On delayed rectification
I'll largely echo David Climenhaga's take on Alberta's oil and gas royalty review (PDF). But it's well worth highlighting the difference between the two main interpretations of the review's recommendations…
Alberta NDP
NDP to release new energy royalty framework at week’s end – brace yourself for Apocalypse Friday!
PHOTOS: The next Apocalypse is scheduled for Friday morning. There will be an embargoed media briefing first. Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean and Royalty Review Advisory…
Below the radar: Athabasca University and St. Albert quietly discuss partnership to develop joint office space near Edmonton
PHOTOS: St. Albert City Hall on a nice warm summer night, as seen from the possible location of a joint office building that’s been discussed by the city and Athabasca…
Oil Pipeline still King in Notley’s Interprovincial Agenda
Three years ago this week, Conservative Premier Alison Redford took to the airwaves to warn Albertans about the ominous “bitumen bubble.” Ms. Redford warned that a pipeline bottleneck and a…
Compare and contrast
One option in responding to a precipitous decline in commodity prices which has exposed a province's overreliance on resource extraction is to work on developing an economy which isn't so…
Meditations on booms, busts, oil prices, sales taxes, Albertans and their governments
PHOTOS: Alberta in the spring of 2014. Actual Alberta drilling operations may not have appeared exactly as illustrated. Below: Conservative premiers Peter Lougheed and Ralph Klein. If God gives us…
Disturbing echoes of ‘Organized Pseudolegal Commercial Arguments’ heard in Alberta #kudatah talk
PHOTOS: Edmonton’s courthouse, home of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench, not long after it was built. Below: Associate Chief Justice John Rooke of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench…
It’s not just the #kudatah – it’s the feeling Alberta’s conservatives are all boarding the Crazy Train
PHOTOS: George Clark, Alberta’s answer to Joan of Arc. (Screen grab from Youtube.com.) Below: Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean, who with his MLAs is tacitly supporting Mr. Clark’s efforts; the…
‘Kevinismus’ in Canada: Should Kevin O’Leary run to lead the sad-sack federal Conservatives?
PHOTOS: Kevin O’Leary, in a typical pose (CBC photo). Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, U.S. Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump and perpetual Alberta conservative leadership candidate Thomas Lukaszuk. Give Kevin…
Juxtapose: Tories had loads of cash for junketing flunkies, none at all for dying addicts
PHOTOS: Alberta Progressive Conservatives enjoy an “international travel mission” during the Golden Age of Tory Travel. Actual PC staffers may not have appeared exactly as illustrated. Below: New Democrats Trevor…
As widely predicted, Calgary-Bow MLA Deborah Drever invited to rejoin New Democratic Party Government’s caucus
PHOTOS: Surrounded and supported by NDP House Leader Brian Mason, Calgary-Varsity MLA Stephanie McLean and Finance Minister Joe Ceci, Calgary-Bow MLA Deborah Drever addresses the media in Calgary yesterday after…
Shredding the public interest! Albertans will never know what Tory secrets were purged by the PCs last May
PHOTOS: Privacy Commissioner Jill Clayton and Public Interest Commissioner Peter Hourihan (CBC photo). Below: Results of some of the shredding that took place in the basement of the Alberta Legislature…
A Rookie Crew: Eleven Alberta MLAs to watch in 2016
The past few years in Alberta politics have reminded us that politics can be an extraordinarily unpredictable and forecasting the future can be a very tricky business for political pundits.…
Progress Alberta, new progressive advocacy group, will make waves … not just with opponents but maybe on own side too
PHOTOS: The Alberta Legislature, suitably decorated for the province’s progressive and proudly diverse population. Below: Progress Alberta Executive Director Duncan Kinney. Progress Alberta, a new group that describes itself as…
Albertans are more progressive than you might think. I’m not surprised.
A new report, “The Quiet Majority“, released by a new group called Progress Alberta shows that we Albertans may be more progressive than we believe we are. According to a…
Why Canada’s belligerent Conservatives are likely praying for peace in the Persian Gulf
PHOTOS: The nuclear powered American aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush in the Persian Gulf in in 2014. (U.S. Navy photo.) Mighty warships are the carriers, but in the constricted…
Newsletter publisher apologizes and takes full responsibility for wrong MLA message – but Team Angry’s still angry at NDP
PHOTOS: Spokespeople for the Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties stand by to comment in the media on the latest manufactured Alberta political crisis. Actual opposition politicians may not appear exactly…