New Democratic Party Opposition Leader Rachel Notley joined the trailing United Conservative Party leadership candidates yesterday in piling onto UCP frontrunner Danielle Smith for her remarks in a recent social media video that appeared to blame cancer victims for their condition. UCP leadership candidate Danielle Smith in her controversial July
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Alberta Politics: Who won last night’s United Conservative Party leadership debate? Rajan Sawhney
Let’s cut to the chase: Who won last night’s United Conservative Party leadership debate in Medicine Hat? Former NDP leader Brian Mason debating UCP frontrunner Danielle Smith, then Wildrose Party leader, back in 2013 (Photo: Daveberta.ca). Answer: Rajan Sawhney. Leastways, Ms. Sawhney did the best job of dismantling frontrunner Daniel
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The real question facing Albertans: Which woman should be premier – Rachel Notley, Rebecca Schulz, or Danielle Smith?
The woman who replaces Jason Kenney as premier and leads the United Conservative Party Government into the next Alberta provincial election needs to be mindful of the fact she won’t have a mandate to implement radical change before the next general election. Jason Kenney, in costume as usual, as he
Continue readingAlberta Politics: MLA Thomas Dang acknowledges reality, drops effort to rejoin NDP, says he won’t run again in Edmonton-South
Edmonton-South MLA Thomas Dang was doing no more than recognizing the reality that his political career is finished when he had a spokesperson send media a statement yesterday saying he will not be seeking re-election in the next general election. Mr. Dang more recently, in 2019 (Photo: David J. Climenhaga).
Continue readingAlberta Politics: European movie chain folds, wipes out shares, and AIMCo suffers a big loss – but how big?
Last week the Globe and Mail reported that a “debt restructuring” at the largest movie theatre chain in Europe would wipe out a huge investment made by the Alberta Investment Management Corp., which manages Alberta’s public sector investments. NDP Opposition Finance Critic Shannon Phillips (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). AIMCo, as
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Another day on the campaign trail: Travis Toews woos building trades unions and jumps on the anti-vaxx bandwagon
Probably more than a few politically alert Albertans choked on their post-prandial drinks last night when they noticed a tweet from the Building Trades of Alberta mentioning that Travis Toews had just dropped by their Edmonton office for a friendly chat. Mr. Toews jumped aboard the anti-vaxx bandwagon with this
Continue readingAlberta Politics: In Alberta, it would appear that Conservative politicians really can run and hide at the same time!
If the leading candidates in the long race to replace Jason Kenney as leader of the United Conservative Party have proved anything, it’s that there’s no truth to the old saw you can run, but you can’t hide. UCP leadership candidate Brian Jean during the Cow Palace debate (Photo: Screenshot
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Bizarre UCP plan would see Alberta patients and their Alberta docs shipped to B.C. for surgeries, then shipped back
What the hell was the Kenney Government up to last fall when it had the brainstorm to compel Alberta Health Services to ship patients and their surgeons to an apparently under-used surgical facility in British Columbia’s Okanagan? The site of the Okanagan Health Surgical Centre in Kelowna (Photo: Screenshot of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Give Jason Kenney, crowing about how good management made Alberta’s budget surplus possible, credit for chutzpah!
Give Jason Kenney credit for sheer brass! Yesterday, Alberta’s premier, so recently told by his own party to pack up his stuff and take a hike, was taking credit for the province’s unexpected recent resource jackpot. Alberta Pollster Janet Brown, forecasting good tidings for the UCP (Photo: David J. Climenhaga).
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Protecting free speech on campus? Forget about it, Pierre Poilievre is just dog-whistling
Federal Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre seems to have generated a lot of publicity for himself lately with a much re-tweeted pledge to force Canadian universities to “protect free speech” by withholding federal research grants and other funds from post-secondary institutions that won’t knuckle under to his demands. Former U.S.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Told to take a hike by UCP, former Alberta Liberal leader Raj Sherman says he’ll run to lead Conservatives anyway
Yesterday, the United Conservative Party failed to get a leadership candidate it really could have used and instead got stuck with a non-candidate it sincerely wants nothing to do with. From the author’s collection: a never-worn T-shirt from Dr. Sherman’s 2011 campaign to lead the Alberta Liberals (Photo: David J.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Portraying Alberta and federal Conservative parties as hot messes, Calgary MP Michelle Rempel Garner says she won’t join UCP leadership race
Calgary MP Michelle Rempel Garner has declared herself out of the race to lead the United Conservative Party in a scathing, 2,800-plus Substack article that dissects the in-fights and extremism bedevilling Alberta’s governing party and casts considerable shade on the federal Conservatives as well for many of the same sins.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney’s cabinet shuffle, clearly necessary, nevertheless gets delivered in a slippery way
As is typical of the man, Jason Kenney’s cabinet shuffle yesterday, while clearly necessary, was delivered in a slippery manner. Justice Minister Tyler Shandro (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). Leastways, the usual cheerful statement alerting the media that a big upcoming announcement was in the offing appeared in no one’s email inbox
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Verna Yiu, fired in April as Alberta Health Services CEO, named University of Alberta provost and academic vice-president
It’s safe bet the United Conservative Party Government wasn’t very happy to learn yesterday that Verna Yiu, controversially fired in April as president and chief executive officer of Alberta Health Services, has been named as the next provost and academic vice-president of the University of Alberta. University of Alberta President
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What’s with Danielle Smith’s nutty, sophomoric campaign to lead Alberta’s UCP? Maybe she’s just bored!
Aided and abetted by a compliant media in love with a good horserace story, it looked for a spell in late 2011 and the spring of 2012 as if Danielle Smith might soon be Alberta’s premier. Ms. Smith with Progressive Conservative premier Jim Prentice on Dec. 17, 2014, the day
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Launching UCP leadership bid, Brian Jean promises life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, Alberta style
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul MLA Dave Hanson (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). That sure sounded like what former Wildrose Party leader and UCP co-founder Brian Jean was promising Albertans last night as he launched the formal part of his campaign to take back leadership of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rebecca Schulz vows to change the United Conservative Party’s nasty tone, but not necessarily its right-wing agenda
Promising to change the United Conservative Party’s tone, although not necessarily its right-wing agenda, Rebecca Schulz stepped forward in Calgary yesterday as the latest candidate to replace Jason Kenney as party leader and Alberta premier. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, whom Ms. Schulz hopes to replace (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). She wants
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta pulls plug on efforts to control COVID-19; Rajan Sawhney quits cabinet, joins race to replace Jason Kenney
One minute before midnight tonight, the United Conservative Party Government will pull the plug on all public health measures intended to slow the spread of COVID-19, even as the disease continues to infect and kill Albertans. Premier Jason Kenney during a visit to the University of Calgary’s school of engineering
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s UCP government may be in transition, but its hostile communications style is unchanged
CALGARY – According to the minister of health’s press secretary, there was “no error, and no undue delay” in the case of an 86-year-old Calgary woman who bled to death Sunday after being mauled by three pit bulls that escaped from a neighbour’s yard into the alley behind her home.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta progressives whipsaw themselves from hope to despair – but less may have changed than it appears
So what is this, already? The spring of hope or the winter of despair? Former premier and NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Two months ago, tout le monde progressive Alberta was high on the certainty that the next provincial election would be the NDP’s with a
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