On Wednesday, former prime minister Stephen Harper abruptly quit the Conservative Party of Canada’s fund-raising board, supposedly to give himself time to prevent Jean Charest from becoming leader of Canada’s Conservatives or prime minister of Canada. Yesterday, we learned that Preston Manning would quit his eponymous market-fundamentalist call centre in Calgary, and what’s more the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Brace yourselves, Alberta, Premier Kenney’s promising us another spring of renewal!
Good Lord, can Alberta survive another spring of renewal like the last one? Another springtime of renewal — that’s what Government House Leader Jason Nixon and the United Conservative Party’s meme machine were promising yesterday with the announcement the Alberta Legislature well get back to business on Feb. 25. “At only 12% of the way […]
Posted inGeopolitics
France is in turmoil and all we hear is crickets — what gives?
France is in turmoil and all we hear is crickets. What gives? The government of President Emmanuel Macron has introduced a scheme to overhaul pensions and retirement benefits for many workers, done as usual in the name of reform, rationalization and simplification. For most French workers, though, it will result in a significant reduction in […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
S.O.S. for secession? Only about 150 make it to frigid Wexit rally at Alberta Legislature Building
Judging from the underwhelming turnout at its “S.O.S.” rally in Edmonton yesterday, Alberta’s minuscule Wexit faction might want to reconsider its demand for a separation referendum right now. Leastways, Wexit supporters should probably rethink the idea if the “S.O.S.” was supposed to stand for “Separation, the Only Solution,” as the group led by former Mountie […]
Posted inBestsellers
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, old but still good, tops independent booksellers’ Alberta fiction bestsellers list
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Jan. 5, 2020. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books in Edmonton and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. ALBERTA FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. The […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Loudest message from Fort Saskatchewan ‘Fair Deal Panel’ town hall? Hands off our CPP!
The visit of Premier Jason Kenney’s “Fair Deal Panel” to Fort Saskatchewan, an industrial oil town just northeast of Edmonton, may have been intended to be a separatist open-mike night when it was added as a stop on the travel itinerary by the UCP’s brain trust. Whatever they expected when they ginned up their maximum-pressure […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Canadians want answers about tragic Iran air crash, but Canada has little influence with no embassy in Tehran
In the wake of yesterday’s air tragedy in Iran that took the lives of at least 63 Canadians, nearly half of them from Edmonton, and many others bound for Canada, all Canadians want and deserve answers to what caused Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS 752 to crash. Likewise, it is reasonable for Canadians to want […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
There’s nothing like the United Nations putting its oar in to make the locals go loco in Alberta!
If we ever do form the Western Wepublic of Wexit out here in Wild Rose Country, I guess we won’t be able to join the United Nations. Too triggering. There’s just something about the UN putting its oar into our affairs that sends Alberta politicians over the edge. Guilty conscience? Consider Alberta Energy Minister Sonya […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
NDP assails Alberta Energy War Room for ‘gross incompetence’ — but is that such a bad thing?
Having swallowed much of the United Conservative Party’s unlikely conspiracy theory about what supposedly ails the Alberta oilpatch during its term in office makes it harder for the NDP to convincingly criticize the Kenney Government’s $30-million-a-year “Energy War Room.” To give the Opposition its due, though, yesterday they tried. After three weeks of watching excruciating […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Get used to it, Alberta, the world is learning how to talk about climate change
Remember the anger in Alberta in 2016 when some observers connected the dots between the fire that spring in Fort McMurray and the phenomenon known as global warming? Such statements were denounced as outrageous. Also insensitive — and, without doubt, a few of the comments on social media were. But hoping to avoid a discussion […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Linda Silas, president of Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, announces bid to lead Canadian Labour Congress
Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions representing 200,000 nurses across Canada, formally announced today she will seek the presidency of the Canadian Labour Congress. This doesn’t come as a thunderbolt out of the blue. Ms. Silas has been pondering a run for the leadership the CLC for some time, and has […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Foresight is 2020: It wouldn’t be New Year’s Eve without a Top Ten List of political predictions
This year, foresight is 2020! It wouldn’t be New Year’s Eve without AlbertaPolitics.ca’s Top Ten Political Predictions for 2020, so your blogger will gaze into his crystal ball one more time and tell you what’s up next. No one seems to have gone back and checked, then called me on the results, but it should […]