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away from the idea of trying to bring down the Liberal government in Ottawa over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s now rescinded plan to have a charity with ties to his family administer a $900-million summer student grant program.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, […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
The Kenney Government’s recovery plan — in times like these, we’re all Keynesians, up to a point, anyway
It’s not actually true that that everything was just copacetic in Alberta when COVID-19 kicked down the door and started smashing up the dishes. But you’ve got to give Travis Toews some credit for his acting ability. Alberta’s finance minister sure made it sound as if that were so for a couple of minutes during […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Public service managers’ return-to-workplace guide outlines plan to return public employees to government offices
With talk that managers of Alberta’s public service are likely to be back in their offices next Monday preparing for the return of most of the rest of the government’s direct employees to their workplaces by July 20, the public service has prepared a 41-page “Government of Alberta Return to the Workplace Manager Guide” to […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Ecojustice vows to press ahead with legal action against Kenney Government’s environmental funding inquiry
While a date has not yet been set for a hearing, Ecojustice Canada Society is pressing ahead with the legal action it announced last September against the Kenney Government’s secretive “public inquiry into anti-Alberta energy campaigns.” The fact the Alberta government has given Inquiry Commissioner Steve Allan another million dollars and four extra months to […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Kenney’s controversial speechwriter listed as CEO of federal Conservatives’ Edmonton Strathcona constituency association
Given the uproar over an article widely perceived as expressing racist sentiments by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s speechwriter, it will be interesting to see how the Conservative Party of Canada reacts to the fact Paul Bunner is also chief executive of its Edmonton Strathcona constituency association. As of the close of business Friday, Elections Canada’s […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
It seems Alberta’s inquiry hasn’t found any foreign-funded anti-energy campaigns yet, but it’ll keep looking!
I’m sorry to have to report, Alberta, that the inquiry into foreign-funded campaigns targeting Alberta’s oil and gas industry apparently hasn’t found any foreign-funded campaigns targeting Alberta’s oil and gas industry. Don’t worry, though, they’re pretty sure that if they keep looking they can find something. After all, everyone involved acknowledges some money crosses the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Referenda are ‘a device for dictators and demagogues’ — but never mind about that, Alberta, or who said it …
Referenda, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher once observed, “are a device for dictators and demagogues.” I mention this in light of Alberta’s new referendum legislation — Bill 26, the Constitutional Referendum Amendment Act — which our province’s United Conservative Party Government introduced yesterday. Mrs. Thatcher, normally a hero to the UCP, wasn’t right about much, […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
State-supported academic research in Alberta should be about more than Making Oil & Gas Great Again
As Alberta launches its 10-year plan for “transformational change” in post-secondary education, a new study suggests the province’s universities and the government agencies that fund them are helping to prolong the worst aspects of the fossil fuel era. Alas, by trying to make oil and gas great again when there’s plenty of reason to conclude […]