PHOTOS: The benefits to young people of a low-tax regime for cigarettes. Real portrayals of the joys of smoking may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Cigarette smuggling – bad for the books for sure; Wildrose Party Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt, whose 2012 Canadian Taxpayers Federation publication argued contraband cigarettes
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Alberta Politics: Fake news: Wildrose urges market-based breathing solutions to ease air-quality woes
PHOTO: The NDP Government refuses to fix Alberta’s air-quality problems with effective market-based solutions and instead wants to force Albertans to ride bicycles like these and be tied up in communist Red tape. If the people illustrated here had true freedom, they could choose the quality of air that suited
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Wildrose Party wins Calgary-Foothills by-election, and fairly decisively, but leaves plenty of grist for the mill
PHOTOS: Wildrose Party candidate Prasad Panda celebrates his victory last night in the Calgary-Foothills by-election with Wildrose Leader Brian Jean. (Photo from Mr. Panda’s Twitter account.) Below: NDP candidate Bob Hawkesworth and PC candidate Blair Houston. Within moments of Wildrose Party candidate Prasad Panda emerging as the winner in the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Controversial Wildrose leaflet had similarities to B.C. Liberals’ Chinese-language ads smearing NDP
PHOTOS: Wildrose Leader Brian Jean, at right, appeared on a Calgary talk radio program yesterday. (Grabbed from Twitter.) Mr. Jean failed to repudiate accusations made in a Chinese-language party leaflet that the Alberta NDP advances communist ideology. Below: The late U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, anti-communist witch-hunter; former B.C. NDP candidate
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Will Wildrose Leader Brian Jean repudiate his Calgary-Foothills candidate’s ‘communist’ characterization of the NDP?
PHOTOS: Part of the Wildrose Chinese-language brochure that compared the NDP to communists. Below: Wildrose Calgary-Foothills candidate Prasad Panda, former Tory education minister Thomas Lukaszuk, NDP candidate Bob Hawkesworth, former Wildrose House leader Rob Anderson and former Wildrose leader Paul Hinman. What words should we use to describe the Chinese-language
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Conservatives have to tie themselves in knots to sustain their narrative about Alberta’s fiscal situation
PHOTOS: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci, dressed in a sombre blue suit, delivers the fiscal report to predictable reactions from the opposition. Below: Wildrose finance critic and chief sloganeer Derek Fildebrandt as he appeared yesterday. Given the history of this province and its current goings on, our various stripes of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: NDP deftly picks royalty review panel while media freaks out about low-key welcome for ‘lightweight’ U.S. politicians
PHOTOS: U.S. President Lindsey Graham, left, is welcomed by a Wildrose Government colour party of Alberta Legislature security officers sometime in the imagined future. Actual circumstances may not unfold exactly as illustrated. Below: Former finance deputy minister Annette Trimbee, energy economist Peter Tertzakian and Beaverlodge Mayor Leona Hanson, as they
Continue readingAlberta Politics: NDP strength in Calgary-Foothills riding suggests May 5 election was no fluke – and could rattle federal Tory narrative
PHOTOS: A Chinook arch moves across the sky of Calgary in 2007, bringing warmer temperatures and, for some people, headaches. The same kind of thing happens in politics. Below: NDP Calgary-Foothills candidate Bob Hawkesworth, Conservative Blair Houston and Wildroser Prasad Panda. So, what happens if the Alberta NDP wins the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Give a thought to Alberta’s approaching budget day: there’s little to gain and plenty to lose from ‘debt free’ government
PHOTOS: Former premier Ralph Klein, now elevated to sainthood by the neoliberal cargo cult, celebrating the retirement of Alberta’s debt in 2004, never mind the mess the infrastructure was in. Below: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci, Canadian economist Jim Stanford and Wildrose Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt, with, bottom, his old
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Craig B. Chandler: He’s baaaack (in Ontario)! And he’s gonna get Linda McQuaig … elected!
