Who can forget the “Big Society”? Just about everyone, it turns out. “The Big Society,” cooked up by a senior aide to former British Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, was the ridiculous idea neoliberal governments could shuffle off their key responsibility for assuring the welfare of the people they govern by letting charities do it. […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Whether or not half of Alberta’s doctors are thinking of leaving, even a much smaller exodus would be a disaster
Publication by the Alberta Medical Association of poll results showing close to half the province’s physicians are thinking about leaving Alberta in response to the United Conservative Party’s War on Doctors seems to have enraged Premier Jason Kenney’s strategic brain trust. Leastways, the UCP’s immediate response — threatening to publish individual physicians’ compensation — suggests […]
Posted inBestsellers
A voice from the past, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, tops independent bookshops’ fiction bestseller list for week ended July 5
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, July 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. To […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Whatever it is, former PC MLA Dave Rodney apparently has what it takes to be Alberta’s agent general in Houston
There may have been peaks and valleys along the way, but thanks to a hand up from Alberta Premier Jason Kenney this week, it looks as if Dave Rodney has finally ascended to the summit of his career. That is to say, for some reason Mr. Rodney was the recipient of a very nice sinecure […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Thatcher brouhaha: When your slippery opponent’s on the ropes, maybe you should focus on keeping him there!
When you’ve got a slippery political opponent on the ropes with a completely legitimate issue, what’s it profit a New Democrat to stand up in the Legislature and create a massive distraction from the fight the party’s winning with one that has no advantage for it? This is what NDP Environment Critic Marlin Schmidt did […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Making Child Labour Great Again! Alberta’s new labour law breaks old ground while undermining unions
Alberta’s about to Make Child Labour Great Again! If you think this is a breakthrough, you’re probably a fast-food franchise owner. Yesterday, Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party introduced a bill called the Restoring Balance in Alberta’s Workplaces Act that is clearly intended to push labour relations in Alberta back toward the 19th Century. High […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Bill 30, the UCP’s health care omnibus bill, is bad, but not as bad as it could have been
The two most striking features of the health care omnibus bill introduced yesterday by the United Conservative Party are that it opens the door to a higher degree of privatization and two-tier health care and escalates Health Minister Tyler Shandro’s feud with the Alberta Medical Association. Neither is a positive development if you want an […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Hot potatoes: Federal Conservatives prudently drop talk of bringing down the Liberal government just yet
It was faintly amusing yesterday to watch the haste with which the Conservative Opposition backed away from the idea of trying to bring down the Liberal government in Ottawa over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s now rescinded plan to have a charity with ties to his family administer a $900-million summer student grant program. The Conservatives […]
Posted inBestsellers
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline returns to top of Alberta independent bookshops’ fiction bestseller 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, June 28, 2020. I missed the bestsellers list the previous week — too much news on which to commentate — but Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves also topped the fiction list then, […]
Posted inGeopolitics
Fourth of July Fever: Pay attention when your neighbour has a breakdown; it may be contagious
Happy Fourth of July. It’s Independence Day at the crazy neighbour’s place next door and the crowds are partying without masks. We can’t very well send fire trucks to help put the fires out because the borders are closed. It’s just as well, too, because the virus seems to be creeping across the line in […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Canada Day Mystery: What happened between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. to Jason Kenney’s holiday message?
It’s a true Canada Day political mystery! What happened between 9:03 a.m. and 1:02 p.m. that dramatically changed Jason Kenney’s holiday message? At 9:03 a.m. yesterday, a minion on the Alberta premier’s staff sent the media the sort of Canada Day Message you’d expect from a Canadian premier — upbeat and anodyne. “As we recognize […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Happy Canada Day! Or, as the UCP would have it in some corners of rural Alberta, Grumpy Dominion Day
Happy Canada Day! Alberta is the only place in Canada, I’d wager, where someone who was barely out of diapers when our country’s national holiday was renamed Canada Day would make the point they really think it oughtta still be Dominion Day. But these are strange times and Wild Rose Country is a strange place, […]