Banking on the Bigotry of the Bloc?
When does la laïcité (the separation of church and state) become the political war cry in Quebec during a federal election? And why does it front as a cover-up for…
Alberta
Apparently I’m a Quebecker
Vote Compass recently published a survey of Canadians’ attitudes toward a variety of issues. The results were broken down by province, scaling how much respondents agreed or disagreed with different…
Taking the road to totalitarianism.
It is in Fortress Alberta that Jason Kenney did declare that his propaganda machine will be removed from all controls. What started as a so-called war room will now be…
Greta Goes To Edmonton, Alberta Goes Nuts
If you want to read something funny about bad people, here it is. Climate activist and hero Greta Thunberg is in Calgary and on her way to Edmonton for a…
War Rooms, Secrecy and a Little Patronage—Democracy in Alberta
Former journalist and conservative lobbyist Tom Olsen was the UCP candidate in my riding of Calgary-Buffalo in this spring’s Alberta election. Tom lost to Joe Ceci of the NDP, but…
Greta Thunberg heads for Wild Rose Country: first chance for the UCP’s War Roomers to mess up big time!
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish activist who seems to have turned the world upside down by mobilizing young people to do something about global climate change, tweeted last night that…
Jason Kenney: Doug Ford’s understudy.
Every actor needs an understudy. It just seems appropriate for the much-detested premier Doug Ford in Ontario to have a truly obnoxious stand-in during the federal election. It is conservative…
The use of homeless shelters by Indigenous peoples in Canada
I’ve written a blog post about the use of homeless shelters by Indigenous peoples in Canada. The post is inspired by recently-accessed, internal analysis done by staff at Employment and…
Saturday Morning Links
This and that for your weekend reading. – Keith Gerein writes that Alberta’s petro-state can’t mask the fact that climate denialism is leading to governance failing its own province’s children.…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – The L.A. Times’ editorial board comments on the need for everybody to pitch in toward a just transition which preserves a habitable planet…
The ghost of Bible Bill Haunts us still
In the late ’30s and early ’40s Alberta’s premier was the colourful William Aberhart, known as “Bible Bill” for his bible studies classes and radio sermons. Founder of the Social…
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Richard Wilkinson, Kate Pickett and Wanda Wyporska neatly summarize the insidious social effects of inequality: (I)nequality is socially divisive, making status more important…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Labour Day reading. – Hassan Yussuff discusses what’s at stake for Canadian workers in this fall’s election campaign. And Binyamin Applebaum and Damon Winter rightly point…
Ed Whittingham seeks energy/environment middle ground
Alberta lives with two conflicting facts: first, humanity is faced with its greatest crisis ever—global warming—caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels; and second, humanity will have to rely…
Jason Kenney: Alpha Male?
When Gillian Steward from Calgary wrote in the Toronto Star recently about Alberta’s Jason Kenney being the federal conservative alpha male, it had to be another example of her wonderful…
Diogenes, Leadership and SNC-Lavalin.
There is no time left for what might have been. Canadians are going into an election when what we so desperately want to say is ‘None of the above.’ Are…
From small creeks do mighty rivers flow.
From the Manchester Guardian to the Toronto Globe and Mail, there have been reports of our federal government scientists testing spills of diluted bitumen from Alberta’s tar sands. As one…
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Robinson Meyer writes about the latest IPCC report on how our climate crisis endangers the land we rely on. And George Monbiot responds…
The surreallity of life in Alberta
Living in Alberta, I sometimes get the feeling I live in a place shifted a few degrees off centre from reality. For example, in the real world we are faced…
It started with John D. Rockefeller.
It was John D. Rockefeller in the 1800s who put together Standard Oil of New Jersey and created ‘Big Oil.’ He created the power house that to this day is…