Vaccine passports are coming to Alberta. Not just yet, but they’ll be along soon enough. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). Not because they make sense. Opposition Leader Rachel Notley laid out that case pretty clearly yesterday: during a pandemic like the fourth wave of COVID-19 now battering our
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Alberta Politics: Ne media welcome: Jason Kenney reappears, virtually, answering curated questions via Facebook Live
Having been spotted out for shawarma in Calgary Tuesday night, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney cautiously emerged back into the artificial light of political life yesterday. Rather than making an actual public appearance and risking having to answer rude questions by the province’s media, uncharacteristically uncooperative after Mr. Kenney’s two-week vacation
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The silence of Premier Jason Kenney, out of sight since Aug. 9, keeps Alberta’s rumour mill churning
Now and again, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un or some other foreign dictator disappears for a spell and international media spins up a whirlwind of wild speculation. Academic experts think the leader’s dead, or maybe just in “a vegetative state.” Experts theorize he’s hiding out from a coup attempt, or
Continue readingAlberta Politics: That Delta variant COVID-19 scenario that Jason Kenney just didn’t see happening? As summer ends, it’s happening
Delta variant or no variant, Alberta would be pulling the plug on almost all COVID-19 restrictions on July 1, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney confirmed on June 18. “On July the first, on Canada Day, Alberta’s public health measures will be lifted and our lives will get back to normal,” he
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Three Alberta universities announce COVID-19 restrictions declared impossible just three weeks ago
The universities of Alberta, Calgary and Lethbridge announced a joint back-to-school vaccine strategy yesterday that will require everyone on campus who can’t prove they’ve been fully vaccinated to undergo rapid COVID-19 testing. “Students, faculty, and staff who are not fully vaccinated, and those who would prefer not to disclose their
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Pandemic election an outrage: Alberta Conservatives. Pandemic over, we’re open for good: Also Alberta Conservatives
It’s an outrage, practically a crime against humanity, for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call a federal election in the midst of a global pandemic, Alberta’s Conservatives say. The pandemic is over and thanks to the wise leadership of Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, we are open for good, enjoying the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP walks back plan to end COVID testing; AHS ponders hiring expensive contract nurses while trying to cut staff nurses’ pay
Friday the 13th appears to have lived up to its unlucky reputation for Alberta’s Kenney Government. Even before the fateful date arrived yesterday, the United Conservative Party strategic brain trust had concluded it would be a good time to walk back its risky July 28 decision to ignore the Delta
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Nurses protest while Kenney Government doubles down on hard-line post-pandemic bargaining strategy
With nurses planning to spend much of the day marching on information pickets at health care worksites throughout Alberta to protest the Kenney Government’s effort to cut back their wages and gut their collective agreement, Finance Minister Travis Toews issued a statement yesterday morning that appeared to double down on
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Where did CTV’s story attacking physician Joe Vipond, advocate for stricter COVID-19 testing and tracing, come from?
Between 2005 and 2011, CTV Television Inc. donated nearly $10,000 to the Alberta Conservatives. This interesting information can be found on Elections Alberta’s website using the provincial election agency’s contributor-search tool. Dr. Vipond in a typical pose (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). It was entirely legal. It took place back in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Promise provincial cops won’t cost more than Mounties will be hard to keep – so what’s Jason Kenney really up to?
On Friday, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney promised that Alberta municipalities policed by the Mounties won’t have to pay any more for a provincial force than they do now. “We’re going to guarantee them that this model would not cost them one cent more,” the premier told a news conference on
Continue readingAlberta Politics: No surprise: Alberta health minister takes the bait with belligerent response to federal minister’s rebuke
Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro and other United Conservative Party officials reacted with predictable belligerence yesterday to federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu’s letter chiding them for abandoning such public health measures as COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and mandatory isolation. In a nine-part Tweetstorm, Mr. Shandro accused the federal Liberals of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu waves a red flag in front of her irascible Alberta counterpart, Tyler Shandro
Obviously, federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu didn’t expect to get a serious answer from Tyler Shandro, her Alberta counterpart, when she wrote the irascible minister to warn him the Kenney Government’s “unnecessary and risky gamble” to drop COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and mandatory isolation will put children at risk. In
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If the Alberta Party wants to get to the end of the rainbow, Brian Jean is probably not the man to take it there
Can it really be true Brian Jean, who once thought he had a pretty good chance of occupying the Alberta premier’s office as leader of the Wildrose Party, is quietly negotiating to lead the Alberta Party? With John F. Kennedy’s caveat that where there’s smoke, there’s usually a smoke-making machine,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: More bad news for UCP as poll by Leger shows NDP leading in Edmonton, Calgary and even rural Alberta
Another poll by a respectable pollster suggests that if an Alberta provincial election were held today Rachel Notley’s New Democratic Party would triumph handily over Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party. This is starting to look like a trend. NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Such an election
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Health minister makes sure we understand chief medical officer of health came up with harshly criticized COVID-19 plan
According to Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro, speaking at a news conference on another topic yesterday, Wednesday’s decision for Alberta to become the only jurisdiction on the planet to start treating COVID-19 as if it were the common cold was Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw’s idea. Facing reporters
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Buckle your seatbelts, Alberta: Kenney Government adopts ‘stupidest public health response to the pandemic in the G7’
At the first COVID-19 news conference in almost a month, and quite possibly the last one ever, Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw let Albertans know yesterday that they and their still-unvaccinated children will basically be on their own when it comes to the virus’s rapidly spreading Delta variant.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Elections Alberta slaps $33,500 fines on UCP MLA Devinder Toor, campaign finance manager and related company
Albertans learned today that Elections Alberta has levied fines totalling $33,500 on Calgary-Falconridge United Conservative Party MLA Devinder Toor, his campaign finance manager, and a company run by his family for a string of violations when he was seeking the nomination in the northwest Calgary riding and during the 2019
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Welcome home, blogger! Don’t worry about closed Alberta hospital beds – we have pepper spray and pickup trucks
SIDNEY, B.C. Welcome home, blogger! Alberta Premier Jason Kenney trying to prove that he’s a real manly Alberta man too (Photo: Twitter/Jason Kenney). Having spent a few days dealing with family business in British Columbia, the first reminder of what passes for reality back home as I await my delayed
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Confronting reality, Kenney Government puts off plans for referendums on grabbing CPP, creating provincial police force
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has dropped his plans for referendums on taking over the Canada Pension Plan and replacing the RCMP with an easier-to-control provincial police force. For now. Finance Minister Travis Toews at yesterday’s news conference (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). But these two unpopular remnants of Stephen Harper’s notorious sovereignist
Continue readingAlberta Politics: MLA Pat Rehn, cast into utter darkness by Jason Kenney last January, welcomed back to jittery UCP Caucus
On the morning of Jan. 14, a day after an Edmonton researcher revealed Lesser Slave Lake MLA Pat Rehn had spent almost all of April, May, June and July in Edmonton while constituents complained he was never seen in the riding, Premier Jason Kenney kicked the missing MLA out of
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