Today marks the 13th anniversary of the first post published on this blog, known at the time as St. Albert Diary, and later, for a spell, as Alberta Diary. So, by the standards of the Internet, this makes AlbertaPolitics.ca an institution. There’s no question that here in Alberta, as pretty much everywhere else, the dominant […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
A Christmas contemplation of Cows, COVID, and shots — on goal and at cattle
Merry Christmas! Normally in the wee hours of Christmas morning, your blogger would have been trudging home from midnight mass, his mild annual winter rebellion against a Protestant upbringing. So let’s talk about agriculture and hockey! After all, both are important to our supposedly unique culture out here in Wild Rose Country, and it turns […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
A thought on what the UCP’s elected members should find in their Christmas stockings tomorrow morning
It’s Christmas Eve. What should Santa Claus leave tonight for a government that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing? The aphorism is Oscar Wilde’s, but the great wit of the 19th Century certainly could have been describing the United Conservative Party Government of Alberta in the early 21st – not so […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
When it comes to COVID-19, our premier talks like Churchill but walks like Chamberlain
Alberta’s efforts to respond to the coronavirus pandemic with Jason Kenney in the driver’s seat are a lot like stand–up comedian Billy Connolly’s iconic routine about union negotiations, only without the profanity and without actually being funny. What’s going to happen tomorrow? The plans will all be changed then … so stay awake! Having implemented […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Calgary judge makes short work of bid for injunction to block COVID-19 restrictions
A Calgary superior court judge yesterday made short work of the bid by the so-called Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms to get an emergency injunction blocking public health restrictions on activities likely to exacerbate the spread of COVID-19 during the holiday season. In a hearing that could be watched online, Madam Justice Anne Kirker of […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Leo Panitch, intellectual pillar of the Canadian left, dead at 75 of COVID-19
Leo Victor Panitch, one of the intellectual pillars of the Canadian left and a leading scholar of the global depredations of neoliberalism, died Saturday from COVID-19. He was 75. Born into a working class Jewish family in Winnipeg in 1945, Dr. Panitch was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and Distinguished Research Professor […]
Posted inBestsellers
Sounds like Souvankham Thammavongsa’s How to Pronounce Knife and Barack Obama’s A Promised Land are the holiday books of 2020
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Dec. 13, 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. How to Pronounce Knife – Souvankham […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
When is a rule not a rule? When a maskless minister from Alberta’s United Conservative Party is breaking it
COVID-19 has now killed at least 790 Albertans. It fell to Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw to break the dark news yesterday that 30 COVID-19 deaths had been reported in the previous 24 hours. While not all had taken place in that time frame, it was the largest toll to be reported in […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Brace yourself, Alberta, Toyota’s plan to build electric cars with solid-state batteries sounds like the real thing
Word about solid-state batteries out of Toyota City last week created a buzz in the automotive press and got some headlines on social media, but I doubt very many people out here in Wild Rose Country paid much attention. They probably should’ve. Because when the world’s largest automaker – which has been very quiet about […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Tire-screeching reversal on COVID-19 vaccine timing shows Canada’s Conservatives can turn on a dime!
You can hardly blame the United Conservative Party’s leaders for trying to get out there as quickly as possible to take credit for the arrival of the first planeloads of COVID-19 vaccine in Alberta. Premier Jason Kenney, who evidently enjoys cosplay, even got dressed up as a UPS deliveryman and ran out on the tarmac […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
10 months in the life of Jason Kenney: from bitter foe of illegal protests to fierce defender of protesters’ rights, or something
What a difference a year makes! Not even a year: Ten months in the life of Jason Kenney. Ten months ago, blockades in support of opposition by members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation to pipeline construction on ancestral lands in north-central British Columbia were springing up here and there in Canada. There weren’t actually all […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
New Zealand eyes reopening borders a crack while Calgary crowd protests ‘draconian’ COVID-19 restrictions
After being declared COVID-19 free last June, New Zealand is ever-so-cautiously moving toward reopening its watery borders to some international travel. With Australia, that is. Australia hasn’t done quite as well countering the coronavirus as New Zealand has, but it’s done very well just the same, using measures that have been roundly condemned here in […]