One can feel a little sympathy with Danielle Smith for wanting to be at Donald Trump’s second inauguration on Jan. 20, especially since the trip is likely to be on her fellow Albertans’ dime. While it’s unlikely Alberta’s premier will be part of the largest presidential inauguration crowd ever – that would be the 1.8 […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Stephen Harper: will he actually help Danielle Smith try to wreck the Canada Pension Plan?
Is Stephen Harper, the man who holds Pierre Poilievre’s puppet strings, actually going to help Danielle Smith try to wreck the Canada Pension Plan? Even considering how much trouble the Trudeau Liberals appear to be in nowadays, that seems like a weird flex for the former Conservative prime minister who surely would like to see […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Report says UCP wants Stephen Harper to lead AIMCo board, just about the worst pension management idea you’ve ever heard
BNN Bloomberg is a reasonably sober business news organization, so when it reports as it did yesterday that Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government wants to make Stephen Harper chair of the Alberta Investment Management Corp. board, you have to take it seriously. This is true even if inserting a controversial former prime minister with deep […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Nate Horner wants us to believe AIMCo’s board richly deserved to be summarily fired
Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner wants us to believe he sacked the CEO and entire board of the Alberta Investment Management Corp. last Thursday because, as his news release put it, “the corporation has seen significant increases in operating costs, management fees and staffing without a corresponding increase to return on investment.” After reciting a […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Firing of AIMCo CEO and entire board another sign UCP is determined to control everything, everywhere, all at once
With its surprise decision to cashier the entire board and the top executive of the supposedly independent Alberta Investment Management Corp., we see once again that the United Conservative Party Government is determined to control everything, everywhere, all at once. And if you’re an Albertan, that includes your retirement savings in the Canada Pension Plan […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Some post-election-night hot takes on the coming MAGA Restoration south of the Medicine Line
Whoever forms the next Canadian government, no matter how sympathetic they may be right now to next January’s MAGA Restoration south of the Medicine Line, the next four years at least are bound to be interesting ones for Canada. Interesting, that is, in the sense of that famous folk curse. This also goes for provincial […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Here in Alberta, if the oilpatch ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy – and profitable fossil fuel corporations hate Ottawa’s emissions cap plan
Remember, here in Alberta, if the oilpatch ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. Still, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s theatrical extended temper tantrum in the Legislature Building’s media room yesterday in response to the federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s release of draft rules to cap oil and gas emissions 35 per cent below the level of 2019 […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith’s 91.5% leadership review approval rate shows there’s almost no one left in the UCP but the extremists
No one should be shocked by the fact Alberta Premier Danielle Smith not only survived her leadership review vote but posted an absurd sounding 91.5-per-cent approval rating. The explanation is simple and obvious on its face, and not necessarily good news for the United Conservative Party. To wit: There’s almost no one left in the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith introduces harsh but politically expedient anti-trans legislation – she didn’t always sound like this
Can Danielle Smith be trusted about anything she says? Now that Alberta’s premier has introduced what is widely acknowledged to be the harshest anti-transgender legislation in Canada, rivalling that in some of the more benighted corners of the Republic to our south, we all need to pause and reflect on that question. A CBC commentator […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Happy Halloween! Danielle Smith offers mostly rosy ‘State of the Province’ summary, predictable complaints about Ottawa
Happy Halloween! Alberta Premier Danielle Smith gave her annual tritely titled “State of the Province” speech yesterday to the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, complaining about Ottawa but painting a rosy picture of things here in Wild Rose Country under her guiding hand. Whether she had anything to say to the good burghers of Edmonton about […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
The Alberta Bill of Rights Amendment Act, 2024, otherwise known as Bill 24, is a fundamentally unserious document
Now that we have before us an actual copy of the United Conservative Party’s first bill of the fall 2024 sitting of the Legislature, the new and improved Alberta Bill of Rights with secret sovereignty sauce, serious commentators are bound to start commentating seriously about it. Indeed, to set the tone, the government’s press release […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Guest post: Alberta’s UCP government is poised to let foundering elk farms be turned into ‘hunt preserves’
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any goofier, it looks like Alberta’s United Conservative Government is about to succumb to a long-standing lobby by financially hard-pressed game farmers to allow trophy hunters to shoot elk on “harvest preserves,” which amounts to shooting them in a barrel, writes Professional Biologist and author Lorne Fitch, an […]