ILLUSTRATIONS: “You voted for whom? Are you mad, man?” … No way to win friends and influence people. (Historic illustration from Punch – no idea what point the artist was trying to make.) Below: Calgary-Bow MLA Deborah Drever (Metro Newspapers photo). Below her, an illustration from the author’s Facebook page
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Alberta Politics: ‘Parson’ Manning, in the pulpit, preaches a formula of failure to Alberta’s New Democrats
PHOTOS: Preston Manning, Godfather of the Canadian right. Below: Alberta Premier Designate Rachel Notley, Liberal prime minister Wilfrid Laurier, Social Credit premier E.C. Manning and United Farmers of Alberta leader Henry Wise Wood. Preaching from the highest pulpit in the land, the opinion pages of the mighty Globe and Mail,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Whither Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives? Nowhere, probably …
PHOTOS: Potential supporters eye all that’s left of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, metaphorically speaking, after Jim Prentice got finished driving it off the tracks. Below: Mr. Prentice and Premier Designate Rachel Notley. Former premier Ed Stelmach’s sound advice notwithstanding, it seems unlikely Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives have much of a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Photos of shredded documents in Legislature Building prompt fears of PC document destruction spree
Were shredders like this at work in the Alberta Legislative Building this week? Actually modern document destruction equipment may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Alberta Freedom of Information Commissioner Jill Clayton and Public Interest Commissioner Peter Hourihan (CBC photos). If serious document destruction has actually been taking place in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: By ignoring Ed Stelmach, the oiligarchy and the ideological right overreached and lost plenty
PHOTOS: Ed Stelmach in the premier’s office at the Alberta Legislature. Below: Preston Manning, the Godfather of the Canadian right; Stelmach’s finance minister, Ted Morton; New Democrat political strategist Brian Topp. Ed Stelmach, the last good premier the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party managed to elect, spoke up yesterday about the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On fitting results
It will be some time yet before we see how Rachel Notley translates the Alberta NDP’s election triumph into policy. But we have had a chance to see Notley’s response to frivolous attacks on the NDP’s newly-elected MLAs – and she’s had absolutely the right reaction so far in not
Continue readingAlberta Politics: With Lieutenant-Governor Donald Ethell, in frail health, set to retire, PM must choose replacement with care
PHOTOS: Lieutenant-Governor Donald Ethell prepares to read the Speech from the Throne in November 2014. Below: Mr. Ethell again and past lieutenants-governor Lois Hole and Norman Kwong. Photos from the Office of the Lieutenant-Governor.) More significant change is coming to Alberta’s government in the wake of last week’s election of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Despite his huge unintended favour to the NDP, U of A chair Doug Goss needs to step aside
PHOTOS: Doug Goss chairs the notorious news conference at which five prominent Edmonton businessmen assailed the New Democrats as amateurs and patronized Albertans about their need to start “thinking straight” mere hours before the May 5 election saw the NDP crush the Tories he supported. Below: Construction company CEO John
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Working across the aisle
Among the other lessons learned from Alberta’s recent election, let’s point out one more with implications for the federal scene. While the main opposition parties recognized that they were too far apart in their general policy orientation to justify a formal coalition, both the NDP and the Wildrose Party were
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Tune up this spring with something new … Alberta’s PCs can find renewal and purpose as something completely different!
PHOTOS: UFA fuel stations today dot Alberta, giving hope to the remnants of the once mighty PC Party’s membership, who could transform the former political entity into something like this. Below: A shifty looking premier John Brownlee, who led his government to an unhappy end, and premier Jim Prentice, who
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Rafe: Notley should change electoral system following Alberta NDP win…no, seriously
This post by Rafe Mair was originally published in the Common Sense Canadian Rafe Mair Somehow, the day after it happened, the election of the NDP in Alberta doesn’t seem quite as Read more…
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Alberta NDP would have won 26 seats if PC and Wildrose merged
The question for the federal scene coming out of the historic NDP wave election in Alberta that saw them jump from four seats to 53, a solid majority, is whether anything close to this is reproducible on the federal scene. The major difference between the two is that federally only
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Alberta NDP would have won 26 seats if PC and Wildrose merged
The question for the federal scene coming out of the historic NDP wave election in Alberta that saw them jump from four seats to 53, a solid majority, is whether anything close to this is reproducible on the federal scene. The major difference between the two is that federally only
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Alberta NDP would have won 26 seats if PC and Wildrose merged
The question for the federal scene coming out of the historic NDP wave election in Alberta that saw them jump from four seats to 53, a solid majority, is whether anything close to this is reproducible on the federal scene. The major difference between …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On rebuilding projects
I’ll have plenty more to say about last night’s resounding Alberta NDP election victory in posts to come. But for now, here’s a quick take on what comes next for the PCs. I had earlier wondered whether the PCs might effectively take a majority-or-bust position in contrast to the other
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Pinch me! Am I dreaming? Canada’s ‘most conservative’ province elects an NDP majority
PHOTOS: Rachel Notley, Alberta’s premier-elect, smiles at 1,000 or more of her supporters last night in an Edmonton hotel ballroom. Below: Two more views of Ms. Notley during her victory speech. Well, how d’ya like them oranges? Alberta New Democratic Party, 53 seats; Wildrose Party, 20; Progressive Conservative Party, 11;
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Zombie Confidence Fairy finally rears its head as the 2015 Campaign of Fear gets up steam in Alberta
A group of five prominent Edmonton businessmen with ties to the Prentice Progressive Conservative Party tried to talk some sense into us crazy Albertans yesterday about voting NDP during a news conference in the Melcor Developments’ boardroom in downtown Edmonton. From left to right: John Cameron, Paul Verhesen, Doug Goss,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Failures of imagination and arithmetic
Colby Cosh’s latest includes this explanation as to why he wants to write off the party which holds a strong lead in Alberta’s polls: The province-wide NDP numbers, whichever set you prefer, are conceptually hard to translate into large numbers of seats outside Edmonton. Former Calgary alderman Joe Ceci, running
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A vote for the NDP is a vote for change; a vote for the Wildrose Party is a vote for the same old Tory dynasty
PHOTOS: Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley. Below: Premier Jim Prentice, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean, neoconservative godfather Preston Manning. With five new polls yesterday showing Alberta’s New Democrats approaching minority government territory and the “ooga-booga” fear campaign against the NDP beginning in earnest, perhaps it’s time for Albertans who urgently want
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Swing batta swing
Needless to say, the range of potential outcomes in the Alberta election (along with the continued flow of news battering the Prentice PCs as they try to regain some type of footing) has made for a fascinating campaign. But it’s worth pointing out that single polls and seat projections may
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