We’re not closing any rural hospitals, have you got that? Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro strove to make that point perfectly clear at his news conference in Edmonton yesterday on how Ernst & Young, the multinational management consulting firm based in London, England, thinks Alberta Health Services could save nearly $2 billion a year. No, […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
What Brexit and Ottawa’s decision on the Teck oilsands mine have in common: Jason Kenney’s stubborn intransigence
Question: What do Brexit, which finally happened on Friday but the full implications of which are yet to unfold, and Ottawa’s impending decision on the Teck Resources Ltd. Frontier oilsands mine in northern Alberta have in common? Answer: Both are examples of Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s stubborn tendency to cling to inconsistent and unhelpful positions […]
Posted inBestsellers
The Accident of Being Lost by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is Alberta independent bookstores’ latest fiction bestseller
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. 26, 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
Arbitrator’s decision awarding 1% pay increase to some AUPE members undermines UCP austerity arguments
An independent labour arbitrator yesterday awarded unionized Alberta government employees and health care support workers a modest 1-per-cent pay increase for 2019. Having gone into wage-reopener negotiations in the final year of their current collective agreements seeking much higher pay increases ranging from 6.5 to 7.85 per cent, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees expressed […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Freedom of information filing reveals supposedly independent ‘Blue Ribbon’ Panel had help from staff in Alberta premier’s office
It turns out Janice MacKinnon’s six-member “expert panel” was using a script cooked up in Premier Jason Kenney’s office at least part of the time it was supposedly taking its “deep dive” into Alberta’s books last year. Alert readers will recall that when freshly elected United Conservative Party Premier Jason Kenney announced the creation of […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Without Rachel Notley’s reviled but effective social license strategy, support outside the Prairies drops for pipeline’s expansion
According to a well-known pollster, support for the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project has dropped in Canada outside the Prairies since this time last year. In the same time frame, opposition to the multi-billion-dollar pipeline expansion project is growing at an even faster rate. The Angus Reid Institute reported yesterday that its new public opinion […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Peter MacKay may be One Candidate to Rule Them All — but can he save the party of Preston, Stockwell & Steve?
There are those who say we should be bracing ourselves for the return of President Steve. Say it ain’t so! We can expect know soon if Stephen Harper is going to re-emerge to make a re-run to re-lead the Conservative Party of Canada in the wake of the reversal delivered by poor Andy Scheer, whose […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Worried about coronavirus? Ideology trumps expertise when Conservatives meddle with health care
If the world is on the cusp of another deadly coronavirus outbreak, this might seem like a peculiar time to be signing up for a high-risk experiment in health care management based on ideology instead of facts. But as far as Canada’s increasingly extremist conservative movement is concerned, of course the time is right! It […]
Posted inBestsellers
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale returns to top of independent booksellers’ Alberta fiction bestsellers 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, Jan. 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
RCMP investigation of ‘Kamikaze Campaign’ moves into new phase; what it means remains to be seen
“Soon, we will find out if breaking the law is illegal.” The line is Stephen Colbert’s and, no, he wasn’t talking about Alberta. The well-known American comedian and TV personality, of course, was referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate, in which oral arguments began yesterday. Still, this observation could […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Shut down your ‘anti-Alberta campaigns’ inquiry or the courts will shut it for you, tiny group warns Alberta government
OTTAWA – Well, one thing’s already clear, there’s no way the mighty Kenney Government will shut down its so-called inquiry into “anti-Alberta energy campaigns” on the say so of Progress Alberta, a small Edmonton-based research and activist organization. That said, the day may come when the government’s leaders wish they had. This morning, Progress Alberta […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta’s UCP deploys the red tape weapon: an example from the War on Education
Never let it be said Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government hates red tape. On the contrary, Premier Jason Kenney’s Government loves the stuff – at least if you define red tape as most dictionaries do, to wit, excessive bureaucratic rules that make it more difficult to get stuff done. Notwithstanding the UCP’s creation of a […]