Today’s News: Feeling so misunderstood
I don’t understand why Alberta and Saskatchewan feel so misunderstood and persecuted and hard-done-by all the time. Fact of life: Canada’s population is not fairly distributed across the country and…
Alberta
Cold weather blues and other news
So pending Twitter’s possible demise, I have now signed up at Mastodon and at Tribel — I’m not sure either of them can work as easily as Twitter did so…
Gain Danielle Smith, lose Deena Hinshaw—not a fair exchange
On Monday Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, was in effect fired. Thus our new premier, Danielle Smith, kept a campaign promise. We get Danielle Smith, a conspiracy-spouting…
Methane EMIT
There’s a European satellite watching for methane pollution. It spotted a big leak in Alberta. ISS has a camera called EMIT attached and it can see methane plumes on Earth.…
Alberta’s very own tax cut fiasco
A recent tax cut for the rich managed to achieve international notoriety. Former British Prime Minster Liz Truss, a neo-liberal zealot à la her idol Margaret Thatcher, ushered in her…
Why I support Collin May’s lawsuit
In May of this year, lawyer Collin May was appointed by cabinet order as chief of the Alberta Human Rights Commission after serving on the commission for three years. Then…
Spare us the dogma, ladies
Normally, I am pleased to see women emerge as political leaders. We need more women in positions of leadership in our governance. What we do not need are more free-market…
The amazing Mr. Madu
Jason Kenney warned us. Prior to stepping down as premier, he suggested it was important he stay on to prevent the UCP from being taken over by “lunatics” and “kooky…
Alberta, a renewables leader?
OK, Alberta creates more greenhouse gasses than any other province. Let’s get that out of the way. We are, after all, the country’s major oil and gas producer—being the emissions…
How Alberta populists wrecked conservatism
Brian Mulroney recently said he no longer recognized himself in the Conservative Party. I’m no conservative, but I sympathize with him. The current Conservative Party just isn’t the conservative party…
When I watch the United Conservative Party (UCP) Leadership race, one question always comes to the fore: do the UCP leadership candidates realise that in five to ten year Alberta will have serious problems in retaining our economic position in this world?
In 2008, Tesla rolled out its boutique electric car. It was called the Tesla Roadster. At that time, the Roadster had a big sticker price: $109,000 USD. Based on a…
My political philosophy revealed by a surprising source
Reading the latest issue of my favourite magazine, Alberta Views, I encountered an article that, to my surprise, neatly summed up my political philosophy. Surprised because I’ve never expressed it…
Sundre and the death of satire
I wrote a post a couple of years ago entitled “Everything isn’t racism.” Well, it still isn’t. However, people will find what they go looking for and apparently a lot…
Albertans happy to see Kenney’s back, but who’s next up?
Jason Kenney tried hard to convince Albertans that he was one of them. He failed to even convince members of his own party. In a confidence vote, he could only…
Finally, a true accounting from Alberta’s GHG emitters?
Alberta’s government and its oil companies are playing a bit of a shell game with GHG emissions. The story for the public is that the companies are shooting for net…
Greenhouse gasses ain’t no joke
When Premier Kenney went down to the U.S. earlier this month to peddle even more of our major greenhouse gas-producing product, I was at a loss for words. The global…
Oil, guns and ethics
Promoters of the Alberta tar sands suggest customers for the product almost have a moral obligation to buy it. Their term is “ethical oil.” We hear the refrain from an…
The West? Really?
Many Canadians think of “the West” as one monolithic block. This concept seemed to firm up in many minds back when Preston Manning and his Reform Party stormed Ottawa proclaiming…
Calgary’s three angry amigos
I have lived in Alberta a long time, all but four years under conservative governments—Social Credit, then Progressive Conservative, now UCP. Only for four years did I enjoy the governance…
Alberta—the political province
Canada’s central and eastern provinces, with the exception of Quebec, are all governed by the same two parties that date from the time of Confederation—the Liberals and the Conservatives. The…