In case you missed it, while Alberta Premier Jason Kenney was trying to pretend the embarrassing rebellion of two COVID-skeptical MLAs in southern Alberta wasn’t happening, another political rebellion against his policies was coming to a boil in the heart of the oilsands. On Tuesday, defiant members of the council of the Regional Municipality of […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Jason Kenney chooses the cake department to unexpectedly announce one-time pandemic ‘bonus’ for front-line workers
Was Jason Kenney channelling Marie Antoinette when he appeared in front of an Edmonton grocery store’s cake counter yesterday to announce a one-time $1,200 pandemic payment to front-line workers? Many of the front-line workers risking COVID-19 to deliver us services from health care to retail confections may be badly paid, but they’ll have a little […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Defying Jason Kenney’s pleas to take COVID-19 seriously, two UCP MLAs join ‘End the Lockdowns National Caucus’
Two MLAs from Premier Jason Kenney’s government caucus have joined a national coalition of elected and former politicians dedicated to the proposition restrictions on social and commercial activities intended to slow the spread of COVID-19 must end. Needless to say, centrifugal force is not a good look for a United Conservative Party that’s starting to […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
In dizzying turnaround, Alberta abandons plan to drop Lougheed-era coal policy … for now
In what appears to be a tire-screeching reversal, Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage yesterday announced full restoration of the Coal Policy established by premier Peter Lougheed’s government back in 1976. “An important part of being a responsible government is to admit when you’ve made a mistake, and to fix it, and that’s what we are […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
UCP prioritizes businesses that run care homes over workers fighting COVID-19 on the front lines inside them
It’s very hard to resist the temptation to juxtapose the Kenney Government’s response to the plight of underpaid front-line health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and the troubles faced by well-heeled owners of private continuing care facilities. When it comes to the former, Premier Jason Kenney and his United Conservative Party Government seem determined […]
Posted inBestsellers
How to Pronounce Knife, Braiding Sweetgrass are Alberta independent bookshops’ fiction and non-fiction bestsellers
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021. 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. How to Pronounce Knife – Souvankham […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Time for your depressing weekly Alberta pandemic update: Got whiplash yet?
Watching the Kenney Government respond to COVID-19 could give you whiplash. Back on Jan. 26, Health Minister Tyler Shandro was warning us that the arrival of more infectious COVID-19 variants risked pushing our health-care system to the brink. By Jan. 29, Premier Jason Kenney was saying that might be true, but we’d be easing restrictions […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Conspiracy theories are for losers: What does this tell us about Jason Kenney’s UCP?
Are Jason Kenney and the United Conservative Party nuts? I mean, are they actually nuts, going down the rabbit hole of bizarre and unsubstantiated conspiracy theories like some of their Republican brethren in the United States? In other words, in their effort to unite the right (as used to be said when that was still […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
We’ve had almost 70 years to fix the problems with Line 5 and very little has happened – what now?
Doesn’t Michigan understand that letting jurisdictions along the route of a Canadian pipeline carry the risk of what’s inside the pipe while only the province at the start of the line gets to pocket the benefits is a fundamental principle of Confederation? Surely we established that much during the debate over expanding the Trans Mountain […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Canada’s lack of vaccine capacity really is a scandal, but there’s no way Conservatives are actually serious about fixing it
The fact Canada lacks capacity to manufacture its own coronavirus vaccine should be a scandal. But there’s a certain irony in Conservative leaders like Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Alberta’s Jason Kenney jumping on this bandwagon now that its potential to be used against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government in Ottawa has […]
Posted inBestsellers
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer tops independent bookshops’ Alberta non-fiction bestseller list for week ended Jan. 24
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021. Notable this week is the fact the always enjoyable Thomas King has a book on both the fiction and non-fiction lists, Indians on Vacation in fiction and The Inconvenient […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
With infectious new COVID-19 strains on the march, Alberta Premier caves to business and eases health restrictions
With more infectious new variants of the novel coronavirus now spreading in Western Canada, Premier Jason Kenney chose yesterday to advise Albertans that next Friday the province will ease the restrictions that appear to have been slowing the spread of COVID-19. Alberta’s new-infection numbers have been a little better lately and are trending in the […]