Does Kenney understand Alberta?
A recent survey, conducted by Maru Public Opinion and Janet Brown Opinion Research, took a reading of Canadians’ views of Alberta. The poll measured the reaction to a number of…
Alberta
COVID and Homelessness: Ten things to know
I was recently invited by the The Economics Society of Northern Alberta to speak at their 2022 Outlook Conference about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on homelessness. Here’s an…
Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Stephanie Nolen examines (PDF) some of the inequality revealed and exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. Bonnie Allen reports on the tragic story…
Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Sarah Zhang writes that the three factors which will determine the path of the COVID pandemic over the winter are our own immunity,…
Schadenfreude, Hydro-Québec and the Maine referendum
It’s called schadenfreude, the satisfaction you get from someone else’s misfortune. Some Albertans may be feeling it this week after the referendum in Maine that rejected a Hydro-Québec transmission line…
Why can’t conservatives win the mayoralties of Alberta’s major cities?
Alberta’s reputation as a bastion of conservatism has been belied once again by the recent municipal elections. Both Calgary and Edmonton, which together make up over half the province’s population,…
Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Carol Off interviews Andre Picard about the cultural factors and policy choices that have led to an avoidable fourth wave of COVID-19 in…
The death graph
A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. It’s true for me anyway. Maybe it’s my engineering background, but charts, graphs, etc. often make a point much more effectively…
The "Free Alberta Strategy"
I'll forgive people elsewhere in Canada who might be wondering what the hell is going on in Alberta. A little over a year ago, we were treated to the spectacle…
Vote Kinney for Senator
Now that the federal election is out of the way, I turn my attention to the upcoming Calgary municipal election. Both the mayor and the councillor for my ward have…
“Help”
“Effective September 15, 2021, the Government of Alberta has declared a State of Public Health Emergency. … We have identified two areas where the federal government could assist with our…
An Open Letter To Jason Kenney
Dear Premier Kenney, The time for you to step down has come. It actually arrived in July of 2021 when COVID-19 modelling was showing Alberta going into a fourth wave…
Alberta needs a new Lougheed for a new era
Fifty years ago, Alberta entered the modern era. With the provincial election of August, 1971, Albertans dismissed Social Credit, their governing party for 36 years, and elected the Progressive Conservatives.…
Alberta’s debt to the Maldives
As humanity continues to heat the planet, there are winners and losers. Let me rephrase that. Ultimately nobody wins; in the long term if global warming isn’t halted it will…
Calgary Municipal Election Candidates are ignoring the Elephant in the room
If you listen to Jyoti Gondek, Jeromy Farkas or Jeff Davison, you will hear a similar story. In fact, if you listen to most of the mayoral or council candidates,…
Alberta’s Conservatives Are Abusers
It should come as no surprise to most readers that I have little use for conservatism in its current form. I think it has become something to be reviled, and…
Oil workers at the centre—getting transition priorities right
“They will not be left behind.” So said Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan at a news conference this week. The “they” he was referring to are workers in the oil…
Supporting Indigenous tenants in non-profit housing
Horizon Housing (in Calgary) recently had me write a report on how to improve housing outcomes for its Indigenous tenants (i.e., tenants who are First Nation, Métis or Inuit). Here’s…
Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan highlight how inequitable access to vaccines around the globe increases the risk of variants which will hurt everybody.…
Canada has started rationing PCR tests as Omicron surges
Montreal, parts of British Columbia, and Alberta have started to ration Covid-19 PCR tests as Omicron cases reach record numbers across Canada. Politicians didn’t want to make moves that they…