Typical Albertans await tomorrow’s budget aboard the Good Ship Richest Place on Earth. Alberta may not actually be as damp as illustrated. Below: Premier Alison Redford. Why is this woman smirking? Oh, we’ll squeeze you till the pips squeak, Premier Alison Redford seemed to be promising Albertans yesterday, as we
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Alberta Diary: Two polls show how, and maybe why, Alberta’s Tory coalition is crumbling
Weakened but still standing: The mighty Tory edifice. Don’t panic. This is a metaphor! Below: Alberta Premier Alison Redford. It’s interesting to juxtapose the results of two new polls on related but different topics that were released yesterday – a Think HQ poll of Alberta voter intentions and an Environics
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Are Alberta’s cannily incompetent Conservatives quietly awaiting a ‘Bitumen Gusher’?
Everybody should be as happy about Alberta’s “Bitumen Gusher” as these two guys, your blogger and former Finance Minister Ron Liepert. Below: AUPE’s chart of the price differential between Alberta bitumen and West Texas Intermediate crude. Below that: The Alberta government’s chart showing its natural resource revenue projections to 2022,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Despite neocon flameout distraction, Redford Tory bumbling dominates Alberta news
Neocon Icarus Tom Flanagan (appropriately covered, thank goodness) at right, falls to earth after flying too close to the sun. Preston Manning hovers nearby. The flameout of actual neoconservative avatars may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Health Minister Fred Horne, Education Minister Jeff Johnson, and retired judge John Z.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: ‘Freddy Lee’ Morton, the journalistic sequel: We’ve already seen this horror movie, thanks!
Freddy Lee Morton, in happier times, with your blogger. Below: Firewaller Tom Flanagan; the entire separatist 2001 Firewall team (grabbed from the National Post). Freddy Lee “Ted” Morton, the worst premier Alberta never had, was back in the pages of the Calgary Herald the other day, bloviating at length about
Continue readingAlberta Diary: A Tale of Two Provinces: B.C. NDP and Wild Rosehip Tea Party show why opposition matters
Razzle-dazzle, sis-boom-bah, balanced budgets, rah-rah-rah! Danielle Smith and the Wild Rosehip Tea Party yell squad cheers for Alison Redford’s Tory team’s worst plays on the field. The actual Alberta opposition may not be quite as illustrated. Below: Ms. Redford and B.C. Premier Christie Clark. Why are these two premiers smiling?
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Welcome to Wildrose Alberta! What do you mean they didn’t win?
OK, the National Post got a little overheated with this election-day photo of Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith. But, really, what’s the difference? Below: Premier Ernest Manning and Premier Alison Redford, bookends in Alberta’s endless conservative governing dynasty. In April 2012, spooked by the dangers posed by a far-right Wildrose government,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Despite a lot of distraction, illegal political donations still stink up Alberta
Political culture in Alberta? Maybe not exactly as illustrated, but it’s still a problem for the Redford Government if Albertans see it that way. Below: O. Brian Fjeldheim. OK, we’re all enjoying a nice quiet Family Day long weekend. This gives us an opportunity to look back at the interlocking
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Edmonton’s homeless shelters home to body lice, ‘refugee-camp-like conditions’
Alberta’s perpetually mismanaged boom-and-bust economy makes homelessness worse, as hopeful immigrants flock here in hopes of a better life, and find nowhere to live. At least this guy has warm boots. Below: Dr. Stan Houston and Dr. Mat Rose. Welcome to Alberta, the Richest Place on Earth, where body lice
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Four-day school scheme shows Tories view Fort McMurray as not much more than a work camp
Public School District students await dismissal for the week on a Thursday afternoon in Fort McMurray. Actual students may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Edmonton-Calder NDP MLA David Eggen; former Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo MLA Guy Boutilier. And where, the good people of Fort McMurray should be asking themselves today
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Summit call for ATB Financial privatization sets stage for rural Alberta banking battle
The Alberta Treasury Branch agency brings rural financial services to Czar, Alberta. You’ve got to know offices like this are doomed if ATB Financial is privatized. Below: William Aberhart in 1937, the year before he founded Alberta Treasury Branches; banker George Gosbee, in his role as Doogie Howser, CEO. Assuming
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Progressive Conservatives and Alberta’s government: one entity, indivisible, under God?
Participants in today’s Alberta Economic Summit solemnly await Premier Alison Redford’s arrival at Calgary’s Mount Royal University. Many are called but few are chosen, and they may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Stefan Baranski, Charles Rusnell and Stephen Carter. As befits an almost exclusively political event, criticism of today’s
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The real reason upgrading bitumen in Alberta ‘doesn’t make sense’
A bitumen processing plant near Fort McMurray, back in the day. Below: An actual bitumen bubble. The government of Alberta is “desperate” to get the province’s bitumen resources to market, as its media echo chamber relentlessly informs us. And it says it’s equally desperate to pop the “Bitumen Bubble,” the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Redford to docs: There’s no raise, and you’re not getting it!
The Alberta Progressive Conservative position on negotiations with the doctors explained. Yes, we’re just as confused as you are. Below: AMA President Michael Giuffre. Premier Alison Redford. Every day, it just gets weirder and weirder. The day before yesterday, we’re told, Alberta Premier Alison Redford waded into her health minister’s
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Redford government floats risky scheme to impose contract on teachers
An Alberta Teachers Association member gets ready to give an important lesson to the Redford Government. Alberta teachers may not be smiling quite as broadly as illustrated if the government imposes a contract on them by legislation. Below: Education Minister Jeff Johnson. Trapped in a no-deficit, no-tax-increase cage of its
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Khan, Cusanelli canned: Alberta premier sacks two rookie ministers in wake of poll
Steve Khan, eyed suspiciously by a fox. Below: Richard Starke, Christine Cusanelli, Richard III and Thomas Lukaszuk. Right on the heels of a new poll suggesting a decline in support for the Progressive Conservative government of Alberta, Premier Alison Redford announced a mini-shuffle of her cabinet yesterday, sacking a couple
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Is Premier Alison Redford’s bitter fight with the docs about money, or control?
Who’s in change here? Progressive Conservative MLAs get ready to supervise the work of an Alberta Health Services medical team while Alberta voters look on. Health officials, physicians and electors may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: AMA President Dr. Michael Giuffre; a space invader Is the increasingly bitter fight
Continue readingAlberta Diary: ‘Leading thinkers’ to set Alberta’s new economic course lickety-split – and you’re not invited
Premier Alison Redford eyeballs an uninvited visitor to the province’s economic summit. Without the password, you’re not getting in. Below, Premier Redford and Deputy Premier Tom Lukaszuk present their bona fides at the door. Actual Alberta politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below them: The premier’s communications director, Stefan
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Postponing the Day of Reckoning, Alberta-style
Alberta Premier Alison Redford beseeches the Almighty for higher petroleum prices as Wildrose Finance Critic Rob Anderson looks on. Actual Alberta politicians may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Social democratic men of God J.S. Woodsworth (Methodist), Tommy Douglas (Baptist) and Stanley Knowles (United). So what’s with the Redford Government’s
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Uh-oh! Premier Alison Redford wants to have a ‘conversation’ with us
Fireside chats? Alberta Premier Alison Redford as she’ll likely see herself while softening up the province’s citizens for the March 7 Budget Speech on CTV tonight. Below: Ms. Redford as Albertans may see her. Below that: the real Ms. Redford; Conference Board Chief Economist Glen Hodgson. Oh dear. Premier Alison
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