I’d like to say the rats are leaving the sinking ship, but I don’t think Travis Toews or Sonya Savage are rats, and I’m not certain the United Conservative Party is sinking. Departing Environment Minister Sonja Savage (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). With that caveat, it is a fact that Finance
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Alberta Politics: You can never believe anything until it’s been officially denied: The UCP just denied it wants to privatize health care
If it is truly an axiom of practical politics that you can you can never believe anything until it’s been officially denied, we now have confirmation Danielle Smith’s government is bent on privatizing health care in Alberta. Home of the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, publisher of Premier
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Tylenot’ is here at last, premier and health minister proclaim, just in time for no one to want to buy the stuff
Ridiculed for their weirdly incompetent response to last fall’s shortage of children’s fever medication, which has ended up costing Albertans $80 million for 750,000 bottles of a non-standard product that can’t be bought off the shelf, Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party Government decided to brazen it out instead. NDP Children’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: MLA Dan Williams’ beer guzzling in the Legislature is just another episode in the UCP’s sophomoric obsession with alcohol
Peace River MLA Dan Williams’ distasteful display of beer guzzling on the floor of Alberta’s Legislature last week is just another embarrassing episode in the United Conservative Party’s sophomoric obsession with consumption of alcohol that seems to date back to the selection of Jason Kenney as the party’s first leader.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Take Back Alberta, far right radical group, continues its effort to take over UCP
CALGARY – A clearer picture is starting to emerge of how Take Back Alberta – the anti-vaccine, pro-Convoy, Q-adjacent extremist group key to Danielle Smith’s victory in last year’s United Conservative Party leadership race – is now taking over her party one riding association at a time. Crowsnest Pass Herald
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Budget 2023: Smoke, mirrors, sleight of hand, and promises that don’t have to be kept
Finance Minister Travis Toews got up on his hind legs in the Alberta Legislature yesterday, promised to spend more on health care and education, set up a billion-dollar special projects fund, pay down debt, and still leave the province with a $2.4-billion dollar surplus. Bolstered by record royalty revenues, Mr.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Like the proverbial bad penny, Raj Sherman keeps turning up – this time as UCP candidate in Edmonton-Whitemud
Just like the proverbial bad penny, Raj Sherman always turns up. Dr. Sherman in 2011 during his tenure as as Alberta Liberal leader, trying to make a very small crowd look like a big one (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Now he’s turned up as the United Conservative Party’s candidate in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: COVID-19 haunts us still, but if your vaccinations and boosters are fully up to date, AHS won’t let you have another one
COVID is still killing people in Alberta, but if you’ve been careful about keeping vaccinated and think it might be time for another booster, chances are you’re out of luck. COVID-19 vaccine (Photo: National Advisory Committee on Immunization). Obviously, whatever the United Conservative Party Government wishes, COVID-19 continues to kill
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 85: Naheed Nenshi on Calgary in Alberta’s 2023 election
Former Calgary mayor shares his thoughts on Danielle Smith, Rachel Notley and the city he calls home ahead of Alberta’s provincial election. Former Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi joins the Daveberta Podcast to talk about provincial politics in Alberta’s largest city, the upcoming election, and The Last of Us and the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rajan Sawhney, one of the seven contenders to lead the UCP last year, won’t seek re-election this spring
Trade, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Rajan Sawhney, one of the seven contenders to lead the United Conservative Party last year, won’t be running for re-election this spring. Ms. Sawhney assailed Danielle Smith’s Sovereignty Act during the UCP leadership contest (Photo: Twitter). “Today, I met with Premier Smith to inform her
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Lion’s share of UCP health spending announced yesterday is earmarked for finding docs for rural areas
Only $8 million of the Alberta Government’s $158 million “health workforce strategy” announced yesterday is directed to the recruitment of nurses, arguably the most desperately needed component of the province’s health care workforce. By comparison, the United Conservative Party Government earmarked the lion’s share, $119 million, to attract and retain
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Ottawa’s Conservatives: always disdainful of separatists, except when they aren’t
Who can forget that time in December 2008 when Conservatives in the House of Commons recoiled in horror at the thought of a Liberal-NDP coalition government surviving thanks to a written pledge of support from the Bloc Québécois? Former federal Liberal leader Stephane Dion (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). With a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘We reject the premise of your question’ – an excerpt from ‘Anger and Angst, Jason Kenney’s Legacy and Alberta’s Right’
Alberta is on the cusp of a provincial election in which a United Conservative Party increasingly dominated by far-right ideologues and an ever more centrist NDP will face off to see whose vision shapes our province’s future at a crucial moment in its history. Mr. Kenney at the Alberta Legislature
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The ‘RStar’ scam’s not a good deal, but it’s a done deal, even if it goes against a ‘core capitalist principle’
The shocker isn’t that the awful “RStar” scam is a done deal. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). The old fixeroo for that dirty deal has been in ever since Danielle Smith was chosen last year as leader of the United Conservative Party, and therefore as premier of Alberta, with
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Demetrios Nicolaides’ red-tape plan for post-secondaries is about dominating free speech on campus, not defending it
Notwithstanding the inevitable rhetoric about defending “free speech” on campus, it’s worth remembering that’s not the reason for Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides’ planned homework assignment for Alberta’s post-secondary institutions. Burman University in Lacombe, the former Canadian University College, is exempt from the UCP requirement to sign the Chicago Principles
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Day drinking with Dale and Larry: The perfect metaphor for Alberta’s UCP Government
Talk about the perfect metaphor for Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government in the year of Our Lord 2023: A couple of guys day-drinking in a 7-Eleven and yakking about it. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). Well, bois, it just doesn’t get any better than this! I speak of
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 84: The Daveberta Podcast is back! Now on the Daveberta Substack.
The Daveberta Podcast is back after a brief 11-month semi-permanent hiatus! Enjoy the podcast and find future episodes exclusively at the podcast’s new home on the Daveberta Substack.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Posted in obvious haste to distract UCP foes and appease party’s base, Manning panel survey asks only 1 question!
Other than geriatric former Reform Party leader Preston Manning, 80, Premier Danielle Smith’s “Public Health Emergencies Governance Review Panel” hasn’t even been appointed, or if it has the public hasn’t been informed. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). And even this assumes Mr. Manning is not in fact the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Apocalypse Now? Or apocalypse later? Are we looking at the last days of the UCP, or just another self-inflicted speed bump?
“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” So says the Gospel of Matthew. Former PC deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). I speak metaphorically, of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Dumping RCMP for provincial force could cost St. Albert residents an average $2,784 a year in property tax, says city’s NDP MLA
St. ALBERT – A provincial plan to dump the RCMP and replace it with a provincial police force could mean a whopping property tax increase for residents of St. Albert and other smaller Alberta communities, the MLA representing most of the city warned in a statement yesterday. Alberta Premier Danielle
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