PHOTOS: A screen grab of Craig B. Chandler telling immigrants to Alberta to vote Conservative or get lost back in 2007. Below: NDP Toronto Centre candidate Linda McQuaig. Brace yourselves, Toronto! Craig B. Chandler’s heading your way to campaign against Linda McQuaig, the NDP’s candidate in the Toronto Centre riding,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Sonic privatization mystery: what were the Tories thinking?
PHOTOS: More medical lab techs examining specimens, still not illustrated exactly as they’re likely to appear nowadays. Below: Progressive Conservative health ministers Gary Mar, Iris Evans, Stephen Mandel and Fred Horne, every one a would-be privatizer and every one in a picture personally snapped by your blogger. Viewed with 20/20
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Notley Government channels Lougheed to protect Alberta jobs and services, dumps medical lab privatization ‘experiment’
PHOTOS: Medical lab techs examine a specimen, perhaps appearing not exactly as illustrated nowadays. Below: Alberta NDP Health Minister Sarah Hoffman, former PC health minister Stephen Mandel, Alberta Health Services CEO Vickie Kaminski and long-ago Conservative premier Peter Lougheed. In a bombshell move reminiscent of Peter Lougheed’s 1974 takeover of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Former Wildrose House leader Rob Anderson to test blogging as a cure for politics
PHOTOS: Former Wildrose House Leader Rob Anderson in the steps of the Alberta Legislature in November 2014, joining union members protesting against Tory premier Alison Redford’s anti-union legislation. Below: Mr. Anderson with Alberta Union of Provincial Employees President Guy Smith and Liberal MLA David Swann. Below them: Former Wildrose Leader
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s NDP needs to react more quickly, plus throw the Tories under the bus where they belong
PHOTOS: Carbon capture: The oil company executive in the bow tie places the carbon in a bottle, which is then stored underground by his corporation for billions of dollars. Or something like that. If the bottle breaks, of course, we’re screwed! Actual carbon capture schemes may not appear exactly as
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alison Redford is back, relaxed and ready to rumble with anyone who blames her for her former party’s problems
PHOTOS: A screen shot of former Alberta Premier Alison Redford as she appeared in the CBC’s interview yesterday, relaxed and confident. Below: Ms. Redford on the day in October 2011 she was chosen as the Progressive Conservative Party’s leader and premier of Alberta, and on the day in March 2014
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Tory sale of government air fleet was a terrible business decision, executed incompetently
PHOTOS: Not this Beechcraft King Air, maybe, but three a lot like it are now plying the friendly skies of North Dakota, which is a great deal for their new owner thanks to the generous former government of Alberta. Below: The unsold Alberta Government Dash 8, and former Conservative Alberta
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Annual message to Calgary Stampede: real men don’t hurt animals for entertainment
PHOTOS: Stampede chuckwagon races – exciting for spectators, but deadly and cruel for horses. Real men don’t hurt animals for entertainment. There will be a safety “review” after the death of a fourth horse on Sunday at the 2015 Calgary Stampede, which is now mercifully over. Oh, please! There will
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Reunite Alberta’s right? The Great Wildrose Experiment is going to be hard to undo
PHOTOS: Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean at the Calgary Stampede. Too country to be electable in the new Alberta? (Photo from Mr. Jean’s Flickr account.) Below: Former Harper strategist Ken Boessenkool and former Harper speechwriter Paul Bunner, both involved in Alberta’s “reunite the right” movement. (Photos grabbed from their Facebook
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Murky and contradictory poll results, weird timing, unlikely to divert media from its dubious narrative about Alberta’s NDP
PHOTOS: “Press 1 if you support the Wildrose Party …” With the right digital equipment, the whole family can have fun with demon-dialler public opinion polls, even down on the farm in rural Southern Alberta. Below: Novice political columnists learn how to cover the news in Alberta. According to news
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Lawsuit and ASIRT investigation illuminate the Alberta Tory Party’s existential crisis
PHOTOS: Car 54 where are you? Somewhere in northeast Calgary, by the sound of it. Actual Calgary Police Service officers may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below, former Calgary Police Chief Rick Hanson (CBC photo) and former Edmonton-Ellerslie PC nomination candidate Balraj Manhas (from his Twitter account). Two news stories
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