If Rachel Notley uses the Alberta Government’s power to put a cap on oil production tonight, as she hinted she would do in a newspaper op-ed Friday, how long will it take Opposition Leader Jason Kenney to change his tune? Not long, one imagines. Of course, if Mr. Kenney does turn on the proverbial dime […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Professors protest Moe Government plan to shutter archives in four locations, including University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon
SASKATOON, Sask. No sooner did the government of Saskatchewan oh-so-discreetly announce it is about to close four branches of the provincial archives and consolidate it all in one location in Regina than more than 30 Canadian scholars had an open letter of protest circulating on the Internet. When the branch of the Provincial Archives of […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Thoughts from the road: General Motors, China and Alberta, a new landscape emerges from Monday’s dust
OTTAWA Now that the dust is settling from Monday’s announcement General Motors Corp.’s last auto assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont., will soon be closed, the emerging landscape is not promising for Alberta. Leastways, it’s not hopeful from the perspective of an Alberta that has no plan to transition from a single resource-based economy based on […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta politicians need to tread carefully when they comment on the coming job losses at GM Canada in Oshawa
We don’t yet know why General Motors Corp. has decided to walk away from its last auto-assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont., which CTV reported last night the Detroit-based company will announce it is doing at 10 o’clock this morning. I’m sure there will be plenty of suspects. I have one of my own: Donald J. […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
If other Canadians don’t think Alberta should go suck a lemon, they probably soon will
Hey Alberta! Go suck a lemon! I don’t endorse that sentiment, of course. I’m an Albertan, after all. The person who did say something like that, as it happens, didn’t say it about Alberta. It was a long, long time ago, 1976 as a matter of fact, when Catherine Ford said that about Quebec. All […]
Posted inBestsellers
Bygumbo, children’s lit by Edmonton author Gwen Molnar and illustrator Barbara Hartmann, leads Audreys fiction bestsellers
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended Nov. 11, 2018. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Bygumbo (children’s) – Gwen Molnar and Barbara Hartmann * 2. Ice & Other […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta’s Bill 27 may not take the politics out of pensions, but it will certainly help
Tabling on Tuesday of Bill 27, Alberta legislation that will wrest control of public service pensions from the sole hands of the minister of finance and hand it to joint boards run by public service employees and employers, should be the denouement of a long and sometimes dramatic story. “This takes the politics out of […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Criticism of John Carpay, who compared pride flags to swastikas, called the work of a ‘left wing mob’
According to an increasingly influential segment of the United Conservative Party’s social conservative base, Albertans who have taken to social media to assail an ally of party leader Jason Kenney for the bigotry evident in his comparison of the pride flag to the Nazi swastika are nothing more than “the politically correct, thought policing, left-wing […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Author Andrew Nikiforuk tells a bleak tale of squandered opportunities, wilful blindness on energy policy
By adopting an energy policy founded on low royalties and pipeline development, the NDP government of Premier Rachel Notley squandered an opportunity to implement a program that could have strengthened Alberta’s economy while preparing it to deal with the inevitable decline in fossil fuel demand, author Andrew Nikiforuk told the final session of the annual […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Brexit Redux: Looking back at Jason Kenney’s strange comments when the U.K. shot itself in both feet
Back in June 2016, hours after Britons had narrowly voted to leave the European Union, a lot of Albertans scratched their heads at Jason Kenney’s bizarre Brexit commentary on social media. At the time, Mr. Kenney was still drawing a paycheque as the Conservative MP for Calgary Midnapore. He was known, however, to be eyeing […]
Posted inBestsellers
A Grain of Rice by Nhung Tran-Davies tops Audreys Books’ Edmonton Fiction Bestseller list this week
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended Nov. 11, 2018. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. A Grain of Rice (Young Adult) – Nhung Tran-Davies * 2. Treaty 6 […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Big Oil wants a milk break … and supply management’s foes are all over the media – except when they’re not
On Tuesday, the president of Cenovus Energy Inc., one of the Big Five players in the Alberta oilsands, called for temporary production cuts across the Canadian oil sector to push the sinking price of oil back up again. It’s all about supply and demand, as the well-educated readers of this blog understand. “We think there is […]