Even considering the bad reviews the ridiculous Alberta Next Panel has been getting since Premier Danielle Smith announced it on Tuesday, her United Conservative Party is sailing into the Canada Day long weekend with favourable winds in its sails. Three issues are unfolding just as Ms. Smith and the UCP would want – although in […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta Next surveys: Push polls with zero validity, consent baked in, and a mandatory propaganda video
Social media exploded yesterday with criticism that the six “surveys” on the so-called Alberta Next Panel’s slick website are an exercise in manufacturing consent, to use Noam Chomsky’s now familiar phrase. Having read all the survey questions and watched to the irritating propaganda videos that anyone wanting to answer their questions must sit through first, […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith names ‘Alberta Next Panel’ members, recites litany of dubious grievances with Ottawa
Claiming that “the West wants Ottawa out of its hair,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith yesterday named 14 members of her so-called Alberta Next Panel and recited a litany of grievances she has with the federal government, many of them allegations about how the feds are “punishing our energy sector and layering on policies to keep […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi wins convincingly in Edmonton-Strathcona; NDP’s Gurtej Singh Brar posts victory in Edmonton-Ellerslie
Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi mopped the floor with his opponents in the Edmonton-Strathcona by-election yesterday. Mr. Nenshi can now join his caucus in the Legislature with his head held high, a convincing 82.5-per-cent victory behind him. In the 2023 general election, party leader and former premier Rachel Notley captured 79.7 per cent of the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Today is by-election day in three Alberta ridings
Vote suppression is a venerable part of any conservative party’s election-day strategy, but you have to admit that adding biological warfare to the mix puts a creative new spin on it! Today is by-election day in Alberta. In addition, every day is Measles Day in Alberta nowadays. But the disease now seems to be getting […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
As it was, is now, and ever shall be: Alberta Government communications return to the Premier’s Office
Before we all get our knickers in a twist, let us remember that once upon a time all Alberta Government communications and public engagement operations came under the Executive Council, that is to say the provincial cabinet, which for all practical purposes means the Premier’s Office. That includes the first year or so of the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Guest post by Bradley Lafortune: I went to Danielle Smith’s Coal Town Hall in Fort Macleod and here’s why it went off the rails
On June 11, more than 500 people showed up in Fort Macleod, near the site of the historic North West Mounted Police post about 170 kilometres south of Calgary, for a “Coal Town Hall” with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, three of her cabinet ministers, and the local UCP MLA. Alberta’s deep south is conservative country. […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith doesn’t have a plan yet for running public health care, but just like Donald Trump she’s got a concept of a plan
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith doesn’t have a coherent plan for running public health care yet, but yesterday she revealed that, just like her hero Donald J. Trump, she has a concept of a plan. In a news release poetically headlined, “Eliminating the bureaucratic vortex in hospitals,” Ms. Smith announced with gee-whiz enthusiasm that “we’re cutting […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Naheed Nenshi may face a bigger test in next Monday’s by-election in Edmonton-Ellerslie than where he’s running
With recent polling results giving many MLAs in the Alberta NDP’s substantial Opposition caucus the jitters, the by-election next Monday in Edmonton-Ellerslie is shaping up to be a significant test for party Leader Naheed Nenshi. There will be two other by-elections on June 23. One is in Edmonton-Strathcona where Mr. Nenshi is expected finally to […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Despite what Danielle Smith says, Alberta’s new COVID vaccine policy is not about saving money or cost recovery
Everybody who’s been paying attention to what Alberta Danielle Smith has been saying and doing for years understands that her government’s new policy of forcing Albertans to pay for COVID-19 immunization has precious little to do with saving the $135 million worth of unused doses she claims was “flushed down the drain last year.” Ms. […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
In classic Friday afternoon bad-news dump, UCP moves to make COVID vaccines expensive and hard to find
In a classic Friday afternoon bad-news dump, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party Government announced a scheme to make seniors pay “the full costs” for restricted supplies of COVID-19 vaccines. When the UCP’s RFK-Jr.-inspired policy is implemented in mid-August, it will be easier to get ripped on legal marijuana in this province than it […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
94.5% of 39,000 unionized Alberta teachers vote to strike if bargaining reaches impasse
There’s no way to suggest a 94.5-per-cent strike vote by nearly 39,000 Alberta teachers doesn’t represent a pretty solid negotiating mandate for their union. Alberta Teachers Association President Jason Schilling announced the results of the vote, which took place between Thursday and Sunday, in an online news conference yesterday, after which the ATA published a […]