“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…
Alberta
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.…
Alberta—boom or boon?
I opened the CBC website one morning this week to be confronted with the headline “High oil prices a potential boon for beleaguered Alberta.” I mistook “boon” for “boom” and…
Fair deal for Calgary?
The list of plebiscites Calgarians will be asked to vote on in the October municipal election is growing. The City will ask voters once again (this is a periodic exercise)…
Doubling Down on Racism – The Chris Champion Edition
Over at the Dorchester Review, we find one Chris Champion doubling down on his position that the "Indian Residential Schools (IRS) really weren't all that bad". The dust-up on Twitter…
Referendumbs and Equalization
So, the Kenney-led UCP government in Alberta wants to hold a referendum on equalization. Here’s the proposed question: I want to bring two points to your attention here. First, is…
Will Kenney’s woes help O’Toole?
How the mighty have fallen. Just two years ago, Jason Kenney, flush from a convincing election win over the NDP, was the Conservatives’ golden boy. Even the national leader had…
Alberta’s Dilemma: When do we recognize that the world is changing?
Back in 2015, I started asking a simple question: is Alberta ready? Whenever I talked to politicians or entrepreneurs or thought leaders, I asked that same simple question. I asked…
You, yes you, will pay for the tar sands cleanup
The general rule in regard to environmental damage is the polluter pays. In accordance with that rule as applied to mining, Alberta has in place the Mine Financial Security Program…
Following the money.
You can’t track the money trail to Canadian politicians as easily as you can to American politicians. I finally have a theory on what is driving Jason Kenney in Alberta.…
Alberta justice minister goes full paranoid
Alberta Justice Minister Kaycee Madu’s comment that a Covid disaster is “what the NDP, the media and the federal Liberals were looking for and want” is contemptible. Politics can be…
Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Zeynep Tufecki writes about the deadly delay in recognizing the reality that COVID-19 spreads largely through aerosol transmission. Elliot Hannon reports on…
Trumpeting for the Trumpers.
Those provincial premiers from Alberta and Ontario must be taking all their cues from former U.S. president Donald Trump. They have both got their asses in a sling as they…