The Canada Elections Act entitles all eligible voters to sufficient time to vote on Election Day. This applies to employees without a union as well as unionized workers. Now, presumably most readers of this blog already know this stuff, but I thought I’d throw it in as a public service, this being a blog that […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Election 2021’s most significant 11th hour story: Can the PPC hang onto its unexpectedly strong support today?
Today is election day in Canada, typically presenting members of the pundit class with a practical problem. This is the day on which interest in election news peaks. It’s also a day when nothing much usually happens through the day except citizens voting. A journo can only collect so much B-roll and file so many […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Preston Manning, godfather of the Canadian right, charts a plan for dealing with another Liberal government
Neoliberals, like rust, never sleep. So we shouldn’t be surprised Preston Manning already seems to be looking ahead to a post-election go at the new Liberal government, same as the old Liberal government. Of course, nobody knows for sure what’s going to happen on tomorrow. Maybe all those People’s Party of Canada trolls will get […]
Posted inBestsellers
Irish author Sally Rooney tops Alberta independent booksellers’ fiction bestsellers list for week ended Sept. 12
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. A thought for the day: “The person, be it gentleman […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Jason Kenney proves that Alberta provincial leaders can still influence federal election campaigns!
Who says Albertans don’t have influence in Confederation? Jason Kenney proved once again Wednesday that an Alberta political leader, just by calling a news conference and speaking a few words, can single-handedly influence the course of a federal election! One imagines, though, Alberta’s premier would have preferred not to have influenced the 2021 federal election […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Kenney, declaring public health emergency, to Alberta: ‘I apologize … I don’t apologize!’
The richest, most self-righteous province in Confederation has been forced to go cap in hand to other provinces to beg for beds in which to park our sick vaccine refuseniks and health care workers to travel here and help us keep our hospitals open. Thanks, Kenney! It wasn’t Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, of course, who […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Jason Kenney’s rotten record of COVID chaos has finally become an issue in the federal election
So it’s come to this: Jason Kenney has become an issue in the federal election. All that effort keeping his head down for all but a couple of days over the past five weeks while Alberta’s health care system appeared to fall apart, and here we are. Canadians are going to have to pay attention […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Talk of cabinet split over vaccine passports sparks buzz in Alberta government circles
Has the parlous state of Alberta’s health care system, said to be on the verge of collapse as the fourth wave of COVID-19 rampages through the province, opened a serious rift in the United Conservative Party cabinet? With Premier Jason Kenney missing in action for 33 of the past 35 days, Alberta intensive care units […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Alberta’s ‘Energy War Room’ appears to be operating in defiance of the Canada Elections Act
Alberta’s “Energy War Room” appears to be continuing to operate in defiance of Canada’s election laws, campaigning against positions clearly identified with a Canadian political party without registering as an election third party. Greenpeace Canada Senior Energy Strategist Keith Stewart argued recently in a tweet thread that the War Room, legally known as Canadian Energy […]
Posted inBestsellers
Of Mice and Men, classic American novel by John Steinbeck, tops independent bookshops’ bestseller list this week
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Sept. 5, 2021. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. As I have observed in this space before, one of […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Bafflegab aplenty but few answers for Albertans at Health Minister Tyler Shandro’s COVID-19 news conference
Albertans are dying, yet the Kenney Government is paralyzed, a deer caught in the headlights. Alberta is in crisis. Hammered by the fourth wave of the pandemic, our health care system appears to be on the verge of collapse. All elective surgeries in Calgary have been cancelled. The province leads the country with new and […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Kenney Government suddenly backs away from long-brewing big battles with nurses and teachers
Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government has suddenly retreated from controversial battles with nurses and teachers that were a priority for Premier Jason Kenney and his inner circle almost since their election in the spring on 2019. Over the Labour Day weekend, a representative of the Alberta Health Services bargaining committee contacted the United Nurses of […]