parker meekly do as he’s told or will he make like Darth Vader and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A national pharmacare program at last? Forget about it, says Alberta’s UCP – just give us the cash!
No sooner did the federal Liberal and New Democratic parties say they’d reached a deal on a national pharmacare program at the end of last week than Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government insisted it wanted no part of the plan. Friends of Medicare Director Chris Gallaway (Photo: David J. Climenhaga).
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Danielle Smith keeps saying she’s going to ‘de-risk’ natural-gas-fired electricity generation – what exactly does she have in mind?
According to the Council of Europe, “de-risking” means “the phenomenon of financial institutions terminating or restricting business relationships with clients or categories of clients to avoid, rather than manage, risk.” Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, pretty much the arch-fiend the way Ms. Smith describes him (Photo: UN Biodiversity, Creative Commons).
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Don’t imagine for a moment the UCP has lost interesting in getting its paws on your pension
Just because Albertans have overwhelmingly rejected the idea, don’t imagine for a moment Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government has lost interest in getting its hands on its citizens’ share of the Canada Pension Plan fund, whatever that may turn out to be. Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland UCP MLA Shane Getson (Photo:
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Is denigrating women in politics by mocking their appearance OK with the UCP? If it isn’t, the silence is deafening
Even before former health minister and deputy premier Sarah Hoffman’s NDP leadership campaign launch was over Sunday, the first tweets insulting her physical appearance began to appear on the social medial platform previously known as Twitter. Take Back Alberta’s David Parker, who’s now setting the tone for the entire United
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Former justice minister Kathleen Ganley makes her bid to lead Alberta NDP official; others to follow soon
Yesterday was the official start of the Alberta NDP leadership race and Kathleen Ganley was the first to make official what pretty well everyone in political Alberta already knew – to wit, that, yes, the former justice minister is running to replace Rachel Notley as the leader of the Opposition
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Danielle Smith says she cares deeply about transgender Albertans, then unveils grotesquely harsh, othering policy
Of all the clownish, bizarre, and cynical policies of the United Conservative Party, surely the most grotesque we have seen so far was today’s launch on social media by Premier Danielle Smith of what is sure to become known as the War on Trans Kids. University of Calgary political science
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