Vote suppression is a venerable part of any conservative party’s election-day strategy, but you have to admit that adding biological warfare to the mix puts a creative new spin on it! Today is by-election day in Alberta. In addition, every day is Measles Day in Alberta nowadays. But the disease now seems to be getting […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
As it was, is now, and ever shall be: Alberta Government communications return to the Premier’s Office
Before we all get our knickers in a twist, let us remember that once upon a time all Alberta Government communications and public engagement operations came under the Executive Council, that is to say the provincial cabinet, which for all practical purposes means the Premier’s Office. That includes the first year or so of the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Guest post by Bradley Lafortune: I went to Danielle Smith’s Coal Town Hall in Fort Macleod and here’s why it went off the rails
On June 11, more than 500 people showed up in Fort Macleod, near the site of the historic North West Mounted Police post about 170 kilometres south of Calgary, for a “Coal Town Hall” with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, three of her cabinet ministers, and the local UCP MLA. Alberta’s deep south is conservative country. […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith doesn’t have a plan yet for running public health care, but just like Donald Trump she’s got a concept of a plan
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith doesn’t have a coherent plan for running public health care yet, but yesterday she revealed that, just like her hero Donald J. Trump, she has a concept of a plan. In a news release poetically headlined, “Eliminating the bureaucratic vortex in hospitals,” Ms. Smith announced with gee-whiz enthusiasm that “we’re cutting […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Naheed Nenshi may face a bigger test in next Monday’s by-election in Edmonton-Ellerslie than where he’s running
With recent polling results giving many MLAs in the Alberta NDP’s substantial Opposition caucus the jitters, the by-election next Monday in Edmonton-Ellerslie is shaping up to be a significant test for party Leader Naheed Nenshi. There will be two other by-elections on June 23. One is in Edmonton-Strathcona where Mr. Nenshi is expected finally to […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Despite what Danielle Smith says, Alberta’s new COVID vaccine policy is not about saving money or cost recovery
Everybody who’s been paying attention to what Alberta Danielle Smith has been saying and doing for years understands that her government’s new policy of forcing Albertans to pay for COVID-19 immunization has precious little to do with saving the $135 million worth of unused doses she claims was “flushed down the drain last year.” Ms. […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
In classic Friday afternoon bad-news dump, UCP moves to make COVID vaccines expensive and hard to find
In a classic Friday afternoon bad-news dump, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party Government announced a scheme to make seniors pay “the full costs” for restricted supplies of COVID-19 vaccines. When the UCP’s RFK-Jr.-inspired policy is implemented in mid-August, it will be easier to get ripped on legal marijuana in this province than it […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
94.5% of 39,000 unionized Alberta teachers vote to strike if bargaining reaches impasse
There’s no way to suggest a 94.5-per-cent strike vote by nearly 39,000 Alberta teachers doesn’t represent a pretty solid negotiating mandate for their union. Alberta Teachers Association President Jason Schilling announced the results of the vote, which took place between Thursday and Sunday, in an online news conference yesterday, after which the ATA published a […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
What next? UCP takes to reading Yours Truly in The Tyee, quoting lefty bloggers in press release
In Ontario last week on union business, your blogger was startled to discover the United Conservative Party had quoted his recent post commenting on recent polling results by Janet Brown Opinion Research that suggest NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi has been seriously underperforming. “We can’t expect Mr. Nenshi to ship out,” I had concluded in that […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith has news for the people of Canada: you have ‘the lowest living standards in the world’
I’ve been writing these little meditations on the state of politics in Alberta now longer than it takes an infant to grow old enough to vote and in that time I have had many opportunities to observe certain failings in the quality of political discourse here. Still, I must say I felt a little frisson […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
A timely reminder on this historic day: The hammer of D-Day crushed Hitler on the anvil of Russia
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. – It’s now been 81 years since our magnificent Canadian soldiers stormed ashore at Juno Beach in Normandy to play their part the grim and deadly task of sweeping Hitler and his odious empire out of Europe. The landings on June 6, 1944, by 156,000 Canadian, British, U.S. and other Allied soldiers […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Mark Carney’s energy superpower talk may not frighten the UCP, but it ought to frighten Pierre Poilievre
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. – The bosses of 38 Canadian oil and gas corporations signed a letter of congratulations to Prime Minister Mark Carney after his April 28 election victory and pitched their favourite policy options to him, we were informed yesterday by The Canadian Press. Those policies, no one will be shocked to hear, would […]