Spare me another national leaders’ debate! Please! Leadership debates are mostly a waste of time. Excruciating. Surely only masochists enjoy them. There are few surprises. If you’re a partisan praying your favourite party leader won’t mess up, they’re grimly suspenseful, but usually a relief at the end, which always takes far too long to arrive. […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Peter Guthrie, former Alberta infrastructure minister booted from UCP Caucus, says health minister ‘deliberately misled’ cabinet
On Monday, Alberta’s former infrastructure minister complained that his 30-day suspension from the United Conservative Party Caucus in the Legislature with its accompanying gag order had lasted 48 days. Yesterday, Premier Danielle Smith, with the help of her henchpersons in caucus, made it permanent. Caucus voted to banish Mr. Guthrie from the UCP benches and […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Chief Medical Officer of Health Mark Joffe is out, seemingly unexpectedly
Mark Joffe is no longer Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, a job in which he has been almost invisible for two and a half years. No one seems to know exactly why. A statement to media from the government said Dr. Joffe’s contract ended Monday, after a two-week extension, and a search started at […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Here’s why a lawyer hired by the government can’t represent public employees in an auditor general investigation …
According to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, her government was just trying to be helpful when it instructed thousands of public employees to refer calls from the auditor general about his ongoing investigation into allegations of dodgy health care contracts to a lawyer it had retained. “The auditor general can ask any employee, former or current, […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Charlie Angus brings the Resistance to Edmonton, rips into Trump, Poilievre, Smith, Moe, Manning and Maple MAGA
Charlie Angus may be retiring from federal politics, but there’s nothing retiring about the veteran New Democrat MP for Timmins-James Bay who showed up in Edmonton Sunday afternoon on the latest stop on what is being billed as his national Resistance tour. Mr. Angus, who is 62, is pretty much an NDP rock star – […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta Government scramble to stop leaks about dodgy health care contracts takes on a distinct Watergate vibe
The Alberta Government’s frenetic and seemingly panicky scramble to cover up leaks about the continuing dodgy health care contracts scandal is taking on a distinct Watergate vibe. Watergate, of course, is the name of the hotel and office complex in Washington D.C. where an interrupted break-in by Republican Party operatives 1972 led to the scandal […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Don’t talk to auditor general about dodgy contracts until you’ve talked to our lawyer: government email to AHS staff
In early February, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith publicly urged Alberta’s auditor general to get cracking with his just-started investigation into allegations of dodgy contracts being forced on Alberta Health Services by officials with connections to her government and even her office. “We need to get to the bottom of this issue quickly to identify any […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Want an explanation for the UCP’s health care shell game? Follow the money
There was another big health care announcement by the Alberta Government yesterday, the second in as many days, this one about the further deconstruction of Alberta Health Services and the shuffling of important health care activities among newly created bureaucracies like a pea under some walnut shells. Where’s cancer care gone? What about organ transplants […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith’s ‘patient-focused’ funding scheme means hospitals will need to game the system
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith claimed yesterday a new “patient-focused funding model” planned for Alberta hospitals “will increase transparency, lower wait times and attract more surgeons – helping deliver better health care for all Albertans, when and where they need it.” But what will really happen when the United Conservative Party Government puts Ms. Smith’s new […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
What you said on social media will probably haunt you forever: so maybe you should forget about running for Parliament!
If vetting federal political candidates was as strict in 2004 as it needs to be today, would Pierre Poilievre have made the cut as a candidate? I wonder. Since candidate vetting by national political parties is as rigorous as it is in this age of social media, where any injudicious thing we say is likely […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
This just in from Alberta: ‘Vote like we tell you, or we’ll bust up your country!’
Something new is happening in the 2025 federal election campaign now under way. After a couple of years of polls suggesting that a Conservative victory was a deadbolt cinch and Pierre Poilievre would soon be prime minister, no sooner did Justin Trudeau quit as PM than public opinion began to turn back toward the Liberals […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Publicly shamed, Alberta drops plan to deny free popsicles, juice boxes and water to kids recovering from cancer treatments
How big a role did the colourful image of popsicles play in the Alberta Government’s decision yesterday to drop the appalling Alberta Health Services policy of not providing frozen treats, juice boxes, water and snacks to kids recovering from cancer treatments? Never mind the letterhead on the memo or the excuses we’re hearing now, it’s […]