PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and friend with unionized firefighters at last year’s Edmonton and District Labour Council Labour Day BBQ. Below: Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan at the same event, and Labour Minister Christina Gray. Today is Labour Day, which in recent years has become a traditional
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Alberta Politics: Alberta premier’s quietly capable chief of staff, John Heaney, returns to his family and law practice in B.C.
PHOTOS: John Heaney last spring at the Alberta Legislature. Below: Mr. Heaney’s predecessor as Premier Rachel Notley’s chief of staff, Brian Topp, and his successor, Nathan Rotman (Photo: Twitter). The departure of the low-key and highly capable John Heaney as Premier Rachel Notley’s chief of staff will not necessarily become
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Mid-week Alberta Politics Roundup
Photo: Kent Hehr with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Calgary Stampede in July 2017. (Photo from Kent Hehr’s Facebook Page) It has been a busy week for me, so without the time to write a full column-type post, here is a quick summary of what I have been watching
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What does climate change mean for Alberta’s growing dependence on a pipeline to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries?
PHOTOS: U.S. Climate Change Denier in Chief Donald J. Trump. (Photo: White House.) A woman is rescued from her Houston area home (Photo: U.S. Department of Defense.) “Wow – Now experts are calling #Harvey a once in 500 year flood!” So said an apparently astonished Donald J. Trump, First Tweeter
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Alberta politics never slows down, even in the summer.
Politics never slows down in Alberta, even in the summer. Here is a quick look at some of what has been happening: New UCP caucus has a spending problems A day after the United Conservative Party lined up to criticize Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci, it was revealed that the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Time for a changeup? UCP Caucus’s money troubles are funny and ironic, but not enough to win an election for the NDP
PHOTOS: NDP Health Minister Sarah Hoffman. Is she the best person to hold Alberta’s finance portfolio as Alberta’s 2019 election edges nearer? Below: Finance Minister Joe Ceci and Jason Kenney, the conservative politician most likely to lead the United Conservative Party into the next provincial election. The pecuniary difficulties faced
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jim Dinning 6.0: how Jason Kenney is repeating the same failed Tory strategy, and expecting different results
PHOTOS: Singer k.d. lang (handout photo, via CBC). Below: Jim Dinning 1.0 and Jim Dinning 6.0. Is it just me, or is it mildly surprising that Jason Kenney turned down k.d. lang’s offer of free tickets to Calgary Pride on Sept. 3 and 4? Mr. Kenney, of course, is the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Breakup on the right? Naw, Canadian conservative politicians’ long romance with the Rebel isn’t over
PHOTOS: Wildrose-UCP MLA Drew Barnes, who still stands with and by Rebel Media, at a protest on the steps of the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton in December 2015. Below: Federal Conservative leader Andrew Scheer (Photo: Marcos Oliveira, Wikimedia Commons), UCP leadership candidates Jason Kenney and Brian Jean, and Alberta NDP
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP leaders edge away from Rebel Media after NDP House Leader rips their cozy past with alt-right group
PHOTOS: NDP House Leader Brian Mason, one of the fiercest fighters in Premier Rachel Notley’s government, ripped into UCP leadership contenders Jason Kenney and Brian Jean yesterday for their long association with Rebel Media. Below: Mr. Kenney, Mr. Jean, media accreditation report author Heather Boyd, and Alberta Legislative Press Gallery
Continue readingAlberta Politics: High-profile MLA Derek Fildebrandt, embroiled in embarrassing revelations, falls on his sword, quits UCP caucus
PHOTOS: Derek Fildebrandt buying extra fuel for his big red Ford pickup truck on New Year’s Eve 2016 to illustrate how much more gasoline was going to cost after the NDP’s carbon tax took effect the next morning. (Photo from the politician’s Facebook page.) Prices immediately went down. It turns
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Derek Fildebrandt has a very, very bad week.
