Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Adam Tooze writes that the coronavirus pandemic has offered a reminder that the economy (particularly defined in terms of shareholders’ interests) can’t be…
Jason Kenney
The new two-tier medicine: real physicians for the rich, an Internet app for the rest of us?
Get ready for the new two-tier medicine! Real doctors for the rich; Internet apps of the rest of us. Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro (Photo: Government of Alberta). You think…
Bill Morneau’s COVID-19 response: This economic and health crisis is no time for timidity or hesitation
According to Bill Morneau, “as Minister of Finance, my only job is to make sure that Canadians can keep food in the fridge.” That’s actually a rare useful thought for…
With COVID-19 in Alberta, Health Minister Tyler Shandro caves to docs on ‘complex billing’ battle
As Lyndon B. Johnson famously explained, in politics, chicken poop can turn over night into chicken salad. Those weren’t exactly the words used by the late United States Senator from…
Alberta COVID-19 cases rise to 74; UCP to push budget through; Jason Kenney visits the airport
Faced with the embarrassment of having to rewrite Alberta’s budget to acknowledge economic reality and public health necessity in the midst of a global pandemic or stick with one that…
Community transmission of COVID-19 seen in Alberta; all classes cancelled; no layoffs of health workers — for now
Community transmission of COVID-19 is now taking place in Alberta as numbers of cases grew by 17 over the past 24 hours to 56, Premier Jason Kenney told the province’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…
Can Jason Kenney pass the UCP budget, prorogue the Legislature, and get out of town before COVID-19 really hits the fan?
Beware the Ides of March! It’ll be interesting to see if Premier Jason Kenney can find a way to pass his budget, prorogue the Legislature, and get the heck outta…
Coronavirus pandemic? What a peculiar time for the health minister to pursue a fight with Alberta’s physicians
Hey! It’s Friday the 13th in the age of the coronavirus. Are you feeling lucky? Apparently Tyler Shandro and Tara Jago are. Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw…
Appointment of conservative economist Jack Mintz to head Jason Kenney’s latest economic panel is not a good augury for Alberta
Come into my office, Alberta, and sit down. I’m sorry to have to tell you that your prognosis is not good. I’m not talking about coronavirus. That will be painful,…
Remember when Canada was about to become ‘a global energy powerhouse’? So how’d that work out?
Anybody remember Stephen Harper’s plan to turn Canada into “an energy superpower”? That was in July 2006, a dream articulated in Mr. Harper’s first speech abroad as Canada’s prime minister.…
Episode 50: Supervised Consumption Services in Alberta with Dr. Elaine Hyshka
Dr. Elaine Hyshka, associate professor at the University of Alberta School of Public Health, joins Dave Cournoyer to discuss supervised consumption clinics in Alberta and the flaws in the United…
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…
Talks between Alberta’s docs and government, which went off the rails on Valentine’s Day, are back on again
A big fight with Alberta’s doctors might have seemed like a good idea when the United Conservative Party’s strategic braintrust came up with the plan a few weeks ago. But…
Coronavirus discovered in Alberta just as politics trumps science in supervised drug clinic report
COVID-19 has arrived in Alberta. But first, we need to talk about how the United Conservative Party Government has found a nearly perfect formula for dealing with science when it…
With coronavirus chaos south of the line, brace yourself for some of it to come to our way in Canada
U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s incompetent and ideologically driven response to the international coronavirus crisis poses a serious national security threat to Canada. Can we do anything about it? Say,…
Kenney to Edmonton: Drop dead!
When the New York Daily News published its famous FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD headline on Oct. 30, 1975, all president Gerald Ford had done was deny a federal bailout…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Fernando Arce discusses how Doug Ford’s attacks on labour create public health risks. And Amanda Mull writes about the futility of telling workers…