It was nice of the lads at the True North Eager Beaver Podcast to sit down and let me bloviate about one of my favourite topics, Alberta’s unexpected political crisis and what it means for the province’s increasingly frenetic premier, for more than an hour recently.

When Douglas Connors asked me to join him and Paul Atkinson on their year-old podcast early this month, they said their goal was to find out about “the ongoing review of Premier Jason Kenney’s leadership (or lack thereof), how Bumbles got himself in the hot mess he’s in, and how the outcome may impact the next election in the province.”

In the conversation, though, we ranged a little farther afield than that, touching on a little bit of political history, some thoughts on the state of journalism in the province, and just how Mr. Kenney found himself at risk of being cashiered by his own supporters. 

As readers of this blog will understand, I’m not really a podcast kind of guy. At least, I’m never likely to record a blog of my own when I could sit down and write an old-fashioned newspaper column style blog post and have the chance to proofread it a couple of times before I share it in public. 

Still, I enjoyed the conversation with Messrs. Connors and Atkinson, even if I missed quite a few of the things I wanted to say and probably, not having a chance to review what I’d just blurted out, got one or two things wrong. 

Here’s a link to the podcast, which was posted the day before yesterday. If you’re not an Apple kind of listener, try their Facebook page for a more simpatico link.

Hope you enjoy it. 

Join the Conversation

13 Comments

  1. Tried the podcast but David’s audio quality was poor. Strength 3/5, readability 2/5. Also balance was poor. The hosts were strength 5/5 and David was 3/5.

    1. Don: Not my area of expertise. Probably party of why I rarely listen to podcasts, though. DJC

    1. Cool: My late mom would have been seriously pissed at you about that – at least, she would have been if she’d know what a bong is. You can rest assured it was only ever used as a vase, to display a couple of daffodils. DJC

  2. I enjoyed your observations and I especially enjoyed the amazed incredulity of the young upper Canadian interviewers when you were outlining some of the utterly barmy actions of the Alberta UCP and the foibles of Alberta’s political culture. Their reactions were perhaps a bit over the top given the inbred Ontario political culture. Perhaps they are too young to remember Michael Harris or the Toronto mayor who called in the army to shovel a bit of snow.

    1. Well that’s a first. I’ll take the “young upper Canadian interviewers” as a compliment, as we choose to see the positive side in everything! I’ll be 54 in July, Douglass will be 45 in 2 weeks. We remember those terrible times under Harris, they were very bleak days, especially for the underprivileged; cuts to social services were deep & the scars are still very, very visible.
      Also living in Ottawa/Kingston, we make fun of Toronto every time it has a winter weather warning. Mel Lastman’s legacy will always be calling in the army to shovel snow. Nevertheless, thanks for listening, eh!

      1. Paul: I may be the only Canadian, certainly the only Albertan, who actually likes Toronto. DJC

      2. Paul: Ah! You are young (sounding) whipper-snappers. It was meant in a kindly way, but my apologies none the less. I still wear socks with my sandals and use a flip phone, so what do I know?

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.