Alberta merchants maintain $15 minimum wage
One of the first things the new UCP government in Alberta has done is lower the minimum wage for young workers from $15 to $13. Some Alberta merchants are having…
Alberta
Alberta should learn from the Trump tax cuts
The new Alberta government has promised to reduce the corporate tax rate from twelve to eight per cent over four years. This may seem arbitrary considering the conservatives have complained…
Ten things to know about this year’s Alberta Alternative Budget
The Alberta Alternative Budget (AAB) is an annual exercise whose working group consists of researchers, economists, and members of civil society (full disclosure: I’m the Editor). Our general mandate is…
MEDIA RELEASE: Alberta should increase social spending; cuts are not the way to go
(June 24, 2019-Calgary) With Alberta’s economy still facing challenges and vulnerabilities, the Alberta government should not be doling out tax cuts or cutting social spending, according to the Alberta Alternative…
Kenny’s revealing prank
As a resident of Alberta, I am used to living under Conservative governments. Although I lean left, I can accept this with good grace. After all I am a democrat…
I’ll Trade You a Jason for a Greta
I am a democrat and therefor I must accept the election of Jason Kenney and his United Conservative Party as government of my province. The UCP won convincingly, after all,…
Tuesday Evening Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Farhana Yamin discusses the need to answer the imminent threat of climate breakdown with direct action to force politicians to develop an…
The Senate—No Solution to Regional Alienation
Canada has always been a highly regionalized country—the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario, the Prairies, B.C., all with varying interests and economies and, with Quebec at least, culture. One particular complaint is…
Western Alienation? What Western Alienation?
It’s one of those times. Alberta is enduring an oil bust so “Western alienation” is back in the news. The word of interest here is “Western.” Although some Albertans may…
Circle your wagons; they’re on the warpath.
And here we thought war rooms in politics were a thing of the past? Now we see that the Toronto Sun has resurrected the idea with a one-time liberal in…
Conservatives Exceeding Election Spending Expectations
NEW: Elections Canada says it will monitor provincial government interventions in the federal campaign https://t.co/J8UfrINIlR #onpoli #abpoli #cdnpoli — Marieke Walsh (@MariekeWalsh) June 13, 2019 What’s that mean? You’ve heard…
The Need and Will to Change: The Lessons Alberta can learn from Cape Breton and Research in Motion
In 1997, Apple was a company that was on the verge of bankruptcy. It was not Palm. It was not Research in Motion. While, Steve Jobs had returned to them…
Kenney’s Conundrum, Capturing Carbon.
It was in the business news recently. It was about the success of Shell Oil’s $1.3 billion carbon-capture plant, Quest, near Edmonton. The Quest plant is designed to capture and…
Fighting the facts of the future.
In a discussion of what is currently happening in politics, the realization emerged that provincial politicians such as Alberta’s Kenney, Saskatchewan’s Moe and Ontario’s Ford are denying our progeny a…
Homelessness, harm reduction and Housing First
I was recently invited to give a presentation at a two-day event discussing the overdose crisis and First Nations, with a focus on southern Alberta. My presentation focused on homelessness,…
War Rooms from the political past.
It started back in the late 1970s and 80s when Senator Keith Davey, some of us liberal apparatchiks and the marketing communications experts, who volunteered their time, started to look…
To the Rich Go the SpOILs
Oil and Gas don’t clean up their messes, we the Canadian citizen do. https://t.co/xaSJBNciJz — John Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) May 7, 2019 == Unrelated, the Bare Naked Ladies song $1000000 mentions…
Is Kenney a Constitutional Crisis?
It seems that between Jason Kenney and his predecessor as premier of Alberta, Kenney has the shriller voice. When he goes to Ottawa to bitch and whine about how his…
On being liberal in disquieting times.
The word ‘disquieting’ took a while to choose. I have been trying to define the times leading up to the October 21 federal election and it reminds us of flying…
Ford Says Ontario Has Done Enough.
At least there’s something Doug Ford can thank his Liberal predecessor for – cutting Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions. He’s positively boastful about that, to the point where he’s shining an…