Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith introduces her party’s Edmonton-Whitemud candidate, Tim, Grover, at a news conference in the riding yesterday. Below: NDP Candidate Dr. Bob Turner, Mr. Grover again, and former Edmonton mayor, unelected health minister and PC candidate Stephen Mandel. In the race to knock off an unelected health minister whose main qualification is that […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta Premier Jim Prentice repudiates controversial Redford Era triple-entry financial bookkeeping scheme
Alberta Health Minister Stephen Mandel and Premier Jim Prentice, neither elected just yet. Below: Former finance minister Doug Horner, current Education Minister Gordon Dirks, also unelected, and Emperor Augustus. Notice the similarity of the emperor to Mr. Mandel. Well, nuts to you, Doug Horner! Alberta Premier Jim Prentice continued his (almost) clean sweep of Redford […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Brian Gallant has a thin resume? Stephen Harper hasn’t held a real job since he quit the mailroom in ’79 or whenever!
New Brunswick Premier-designate Brian Gallant, grabbed from his campaign website. Below: Cranky old National Post opinion thingy Kelly McParland, age undetermined; Justin Trudeau, 42, getting off an airplane with some old guy, 62; Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair, 59. As the present now will later be past The order is rapidly fadin’ And the first one […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Calgary’s new ‘Band-Aid’ schools: just the thing for a government suffering the death of a thousand cuts
Temporary structures like the army huts in the background, built in 1939 and ’40, were still in use when this shot was taken at the just-formed University of Victoria circa 1963, and a few of them are still in use today. Below: Alberta Premier Jim Prentice, Wildrose education critic Jeff Wilson and Liberal education critic […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Be careful what you ask for! Jim Prentice walks away with the Wildrose political play book
Premier Jim Prentice. Below: Wildrose Party Leader Danielle Smith and former party strategist Tom Flanagan, this time on the button. As the expression goes: be careful what you ask for! You might just get it. There is irony – perhaps even bitter irony – in what newly minted Alberta Premier Jim Prentice managed to do […]
Posted inAlberta Politics, Canadian Politics
Rob Anders, Canada’s Worst MP, has been handed his great big hat a second time
Calgary West MP Rob Anders waves farewell from the back of a pickup truck, a type of vehicle that along with firearms was numbered among his most loved things. Below: Nomination victor Martin Shields; Mr. Anders in one of his favourite poses, with a great big pistol, and asleep in the House of Commons. Leaving […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta Premier Jim Prentice plucks the low-hanging fruit – now for the hard stuff…
If getting rid of SAM wasn’t that easy, imagine what the green eggs and ham are going to be like! Above, Premier Jim Prentice with the licence plate Alberta won’t be dumping after all. (CBC photo) Below: The typical Progressive Conservative, not necessarily exactly as illustrated. It’s one thing to let a couple of pieces […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Ex-leadership candidate Thomas Lukaszuk vows to pen tell-all book on Alison Redford’s rule
Your blogger with budding author Thomas Lukaszuk, back during the former deputy premier’s campaign to lead the PC Party. Below: Former PC premier Alison Redford; current PC Premier Jim Prentice. I’ve gotta say, I’m really looking forward to my free copy of Thomas Lukaszuk’s tell-all book about how he tried to save the Redford Government […]
Posted inMedia
Dear Scotland: Do whatever you think is best … but remember, the Globe and Mail never has your interests at heart
A typical Western Canadian scene: snapped in Edmonton, Alberta, in 2014. The Scotch, as we used to say when I was growing up in B.C., pretty much built Western Canada, leastways the European superstructure of buildings, roads and railways that lies atop the land of the first inhabitants. You need only see the names assigned […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Unelected and unknown education minister looms as first major blunder of Jim Prentice’s New Tory Government
Still on track? Jim Prentice’s New Tory Government experiences its first full day of governing. Below: Unelected Education Minister Gordon Dirks; ill-defined intergovernmental advisor Doug Horner. The appointment of Gordon Dirks as unelected minister of education by Premier Jim Prentice on his first day in office has the potential to become the first serious political […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Privatization of Alberta’s air fleet will cost citizens more money and change nothing
A typical government airplane explained. The politics and financing are more complicated. Below: Jim Prentice. Privatization of the Alberta government’s four-plane air fleet, announced this morning by unelected Premier Jim Prentice at his first official news conference, makes plenty of political sense, but will end up costing citizens more and change nothing. This is always […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Strap on your seat belts? Jim Prentice’s cabinet is more like a drive down memory lane
Jim Prentice prepares to be sworn in yesterday. Below: Health Minister Stephen Mandel and social media gadfly Olav Rokne. Things were going to change in Alberta so much once his capable hands were on the steering wheel, Jim Prentice warned us, that we’d better make sure we’d strapped on our seatbelts! Well, he might have […]