Posted inAlberta Politics

First reading of Bill 207 reveals zero UCP votes for women’s reproductive rights

Here are two important statistics about the United Conservative Party’s Bill 207, the Conscience Rights (Health Care Providers) Protection Act, which was introduced in the Alberta Legislature yesterday … Just a minute, you say, Bill 207 is a private member’s bill, brought forward by Peace River UCP MLA Dan Williams, not a government bill! How […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

The ‘most pro-life Legislature in decades’ gets ready to make its first move to restrict reproductive rights

Does anyone recall when Cameron Wilson, political action director of the “Wilberforce Project,” previously known as Pro-Life Alberta, bragged that “if the UCP wins the upcoming election, then we will have the most pro-life Legislature in decades, and maybe ever”? That was only in February this year, a century or two ago in political time, […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Now for something completely different: Podcast bloviations from Yours Truly and friends

I’m busier than that proverbial one-armed paperhanger right now, so it’s possible that production of posts on this blog is going to fall for the next couple of weeks from the daily commentary I prefer. Tonight, I thought I’d resort to an updated version of a favorite bloviators’ trick from the Golden Age of Newspapering, […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

This just in from washed-up Wildroser: Alberta separation if necessary, but not necessarily separation!

It looks as if Rob Anderson has found a new gig — Alberta separation if necessary, but not necessarily Alberta separation. For those of you scratching your heads and asking the most obvious question — Rob Who? — Mr. Anderson is one of the few Alberta politicians to have crossed the floor of the Legislature […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Canadian Taxpayers Federation commentary on nurse salaries isn’t research so much as an echo chamber

Has anyone noticed how the propaganda produced by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation seems to be growing more inept of late? Misleading arguments and anti-union bias have long characterized many of the claims made by the Regina-based CTF, which claims to be a non-partisan “citizens’ group,” although its only legal members are in fact the five […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Plan to roll back public employees’ pay is no surprise, but the way it’s being rolled out seems surprisingly inept

When Alberta’s finance minister announced the Kenney Government’s plan to roll back unionized public employees’ pay by 2 to 5 per cent yesterday, he blamed Alberta’s debt and deficit, not the huge hole he’d just blown in the province’s budget with $4.5-billion in tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations. Well, whatever. It’s not as […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Are secret mandatory government bargaining orders the new face of public-sector labour relations in Alberta?

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and his government moved yesterday to impose big changes on public sector bargaining in Alberta, not to mention a host of other areas. They’re sure to unleash a flood of litigation. There’s enough stuff embedded in the Harper-Government-style omnibus budget legislation introduced to the Alberta Legislature yesterday by Finance Minister Travis […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Federal election results show why abandoning ‘social license’ was a dumb idea for Alberta’s oilpatch

Seeking “social license” for Alberta’s fossil fuel industry was said by the NDP government of former premier Rachel Notley to be a way to win approval for more pipeline capacity to Canada’s ocean ports. This was true enough as far as it went, and the idea getting such approval required environment-friendly compromises like carbon taxes […]

Posted inBestsellers

Red Deer-raised author Anar Ali’s Night of Power tops Audreys Books Edmonton Fiction Bestsellers List

Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton during the week ended Oct. 20, 2019. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Night of Power – Anar Ali * 2. Girl, Woman, Other – Bernardine Evaristo 3. The […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Alberta is Alberta again! The poor little rich kid of Confederation brings down a budget

Happy St. Crispin’s Day! Appropriately enough, it’s time for those of us who live here in Wild Rose Country to cry, “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!” Alberta is Alberta again! Yesterday’s vicious austerity budget proves it. Alberta’s once again the poor little rich kid of Confederation, crying poverty, throwing its weight […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Budget Day reminder: Facts about Alberta public employees don’t support propaganda saying they’re too numerous or paid too much

Alberta’s a high-wage province! Who knew? Maybe the question ought to be … Who didn’t? At any rate, the Kenney Government’s “blue-ribbon” panel on Alberta’s finances, chaired by former Saskatchewan finance minister Janice MacKinnon and instructed not even to look at the revenue side of the province’s so-called public spending problem, ignored that inconvenient question. […]