What Albertans Can Learn From Barack Obama
To paraphrase that old E.F. Hutton commercial, when Barack Obama talks, people listen. Last week Obama spoke at the University of Illinois. He broke with the tradition of ex-presidents stepping…
Rachel Notley
Say hello to the hurtin’ Albertans, Mr. Trudeau: If the premier ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!
Welcome to Alberta where, as the prime minister of Canada no doubt discovered yesterday afternoon, if the premier ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy! And, right now, the premier ain’t happy!…
Who said we wanted rule of law? Hysteria over court’s TMX ruling engulfs Alberta politics and media
Funny, isn’t it? Less than six months ago, tout le monde political Alberta was demanding harsh application of “the rule of law.” This was nearly universally interpreted to mean that…
Calculating the winners and losers in yesterday’s Trans Mountain Pipeline debacle
No doubt they were chuckling discreetly at Kinder Morgan headquarters in Houston yesterday as they counted up their additional spare change. They had, after all, just managed to sell off…
Roll up the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner. Federal court halts the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project on the same day Kinder Morgan sells it to the Government of Canada.
Photo: A train of oil cars sits parked outside Jasper, Alberta, not far from the path of the current Trans Mountain Pipeline. What a day. This morning, the Federal Court…
Alberta’s lone-NDP MP Linda Duncan will not seek re-election in 2019
Photo: MP Linda Duncan and MLA Rachel Notley at Edmonton’s Pride Parade. It was one of the worst kept secrets in Edmonton politics. Linda Duncan has announced that she will…
NDP will need to choose carefully as Linda Duncan decides not to seek re-election as Edmonton Strathcona MP
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Not to be negative, but the federal New Democrats might want to hold off scheduling the nomination to choose Linda Duncan’s successor until just after next spring’s…
Episode 18: Maximum Bern and The Disgruntled Politicians of Canada
In this episode of the Daveberta Podcast, Dave Cournoyer and Ryan Hastman discuss the what’s happening in Alberta politics, including the New Democratic Party convention on September 28, 29 and…
Guy Kerr can’t be blamed for the Alberta WCB’s troubles, but his resignation is an opportunity to get it back on track
Guy Kerr cannot be blamed for the tragic wrong turn the Alberta Workers Compensation Board took nearly 30 years ago under the Conservative governments of premiers Don Getty and Ralph…
Doomsayers, Chicken Littles and Conservatives get it wrong on the impact of minimum wage increases
Now there’s a surprise! Ontario’s minimum wage increase behaved exactly as predicted by most mainstream economists. That is, the 21-per-cent wage increase implemented by the former Liberal government that took…
Report on Calgary civic election polling failures sharply criticizes Postmedia coverage of ‘radically mistaken’ polls by partner firm
A report by three high-profile academics with expertise in public opinion research who were commissioned to look into polling failures that marred the 2017 Calgary municipal election campaign sharply criticizes…
The Grande Prairie Hospital saga: PC political motives, terrible planning, and past ministerial meddling haunt project
The battle between Alberta government officials and a Calgary construction company over long delays building a new hospital in Grande Prairie that boiled over this week is more than a…
The poll puts Jason Kenney’s UCP in slam-dunk range over NDP; the pollster has a bit of a history
Yesterday, United Conservative Party MLAs were Tweeting around a graphic from a new poll that showed their party with a wide lead over the New Democratic Party in all regions…
Saturday Evening Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Joel Achenbach and Angela Fritz discuss how climate change is amplifying all kinds of extreme weather (with severe heat as only the most…
When it comes to Sandra Jansen, it’s a grudge match for the UCP
It was supposed to be an event highlighting an effort to recruit more conservative women into politics in Alberta, but it was overshadowed by the news that former Prime Minister…
Episode 16: Derek Fildebrandt introduces the Derek Fildebrandt Party
In this episode of the Daveberta Podcast, Dave Cournoyer and Ryan Hastman discuss whether Derek Fildebrandt‘s Freedom Conservative Party will be relevant in the next election, Rachel Notley‘s role at…
On public interests
Plenty of others have pointed out the most direct lie in Jason Kenney’s attempt to blame Alberta’s NDP for the decisions of an Ontario court dealing with Carillion’s Canadian bankruptcy.…
Fildebrandt Agonistes: Hell hath no fury like a ‘Liberty Conservative’ scorned
Hell hath no fury like a “Liberty Conservative” scorned! Derek Fildebrandt, the former Wildrose Party and United Conservative Party finance critic scorned by UCP Leader Jason Kenney after a series…