Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, April 19, 2020. 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. The […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
New management is now required at AIMCo to restore trust after $4-billion loss
Having lost more than $4 billion on an incomprehensible gamble on market volatility, senior management of the Alberta Investment Management Corp. needs to apologize and resign. AIMCo is supposed to manage working Albertans’ retirement savings and what’s left of Peter Lougheed’s Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund. In other words, working people’s life savings and public […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Already reeling from bad news, Alberta learns its Crown investment corporation just lost $4 billion on a bad bet
Albertans reeling from the shock of a week that’s included oil prices so low you have to pay people to haul the stuff away and a mishandled COVID-19 outbreak at a slaughterhouse south of Calgary that sent infection rates soaring were rattled again yesterday by news the province’s Crown-owned money-management corporation had somehow managed to […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta safety inspection of Cargill slaughterhouse done by FaceTime, with no actual inspector on site
Alberta Labour’s occupational health and safety inspector didn’t actually visit the Cargill Inc. meatpacking plant in High River when the ministry inspected its COVID-19 safety measures on April 15. Instead, the Labour Ministry inspector watched with FaceTime as three employees conducted “a virtual plant inspection.” With the United Conservative Party Government determined to keep the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Hard to believe keeping meatpacking and oilsands plants running hasn’t contributed to COVID-19 spread
If you listened carefully to yesterday’s COVID-19 briefing in Edmonton, it was difficult to avoid the conclusion the Kenney Government’s reluctance to regulate certain industries has contributed to the spread of the disease, and not just inside this province. Particularly interesting was Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw’s carefully worded description of how the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Devin Dreeshen’s happy talk about workplace safety undermines the battle against COVID-19
By insisting Alberta’s meat-packing plants are safe to work in despite crowded conditions and ignoring workers’ pleas to temporarily close large slaughterhouses to halt the spread of COVID-19, Alberta Agriculture Minister Devin Dreeshen appears to be actively undermining the provincial fight against the coronavirus. It may have seemed faintly credible when Mr. Dreeshen told the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Strange bedfellows: UCP and Tzeporah Berman both praise Justin Trudeau’s oilpatch bailout!
Tzeporah Berman, the high-profile Vancouver environmentalist, on Friday lauded the oil-sector provisions of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s COVID-19 bailout package as a sensible way to begin winding down the Canadian fossil fuel industry. “This bailout announcement is a major turning point for oil and gas politics in Canada,” Ms. Berman said in a news release […]
Posted inBestsellers
Calgary author Vivek Shraya tops independent bookshops’ Alberta Fiction Bestseller list with The Subtweet
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, April 12, 2020. 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. The […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Justin Trudeau needs to do something bold to fix the long-term-care disaster: here’s a suggestion
Surging deaths in Canadian long-term care facilities have blown Canada’s COVID-19 death projections to smithereens. Last night, the CBC reported the number of deaths from COVID-19 is already double what Ottawa thought it would be only a week ago. “As more deaths are reported and counted over the next day, the toll could double even […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta spends up to $20K touting medical mask giveaway on Facebook to build social license for pipelines
The Alberta Government spent between $14,000 and $20,000 on Facebook advertisements promoting Premier Jason Kenney’s announcement Alberta would donate 750,000 N95 medical masks and other personal protective equipment to Ontario, Quebec and B.C., political blogger Dave Cournoyer revealed in a tweet yesterday afternoon. The heaviest promotion was in Ontario, Mr. Cournoyer discovered when he peeked […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
That goofy letter from Kingston to Jason Kenney — promise made, promise kept, or what?
Now, about that goofy letter from Kingston, the one wherein the generous author or authors sent Alberta Premier Jason Kenney $1,000 to help out the Alberta treasury, I have a contrarian point of view. To wit: My opinion is that it’s totally legit, the real McCoy, it actually happened, the cheque came in a proper […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Pay and benefits for long term care workers must be protected — and not just during the COVID-19 crisis
It should be obvious by now that if a society wants to keep long-term care for the frail and elderly from turning into a deadly nightmare during pandemics, it must ensure privately run long-term-care centres provide their employees with the same wages, benefits and working conditions as those who work for the public health care […]