PHOTOS: Freshly made up, MP Jason Kenney arrives at his news conference yesterday on the grounds of Alberta’s Legislature, where he one day hopes to have a legal parking spot. (Screenshot of CBC video.) Below: Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson, plus proof that not all provincial political Dodge Ram tours end well. The question also […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
One year ago, Stephen Harper, master of all he surveyed, called an election – what could possibly go wrong?
PHOTOS: Then prime minister Stephen Harper with his strategic brain trust, back when they still seemed like the masters of Canada’s political universe and would seem so for a few more weeks. (Source unknown.) Below: Screen shots of Mr. Harper’s Aug. 2, 2015, news conference announcing the call of the Oct. 19 federal general election […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
News Satire: U.S. will not tolerate foreigners acting like Americans, officials say
ILLUSTRATIONS: A map showing some of the countries in which the United States has interfered in the political process (grabbed from Geology.com). Below: U.S. CIA Director John O. Brennan, Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Donald Trump. The United States will not tolerate the countries of the world acting like the United States, […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
New York Times coverage of Russian hacking deserves another Pulitzer – for fiction!
PHOTOS: Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, who the New York Times blames for everything. (Photo from Kremlin.ru.) Below: Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary R. Clinton; former Nixon speechwriter Patrick J. Buchanan; Republican Party presidential candidate Donald J. Trump; and Felix E. Dzerzhinsky, director of the Soviet secret services from 1917 to 1922. As readers shall […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Brad Wall: a day late and a dollar short on Husky’s Prince Albert pipeline rupture
PHOTOS: Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall speaking with reporters in the halls of Saskatchewan Legislative Building in Regina yesterday (screen grab from the CBC’s feed). Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and the city of Prince Albert on the bank of the North Saskatchewan River. Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall’s lame defence yesterday morning of his strange inaction […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
NDP moves to end secret Klein-era scheme to offload corporate losses on the public – the opposition, predictably, screams
PHOTOS: Deputy Premier Sarah Hoffman, a photo that wasn’t taken yesterday, obviously, but has the advantage of having been taken by your blogger. Below: Wildrose electricity and renewables critic Don MacIntyre, Progressive Conservative interim Leader Ric McIver and the late PC premier Ralph Klein, author of the costly-to-Albertans scheme the NDP is asking the courts […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
As assumptions give way to knowledge, we have an opportunity to learn from the shooting in Munich
PHOTOS: Into the evening Friday, the mood in the Bavarian city of Munich was surreal (Polizeipräsidium München image). Below: The scene of Friday’s shooting in Munich. The person I know best in Munich described the mood in the Bavarian city Friday as “surreal,” so it seems fitting the Tweet from the Munich Police that night […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Brad Wall Government’s Saskatchewan beer trade piffle turns out to be all fizz and no flavour
ILLUSTRATIONS: A group of Albertans enjoying one of our province’s excellent craft beers, unfortunately unavailable in Saskatchewan because of the province-to-the-right’s unfair trade practices. (The Wikipedia illustration is actually of François Jaques’ Peasants Enjoying Beer at Pub in Fribourg.) Below: Brad Wall, Saskatchewan’s disagreeable premier gestures disagreeably in the Saskatchewan Legislature (photo paid for by […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Grim proposed Athabasca University budget to be shown faculty today projects insolvency by 2017-2018
PHOTOS: Athabasca University’s main building in the Town of Athabasca, 130 kilometres north of Edmonton. Below: AU’s logo; Interim President Peter MacKinnon; and Alberta Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt. Athabasca University Interim President Peter MacKinnon will present a grim proposed three-year budget this morning to the institution’s General Faculties Council that projects growing deficits and […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
If Jason Kenney’s anti-abortion views don’t matter, why are anti-choice activists supporting him so enthusiastically?
PHOTOS: The young Jason Kenney, speaking out to the San Francisco CNN station against the right of pro-choice activists even to speak in support of their views on the U.S. university campus he attended for one year. Below: St. Albert MLA Marie Renaud and anti-choice activist Alissa Golob, with Mr. Kenney, grabbed from her Twitter […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Appointment of environmentalist Tzeporah Berman sparks Wildrose hysteria – here’s why
PHOTOS: Environmentalist Tzeporah Berman, whose appointment to the Alberta Government’s climate panel prompted a full-scale freak-out by the province’s right, which, apparently, sees her as, well, an Orc. Below the Orc: B.C. Premier Christy Clark and former Progressive Conservative finance minister Robin Campbell. Last year, when environmentalist Tzeporah Berman was appointed to British Columbia Premier […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Wildrose Party wins the second-quarter fund-raising horserace – but can the pace be sustained?
PHOTOS: Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean has every right to smile about the party’s second-quarter fund-raising results. The question is: Can they be sustained? (Photo grabbed from Wildrose.ca.) Below: Results for all parties, as compiled by your blogger from Elections Alberta’s confusing website. There’s a link to a readable version in the first paragraph. Any […]