A “Marathon Session”
The Alberta Legislature is adjourned for a month. For this we are truly grateful because no matter how Jason Kenney tries to dress up his performance—he says he’s well on…
Energy & Natural Resources
Alberta is Not for Sale
“Greed is good. Greed is right. Greed works.” — Gordon Gekko in the movie ‘Wall Street’ Our Covid numbers are rising, GDP is falling and the UCP government is burying…
Canada Day Greetings???
Question: When is a birthday greeting not a birthday greeting? Answer: When it comes from a hypocrite. Canadians will be receiving Happy Canada Day greetings from politicians at all levels…
Jason Kenney’s Miniscule Pandemic Bump
He’s tried everything from rolling up his shirtsleeves and pointing at graphs to quoting Franklin Roosevelt (“we have nothing to fear but fear itself”), but still Albertans refuse to give…
The Day Kenney Bet $7.5 Billion on the US Election
In September 2019 Jason Kenney began negotiating with TC Energy to invest $7.5 billion in cash and loan guarantees in the Keystone XL pipeline. In March 2020 Kenney announced negotiations…
Leadership in the Post-Pandemic World
It’s been two and a half months since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic; infections and deaths will continue until a vaccine is found. Economists and global thinkers…
Gaslighting 101: Mr Kenney Responds to Mr Trudeau’s Aid Package
Gaslighting: abusive behavior where an abuser manipulates information to make his victim question their sanity by using denial, misdirection, contradiction and misinformation to destabilize the victim and delegitimize their beliefs.…
Jason Kenney and the KXL Deal
Last week Mr Kenney threw away (yet again) his belief in the sanctity of the free market by announcing his government (ie. us) would invest $1.5 billion in TC Energy…
The Leader and His Team
It’s been a tough week for everyone; especially that “young, energetic and diverse team with deep experience” that Jason Kenney (his words by the way) appointed to Cabinet. Health Minister…
The Impact of COVID-19 on Democracy
James Madison said tyranny arises “on some favourable emergency”. The COVID-19 pandemic is today’s “favourable emergency.” It’s being used by unscrupulous politicians as a smokescreen for undemocratic behavior in Alberta’s…
COVID-19: A Study in Leadership
“The first role of government is to help people in crisis or need. That’s why we have government.”– John McCain Crisis separates the leaders from wannabes. We will be watching…
Budget 2020 and the Snake
On Feb 27, 2020 the Kenney government released Budget 2020. The day it was tabled it was under water, less than two weeks later it drowned. It sank beneath the…
Teck Withdraws the Frontier Application
Let’s try to have a sensible conversation about Teck, shall we? On Sunday, Feb 23, 2020 Teck Resources Ltd pulled its application for the Frontier oil sands project. The federal…
The Teck Decision Provides a Lesson on Handouts
For a long time Ms Soapbox has been trying figure out what Mr Kenney and the UCP mean when they talk about a “hand up” and a “handout”. She knew…
Why Is It Always Someone Else’s Fault?
When Jason Kenney convinced Albertans that our economy is solely dependent on fossil fuels (diversification is a luxury, remember) and government policy, not the global marketplace, drives our economy; he…
In the Eye of the Storm
Here we are in the eye of the storm, a place of relative calm surrounded by a ring of thunderstorms (known as the eye wall). We passed through one eye…
The Day We Demonstrated Outside the UCP AGM
“Public services are under attack. What do we do? Stand up, fight back!” – Protest cheer Ms Soapbox, her husband and her good friend from Edmonton joined the public school…
The Fog of Politics
The fog of politics is like the fog of war. It’s hard to see what’s really going on. Albertans are choking in UCP fog. We wonder why Mr Kenney who…
The Anti-Alberta Energy Inquiry (Thank God for Lawyers)
In his book On Tyranny historian Timothy Snyder sets out twenty lessons from the 20th century to help democracies resist the “the usurpation of power by a single individual or…