In regard to their approach to the mechanics of democracy at least, Stephen Harper and Viktor Orbán would appear to be birds of a feather, flocking together.
Posted inAlberta Politics
Premier’s meeting with PM sparks petulantly hyperbolic ‘readout,’ Postmedia hysteria
Danielle Smith’s petulant afternoon “readout” from Friday’s Calgary Stampede meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggests Alberta’s premier didn’t get very far trying to bully the feds into abandoning their energy emissions targets. In other words, my assessment yesterday of what was likely to happen once the doors closed and the smiles came off at […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Canadian prime minister and Alberta premier exchange vapidities in public for 5 minutes and 10 seconds
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith had a five-minute-and-10-second televised conversation of remarkable vapidity in Calgary yesterday. Notwithstanding the frenzied spinning of some local newshounds, what little news there was at the Calgary Stampede photo-op needs to be prised out from between the lines. Ms. Smith grandstanded a little about how Ottawa’s […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Compare and contrast: Convoy occupations and border blockades versus B.C. port strike
Speaking of predictions, it sure didn’t take long for Premier Danielle Smith and Jennifer Johnson, the “Independent” MLA for Lacombe-Ponoka to appear happily together on stage at a rural rodeo.
Posted inAlberta Politics
That interim report of the Public Health Emergencies Governance Review Panel? Nothing to see here, folks
As a political ally of Alberta’s premier who is also closely associated with anti-vaxx extremists, Preston Manning was a singularly inappropriate choice to author a government report on COVID-19.
Posted inCanadian Politics
News coverage of B.C. port strike unfolds according to the usual predictable, misleading formula
Shouldn’t any back-to-work deal imposed by Ottawa, as the usual suspects demand, give the workers, not the employers, what they want?
Posted inAlberta Politics
Departing Take Back Alberta finance boss takes aim at Take Back Alberta leader for ‘disgusting’ comments
Is this the beginning of an attempt to take back Take Back Alberta (TBTBA)? Sounds like it. Either way, though, it’s an interesting subplot to the fight to take back the UCP.
Posted inAlberta Politics
Take Back Alberta leader’s Twitter rant casts some light on the war within the United Conservative Party
The UCP governing board’s president, according to the leader of the far-right TBA faction, “has become a tyrant” and must be removed.
Posted inAlberta Politics
UCP addiction to inflicting ideological solutions on real problems means plague of drug deaths is unlikely to abate
While much of the rest of the world edges toward more promising ways to respond to addiction, Alberta is stuck in the 1970s War on Drugs with decades of failure and tragedy ahead.
Posted inAlberta Politics
Yes, Danielle Smith can just apologize and shrug off her ethical failings – so it’s time for a new NDP strategy
More talk about the premier’s ethical failings? The response of most Albertans, including a significant number who would have preferred to see the NDP elected on May 29, is going to be a bored shrug.
Posted inAlberta Politics
Deena Hinshaw can’t be called a hero, but she is a victim of vindictive UCP retribution for things she did right
Despite her failures as Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, the UCP campaign to scapegoat Dr. Deena Hinshaw is vindictive and inappropriate. It also shows contempt for Indigenous health leaders.
Posted inAlberta Politics
Jason Stephan, temporarily missing MLA, suggests he had no idea in March there would be an election in May
If there’s a lesson to be learned here, it’s probably the value of public figures being honest and open up front about their whereabouts on dates important to their constituents.