Covid Journal, December 11, 2020
Tracking the Covid bonanza; Alberta is in trouble.
Alberta
Are any conservatives listening?
It is something of a wonder that Jason Kenney, premier of Alberta, Doug Ford, premier of Ontario, and Erin O’Toole, federal conservative leader, are members of the same political party.…
Homelessness planning during covid
The Calgary Homeless Foundation has just released a 12-city scan of homelessness planning during COVID. It’s a national study (which I authored). My ‘top 10’ overview of the study can…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Elaine Godfrey writes about Iowa’s disastrous COVID-19 spread as a prime example of what happens when a government chooses to do nothing about…
Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Thomson Reuters reports on the latest UN research showing that planned fossil fuel production far exceeds what we can afford if we want…
This Indigenous-Owned Solar Installation Near the Tar Sands Shows the Future
The province of Alberta is likely best known internationally for its world-destroying tar sands, but in the province there’s a push by citizens to create a sustainable economy. On the…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Dan Zakreski reports on Shannon Grant Tompkins’ effort to share the stories of the people suffering from the spread of COVID-19. And David…
Kenney channels Notley
During the NDP’s brief sojourn as government of Alberta, it pursued a policy oft-referred to as “social license.” The idea was that if the province was to get investment in…
It would never win a ‘QCJO.’
Let’s face facts, you rush things and you screw up. Mind you, I also found it funny. It makes you wonder just how many Alberta voters made the same mistake.…
The Temptation to be Tory.
It appears that the leopard is still unable to change his spots. At least conservatives such as Ontario’s Doug Ford and Alberta’s Jason Kenney fail to stray long from their…
Social assistance: Do higher benefit levels lead to higher caseloads?
As part of my PhD thesis, I did some statistical analysis in which I asked the question: “Do higher social assistance benefit levels lead to higher caseloads?” I have recently…
Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Alisha Haridasani Gupta discusses why so many women have been excluded from the workforce during the course of the coronavirus pandemic. And Kathryn…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Matt Gurney laments Ontario’s utter failure to use months of lead time and information from around the world to make any meaningful preparations…
Kenney Stands Up For Doomed Oil
Nowhere in Canada is more cursed than Alberta. It’s the Resource Curse. And Jason Kenney is the leader of the cursed. At the empty Tesla charging station in Fort Macleod.…
On Sir John A. MacDonald, Conservatives, Vergangenheitsbewältigung and Working Through Canadian History: the Approach Conservatives should take to Canada’s past
I believe that History matters. History matters because it teaches us how to be better. History provides us with the very best and worst lessons of what people are capable…
It’s not about Alberta, Mr. Kenney.
It is a shame that the voters in Alberta have not told Jason Kenney the hard truth. He has to understand that he took responsibility for Alberta’s economic problems when…
Alberta RCMP Protecting Racists
#ACAB Mounties saying they're protecting hate speech and violent racists because those voices matter as much as anyone else. That's a load of BS. https://t.co/WzsTMKYaGj — Saskboy says #BlackLivesMatter (@saskboy)…
Where is the best whisky made? Alberta, of course
Alberta is the land of oil and gas, right? And of cowboys and rodeos. And mountains and skiing. No surprises there. But here’s a surprise. It’s also the land of…
UCP or NDP? Depends on your age … and gender
Some surprising results in an Angus Reid survey of Albertans this week. The UCP and the NDP are tied in voter support, each at 38 percent. This is quite a…
Alberta and the plastics promise
In the 1967 film “The Graduate,” young Benjamin Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman), fresh out of college, is taken aside by a middle-aged neighbour at a cocktail party and offered…