Photo: In happier times, as Derek Fildebrandt campaigned alongside Wildrose leader Brian Jean in Strathmore-Brooks on the first day of the 2015 election. (Photo from Brian Jean’s Facebook Page). Over the course of eight days, Strathmore-Brooks MLA Derek Fildebrandt went from being a potential leadership candidate to stepping down from the United
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Guest Post: UCP polarization of Alberta politics neutralizes the language of right-wing extremism
PHOTOS: Young anti-Bill 6 protesters interviewed by a reporter at the Alberta Legislature in November 2015. Note the overheated genocide rhetoric in the sign at bottom right. Below: More extreme rhetoric from the same event; commentators Barret Weber, the author of this post, Naomi Lakritz, and Ricardo Acuña. Guest Post
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Candidate’s proposal to kick B.C. out of New West Partnership is likely to delight West Coast Dippers
PHOTOS: UCP leadership candidate Doug Schweitzer, grabbed from his campaign website. Below: B.C. NDP Premier John Horgan (Wikimedia Commons), Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley, and former WCP president Jeff Callaway. Supporters of United Conservative Party leadership candidate Doug Schweitzer shouldn’t get their hopes up that threatening to kick British Columbia
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Rebel Media becomes a wedge issue in the United Conservative Party leadership race
This weekend’s violent march of Nazis and white supremacists through the streets of Charlotteville, Virginia made international headlines and also had repercussions for the United Conservative Party leadership race in Alberta. Leadership candidate Doug Schweitzer, a Calgary lawyer who is trying to position himself as a social moderate in the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Derek Fildebrandt’s mini-Skypalace: proof Tory entitlement is still a thing in Alberta
PHOTOS: A scene from Derek Fildebrandt’s mini-Skypalace, the taxpayer subsidized Fildepartment in downtown Edmonton, grabbed from his Airbnb listing. Note the binoculars to the right of the window, presumably used for spotting examples of taxpayer dollars being wasted in the high-rises beyond. Below: The Fildebed, the Fildecloset, the Fildepot and
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: 2012 Derek Fildebrandt to 2017 Derek Fildebrandt: No Tax Dollars for Airbnb
Photos: 2012 Derek Fildebrandt (above), 2017 Derek Fildebrandt (below). For Immediate Release CALGARY – Standing in front of a giant inflatable pork chop, 2012 Derek Fildebrandt denounced 2017 Derek Fildebrandt for renting his government-subsidized downtown Edmonton apartment on Airbnb. “People with enough money to support themselves and rent out government-subsidized
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thank goodness for people like Derek Fildebrandt, without whom the dog days of summer would be dreary indeed!
PHOTOS: Derek Fildebrandt in full rhetorical flight before, obviously, a friendly audience. (Screen shot from … wherever.) There goes the author’s theory that just using an Apple computer makes you a better person! Below: Your blogger’s overused photos of UCP leadership candidates Jason Kenney and Brian Jean, a stock shot
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Would Jason Kenney kill the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion for short-term political gain in Alberta? Just askin’
PHOTOS: Jason Kenney, at left, in his fevered imagination, visits the Alberta Army on the B.C. front. (Photo of an actual event, heaven only knows what, grabbed from Mr. Kenney’s Twitter feed.) Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, B.C. Premier John Horgan, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, all of them keeping
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Derek Fildebrandt, UCP ‘liberty’ advocate, calls for return to ugly 1940s labour relations, labour studies professor says
PHOTOS: The late Jim Prentice, during his successful 2014 campaign to lead the Progressive Conservative Party, with supporters in Edmonton. Below: Anti-union “liberty conservative” Derek Fildebrandt, NDP Premier Rachel Notley, and Athabasca University Labour Studies Professor Bob Barnetson. It was probably his “math is hard” moment in a televised debate
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Groovy! It’s the Summer of Love for the UCP! Should the NDP despair? Not really
PHOTOS: Cool, man, it’s the Summer of Love! Alberta’s conservatives, grooving to the beat of the Jason Kenney Experience, say: Tune in, turn on, and (if you’re a progressive voter) drop out! (Photo found on the Internet; source not indicated.) Below: Pollster Quito Maggi, United Conservative Party leadership hopeful Jason
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