Tory candidate Jim Prentice greets supporters at the opening of his Edmonton campaign headquarters Tuesday evening, showing the first signs of development of the hard-to-avoid campaign paunch. Below: Prover Tory vote-getter Ed Stelmach; Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre MLA Joe Anglin. Looking tired and uncharacteristically slightly rumpled, Progressive Conservative leadership front-runner Jim
Continue readingTag: Wildrose Party
Alberta Diary: Controversial Central Alberta MLA Joe Anglin faces a serious challenge within his own Wildrose Party ranks
A snapshot of Rimbey, Alberta, taken not so long ago. Below: Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre MLA Joe Anglin, Rimbey-area dairy farmer Peter Pieter Broere, who tried to challenge Mr. Anglin for the Wildrose nomination, and challenger Jason Nixon. After a single term in office, controversial Wildrose MLA Joe Anglin is facing
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Ric McIver tosses the PC Party’s ‘Lake of Fire’ trump card
TweetThe day after it was revealed that Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Ric McIver attended and endorsed the March for Jesus, a group which has posted hateful homophobic rants on its website, Mr. McIver was nowhere to be found. As a proud supporter of the March for Jesus and its organizers at the extreme religious Calgary
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Pride goeth before destruction: Tory leadership candidate Ric McIver’s already slim chances fall into a burnin’ Lake of Fire
Progressive Conservative leadership candidate opens the 2013 March for Jesus in Calgary. If he hadn’t gone back this year, he’d probably be OK. Below: King Solomon. He fell into a burnin’ Lake of Fire He went down, down, down and the flames went higher! And it burns, burns, burns …
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Visionary Concept of Wildrose Party’s Danielle Smith: A National Energy Corridor
Danielle Smith: Visionary Canada’s wealth depends largely on our ability to export goods and services that others want to buy from us. And one of our major exports is energy – whether it be electricity or oil and gas. Our ability to export large quantities of energy is under threat
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Opposition attack on Tory leadership frontrunner Jim Prentice a measure of how deeply Alison Redford wounded her party
“Diamond Jim” Prentice, at right, in a strategy session with Alberta Premier Dave Hancock, as described by the provincial NDP and seen by the Wildrose Party. Below: the real Mr. Prentice and former premier Alison Redford. If you’re looking for a yardstick with which to measure the truly spectacular failure
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Opposition hoping for a sequel to Air Redford… Air Prentice
TweetThe long-summer of 2014 has begun in Alberta politics. With little substantial policy ideas to dispute or debate, Alberta’s opposition parties have set their sights on Progressive Conservative leadership front-runner Jim Prentice (if this continues, Thomas Lukaszuk and Ric McIver are going to start feeling left out). Hoping to tie Mr. Prentice
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Wildrose Party remains far in the lead despite entry of Jim Prentice to Progressive Conservative leadership race, new poll says
The Wildrose Party with Danielle Smith holding the reins appears to continue to lead the Alberta Progressive Conservatives handily. Actual Alberta politicians and astonished onlookers may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: PC leadership candidates Jim Prentice, Thomas Lukaszuk and Ric McIver, none of whom seems to be making much
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Ric McIver needs to explain his longstanding connections to the ‘Progressive Group for Independent Business’ and its beliefs
Found on the Internet, apropos of nothing in particular, Ric McIver and friend. Below: Craig B. Chandler of the Progressive Group for Independent Business. Up to now, Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Ric McIver has quite successfully flown under the radar about his ideological beliefs. Indeed, very little has been written
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Conservative former Edmonton mayor endorses conservative future Alberta premier: Yawn
Former Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel and PC leadership candidate Jim Prentice, obviously pleased to be in one another’s company, at a news conference yesterday in Edmonton at which Mr. Mandel endorsed Mr. Prentice. Below: The other Tory leadership candidates, Ric McIver and Thomas Lukaszuk, and New Democrat MLA Rachel Notley,
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: And then there were three (white men)
TweetAs the deadline for candidates to enter their names (and $50,000 fee) in the contest to become the next leader of Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Association came to a close yesterday, three politicians have put forward their names – bank vice-president and former federal cabinet minister Jim Prentice and former provincial
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Airdrie MLA Rob Anderson suffers torments as Allan Hunsperger and the Lake of Fire return to haunt the Wildrose Party
Wildrose strategists illustrate the party’s recent strategy on the Lake of Fire issue. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be working … again. The Wildrose Party’s actual senior strategists may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Pastor Allan Hunsperger, Airdrie MLA Rob Anderson, and the Airdrie Tower, thought to be the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Post-fight analysis: Round 1 to Jim Prentice as Wildrose comes out swinging over debt remark
Jim Prentice and Wildrose champion Rob Anderson square off in Round 1, as members of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce look on. Actual scenes from Alberta political discourse may not appear exactly as illustrated. Judge Dave gives Round 1 to Mr. Prentice. Below: The real Mr. Prentice and the real
Continue readingAlberta Diary: OK, Jim Prentice really loves Alberta … but can Alberta love Jim Prentice?
Jim Prentice officially announcing his candidacy yesterday. Is it just me, or is there the faintest air of Joe Clark about the man? Below left: Mr. Prentice surrounded by some of the usual suspects in Edmonton today, from a photo snatched from the PC Party’s Twitter feed. Below right: Alison
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: A federal by-election in Cowboy Country
TweetEarlier this week, I wrote about the interesting by-election in Fort McMurray-Athabasca, today I look at the other federal by-election in Alberta that will take place on June 30, 2014. Situated on the eastern slopes of of the Rocky Mountains, the Conservative machine appears strong in southern Alberta’s Macleod riding. Although growth
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Cone of Silence descends over deeds of Tory leadership candidate Jim Prentice’s secret agents, real or imagined
An unidentified person, left, said to be close to undeclared Tory leadership candidate Jim Prentice, waits for the Cone of Silence to descend over his discussions with a member of Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith’s inner circle, also unidentified, at right. Actual unidentified anonymous political agents may or may not appear
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Missing: Any discussion of what drove the Hancock Government’s Bill 10 attack on legally enforceable contracts
A system of contracts that can be enforced and adjudicated by an independent and disinterested court like this one is one of the key features of civilized society. This is a picture of the court used by a significant number Canadian law firms to illustrate their web pages. Actually, it’s
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Miraculously, no one trampled as Tories race for Alberta Legislature’s exits
Alison Redford crashes through the Alberta Legislature. Below: Frightened and relieved, Alberta Progressive Conservative MLAs race from the vicinity of the Legislative Building in Edmonton yesterday; Nostradamus; Moses. Actual Alberta politicians and legislative architectural renderings may not appear exactly as illustrated. It must have seemed a little like the panic
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Thanks to Tom Lukaszuk’s memo, Albertans know it wasn’t just Alison Redford with the entitlement problem
Members of the Alberta government’s Public Affairs Bureau spin a good yarn in response to freedom of information requests filed ages ago by Alberta journalists, opposition politicians and other busybodies. Actual government propaganda officials may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Labour Minister Thomas Lukaszuk, Information Commissioner Jill Clayton and
Continue readingAlberta Diary: In one day, the ground shifts in Alberta politics in ways unexpected, sometimes uplifting, sometimes troubling
On March 23, Lewis Cardinal became the first nominated federal NDP candidate in Canada for the expected 2015 election. (Photo by Dave Cournoyer, used with permission.) Yesterday he stepped aside in the face of undisclosed health problems. Below: Wildrose Finance Critic Rob Anderson. What a strange day it was yesterday,
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