Postmedia is now advertising for a new editor-in-chief for the Edmonton Journal and the Edmonton Sun. It may come as something of a surprise to Edmonton readers that English Canada’s largest newspaper corporation is seeking “a dynamic, innovative journalistic leader to oversee the editorial vision and content of Postmedia’s Edmonton newsroom, which includes both the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Fallout from dual probes into 2017 United Conservative Party leadership campaign still drifting down
It may not be fair, and you may not like it, but politics is like French justice: Guilty until proven innocent. OK, the French say it ain’t so, and we have to take them at their word. They’ve signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, bien sûr! But in politics, not so much. Why do […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Symbolic MLA pay cut set stage for attack on public services – so why did the NDP support it?
Like neoliberals everywhere, Alberta’s Conservatives overrate the virtues of big business and undervalue those of democracy. This is not exactly news. This was a clear message yesterday from the vote of the Legislature’s Member Services Committee to cut MLA salaries by 5 per cent, and twice that for the premier’s pay. The vote illustrated nicely […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Jason Kenney pledges ‘I will never give up on Canada’ while stoking Alberta separatist sentiment
Maybe Canada needs a Clarity Act for pollsters’ questions intended to gauge the level of support for provincial secession from Canada. The Clarity Act, of course, is the federal law passed in 2000 in response to the scary 1995 Quebec sovereignty referendum that came within 1 per cent of destroying Confederation based on a murky […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Journalists who are UCP members are not the problem; media companies that publish nothing but conservative views are
There was a fine old to-do on social media Friday night when a Toronto journalist revealed that a high-profile Postmedia columnist known for her enthusiastic support of Jason Kenney had been a member of the United Conservative Party at a key time during the Alberta premier’s rise to power. A tweet from Sean Craig said […]
Posted inBestsellers
Kate Atkinson’s Big Sky leads Audreys Books Edmonton Fiction Bestsellers List
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton during the week ended July 28, 2019. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Big Sky – Kate Atkinson 2. The Melting Queen – Bruce Cinnamon * + 3. Kingdom […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
UCP Government, with no apparent short-term Plan B, seeks leave to appeal injunction suspending Bill 9
Unsurprisingly, the United Conservative Party Government has sought leave to appeal the temporary injunction granted by the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench that halted application of Bill 9, playing havoc with Premier Jason Kenney’s strategy for putting off a crisis with the province’s public sector unions until after the federal election. I mean, seriously, it […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Regardless of Jason Kenney’s tweets, the Corporate Mapping Project is uncovering data of value to citizens
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has a well-known propensity to blame Justin Trudeau for things that were done by Stephen Harper, as the debate over who is responsible for the time it’s taken to complete the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project nicely illustrates. So condemning Liberal Prime Minister Trudeau for the $2.5-million federal grant for an […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Injunction suspending application of Bill 9 leaves Kenney Government with egg on its face
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall at United Conservative Party Headquarters last night! I imagine there were heated words spoken about Mr. Justice Eric Macklin’s decision just before the close of business yesterday to grant the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees an interim injunction suspending application of Bill 9, the Public Sector […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
The ‘Chicago Principles’ are code for the right of the powerful and privileged to shout down everyone else
“Free speech in universities” is nowadays a rallying cry for the snowflakes of the extremist right, who can dish it out but can’t take it. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that pushing post-secondary institutions to enforce the Chicago Statement on Free Expression, an ingenious manifesto that uses “free speech” as code for the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Postmedia pours it to bring home the bacon for Calgary’s hockey billionaires
You’ve got to know that when the likes of Licia Corbella, Danielle Smith, Chris Nelson, Rick Bell, and sundry other right-wing Postmedia bloviators all want you to think that now is the perfect time for the Calgary Saddledome to be demolished and replaced by the (Ken) King Dome, it probably isn’t. That’s just about the […]
Posted inBestsellers
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead tops Audreys Books Edmonton Bestseller List
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton during the week ended July 21, 2019. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. The Nickel Boys – Colson Whitehead 2. Kingdom of the Blind – Louise Penny 3. Season […]