Rob Anders, Canada’s Worst MP, has been handed his great big hat a second time
Calgary West MP Rob Anders waves farewell from the back of a pickup truck, a type of vehicle that along with firearms was numbered among his most loved things. Below:…
new democratic party
Unelected and unknown education minister looms as first major blunder of Jim Prentice’s New Tory Government
Still on track? Jim Prentice’s New Tory Government experiences its first full day of governing. Below: Unelected Education Minister Gordon Dirks. The appointment of Gordon Dirks as unelected minister of…
Why Edmonton Strathcona electors should vote NDP, as (not exactly) explained by Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland
Toronto Spadina MP Chrystia Freeland, a Liberal, after speaking at the University of Alberta Faculty Club last week. Below: Eleanor Olszewski, nominated Liberal candidate in the federal Edmonton Strathcona riding;…
The #PCldr Files: Who is the best Tory choice for the coming Wildrose Apocalypse?
Your blogger with PC leadership candidate Thomas Lukaszuk. We’re not usually as friendly as this picture makes us look – especially on Twitter. Below: Tory leadership frontrunner Jim Prentice, candidate…
Big by-election in Fort McMurray? Never mind that! As goes Macleod, so goes Alberta…
Fort McMurray, before the Bitumen Boom. Things have changed. Below: Conservative Fort McMurray-Athabasca candidate David Yurdiga, Liberal candidate Kyle Harrietha, NDP candidate Lori McDaniel, former Conservative MP Brian Jean. If…
Red in Central Canada, blue in Ottawa an immutable rule that favours Harper’s Tories? Don’t bet on it!
Is Justin Trudeau finished because Kathleen Wynne just won in Ontario, like the mainstream media’s pundits are telling you? Don’t be too sure! (Say, as one Twitter commenter asked, who…
Ontario election: OK, that didn’t really work … can we get back to being New Democrats now?
Ontario’s victorious Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne last summer. Below: Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak. Well! That didn’t work out quite as well as we’d…
The left-wing conservatives #nlpoli
In 2010, the provincial Conservatives had a chance to reinvigorate their party in time for the 2011 general election. They deliberately stuck with an interim leader in order to avoid…
"You’re either with working women and men or you’re…
“You’re either with working women and men or you’re against them.” – Peter Kormos (1952-2013) It has been one year since we lost Peter Kormos, a former Ontario MPP who…
Back to the future? Private-client opinion polls said to show big shift toward Alberta’s Wildrose Party
The future belongs, the future belongs, the future belongs to us… Peter Lougheed preaches to the converted in Calgary not long before the 1971 provincial election. After 42 years and…
Dunderdale’s departure relocates Redford deeper in premiers’ popularity sub-basement
Getting to know you… Getting to know all about you. Not necessarily a good thing with certain dancing partners! There’s just no way actual Canadian premiers, no matter whom they’re…
Rising Tory interest in St. Albert-Edmonton nomination could set the stage for something completely different!
Ryan Hastman’s business card, handed out at last weekend’s Conservative Convention in Calgary. Below: Mr. Hastman, Independent MP Brent Rathgeber, competing Tory candidate Michael Cooper and the other side of…
Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Halloween 2013: a meditation on power
Prime Minister Stephen Harper just one year ago. Actual Canadian prime ministers may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Senator Mike Duffy and former Harper cabinet member Jim Prentice. Last…
Electioneering in the guise of consultation – it’s tawdry & cynical and has to stop!
I wonder how many Manitobans have received an email from their Manitoba NDP MLA entitled “A Fairer Deal for Renters.” I wonder how many are as pissed off as I…
Opposition Syndrome #nlpoli
Politics is often about compromise. Compromises are great when they work. They suck when they don’t. The provincial New Democrats spent a week in a leadership crisis that climaxed with…
Where there’s smoke… #nlpoli
Four members of a political caucus don’t usually demand their leader’s resignation unless they had a reason… or a bunch of reasons that built up over time. As it turns…
The New Undemocratic Party #nlpoli
At the end of the first full day of the political crisis inside the New Democratic Party, the people of Newfoundland and Labrador learned more about the party than anyone…
The Night of the Pen Knives #nlpoli
Sometimes political party leaders get to chose how they leave the job. Other times they don’t. The Liberals punted Leo Barry out of the leadership in 1987. The entire caucus…
A party like the others #nlpoli
Among the oldest of old Canadian political jokes is that you went to the Tory conventions to drink, the Liberal conventions to get laid, and the NDP ones to pick…
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory: lessons from B.C. for NDPers everywhere
Just to set the mood, it’s Left-Leaning B.C. Premiers Day on Alberta Diary. Here’s your blogger with some former NDP premiers from that province – Dave Barrett above, Mike Harcourt…