PHOTO: Wildrose Leader Brian Jean gazes into the future, or into a pond, or something. For $150 bucks, you can sit there with him. The annual general meeting pages on the Wildrose website include an invitation to an opportunity to take part in a conversation with Brian Jean in an
Continue readingTag: Wildrose Party
Alberta Politics: Will the social conservative elephant in the Wildrose room crowd out the Tories being wooed by party Leader Brian Jean?
PHOTOS: With AGM delegates’ endorsement in hand, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean is calling for Alberta’s right to reunite under his party’s banner. Below: Former Wildrose leader Danielle Smith, in her current role as a radio talk show host (Global News photo) and Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA and former leadership candidate Drew
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Wildrose demands transparency from NDP and PCs but holds its annual meeting in secret
Alberta’s conservative Wildrose Party is holding its annual general meeting this weekend in Calgary and, according to one media source, the event will be closed to the media with the exception of leader Brian Jean‘s speech ahead of the leadership review vote on the evening of… Continue Reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Are the Wildrosers eyeing public service pensions? It’s worth keeping an eye on what they get up to in Cowtown
ILLUSTRATIONS: Can the Wildrose Party control its Tea Party fringe? We’ll get a sense tomorrow and Saturday when the party considers its members’ policy proposals. Below: Party Leader Brian Jean, at right, in Terminator mode; with Wildrose Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt in a stunt with big signs inspired by Mr.
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Putting protection of sexual & gender minorities back on the agenda at provincial school boards meeting
Amid allegations of financial misspending and a lack of transparency, representatives from sixty-one elected Public, Catholic, and Francophone school boards from across Alberta will gather at the fall general meeting of the Alberta School Boards Association on November 15, 16 and… Continue Reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta Bill 5 and sunshine lists generally are lousy public policy and a serious invasion of privacy
PHOTOS: The Alberta Legislature in the sunshine. It doesn’t matter that no individuals are visible, does it? Below: Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley and Wildrose Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt, back when he was a Canadian Taxpayers Federation agitator. So-called sunshine lists, which publish the salaries of public employees who are paid
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Message to the Wildrose Party: The NDP won and you’re going to need breakfast!
PHOTOS: The Wild Rose Breakfast Special. Just one of the many compensations of getting an early start on your day. Below: Infrastructure Minister and NDP House Leader Brian Mason, the NDP’s point man on early rising legislators; Wildrose Leader Brian Jean; and Interim Conservative Party of Canada Leader Rona Ambrose,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rachel Notley sticks to her fiscal guns at ‘state of the province speech’ to Edmonton Chamber of Commerce
PHOTO: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley addressing the Alberta Chamber of Commerce yesterday. Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley yesterday continued a tradition of “state of the province speeches” to chamber of commerce audiences long beloved by the province’s Progressive Conservative premiers. PC premier Jim Prentice gave the last one to the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What’s with that Wildrose leadership review? (Inquiring Albertans want to know!)
PHOTOS: Wildrose Opposition Leader Brian Jean with the kind of cow a guy doesn’t have to get up at 4 in the morning to milk. (Photo grabbed from Wildrose.ca.) Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Wildrose Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt, Alberta Chambers of Commerce President Ken Kobly and former Wildrose Leader
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Wildrose leader advocates a return to deep cuts and deep freezes for public services and public employees
PHOTOS: Opposition Leader Brian Jean holds forth on public jobs and public services during his Oct. 30 interview with the CBC. (Screenshot.) Below: Is this Mr. Jean’s idea of the future of Alberta’s public services? Below that: NDP Finance Minister Joe Ceci. Wildrose Leader Brian Jean is starting to sketch
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Start work at 9 in the morning? Never! Alberta’s Wildrose picks another great hill to die on
PHOTOS: You want me to be at the Legislature when? A young Brian Jean contemplates the horrors of a future under an NDP government. Younger versions of Alberta political leaders may not have appeared exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Mr. Jean as he appears today; NDP Infrastructure and Transportation
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta Budget 2015: You’d almost think Rachel Notley’s NDP has concluded its job is to govern this province!
PHOTOS: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci answers reporters’ questions after delivering the NDP’s first Budget Speech in the Alberta Legislature yesterday. (CBC Photo) Below: Wildrose Opposition Leader Brian Jean and Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt also answer questions – but only from reporters who aren’t on the Wildrose Party’s Enemies List.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Reaction to this afternoon’s Budget Speech is bound to be completely predictable
ILLUSTRATIONS: A mosaic planned for some future Legislature renovation showing the Opposition and Government positions on the budget. Below: A scene from the Kabuki theatre in which actors portraying Premier Rachel Notley and Finance Minister Joe Ceci contemplate the books left them by the PC government … or something. Below
Continue readingAlberta Politics: You tell me, Dear Readers: Did I unfairly beat the Wildrose finance critic like a piñata?
PHOTO: Your blogger, at right, wearing the brand new string tie he just bought in Santa Fe, takes a whack at Derek Fildebrandt, the Wildrose Opposition’s finance critic. Actual Alberta politicians and political commentators may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Derek Fildebrandt; Globe and Mail reporter Carrie
Continue readingAlberta Politics: NDP brings to an end Alberta PCs’ bizarre experiment with one-person heath-care rule
PHOTOS: Alberta Health Minister Sarah Hoffman announces the restoration of normal board governance to Alberta Health Services at the provincial Legislature yesterday. Below: Newly appointed AHS Board members Linda Hughes, Glenda Yeates and Brenda Hemmelgarn. Below them: Premier Rachel Notley on the big screen at AUPE’s convention, as union President
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s Wildrose Opposition: just off the turnip truck … or what?
ILLUSTRATIONS: Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital, back in the day. Below: A newer version of the same hospital, one of the buildings that’s now falling apart. (From CardCow.com) Below that image: Wildrose Health Critic Drew Barnes; Richard Starke, MLA, and Richard Starkey, MBE. Anybody who’s been inside the Royal Alexandra Hospital
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Welcome to the Orwellian world of Wildrose, where keeping your promises makes you a liar
PHOTOS: Possibly the Globe and Mail’s best headline of the decade. Below: NDP Premier Rachel Notley, Wildrose Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt, the sailboat known as French Kiss, shown just to prove I didn’t make that part up, the full Globe headline, shown for the same reason. Is Alberta ready for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: #elxn42 Platform Reviews – Overview
The combination of a majority government and an extra-long campaign period has left Canada’s major political parties with ample time to refine their election platforms. And regardless of what your disingenuous neighbourhood Wildrose MLA might tell you, those platforms represent the best indication as to what policies you can expect
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On credibility blows
Presumably, at some point in the future, the Wildrose Party will run in another Alberta election campaign, with Derek Fildebrandt as one of its candidates. And plenty of us will have the popcorn ready to see how they try to explain their now-on-the-record belief that it’s somehow a betrayal –
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Fireworks notably absent during final Edmonton royalty review public consultation
PHOTOS: Royalty review chair Dave Mowat, top left, addresses the small and polite crowd that showed up in Edmonton for the panel’s open house last night. Below: Mr. Mowat again and committee members Peter Tertzakian and Leona Hanson. The biggest challenge the Notley Government’s royalty review committee faces may turn
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